We flew out to the Dominican Republic with a last minute booking and were booked into the Bhaia Principe in Rio San Juan.

The tour operator rated it 5 star and though the hotel is actually a 4 star+, not that there's a great deal of difference though.

The apartment was basic although it was tidy and clean, there was a tv with sky but most of the channels were Spanish. Each room has a mini bar which is filled daily and if you give the guy who fills it a tip you will get more than your fair share of beer in the fridge.

The hotel was fairly busy the first week we were there and all the facilities were open at the advertised hours. At the weekend the hotel seemed to be popular with the locals and could get quite busy at times even though we were there at the end of the season. The second week (the 1st week in october) seen the place start to wind down for the winter with some of the bars being shut during the day and parts of the restraunts cordened off but all the facilities were still available.

The hotel complex was fairly large and had a wide range of facilites. There were lots of bars, a few pools, loads of sun loungers around the pool and along the beach, you could hire out pedalo's, wind surfers, kayak's, boogie boards and snorkels and for a fee go out on a banana boat or scuba dive.

There were quite a few restraunts to choose from with the main one being a buffet style restraunt with a good range to suit all tastes and chef's who would cook dishes for you on the spot e.g omlettes in the morning with your choice of filling or pasta dishes in the evening. There were 3 a la carte restraunts which need to be booked a night in advance, the mexican was okay, the italian was very nice and the mediteranean was superb. There was also a fish restraunt which was for the club hacienda and principe gold customers only. There were also two fast food type restraunts which were very good which served burgers, hot dogs, pizza, fried chicked etc with chips and salad from 10am in the morning right through to 4am the next morning.

The thing that made the holiday for us was the staff, they were so helpfull and freindly it was great. They bent over backwards to make sure you were okay and there was lots of entertainment through the day and a show every night which were actaully pretty good.

There wasnt much to do outside the hotel so this was really a hoiday for relaxing to which it was well suited.

I'd definatly reccomend this hotel

Hotel was great very clean and tidy, rooms were a bit dated and could do with refurbishment condiering it was classed as 4*+.

Food at the buffet was OK penty of choice although not very hot, staff very friendly, hi to Eddie& Winkie superb do anything for you. Restaurants were great Mexican, Seafood and Mediterenian the best, Italian dissapointing went twice to make sure but even the second time service and food weren't up to much. Drinks measures were poor make sure you get your spirit and mixer seperate otherwise you wont taste it.


Met some wonderful people Steve from Watford if your out there post your review, love to get in touch again.
Make sure you have a sauna and jaccuzi after a long tiring day on the beach it was fantasic $20 for the week, well worth it.

we travelled with first choice on one of there new planes with wider seats etc absolutely brilliant.
the hotel was in need of t.l.c. but was value for money. we were very lucky and did not have anything stolen during our stay. we booked this hotel as we wanted a quite relaxing 2 weeks, it was ok until the weekends when the locals appeared and took over the hotel. the pool was full to the brim
the waiters/waitresses were very friendly but of course if they were not they wouldnt get a tip at the end of the holidays.
the food was ok plenty of choice had to wait a while for food items to be replaced when the dish was empty but arrived eventually.
the entertainment was poor, they tried there best but could do with spending more money on it.

This hotel is one of the best I have ever visited. The staff are very attentative, and if you tip as little as one dollar every now and then, to the waiter, he will fetch your drinks all night, so no queueing at the bar. The food is plentiful and there is so much to choose from. My son is fussy eater, but even he put on half a stone. The entertainment around the pool is on most of the day. The only problem with this location was the sand flies on the beach, but this isn't the hotels fault. I would recommend this hotel to anyone visiting the north of the Dominican Republic, and would definately return to this hotel myself.

Arrived tired after long 9 hour flight with grey clouds in the sky.What had we come to?
Check in actually took place on the coach with room key and map provided. Got to room ok but only two beds. A visit to reception advised that two more would be installed later - which they were.
Rooms were a little tired and needed at most a lick of paint. The photo in the brochure could have been our room. Air con very good. Mini bar re-staocked on daily basis but you have to request this - not automatic.

Cleanliness was of a very high standard. The public areas were forever being swept/washed down/mopped as required. Nice touches in the rooms from the maid with origami of the toilet rolls and fresh flower sprigs.

Buffet restaurant was very good the only reason top marks not given due to limited choice on occasion for our taste but food provided was very good. At breakfast omelettes and fried eggs prepared individually as you waited. This caused some queues but never more than 5mins. Automatic toasters should be invested in as this caused queueing too. Meats/fish prepared fresh at lunch & dinner times. Speciality restaurants very good although menu was limited. Mediterranean (French) was probably the best.

Hotel location was superb. Right on the beach (ignore earlier comment of almost non existent beach). Strategically placed giant (I mean GIANT) sand bags placed to calm the almost mill pond sea down as it broke onto the beach. Sea very shallow up to these sand bags - deepest point being about adult waist level. Free snorkel loan (1 hour per day) was taken up and now both my daughters are hooked. Distance between pool and sea approx 100-150 metres. There was nowhere to go away from the Hotel but it was so big and varied you didn't need to (and in Dom. Rep. I don't know if I would want to go off site as the local may try to sell you something.

Hotel staff were superb. True all of them didn't smile all of the time but after 14 hour + shift who does? Restaurant staff and bar staff were very pleasant and in sone cases entertaining. We estimated there must have been over 2500 residents and the most we had to wait in bars was 5 mins.

Entertainmaent was a bit flat. There were normal activities, games etc., for kids and adults during the day. Kids disco and games at night. Some adult games followed by 'the show'. This show was predominantly dancing. Whilst you can't discredit the work and effort put in by the dancers or their dancing skills, it wasn't my cup of tea and found it quite boring although I accept it is difficult to entertain the multitude of nationalities present (Brits, Canadians, Germans, French, Spaniards, Portugese to name a few).

Exchange rate in the hotel was poor (24pesos/$ - $1=

We arrived at the Bahia at 1pm after an 8 hour flight. We were greeted by the staff who wre all smiling and singing. We were served drinks and our luggage was taken to our room. The place is wonderful and we relly couldn't fault it at all. The rooms wre cleaned every day nad the Mini bar restocked..tip..if yo want more that beer and pop leave a note in the fridge for what you want with a dollor bill and you will get it!!!

There are 3 pools, the main pool is hudge and really lovely, there's always something going on.

The beach is abou 1.5miles long and has water sports and horses. The sea is warm and really saff for the kid...my daughter was hit in the back by a falling coconut, but it was only small...she was fine.

The food was excellent as to are the deinks. The service is out of this world. We visited and swam with the dolphins at ocen world, which is amazing.

We had read some quite bad reviews on tripadvisor, however there were mainly put on by Americans, who want everyone to speak English..

Really...we thought it was fantastic, true paradise we will be going back!!!!!!!!!

My family and I visited the Bahia Principe in July 2005 and it turned out to be a wonderful family holiday that we thorougly enjoyed and was everything that we expected it to be and lived up to its good reputation!

We originally visited this site before we flew out to the Dominican and read mixed reviews, however I have a very open mind and disgregarded the negative comments and focused only on the positive ones!

When we arrived at the hotel, we we not given the room that we had booked, so it started off quite badly on the first day, 5 of us in one room and we had booked two adjoining rooms. We complained to the Holiday Rep and it was sorted swiftly without too much fuss.

The hotel was immaculate, I agree the rooms do need a lick of paint, but who spends all their time in the room, so I didn't see this as a major problem. The air con worked great, it did run out 4 days later and as soon as we reported this to room services, within 20 minutes it was re-filled, talk about efficient. The floors to the hotel were constantly being bleached and swept at all times and gardens always being tenderred.

Everyday the rooms were cleaned immaculately and tidied by the cleaners and believe me our rooms were a mess having 3 children, I felt so ashamed of the mess that they created, but when returning to our room, it was spotlessly clean and tidy. The cleaners worked very hard indeed and we left a tip at the end of the 2 weeks for her.

What can we say about the food, well it was the finest food I have ever eaten it was fit for a King & Queen! I must confess I was very worried about going all inclusive as I am the most finicky eater you have ever met! I have also eaten at some of the finest restaurants in my time around the world and I must say that the al la carte restaurants matched up to these! they were superb! I find the other negative comments about the food ridiculous and do not see how anyone can give a bad report about the food. It is 5 star plus in food! The variety of food was amazing I had never seen so many different types of food and it was displayed in a very nice way with alot of effort. The food was always hot and fresh and always tasted good. I tried to pick fault with the food but I honestly couldn't. My children are also finicky eaters and they also loved the food they always found something that they liked. And I am also glad to say that no-one in my family came down with any food bugs or viruses and I have a 10 month old baby and he also ate the food after the first 4 days and he was fine. The drinks were watered down (well the wine was) but hey who cares they were all included and you just ordered twice the amount and would still have the same effect so it didn't really matter. The coctails were great and they didn't seem watered down they blew your head off! The soft drinks were fine also and not watered down in any way. Bottled water was always available throughtout the day which was brilliant, we were never dehydrated!

The entertainment was average I agree it was repetive however we still enjoyed it and my children liked the dancing and I must admit they were brilliant dancers and worked very hard each night to entertain. I also found all the hotel staff very accomodating in every way, nothing was ever too much trouble they work so hard for very little rewards and pay and deserve every tip they get.

The weather was mixed as a hurricane had just broken out in Cuba, however we were told not to worry and that we would not be affected by this apart from a few storms here and there, which we did get and some terrential rain occurred. The weather could have been better however it was hurricane season after all. We did have some very nice hot weather throughtout though.

The beach was again immaculate there were little terracotta bins every where on the beach and we never saw any litter it was nice that people respected this! However there was always some member of staff walking around trying to find litter it must have been a very boring job for them as I never managed to find any! The sea was always warm and clean and very shallow brilliant for my children, I couldn't get them out at all. Very calming and relaxing and not overcrowded, we could always get beds and a canopy on the beach.

The pool was a good size, however we did find some bird poo in there on a daily basis and the pool attendant was constantly walking around trying to gather any litter he found in his net. However one day I did ask him to climb into the pool and fish out the bird poo! Which he looked at me with disgust! only joking!

The hotel location was very isolated however there was so much to do on site this was never a problem. And we did our own excursions via the hotels taxis and managed to get around some other resorts like Cabarete, Sosua, Playa Dorada and a beautiful local beach (Playa Grande)it is certainly worth a visit! pure white sands and turqoise sea very tropical and carribean.

The watersports were very good and we all used them and they were very safe for my 9 and 12 year old. The kayaks were free to use on a daily basis. The Jet Skis were good and safe and also the banana boats were fun for my two children who used them on numerous occasions.

Overall I would recommend this hotel to any one and could not fault it and it lived up to my expectations and I am a very hard person to please I always find fault with something but I found it very difficult to fault this resort and I will certainly be returning again. I would recommend this hotel for any family with small babies or older children and even couples as there is something for everyone here!

Now over to my 12 year old son.......I would like to comment on the watersports as they were brilliant and i really enjoyed the jet ski.The rooms were ok but we were always in the pool. I especially enjoyed the pool bar. The pool entertainment was good and there was even a kids club which we visited often. The food was great and the presentation stunned me.the beach was calm although I would have liked to have seen some waves but it was great for little kids and child friendly.We played tennis and crazy golf but the heat spoilt it a bit.I would recommend this hotel to any one and witness the experience for yourself as I have only included a fraction of our holiday...

Now over to my WONDERFUL 9 year old sister.....
I think you would be very impressed with this hotel because it has lots of activities to do for the children and the adults have plenty of activities also. The pool was very clean and the pool bar was very nice because they served any drinks you wanted and the service was excellent and it was good because we could have any amount of drinks that we always wanted. The bed that I slept in was always made when I came back and the cleaner always tidied up my cuddlies in a beautiful way. The food was mouth watering and i always found plenty to eat and I am a finicky eater so my mum says! I recommend this holiday to any 9 year old child.

Well as the OP of this thread suppose I should say a few words. Will try not to be biased, but we did have valuables stolen from our room by the staff (no break in)
Hotel weren

We were transferred from the Riu Merengue to the Bahia Principe due to the virus outbreak. I had read some bad reports about the Bahia Principe but thought they were from the usual whingers.

How wrong can one be? The hotel is dated. It is supposed to be a 4* but is still being updated. There was work going on all over the resort. The noise from the air conditioning units on each block of rooms could even be heard on the beach along with the noise from the masonary cutting for renewing the pathways that was going on all the time we were there. Add to this the bites from the sandflies and the fact that palm trees were planted all over the beach whilst we were there this is now not a beach holiday for anyone thinking of spending their time sunbathing by the sea as there's not much beach left.

The restaurant staff were pleasent enough but if you're English then the food is not for you. We had trouble finding something to eat most nights.

The shop never has any change and is expensive so if you want to buy anything then make sure you have plenty of $1 bills.

I'm sorry if this sounds like a big whinge but all in all for a 4* we found this hotel very wanting.

Anyone who rates this hotel as a 4 star could not have stayed in one. The food is absolute rubbish in all of the restaurants. The best food you will get is the burger bar on the beach.

They do not have enough staff to go around and you find it difficult to get a cup of coffee. The staff in the restaurants are unfreindly and cant be bothered. However I can't fault the cleanliness or the entertainment staff who work very hard.

The towels are old and grey and the air conditioning is old and very noisey.

This hotel should be rated as a 2 star plus, and that is pushing it.