Iberostar Waves Punta Cana - All Inclusive

Customer ratings & reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

9493 reviews

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  5 stars in their dreams.

  Now this review will be a little lengthy. But I genuinely hope this place reads this and improve. I promise constructive criticism only. Now the only reason I’m compelled to write this because this place bills itself as 5 stars. And I just need to know who they paid and how much for them to have gotten away with this. This place is 3 starts AT BEST! Absolutely nothing more. Everything here is Absolte MID! 1st off. The rooms. MID! All the rooms are exactly the same. They list different rooms at different prices. And all they did was take the pictures from a different angle. I paid for an upper premium room and boy was I disappointed. Pulled up the pictures online and saw 2 other room options and realized they were exactly the same. Basic basic basic. Beige and bland. Like any motel u visit anywhere for $100/night. 2. The food. Now idk if they serve food in hell. But I promise you this is what it would taste like. Everything. And I mean ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING… is LUKE WARM. Nothing is hot. Nothing at all. Not one single thing. Not for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Unless it’s made right in front of you and you can get it off the fire. EVERYTHING IS LUKE WARM. N even the food items you would hope are cold, like deserts. Like fruit. I’m sure even if you try the ice cream. It’s luke warm. Every meal. Every dish. Every station. Everything you put in your mouth is luke warm. It is absolute torture. including the beverages. Teas. Hot chocolate. Coffee. Champagne. Everything. You will be miserable. Only decent meal was at the Asian restaurant. If you get bamboozled into coming here. Try and eat there if you can 3. The BEST PART of this place… is the staff. The staff is absolutely incredible! The wait staff. The grounds staff. The entertainment crew. Every single person I ran into on the property. Or needed anything from or any activity we tried was amazing! I spent. So much on tips I ran out of cash. But every one deserved it. They are absolutely the best part of this entire place. Otherwise. NO. In closing. Skip this resort. Unless you are a masochist. And in need of punishment. There are toooo many amazing incredible resorts on the island. To subject yourself to this.

  Nov 05, 2025
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  Lovely holiday

  Spent two weeks here September 2025, family of 3. Most reviews start off with the lack of English at this resort, Iberostar chain is Spanish, we are in a Spanish speaking country I wouldn’t expect them to be 100% English speaking. We did have a few moments that I had to get Google translate out, but other than that the staff were very helpful and even taught us a few sayings! I think they appreciated us attempting their language (and secretly laughing at how bad we were at it ha!!). The hotel itself was immaculate! So clean and tidy, the gardens constantly tended too. We were lucky, when we arrived the seaweed was much less than had been reported earlier on, our last two days it did come back with a vengeance but we did have two storms that week so it’s to be expected, but the hotel were very quick to clear it first thing in the morning. Unfortunately one of our days it rained, ALL DAY!! As I’d said we had a major storm rolling in so it wasn’t a big deal, the staff were prepared for the bad weather though. They had games at the theatre and plenty of things for people to do so we could still make the most of our time here. The pool area is massive! Plenty of beds to go around, and a special shout out to Maria, “drinkie drinkie” (iykyk) she made our days by the pool so much brighter and is such a delight! We love you Maria 🩷!! Some staff went above and beyond and we showed are appreciation with tips, they didn’t expect tips like some people have said in previous reviews. We were invited to the VIP talk, they did say it was a 90 minute talk, it wasn’t 90 minutes ha, it did drag on to 3 hours, that being said though no one was rude. We were constantly told that we were under no obligation to commit to anything they just wanted to show us what they could offer if you joined the Iberostar club, to be perfectly honest with you, if we had time to travel more I probably would have signed up haha! My partner played golf 3 times during our stay and absolutely loved it! He’s said it was beautiful and plays really well, it was good value for money for the size of the course and what was included. He did rent their clubs and had said they were in good condition - still but his though ha! All in all, we have had an amazing holiday. The food was good and fresh (the pizza is a must! Just saying!!) the drinks were constant, the entertainment was pretty good, and the wifi all throughout the grounds was an absolute godsend.

  Sep 29, 2025
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  Better speak Spanish fluently or your trip will be a long and disappointing one

  Speaking Spanish is a must. We were extremely disappointed with our stay. In the past we went to Mexico, Cuba, Miami. I am perfectly bilingual (English and French) , I know basic Spanish sentences and even if I tried communicating with them with my translation app, they snubbed me. Service was awful. Each time I went for a drink, even if I greeted them with a smile, saying ''hola!'', it didn't matter, they all were allergic to smiling and rolled their eyes. We were at a à l a carte restaurant and the waitress had her order book, asked me what I wanted and as I was going to tell her my order and saw that Spanish talking people were at the restaurant entry, she darted towards them and was super chatty and nice. This happened THREE times! Very frustrating. Mind you in the restaurant, we were only 2 customers at the time. We are Canadian and a few times, some waitors and waitresses were talking to each other and pointing to us with a frowny face saying ''American! American!''. American or Canadian, it is not very polite to do so. Two people were nice there (Rosanny and Ruth). We had a amazing afternoon with them, chatting. I practiced my Spanish with them and they were so nice, amazing and warm. Sometimes at supper, we didn't get water. Sometimes, when they poured us the milk in the coffee, there were curdling milk skin so that was a no-go. Lot of my friends visited the DR in the past summer and all had a great experience. I wanted to discuss these issues at my check-out but the staff member did not ask us how it went. At this point, we just wanted to go home as fast as possible. I guess we just fell on a bad resort. Other than that, beach was nice and food and drinks were amazing.

  Sep 25, 2025
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  Good return holiday Iberostar

  This was a return trip for us to this location - although first time to visit in September. We travelled as a couple from Toronto (Air Canada Vacations - ACV) primarily as a golf holiday. Keeping in mind in September the "per night" cost of this holiday for 2 including flights, transportation, hotel, food and drinks was less than the cost of our pre-flight hotel night at the Alt hotel in Toronto - we kept our expectations in check with it being a great value. Check in was quick (dodged the "concierge" - no interest in vacation club meeting). No issues with our room (recently painted, bed was comfortable, water pressure was good, no problems with hot water, air conditioner worked well for such high humidity, daily cleaning was good...). As it was a September trip - occupancy was on the lower side so access to loungers and shade at the beach or the pool was never an issue regardless of time of day which was a big plus. The beach did have Sargassum at this of year as expected (not the hotels fault) which tractors kept removing. The water was therefore not clear, but did not keep us from using the beach or the swimming in the ocean. Our mornings were at the buffet with great service. We sat in the same area daily with same server for coffee and waters. For evening meals with ate once at the buffet and the rest of the evenings at the non-reservation a-la-cartes, As non-meat eaters we ran into some issues with the Vegan or vegetarian options on the menus not being available, but generally was always able to find something. The Smokehouse even made us a nice platter as the "vegan" platter on the menu was not available, None of the meals stood out, but other than the Mexican (which was a bit frazzled) we had nice experiences at the Asian, America, Smokehouse and Latin, The app was very useful in determining which nights they were open and at what times. As were were golfing daily we did not partake in any day entertainment at the hotel. Being off-peak season, evenings were on the quieter side in the lobby. Most of the clientele at this time of year are Spanish speaking, so English speaking travellers looking to socialize and meet others at night might find it a little harder this time of year.

  Sep 12, 2025
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  Rude rude staff! Never experienced anything like it before!

  Would not recommend this hotel at all we have stayed in far better Iberostar hotel's!!! Rude rude rude staff!!! Terrible manners! The most unfriendliest hotel I have ever ever stayed at! The staff ALL look like they hate their job! They are sooooo slow at the bars my sons loves chocolate milkshakes and the eye rolling and effort for the staff to make it was appalling ! Every cocktail you had, you had to ask for alcohol to be added or they just didn’t bother very sneaky and disgusting when you have paid 9,000 for a holiday and they still want you to tip for every drink you have or secretly don’t make the drinks with the right ingredient's!!! Beach was awful ( not the hotels fault ) but the seaweed and the smell is gut wrenching covered in flies!!!!. They do not try hard enough to keep on top of cleaning it at all! Food is bland and boring! Birds and flies everywhere in the restaurant area. Check In was very very slow after a 9hr flight was left waiting 45 minutes to be checked in at reception no apology! Entertainment was terrible very boring and the same thing every few days. No room to see it, it’s indoors so very hot and people just stand in front of you! The entertainment team lacked enthusiasm not once talking to either of my children or asking to join in activities. And to top it off no one speaks a word of ENGLISH!! And they just don’t care! As I said and I’ll say it again the most rudest staff and entertainers I have ever come across. Will not recommend nor visit this hotel again.

  Aug 17, 2025