HM Alma de Bayahibe

The people were very friendly. The boutique hotel “grows”;on you. When we first arrived, our room was not ready and there appeared to be some confusion. However by day two we had settled into the smaller resort and were enjoying the laid back, relaxing vibe. The pool views are stunning! The food was wonderful.

Went here with my wife and two of our children and their significant others. Unlike some of the other reviews I thought the service was great. There was a language barrier but I noticed that English is not the main language of the majority of the guests, but we were able to convey our needs 99% of the time. The view here is an absolute 10. The water is just like you imagine the Caribbean should be. The pools were great with an awesome view. My only complaint about the pool is that they wait too long to clean them. They should be done cleaning the pools by 8am, not 10:30-11am. We did have a problem with the A/C in our room. They sent a service guy up and he messed around with the thermostat and said it was fixed, before I could even complain (because it was still blowing hot air) Mabel from the front desk came up because she didn’t believe he could fix it that fast, she was right. They moved us immediately to an upgraded room. The service from Mabel, Joneisy, and Wilmin from the front desk on the night of April 12 was awesome. Also the resort is small, which we love. You can walk from the front of the resort to the water in about two minutes. The online photos are deceiving. Now the bad…. The food is not good. It lacks flavor and variety. The biggest complaint about the buffet is nothing was ever hot, like warm at best. We went to the Dominican restaurant and first night it was good, last night we went all four steaks were raw, they sent them all back and sliced them all open to cook them. At that point all the freshness was gone when they bought them back. They should have just cooked four new steaks. Breakfast was ok as long as you ordered from the omelette station where you could get fresh made eggs. The problem with the omelette station is it’s right in the middle of the buffet line so it causes a back up, or a big deal but a suggestion to move it. I understand that sometimes you get what you pay for and we didn’t have high expectations for the food but it really was underwhelming. If they fixed the food it would be so much better.

Had the best time here - all the staff are so friendly and accommodating to the guests. All of the entertainers work really hard to keep a great energy with activities throughout the day & the pools are well maintained/cleaned every day. The parties every night are fun but not super crazy. So most people are up early to enjoy the sunshine and ocean views. Location is perfect. Can take a 25 min walk into the city and feel really immersed in the culture. There's a lot to discover here and lovely people all around.

We came from Canada, and had a wonderful experience. The resort is clean and extremely beautiful. The staff was incredible and the entertainers are a lot of fun, the dancers were talented and engaging. There are shows every night. Food service was great, my best friend and I had a great time. Definitely bring some good walking shoes and go into the city if you have the chance.

Booked a 2 week stay from 5th of January 2026. Read all the bad (and some good) reviews before we went and thought we’d give it a try anyway, as the price was good and the weather is great in January. I mean, how bad can a hotel really be ?!?! My wife and I arrived at the hotel late in the evening and check in was a breeze, for once we were first in the queue from the coach. We were quickly given room cards, a map and sent on our way. The receptionist was lovely. The room Booked an upgrade to a sea /pool view suite. The room was great. Really spacious with great views. Lots of storage. The air con was fab too. The suites have a Nespresso machine. The bed was very hard, I managed to get a trapped nerve in my left hand that lasted for about 6 weeks after I got home. The safe wasn’t working (we always use the room safe). After 2 visits to reception and a 1 hour wait in the room, a security guard did follow me to the room to do something with the batteries so I could set a new code. The problem with a sea view room is the noise. All the evening entertainment is near the main outdoor bar and pools, so naturally, it’s noisy until quite late. Initially when we booked, I was a little apprehensive when I read that everything shuts at 11pm, but when you have a sea/pool view room you’re ready for bed early!! This is because you tend to get woken up at around 5am to 6am each morning by staff pushing trolleys/carts to the bar and talking to each other etc. We were also very unlucky that a team with large swords came in at around 4am on 3 mornings to climb and fell the palm trees. On one of the mornings I just stayed up from 4am because of the noise. To be honest, looking back we were both absolutely shattered after 2 weeks because of the lack of sleep!! As a result of the early wake-up routine, we did go down to grab a couple of loungers at around 7am each morning. From what we saw there were loungers available for most people. The room got cleaned practically everyday to a good standard. The Pool Areas I’m not sure the need for all the sand around the place even though the hotel isn’t on a beach. It wasn’t for us, so we sat around the big round pool everyday. The pools were kept clean, but were quite cold in January. The pool areas were quite dirty. People do smoke around the pools and throw their cigarette butts on the floor (which is disgraceful) but after days and days the same mess was still under the loungers. The pool areas are kept nice and quiet. They do have aqua aerobics with music etc, but we found that everything quietened down in the afternoon so you could have a nice nap on your lounger. We did enjoy the snorkelling in the sea. Some really colourful fish really close to the hotel cliff wall. Evening Entertainment We didn’t really go down to watch the evening entertainment as it’s not our thing (we’d rather play cards etc in a quiet area). One night we did have a walk down to see what was happening and there were about 10 chairs !! All the people were sat on the sun loungers or the low pool walls. I’m not sure if the hotel management understands that buying about 50 more chairs would make the guests a lot more comfortable. There was a saxophone player that came to perform near the pool bar at around 5pm a couple of times. He was fantastic, it was so relaxing. My wife went down for a yoga (or stretch) class one morning and was the only guest that turned up. The instructor said she didn’t do classes for 1 person. My wife returned to our room rather disappointed. We told reception and they said that shouldn’t have happened. The Drinks The drinks were ok, but that about as far as I’d go, just about ok. The beer is Presidente (5%), I genuinely mean this, it’s awful. They don’t have dark rum, only white. I don’t drink other spirits and all of the cocktails were super sweet for my taste. So, it was pretty much white rum and Coke Zero for 2 weeks. I did have a few glasses of rosé to mix things up a bit. One morning I got up really early and had a walk around the pool bar area and near the sea etc. The pool bar wasn’t open, so I (foolishly) got a plastic cup and had a drink of water from one of the large carafes next to the bar. This was probably 70/80% water from melted ice cubes. Needless to say, I was ill for 2 full days. So I stopped having ice after that. I chatted to a few other guests that had also had tummy aches from the ice. The Food The food was pretty much awful and cold most of the time. A couple of mornings we were at breakfast when it opened and everything was STILL stone cold. I can only assume that the kitchen staff start cooking the food at around 4am or something. If it wasn’t for the large toasty machine and the freshly made omelettes, I don’t think I would have ever had a hot breakfast item. In the main restaurant one tea time (after about a week), a staff member walked past with a fresh tray of chips, I thought “ohh fresh chips, they’ll be nice and hot” I eagerly followed her. Honestly I think they must have been kept in a fridge. I was gutted…..”more cold food for me tonight”. You won’t starve or anything here, but you need to be ready for cold unseasoned food. I did overhear other guests talking about how bad the food was and that they had to go out to eat to get a decent meal. We also went out a few times for food, but on a 2 week holiday I think you need to. One evening (after a few days being there) they had an Asian/Chinese night in the main restaurant. It was so nice. The vegetarian sweet and sour was very good and was actually really hot. If only it was Chinese night every night lol. The snack truck We only ate from the food truck 2/3 times I think, one time we ordered chips with bacon. I’ll actually never forgive myself for not sending them back, they were also unbelievably cold. If it wasn’t for the amount of rum and cokes I’d had that afternoon, I think I would have sent them back. The main snack bar This was really hit and miss. The pizzas were just about edible and I did get hot chips a few times. They do run out of various types of alcohol from time to time and the bar tender has to leave to go to the main bar, so it’s no drinks with your snack for 10-15 mins. This is not really what you want when you get a plate of hot food and go to get a drink from the adjacent bar. If you wait for a drink……the food will go cold. You couldn’t make it up. Needless to say, I didn’t miss the opportunity to have a hot snack. I got a drink after my meal. The specialty restaurants The one on the left hand side wasn’t too bad. They didn’t have any vegetarian main course options. I did try to explain this but their English is too bad to understand. I tried to use Google translate to have a go at speaking Spanish to explain, but you get no wifi down there. So I had to have the chicken (when I’m on holiday I prefer to eat like a vegetarian because I think it reduces the risk of stomach issues). The chicken was actually really good and I was fine afterwards. The speciality restaurant on the right hand side (the Italian I think) was ok, but no better. Very limited menu. We went twice and I had a pizza each time. Not good pizza to be honest, very thick, stodgy and under seasoned. The Staff The staff in the main buffet restaurant that replenish the (cold) food were quite rude I thought. They didn’t care where they walked and would often just walk right in from of you with no apology. If you want an alcoholic drink with your meal, you need to go up to restaurant the bar and wait, we just had soft drinks or water. I think there are supposed to be waiters/waitresses that offer you a drink and get it for you from the bar, but in 2 weeks we got offered a drink once I think. The staff at the outdoor bars were generally quite polite (with a few exceptions) The female staff in the reception bar were simply “awfully rude”. They obviously didn’t want to be there and it showed in every way. I honestly think they would intentionally get your drinks wrong sometimes. Towards the end of our holiday we stopped going to the lobby bar because of 2 or 3 of the female staff. In the end I gave as gifts d as I got with some of them, but it’s not really what you want to be doing when you’re on holiday, getting wound up by rude staff. The main chap that made the omelettes in the morning was a breath of fresh air. So happy and friendly, if only the other staff had the same attitude as him. One afternoon I happened to be in the room and the phone rang, when I answered it a guy said I “ABSOLUTELY MUST” attend a hotel meeting at 5pm that day. So, I asked at reception what it was about? The female staff member miserably told me it was a sales thing and I didn’t HAVE to go and it was our decision. We didn’t go to the meeting and we didn’t get sanctioned as a result, which was a result. Would I go back to this hotel ? No. There were some good points -the room, some of the staff, the omelettes, a hot cheese toastie at breakfast, a vegetable sweet and sour with rice, a saxophonist, some cute kittens, really good weather, a great tan in January, some snorkelling. Some of the staff do try really hard and are so nice. Unfortunately, I think there were too many negatives - rude female staff at the lobby bar, noisy and a lack of sleep and mostly awful food.