Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Our trip to Samana, Dominican Republic

I know hubs and I talked about not going away in the fall on another trip. Well the weather started getting cooler and we kinda ended up booking a trip (Oops).

Normally we go to the Mayan Riviera in Mexico, but for whatever reason this year, it was extremely expensive. I'm talking almost $1000 more per person then we normally pay. We wanted to go away but not break the bank so we started checking out trips online.

This trip we didn't use a travel agent, we just booked through Air Canada. In the past we have used a travel agent, but when issues arose they did little to help and we decided we may as well cut out the middle man if they aren't going to do anything for us.

We started looking at Cuba and the Dominican.... They seemed to have cheaper prices. We weren't completely sold on going back to Cuba so we ended up going with the Dominican (plus Dominican always seems to be expensive, so it was a bonus that it was cheaper).

In the end, we decided on Samana because of price. It was the cheaper of all our options and the hotel seemed to have what we were looking for.

We ended up booking a 2 week stay at the Grand Bahia Principe El Portillo. It was a long flight to get there, about 9 hours of travel time total, with a stop-over in Toronto. When we arrived in Samana, we got off the plane and had to walk into the airport. The airport is just small (As Samana is still an up and coming tourist spot). Customs was quick, with no hassles and we found our waiting bus with no issues. Just beware that like Mexico, there are people waiting to "help" you with your bags.

The drive to the hotel is only about 45 minutes, which isn't too bad. There is beautiful scenery along the way and its a great photo opportunity.

When we arrived at the resort we had to wait for our room. Check in is 3pm and check out is noon. It wasn't too big of a deal as we went to the buffet and grabbed a bite to eat, and our travel representative did our welcome presentation. (It was nice it was done same day and not bright and early the next morning like most others). My welcome drink was delicious and they brought hubs a cervesa since he couldn't have the welcome drink due to it having banana in it.

When we arrived to our first room we weren't overly happy. It was down in the 23 block which is a bit of a walk from the beach (The resort isn't overly huge and spread out, but we like being really close to the beach), it was a shared room (meaning a door separated us from the room next to us), the bathroom had rust marks and weird paint marks all over the door, and we were close to the disco. We also didn't like that our room only had the 1 sliding look and not a deadbolt. This block of rooms had 3 floors and we were on the 1st floor right by the stairs, so 4 other rooms would be walking by us everyday to get to their own rooms.

We complained to the front desk and they said they would switch our rooms the next day. I guess the resort was pretty busy and everyone would be checking out the next day. We didn't have an issue with this, as at least they didn't try to sell us an upgraded room. The next day we went back to the front desk and a room was ready for us.

We ended up in the 4 block. It was way closer to everything and we even had a glimpse of the beach from our front door. We were on the 2nd floor and there were only 4 rooms in our block.

I wouldn't call this resort a party resort if that's what your looking for. It was a great place to relax and enjoy nature, but not the young hip drink your face off place.


   The resort grounds

 
 Another view of the resort grounds


   Giant frog we found one night, it was larger then my hand!

I'll provide more detailed break downs of the resort:

Room:
After our initial dislike of our room we were happy with our new room. The rooms aren't anything fancy, but they are clean. We did get a king bed like we asked, but after the first few days we found it uncomfortable to sleep in. We had to ask for a few more pillows as the ones provided weren't exactly the most fluffiest in the world. We had a decent sized balcony with a patio set. Inside the room we had another seating area. There was storage for clothes in the night stands and the 1 set of 4 drawers we shared. The tv is an old style tv (No flat screens here), but it worked good enough for us. The closet was a slight annoyance as the front door had a stopper on the floor preventing us from opening the closet fully. It could have been slightly larger, especially for 2 adults staying 2 weeks and needing to hang items (I ended up putting multiple dresses on 1 hanger just to have enough room). We had the safe included in our room for free and it was a decent size (Some resorts have tiny safes). It was also nice that the safe was electronic so we didn't have to carry a key with us. We had to ask for an iron as well, since they aren't provided in the rooms.

We did find the room could have used a bit more lighting. The light bulbs were all energy efficient and didn't put off a huge amount of light in the evening, so getting ready for dinner we needed all the lights on to see. A light in the ceiling would have been nice.

The bathroom was nothing fancy. It did have a jet tub that we never used. Nor was there anywhere to really hang wet bathing suits (and they didn't want them hung off the balcony). We ended up hanging them off the patio chairs.

                                           Our room

                                          Another view of our room, sorry its a little dark.

                                          View from our room door

                                          View from our balcony

                                                    Another view from our front door

Staff:
Staff at this resort were really nice. They were always smiling and friendly. In the main buffet Anna was awesome! We always tried to sit in her area. Carlos, one of the managers did what he could to make our stay enjoyable. He always said hi if he seen us in the front lobby. Arondenis, a manager at the Italian restaurant was awesome as well. We found they were among the nicer staff at any of the resorts we have stayed at. There was a bit of a language barrier as many staff spoke little English (and we speak little Spanish) but the Spanish we do know seems to be different then the Spanish they spoke in the Dominican. They did however try their best to make things work.

Buffet:
The buffet was really good. There was a different theme night every night. The food was above normal in standards and even though we were there for 2 weeks we always found something different and weren't bored with the food. They had an egg station in the morning for breakfast, as well as a variety of juice. Lunch and supper had a pasta station and a carving station, along with a grilling area.

I found the desserts to be among the best of the resorts we stayed in. They always had ice cream (hubs loved the ice cream and all the flavors), 3 flavors were available and it changed each meal, as well as popsicles. Other desserts offered included crème Brule, a warm dessert in the evening, and lots of homemade items.

At breakfast they didn't run out of bacon like some resorts seem to. The yogurt was delicious, as was the hot cereal. They always had an excellent selection of fresh fruit. I think I ate my weight in mango while I was there.

My only complaint about the buffet was that it wasn't the largest and at times it was crowded and the resort wasn't even full while we were there. I think they need to expand the buffet to handle the amount of people it serves. Not to mention they are building more rooms so definitely they will need more space.

I also enjoyed that they had tables set up outside so you could enjoy your meals outside! The air conditioning was hit and miss though in the buffet and some days I wished it was cooler as I was sweating just trying to eat and didn't find it enjoyable.

Another small beef is if you want a mixed drink you needed to get it from the lobby bar before heading for a meal. They only provided juice, pop, water, wine and beer in the buffet.

Meal hours were pretty good. Although I wish lunch was 12-3 instead of 1-3 and supper started around 6 instead of 7. If you were traveling with kids 7 is a little late to be eating supper.

There was a vegetarian section and if you had any food allergies, the cooks were great at letting you know what you could and couldn't eat. You definitely won't starve at this resort.


    Outside eating area for the buffet

Pools:
Even though we didn't swim in the pools, they appeared clean and well kept up. No matter the time of day you could always find a lounge chair! There was a great kids area with water slides located on one side of the hotel.

Beach:
The beach definitely went on for miles. It wasn't the white sand of Mexico that we are used to and the water wasn't the clearest. The first week we were there the water was pretty wavy and it was hard to see the coral. Hubs ended up getting scraped up pretty bad and needing to see the life guard on duty. He scraped his leg and got coral stuck in his foot. We weren't able to do any snorkeling as the water was too cloudy to see much. The second week, the water was a lot calmer and you could see the bottom of the ocean. It made for some great snorkeling.

If you wanted to leave the resort part of the beach you needed to sign a waiver as the beach is public and anyone had access to it. We never had any issues with the beach though. The vendors weren't too bad, if we said we weren't interested they would move on to someone else.

Finding a palapa was often tricky. They had plenty of lounge chairs and covers but people would be saving them bright and early and not sit there for most of the day, so if you wanted a good lounger you needed to get to the beach by 9am tops.

It was nice looking out over the beach and seeing nothing but nature, no other hotels or homes.


    Beautiful beach

Drinks:
For the most part the drinks were great. Sometimes they were mixed a little too strong though. I also found they didn't do a lot of blended drinks with ice. If I asked for a pina colada it would be all liquid and not an icy texture. At the bars, they had a serve yourself of pina coladas and banana mamas!

The house wines were some of the better ones I've had at any resorts.

The bars were only open until 6. After that the lobby bar was open until 11 then you had to move on to the disco, which was open until 2 am.

Towels:
We never had an issue getting a fresh clean towel. There were always ample available.

A La Carte's:
The resort had 4 a la carte's (oriental, gourmet, Italian and seafood). Unfortunately the oriental was closed during our stay. We had 8 a la carte meals and we booked them all at the beginning of our stay. We didn't have an issue with booking them and there was lots of reservation times available.

We ate mostly at the Italian. We had a couple of special invites back to eat there by the manager of the restaurant. The menu was good and the starter buffet was a nice touch. We did find that of the 4 times we ate there, it was always a little different so the quality kinda varied a bit. Nothing bad to say about it though. At the Italian restaurant we drank Mama Juanas, which is a Dominican drink made from a local root. A couple of those and you weren't feeling any pain!

The gourmet was a fancy restaurant requiring hubs to wear pants. The food was amazing here! The part we didn't like was the lack of air conditioning. When your dressed fancy to go for dinner, please have air conditioning to keep us from sweating while we are all dolled up.

The seafood was pretty good too. For someone who doesn't like seafood, I really enjoyed the fish and shrimp lasagna. I have to say the dessert here was then best of all the restaurants.

Snack Bar:

The snack bar was open from 11am-6pm. It offered the basics of soup, burgers, hot dogs, fries, pasta, desserts, fruit and a few other options daily. It was an outdoor concept and over looked the beach. It had beautiful views and offered Spanish lessons during the morning.

It was a great place for a mid day snack after hanging out on the beach.


   Snack bar


    Inside the snack bar


   View of the beach from the snack bar. There was a palapa behind the one in the pic that was our favorite one

 
    Left side view from the snack bar


Lobby:
The lobby was a nice place to sit and relax during the afternoon and evening. There was a lobby bar with seating separated from the main lobby. They also had this sectioned off into a smoking and nonsmoking section which was nice. The main lobby part had lots of seating and couches. There was free wifi which offered basic internet access. We weren't able to check our email or download videos, but we could check facebook, facetime and text, so that was good enough for us.

Beside the lobby bar, they offered tea and coffee, and juices throughout the day that you could help yourself to.

The only part we didn't like about the lobby was the privilege club. They liked to hound people to get a free gift for listening to the presentation. We didn't end up doing it until the second last day there, and only did it because it was raining out. It ended up taking 2 hours and was a complete waste of time. They offered to sign us up for $12,000 eek, lol. We did get some rum, vanilla, cinnamon and honey out of the deal (which is why we did the presentation to begin with, lol).

                                         Main lobby

                                         Drinking part of the lobby (Turtle area was outside)


                                          Turtle area which was surrounded by the lobby (picture above this one)

Shopping:
There was a main gift shop which really didn't have much in it. There were toiletries, food, alcohol, clothes and other trinkets. It wasn't as good as some other resort shops we have seen. There was also shopping located close to the front entrance of the lobby. Prices seemed a little high and we didn't end up buying anything. Nothing said Samana on it, and if it did it was just written on the item with a marker or pen :(

Maid service:
Our room was always keep very clean. They didn't do towel animals like all the other resorts we have been to which disappointed us a little bit. If we put our make room sign up and left the room was always made upon our return with the exception of 1 day. We received nightly turn down service and new towels twice a day!

                                         Nightly turn down!

Guest Services:
This is where you booked the a la cartes. The girls working here were really nice. If you needed something they would get it for you. They wrote a letter in Spanish outlining hubs allergies so we could take it to the restaurants with us.

Excursions:
We only ended up doing 1 excursion while we were there but I'll save it for another post. The one thing I didn't like was the excursions seemed to be only offered once a week, so if you didn't do it then you missed out if you were only there for a week. I like having the flexibility to book an excursion most days of the week.

Travel Representative:
The travel representative we had when we first arrived was awesome! The second week it was a guy and he never introduced himself or made himself known to us.

Some pictures on the way to the resort:

  

 

 

 











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