Located on the seafront overlooking the idyllic beaches of Punta Cana, this exclusive Caribbean resort features water attractions including large swimming pools, a scuba diving center, a bowling alley, a lazy river with a gentle current, ideal for relaxing and letting go, as well as a family area with a water park for children. Ocean El Faro, located in the Uvero Alto area, also has spectacular rooms, a wide range of themed restaurants, a Despacio Spa Centre, Privilege, Exclusive Rooms and Services and a full programme of entertainment for the whole family.
Location
Punta CanaProperty information
{{title}}
Resort details
General policies & fine print
Check-in Policy - Hotel requires a credit/debit card authorization or cash deposit upon check-in for incidentals; this will place a hold on your funds.
Convention Policy - Individuals attending a convention cannot book this property for their stay. If found attending a convention, guests may be subject to higher room rates upon arrival.
Hotel Spring Break Policy - This hotel cannot guarantee a spring break-free environment.
The hotel does not accept Student Groups or Spring Breakers. Student Groups (Spring Breakers) are not permitted at the Hotel. A student group consists of those that travel without parent supervision or a responsible adult in each room. This could refer to but not limited to high school students or college students booking multiple rooms.
Transfer Policy - A price may display when children stay free, if your vacation includes transfer to your hotel.
General Information - Room taxes and service fees are included in vacation price. Minimum night stay restrictions may apply. Reservation changes may not be permitted unless authorized by the hotel.
Customer ratings & reviews
TripAdvisor traveler rating
7710 reviews
-
Oct 01, 2024Fantastic resort, very clean, great friendly staff especially our favourites JUSTINA and JHON
We gave the Ocean El Faro resort 5 stars for many reasons. The food, so many choices of restaurants, the cleanliness of our rooms, the huge number of pools with lots of sun beds and parasols available, etc., but most of all for us were the staff. Reception staff and guest service were always polite and helpful……. But by far I have to say what really made our holiday at El Faro were 2 staff members in particular, JUSTINA and JHON. They deserve huge recognition. They both were at the large pool bar nearest the Lighthouse (El Faro) with the bridge over the pool when we were there the first 2 weeks in September. They both worked soooo hard in the heat and humidity, such very long hours, but never with a sad face. Always happily smiling, especially Justina whom we became very fond of. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this resort for couples and families alike, with or without young children. So much to do for everyone, quiet pools, pools with entertainment for lively ones and childrens fun pool along with the lazy river for young and not so young too! Thank you, everyone at Ocean El Faro and another “shout out” for Justina and Jhon. Liz Williams, England, UK
-
Oct 01, 20243rd times a charm
My girlfriend and I just returned for a week at El Faro. This was my 3rd time here. After our last time, I was pretty certain I wouldn't be returning, but we found a great deal for a swim up and decided to give it another chance. And it was wonderful! We stayed in room 8124. No issues with the room whatsoever. Cleaned and stocked daily, bed was comfy and the air conditioning was cold. We had bar service at our swim out every day. Food was standard for an AI, but there was always something to find. The only issue we had was at check in. It was a mess. We traveled with my son and his girlfriend. None of keys (wrist bracelets) worked. After an extremely long day of travel, and zero sleep, we had to make our way back to the lobby to get our bracelets reset. Walked back to the room...none of the keys worked again. Walked backed to the lobby, bracelets reset, then back to our rooms, only my bracelet worked. Backed to the lobby....then I went to get pool towels for all 4 of us. We were not given towel cards, so they wouldn't give us towels. So another trip to the lobby. We never even got an apology. That didnt start us off very good, but the rest of our trip was lovely. Hopefully they can get their front desk/reception staff better. Nobody wants to deal with that after a long day of travel. We did decide we probably will return and stay in building 8 swim up again.
-
Sep 30, 2024
Sunny time in Dom Rep
Great hotel with plenty of pools with lots of sun loungers and umbrellas. The lazy river is the great fun too, but remember to bring your own inflatables, as there’s not many free one’s available. Lots of places to eat, but not a huge choice of vegetarian dishes. But they do have the best pizza!! Lovely staff and always happy to help.
-
Sep 30, 2024
Lovely place - few niggles
My review- A bit of a long one I’m afraid my partner & I returned home today after 2 weeks staying El Faro for 11 days and Privilege for 3. Check in - quick didn’t seem to be many people around. Lobby is massive and looks impressive El beso & Privilege have their own area to check in. Person checking us in was quick to highlight the areas we couldn’t use as we were “only El Faro”, but we said we were fine with that, and may choose to upgrade at a future. We were asked if we were celebrating anything whilst we were there and I said it was my birthday during our stay. Be aware you will get asked A LOT to attend the free dinner by the Premium team. This is basically to a timeshare ploy. We just said we had already been and they would back off until the next one asked you and the process repeated Room - massive and very clean, we have a superking bed at home and this bed seemed even bigger and it was really comfortable with lots of pillows available. Yes there was a bit of a damp smell but the humidity is off the scale so only to be expected. Able to request a dehumidifier if it was needed. The air con was absolutely amazing and a welcome change from the heat. The maid service was very hit and miss same as fridge refills, somedays really late or not at all even though we left decent tips daily but a quick call to reception fixed it. Pools- week 1 the resort was really quiet so happily went around the quieter part of the family pool, but week 2 was a lot busier and we found it to be too noisy. This was same for the lazy river… some people treated it as their own personal pool and took over it blasting their own music through their own speakers and this made it hard for those who just wanted to be able to chill and enjoy the “lazy” river, there are other pools but they are for el beso guests or privileged and whilst sometimes you can sneak in, sometimes you get caught out and asked to move. We never had any issues at all getting loungers. If you wanted shade or a specific place you needed to get down there earlier. Pool bars are good in all pools and bar staff come round taking drinks orders and tips go a long way. Food & Restaurants - El Mercado is the main buffet restaurant. There is a separate seating area for those ‘Privilidged’ but everyone uses the same buffet. It does state no children in one side of the seating area and no children in the actual buffet area but this wasn’t really upheld. Food was ok, always something to eat but very repetitive. We tried majority of the A La Carte and these were our opinions Mikes Coffee bar- lovely coffees and friendly staff Sakura- lovely food and fun experience Steakhouse - nice food and decent steaks Route 66 - not good, raw bbq ribs,nice milk shakes tho Dolce Vita - didn’t try but friends didn’t think much of it Margarita - really disappointed, bland food Blue moon - had high hopes for this but food was awful. heard of some people being ill after they ate there. I only ended up eating the French onion soup. The rest of my meal went back All due to being badly cooked. Privileged Lounge - food and service was good and nicely presented. Beach - yes it’s a bit rocky , no it’s not the most spectacular beach, yes there’s seaweed however we loved it. It was lovely having the breeze from the sea which is desperately needed in the heat. We had no issues at all getting beds with shade and it was a lot quieter there away from the thumping music. We bought full face snorkels and this was fantastic in the lagoon which was so warm. People state about the sunscreen situation, we took loads made up of f50 and f30, but never used the 30, it was too hot we ended up having to buy another 2 bottles from the shop which yes was approx $35 a bottle, but was needed and we didn’t really spend on anything else other than trips. Trips - we booked to go swim with the dolphins though the hotel which was amazing and cost $310 for individual interactions and fin pull, we also booked to go to Scape Park with the additional buggy Drive. We didn’t do any of the zip lines but loved the cave and cenote swims. Yes there is a lot of walking (we walked over 12km) but it wasn’t particularly hard, although the heat made it harder. Personally if I went again I wouldn’t bother doing the Blue Hole as the trek was long (though pretty) but the swim was just bobbing around in an ill fitting life jacket. I would just do the cave swim and the Saltos Azules as they were amazing. The buggies were really good fun as well It was my birthday on the Thursday and we had 3 days left so my partner decided to upgrade us to Privilege. It cost us $360 and to be honest it was the biggest waste of money. We did it to benefit from the butler, the Balinese beds on the beach and the hydrotherapy at the spa. We got back to our room that day, to find flowers all over our bed, high end spirits in the mini fridge and we thought this was fab. That night we ate in the Privilege lounge and had a lovely meal with great service. The next morning we did the spa for the 30min free hydrotherapy, which consisted of 15 mins in the sauna & 15 mins in the pool which was freezing cold ( very refreshing once you build up the nerve to get in) and had a few jets to massage the small of your back. Nice but not much to it. Later we went to the pool we were told at check in that it is for Privilege guests only, but realised it wasn’t, anyone could use it, the privilege area was a few Balinese beds and loungers roped off. We tried to get a Balinese bed only to be told they were only available to those who purchased a bucket (4/6 bottles) of Corona, or an expensive bottle of wine. This was of no use to us as due to the heat we wouldn’t drink alcohol through the day as it completely wiped us out, so the Balinese beds were a no go to us. In fact the only difference between El Faro and privilege at this pool was the rope sectioning the beds off and the fact that we could order chicken wings to eat by the pool where as El Faro guests had to go to one of the restaurants. We could have used the el beso restaurant or the privilege lounge but to be honest we rarely ate during the day, again due to the heat Alexander was our butler and he promised us the earth lol, but of the 4 things we asked of him (bookings and reservations) he only did 1 , 2 we ended up chasing him then doing it ourself anyway and the other he never even bothered acknowledging our request. In addition, he never even bothered contacting us on our last day, we arranged checkout and bellboys ourselves. This was the only occasion when we never bothered tipping. we would happily tip waiters, bellboys, etc but after paying out such a lot of money and getting 0% effort on his behalf i didnt see why we should. Finally the resort itself was beautiful and majority of the staff were lovely and really helpful. Everywhere was constantly being cleaned or worked on. Yes it’s a bit of a trek from reception to the beach but there are buggies that you can jump on if you don’t want to walk. We did find in the 2nd week when it was a lot busier , the quality of food dropped and the customer service dropped, it seemed they offered better to those who spoke Spanish. Overall we had a lovely holiday and really relaxed. Would I come here again? Probably not but only because there are so many other places to visit. Hope this helps
-
Sep 29, 2024
Pez Dama - Evening
Pez Dama evening food amazing, Luisa was a perfect host - always keeping my rose topped up! Cannot fault the food or service in there, well worth the upgrade to El Beso just for that! We went 3 times during our visit and everything was perfect. I would recommend it all the time.