We just returned from yet another trip to Punta Cana, which turned out to be a really sensible place to head to, as we missed the recent massive snowfall in Ottawa. This time we boarded a dreaded charter flight from Montreal (Transat), and sat in our tight seats (but exit row!) for a few hours, made it to Punta Cana mostly on time (around 2pm on March 8th, 2008). We'd booked at the Gran Bahia Principe in the "Club Royal Golden" area, which is supposedly close to the beach and has "VIP amenities". When we reached our bus at the airport to go to the hotel we were surprised to find that we were already checked in, and that we'd been "upgraded" to the Ambar section/hotel, which is adults only. I guess they were fully booked with lots of families and were moving the childless to Ambar.

All in all, it was a great vacation -- the weather is great, beach was as always among the most beautiful I have seen. Since Ambar is a new hotel, I will provide some facts from my perspective to help you if you are thinking about staying there or at the Bahia in general.

The Good

• Ambar is very quiet. It caters to an older crowd. This may be a good thing for you.
• The rooms are nice and include a nice 4 poster bed, LCD TV, mini-bar stocked daily with beer, sodas, and a 50ml bottle of J&B, Absolute and Bacardi Limon.
• The grounds are extremely well kept.
• The food is mostly good, but very "heavy"...and the cooks have a hard time not burning eggs :-)
• The privately owned cigar lounge in the lobby, operated by Mundo Autentico (sp?) (a Belgian owned company that also owns the Don Lucas factory) is a great place to enjoy a cigar, and Jose, the guy who runs it, knows his stuff. A tip: don't just walk in and ask for a Montecristo, unless you really know that you want a Montecristo for some valid reason. Let the guys working there talk you through a selection you will like. They have some really nice Rocky Patels, tons and tons of Fuentes too, including a lot of the Opus X line.

The bad, or annoying...

• If you are "upgraded", you are not a valid Ambar guest, meaning you do not get their concierge service and you have to check out at the main lobby of the Bahia Principe. You can also not access the Ambar's A La Carte restaurants unless your tour provider makes some sort of special arrangement.
• Like many dominicans, the ones working at this hotel only really capture ever 3 words of your conversation with them, so sometimes things don't get done the way you like.
• FYI: Building 70 is far from the beach and pool, 67 is close. Go for a lower number.
• No premium booze is included. Expect to pay $10 a drink if you don't want to drink crap. Also, the pool bar doesn't even have the option to buy premium booze.
• No music or activity around the pool, definitely not a party spot. Also, Ambar doesn't seem to have a beach party and if the Bahia Principe did...I missed it entirely.
• The Bahia Principe is MASSIVE, and consists of 4 hotels in one. Waiting for small diesel powered trolleys to get from point a to b gets old fast.
• The "gold" service is horrible. You get "private checkin, checkout and restaurant reservations", but always end up waiting for 10-15 minutes to speak to an indifferent staffer. VIP amenities are bath robes, a comb and some cotton balls.
• The a la carte's are all mediocre, but I did enjoy Le Gourmet (french...I think ;-)) because the waiter really made a big effort to make people happy.
• Lobby bars all close at 11pm, so they can sheperd you to this little square they have for shopping and entertainment called "pueblo principe"...which is a yawn.

I rate the place a 4 star, on Dominican standards, and would not recommend it over the Paradisus Palma Real, or even the Iberostar Bavaro for that matter.

Email me if you have any other questions...