Ocean El Faro

Stunning Resort, But Looks Can Be Deceiving We are staying at Ocean El Faro for two weeks (21st August–4th September). First impressions were excellent. The resort is huge and impressive, with a beautiful lobby and entrance. It is generally very clean and most staff are friendly and helpful. The food is also very good, with plenty of choice. However, the resort advertises six restaurants plus the main buffet, but they are not all open at the same time, meaning realistically you often have only three or four to choose from. Trying to book them is incredibly frustrating. The reservation app rarely seems to have availability, and unfortunately the restaurant reception staff have been some of the least friendly or helpful we have encountered. The coffee bar is excellent, although service can be very slow. Most bar staff are friendly, but service throughout the resort can be inconsistent. We also found the staff in the resort shop extremely rude and unwelcoming. For a resort only around seven years old, the main pool is surprisingly tired, with numerous missing tiles and areas needing maintenance. If you are looking for a peaceful Caribbean holiday, this probably isn’t the resort for you. Music blasts from different pool areas while guests simultaneously play their own speakers, often creating several different types of music at once. There are also constant activities and photographers repeatedly approaching guests to take and sell photographs. You simply cannot properly relax. Our concierge was supposed to assist with restaurant reservations and other requests, but unfortunately ours was little help. Reservations were either unavailable or booked at incorrect times, with most communication taking place through WhatsApp. We also had a swinging chair on our balcony left on the floor with its rope. After getting nowhere, I eventually fixed it myself. However, our biggest complaint by far is the H10 Privilege sales pitch. Staff approach guests outside the main restaurant supposedly to complete a survey and take a short tour. In our experience, this turned into a sales presentation for a Privilege package costing 15,000+ with a substantial down payment, with considerable pressure to sign up immediately. What particularly offended my family was being told that upgrading would move us “out of the cattle market and into the privileged section.” We had already paid a considerable amount of money for this two-week family holiday, so to effectively describe the area we had paid to stay in as a “cattle market” while trying to persuade us to spend thousands more was insulting and completely unacceptable. Ocean El Faro looks stunning and has some genuinely excellent staff and very good food. Unfortunately, the booking problems, inconsistent service, noise, maintenance issues and particularly the aggressive Privilege sales approach have badly affected our experience. Looks can be deceiving. We would not return and, based on our experience, would probably not recommend this resort.

Although this resort is far from the airport, there are a lot of things to keep everyone busy. The service is excellent as is the food. We had a swimup room and used the pool quite a bit. We enjoyed all of the restaurants except for the Steakhouse. We had a late dinner that night so that may have contributed to our unsatisfactory meal. We did meet others who had the same opinion though. The lazy river was great. It could get busy but we just chose our times. Our favourite bartender was Bandino in the El Beso lobby bar. Our favorite servers were Carmen and Lucas in Pez Dama where Emmanual made sure we had absolutely everything we wished for. There were so many other servers who were very attentive and pleasant to deal with. Ivan, the General Manager of El Beso was a very pleasant man who oversees every part of the adults side of the resort to be sure everything is perfection. He spoke with us every time we saw him. This was my first time to Dominican Republic and we couldn't have chosen a better resort to make us want to return again. Our only negative to the trip was having the Ocean Travellers Club reps being so aggressive and insistent on attending "the special breakfast" so they earn points. We had 4 or 5 different men try to convince us to attend. The other negative had nothing to do with the hotel; the excursion to Saone Island that we booked through Nexus tours. It was a 12hr day of which on 2 to 2 1/2 hrs was actually spent on the island where we had mediocre food at best and poor drinks. You spend at least 4hrs on 2 different buses getting there and about 2hrs on 2 different boats getting to the island. Entertainment was next to nothing and poor drinks. Would not recommend this trip to anyone. Waste of time and money. On the other hand, we also did the Coco Bongo show and had a great night out. Lots of entertainment and the drinks flowed from our server, Endris Definitely worth it. Overall, probably the best 2 week vacation I've been on. This resort will not disappoint. Muchas Gracias to everyone who made it an unforgettable vacation.

Just returned from a week stay at Ocean El Faro with my daughter. We upgraded on check in to a swim up room with the privilege services and a Butler called Jose who was fantastic. He checked in with us daily and would book us into whichever restaurants we wished in the evenings. The swim up room was well worth it my daughter loved it. The resort is very well kept, clean and tidy. The staff are super friendly and made us feel so welcome. We loved the pool bars, John in particular on the privilege pool bar was excellent. The food was very good In all the restaurants. The resort is huge but at this time of year it’s only 50% occupancy so it also felt peaceful and chilled. August is not the time of year to use the beaches on this side of Dom Rep. I knew this in advance so no problem. Overall a great experience

Gerso has been a great person to be around and made our stay fun and enjoyable, Every day friendly and happy making us feel welcome and involving us in daily activities

Definitely to great resort 👌🏾 to stay at for a variety of good food, daily activities on the grounds and beautiful staff with excellent CUSTOMER SERVICE. ESPECIALLY MY BUTLER ALEX T.