Grand Palladium Bavaro Photos Pictures Videos Reviews
September 11th, 2005 | Published in travel | 7 Comments
Grand Palladium Bavaro review and photos, Dominican Republic.
Grand Palladium Bavaro
Grand Palladium Bavaro all inclusive vacation. Enjoy the pictures, photos, and reviews and Video of our All Inclusive Grand Palladium Bavaro vacation. Our Grand Palladium Bavaro Photos, Video, Review, from our Dominican Republic vacation. We stayed in Punta Cana, and the vacation was simply amazing! Click the links below for the corresponding pictures and review. The country was great and more modern than I thought. They even had some digital signage in a few of the restaurants; impressive! We are even going to go back for our wedding to the gran bahia principe bavaro. Click the links below to navigate. Enjoy! Also find some Caribbean travel tips.
Grand Palladium Bavaro Resort Review
- We stayed at this fabulous resort from April 25th to May 9th. (We are a couple in our mid twenties)
We booked through Amigo Travel (in Elmsdale) with Crystal, and her service and commitment to ensure we had a good stay was very appreciated. We will continue to book with this company as they offer great prices as well. - Flight- we flew Air Transat. Good flight. Arrived on time. The airport is like nothing we’ve ever seen. It was like a huge tiki hut! Very nice!
- Arrival- Our bus ride was about half hour long. We arrived around 1 p.m. and check in was smooth and fast. We were taken to our room and were shocked to find that we had been upgraded free if charge to a suite!! very nice surprise indeed. Not sure if this was a random upgrade, if they thought we were on our honeymoon, or if this was something that Amigo travel requested for us that we were not
aware of. - Room- This room was as nice or nicer than any hotel room you can stay at in Canada. This resort underwent multi-million dollar renovations and the room was gorgeous and immaculate. The floors were a shiny marble, there were beautiful dark wooden closets, a vanity, king size bed, living room area, stocked mini bar, iron and ironing board, and HUGE bathroom with two-person Jacuzzi, double sink, and glass shower and toilet.
- Grounds- This resort is very well maintained. There are gardeners constantly making sure that walkways are clean and the plants and flowers are watered. Everything is green and lush (unlike what you see in Cuba – where the grass is often dry and brown). There are huge royal palm trees all over the place. Flamingos greet you at the entrance to the lobby.
- Lobby- GORGEOUS. All marble with a huge flowing water fountain containing fish. Good service at the lobby bar, comfy chairs, and good entertainment here in the evenings.
- Food- For those picky eaters, you are in luck! There is no way that you could possible be dissatisfied with the food here or starve unless you hate every kind of food…cause that’s what they have! We did not get sick at all. The main buffet (le cathedral) was so good that we didn’t even go to all of our a la carte restaurants! There is so much variety and each night has a theme. All the food is prepared well and is very fresh. There is a great Italian section (Italian Corner) that prepares different pastas and pizzas every night regardless of the theme. The a la Cartes were also very good. The Sports Bar has nachos, ice cream, hot dogs, fresh pizza, hamburgers, and a salad bar as well. This was great in the middle of the day or in the evening for a snack. The internet centre is located in here as well.
- Pools- the main one at the Palladium is nice. Get a hut early in the morning as these fill up fast. There is a swim up pool bar and the speediness of service varies depending on how busy the pool is. Some days were good, other days we had to wait a long time for a bartender to notice us. The pool at the palace section which is free to access is three times larger and has a nice cold Jacuzzi that fits like
30 people! - Beach- FABULOUS! this beach has been rated within the top ten beaches in the world and I can see why. The beach is lined with tall royal palm trees. The water is gorgeous, crystal clear and very warm. Topless tanning is very popular! I would say 50% of the women go topless. For two maritimers who were not used to this, it was kind of overwhelming at first (although my boyfriend was all smiles!)… but I soon ended up deciding to ‘go with the crowd’ and join in! We walked the beach both directions and this section on the beach is one of the nicest sections that we saw.
- Excursions and Adventures- We went on the Saona Island Tour. This was 80 dollars and was well worth the money. I had been on a catamaran trip in Vardero Cuba and loved it, and this was even better! You leave at 7:30 am and return around 7 p.m. It includes speed boating, swimming in ‘natural pools’ in the middle of the ocean, tanning on a secluded beach and getting a great meal, then sailing back on a huge catamaran with lots of drinking and dancing…..what more could you want?! We also went parasailing. This was 80 dollars to go up together and although it was very fun, this was very pricey for a ten minute ride.
- Spa-and Fitness Centre- the spa is part of the resort but not included as all inclusive. People will approach you on the beach or by the pool to offer you deals on massages. I highly recommend getting a massage on the beach!….soooooooo relaxing! My boyfriend enjoyed the fitness centre. Its air conditioned and has nice equipment.
- Entertainment- The theatre is very large and very nice. Service is good. The talented dancers provide good shows although we found that it got boring night after night. Hanging out in the lobby in the evenings was a nice alternative and it always had a live band playing. The disco is fun. Its air conditioned and has a nice layout.
- Overall- I have been to Cuba five times, Jamaica, and Mexico. I liked this the best. This five star resort deserves all five stars. We had an excellent vacation.
Dominican Travel Tips
- Bring mini hand sanitizers. We kept these in our beach bag, and used them even after we washed our hands leaving the bathrooms, and in the restaurants. Perhaps this helped us since we did not get sick. The water is not safe to drink so if you wash your hands with it….and then have you hands anywhere
near your mouth you are bound to get sick. Remember to never run your tooth brush under the faucet! Carry the sanitizer with you as an extra precaution….its not worth losing days of your vacation cooped up in your hotel room sick. NOTE- there is plenty of water available to drink that comes bottled. - Bring bug repellent. We forgot this and we got bitten a lot at night! We were taking the anti malarial meds so hopefully we avoided getting anything, but the bites are extremely itchy and these buggers love your legs and ankles! Take the train around to get used to where everything is! this is a huge resort and its easy to miss things that you could be enjoying.
- Bring all the meds, sun block, tampons, and other necessities you might need with you. The hotel’s retail store prices are insane! – like 8 dollars American for a lip balm with spf, 10 dollars American for bug repellent, 5 dollars American for Pringles! ha-ha
- Practice a little spanish before you go. I downloaded some common Spanish phrases off some travel websites, and practiced these on the plane. These helped out especially in the restaurant and bars when asking for certain drinks or directions. The staff appreciate when you try to speak their language and will help you. Be able to laugh at yourself cause you will sometimes sound silly since you
don’t have the right accent. Its fun to learn a few phrases to be able to communicate with the workers in a friendly manner. The amount of English that the workers know varies so knowing a bit of
Spanish will be beneficial. - Enjoy yourself and have a open mind. This is a third world country so appreciate the service and
amenities with that in mind and you will have an excellent vacation 🙂
Coralia Club Playa De Oro Cuba
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September 19th, 2009 at 12:24 pm (#)
My family liked this one. They are really nice, its nice and clean, it is fab. I speak spanish so it was really fun for me becuase it was easier, but my parents dont speak it. The beach was awesome! I Love it, and I want to go there again.
November 8th, 2009 at 10:21 am (#)
Did the men have to wear long pants at the buffet? I loved your Pictures and tapes. We live in hfx and are going to the same resort March 30 for 3 weeks. Been to dominican lots of times and it’s the island we like the best. did you bring back a map of the resort? You could me at ppp-pppp if you like. I would love to talk to you about the resort.
November 8th, 2009 at 10:22 am (#)
Hello!
We are headed to punta cana in april and found your page very helpful, we are also a mid twenties canadian couple so it was nice to get some opinions from a canadian!
What was the weather like while you were down there, I have heard it colder at nights? We are going mid-late april, so we are already counting down the days.
November 8th, 2009 at 10:23 am (#)
Hey My name is Travis and I am from B.C. Canada, My Girlfriend(18) and myself (19), stayed at a palladium resort in Mexico and loved it. We want to try out the Palladium resort in Punta Cana next and we were planning on going down around April 27th 2006. It seems as if you guys had a lot of fun and i wanna know a little more about it before we go. A couple questions i have are that i know May is dominicans rainy season and i noticed that u guys went around the same time we are gunna go and i was wonderin how much it accually rained. And also like what would u say the age group of people are that go to the resort like if my girlfriend is 18 and im 19 is there lots to do for are age group and are there people to meet around the same age. An also anything that you guys didnt like about it or stuff that u absolutely loved. Thx A lot Guys I really Appretiate your time.
November 8th, 2009 at 10:26 am (#)
Hi, I’m from quebec so sorry for my english. I just want to know what is the difference between the Grand palladium Punta Cana, the grand palladium bavaro and grand palladium palace.
Thank you for your answer I just want to know if the temperature was okay in may ? Sure I will send you some pictures to add to your web site! 🙂
November 8th, 2009 at 10:27 am (#)
Hi.
I’m travelling to PC and was planning on staying at the Palladium Grand. I’ve read many reviews, and it seems that the current hotel pics online are a little dated. You’re the second to mention that the resort has been renovated, and therefore very NEW and CLEAN. Some friends have mentioned that Melia is also a nice resort, so I’m confused. Any suggestions?
July 31st, 2011 at 2:19 am (#)
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