Bahia Principe Luxury Esmeralda - All Inclusive

Customer ratings & reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

9430 reviews

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  If you don’t speak Spanish choose a different hotel

  If you don’t speak spanish expect average service. Most of the staff speak little English and its clearly evident if you don’t speak spanish you only get average service no matter if you tip or not Buffet service is non existent if you arrive as its ending. Staff ignore you and they are too busy filling up their own plates before the buffet closes. Most of the meat is dry and overcooked. Lots of variety but same day after day. The worst service and food was in the Italian and Tanio ala carte. Best was indian. Brazilian only 3 varieties of meat were served and most was overcooked. Again the Spanish speakers got the better service The pools are great but glasses of half empty drinks can lie most of the day around the pool. Very limited staff around to clean up. At water park the lifeguards sit in a hut area all day on their phones. Occasionally looking up to blow a whistle at someone. They have only partial sight of a bit of the water park so teenagers go wild where they can’t see. The area has no cleaning staff so lots of empty glasses left around. The rooms are nice but so much noise along the corridors day and night with screaming and shouting. Beds are so comfortable. Never saw any security during my 10 day stay. No one around to keep noise levels down. Entertainment staff same boring style shows. Either fire acts or acrobatic but with slight changes and different name. Again mostly spoke in Spanish and showed more attention to Spanish speakers. I had the distinct feeling at this resort they didn’t want English speaking guests. The beach is full of seaweed and a tractor only makes a half hearted attempt for about 10 mins each day to clear the mounds on the beach. Whilst this all sounds quite negative i did have a nice time but at 200 dollars a night i expected more. This is not a luxury resort hotel and maybe if i spoke Spanish i would have received better service despite my constant tipping

  Jun 15, 2025
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  Amazing Stay

  We just got back from Punta Cana. The stay was absolutely fabulous. We would like to give a shout out to Alexa for being such an amazing professional that resolved any inconveniences very fast. We received a deal better than we expected with a 10/10 service. The staff is friendly and hard working at all times. This was reflected in clean rooms, customer service, and delicious food; they deserve good tips. Cooks and chefs were excellent as well. The breakfast service at the buffet was awesome! No one out of our group of 4 was hungry, even when we showed up late (pass the closing time). Our favorite restaurant was Dominican and Italian. We celebrated my birthday in Italian and received amazing food and champagne! The beach was a little bit of an issue due to a lot of seaweed after rain but eventually it was taken care of anyway. Even after the check out we could enjoy some beverages and foods in the sports bar. We recommend this resort 10/10!

  Jun 04, 2025
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  Good, but far from Luxury.

  We stayed 26 May - 2 June. They should remove Luxury from their resort name, as it is far from it. Overall the resort was good, it's just that the little things keep adding up. I'll get to them. The week we were there the sargassum was bad. (Bavaro area) The worse I have ever seen, and this was 4th trip around there. Not the resorts fault, but they were slow removing it, and then it became over whelming, as it kept coming in day after day. We did manage to get an ocean swim our last day June 1st. The good >The size of the resort is great, easy to get around. Resort was operating at 50% capacity when I asked on arrival. >WIFI everywhere, even had it over at Ambar. >It was nice having 2 big pools (party & calm), plus a kids splash pool. One day the party pool was fouled at around noon and closed till the following morning. That made the calm pool the party pool. >The food was ok, you won't starve. Bacon everyday. >The maid service was good, our room was done every morning. Water and fridge was done every morning as well. >Check in was easy>. We waited till we arrived to do it, also made all our a la carte reservation at that time. We opted for 4, and times were between 6:30 -7pm, with 1 at 7:30pm. > Luggage was brought to your room at the same time you were shown to your room. We were in building 95 facing the calm pool and close to buffet. It was a very quiet building at night when the shows start. >Shout out to Yenny our pool server, and Nelson at the lobby concierge desk. >The trams to shuttle you around worked well. Ask at the desk and they will help you. I needed to go to the pharmacy (at Ambar), and they took me over by myself. The bad or annoying >If your an early riser, no where to get a coffee before 7am. >Towel game is played, but we found 90% who saved spots were there before 9am. There are some who would save a spot and not show up until afternoon, or not at all. It's the resorts fault for the towel game being played as shade is very limited. >The main buffet is small, with a limited selection. Some items are repeated daily, like burgers, pizza, fries. They catered well to kids tastes. If you want quiet eating, sit in the so called outside section.(still indoors). >The food is never hot, warm at best, and cold by time you get to your seat. > At breakfast, one day there is peanut butter, and none the next. At the bread /toaster section there were many times with no butter. Morning or night. > Ran out of banana's many times, or not put out. > Staff was very slow to serve you once seated. (some were great and stood out, we tipped them). It was hit and miss. At supper time a group would just hang around folding napkins, became a running joke. >The beach buffet for lunch was small and repetitive. It opens at noon, and one day we arrived at 1:30 and got the last 2 plates in the place. They would run out of things and not replace them. One day they ran out of mustard. > You need to watch what you eat, and this is not the resorts fault but other guests. If there are double trays of food, grab from the furthest from you. Unattended kids would just go to the buffet and grab food off the counter with their hands, also seen adults do it. We actually seen one woman use the back of her hand to touch all the food to see how hot it was. ( pancakes, french toast, crepes area). BRING YOUR OWN HAND SANITIZER with you and use it before picking your food, and then again before starting to eat. >There are too many 1 step step down areas throughout the resort, and my wife didn't the see the lobby one where the tram drops you off. She fell and sprained her ankle, slowed her down all week. This happened coming back from lunch 2nd day (no alcohol involved, so be aware of your surroundings). They helped a little, brought ice, and asked if we needed to go to the clinic. They did check in with us later to see if she was doing ok. They need "watch out for step" signs posted. It's a toss up if we would return, the price would have to be really good.

  Jun 04, 2025
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  Second trip to Esmeralda didn’t disappoint

  Beautiful and safe property. The staff is warm and friendly. This was our second visit and it was so heart warming to see some of our favorite staff members again. They become like family. Rooms clean and beautifully decorated, diverse selection of delicious restaurants, pools clean with plenty of sunny or shady lounging. I will miss my morning lattes in the lobby sports bar!!

  Jun 03, 2025
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  Amazing resort.

  Amazing hotel, great atmosphere. Truely a great quality all inclusive. Buffet food was fantastic. Al a carte restaurants great. Will definitely return. The service was some of the best we have recieved in the dominican republic. The lobby bar team made our stay

  Jun 02, 2025