Iberostar Selection Bavaro

beautifull beach, pool and rooms, great service by employees, 3 pools, lots of good drinks, and very freindly people, the food was good not lots of variety. good cleaning protocols and social distacing features

We just got home from a long weekend at the Iberostar. We booked last minute the week the resort opened after being shuttered for 4 1/2 months due to the pandemic. All reservations were moved to the Coral level in the Selection resort. This was supposed to be an upgrade. The resort was beautiful and clean. The beaches stunning. There were quite a few hiccups with the reopening. Check in took awhile even though there were only about 40-100 people staying at all the Iberostars combined. Our room was very nice but completely barren of most necessities. The mini bar was empty, no coffee pot or coffee/tea, no water bottles, beach towels etc. we spent most of the first night trying to get these things with minimal success. We got a coffee pot but with coffee pods. When tried to explain they wouldn’t work, couldn’t find anyone who spoke English. Was told there was only 1 place to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner - El Foro. Sometimes this was correct and sometimes it changed. (Not told to us when we booked). Was told to use to app for schedules, room service and to find out what was open but the app had not been updated since before Covid and told me nothing. Nobody could tell us anything!!! Even when calling the front desk they couldn’t tell me how to order room service. When we arrived around 3:30, we were hungry. We called and were told that El Foro didn’t open till 6:00. We asked where we could get a snack, but they didn’t know. Then when we walked over to the bar at the beach, they were making burgers and we got one. This was pretty much how it went all week. Didn’t get the right coffee until the last night. The buffet was fine, not great but we could usually find something we liked. One out of the four nights we were there, they opened the Mediterranean restaurant and steakhouse. Only problem was they didn’t tell us they were just serving the Mediterranean menu at El Foro, very confusing and ultimately annoying. That meal was very good. Told us the gym was open but it wasn’t, only the outside gym. Coral and selection pools were open but that’s it. Maybe 3 bars. Sometimes beach service/sometimes not. Some entertainment in evenings. Staff was very friendly. Everyone was wearing a mask and frequently sanitizing. We did have fun and were able to relax all day on the beach. I would love to go back again when all this is over and be able to enjoy all the resort has to offer.

This was our first trip out of the country so we were a little nervous about the whole process. We did extensive research and found a lot of tips and tricks but really nothing to prepare us for what we actually experienced. We had a direct flight from Boston to Punta Cana and getting through Boston was as pretty much standard. When we were about 30 minutes from landing we were given customs and immigration forms to fill out but no pens. Luckily I had a pen so we were able to fill those out before we arrived. The airport in Punta Cana is different than what we have experienced before in regards to being very open and airy. We went through immigration then got our baggage and then went through customs. We had arranged for a private transfers to and from the resort so we went to the appropriate desk and they brought us to the vehicle. The people we dealt with during this process spoke decent english but switched back and forth between english and spanish regularly so it was hard to follow at times. We stayed at the Iberostar Bavaro which was about 20 minutes from the airport. It was a beautiful resort and very clean. It has a golf course as part of it but we did not look into what that entailed. We booked through a travel agent and the package was through Apple Vacations. This resort had the highest rating they offered. We had booked excursions and our transfer through Amstar. Our driver for the transfer told us to “see him in the Theatre” the next morning. We were not sure what that meant and assume it was part of the “sell you something” routine that I had seen referenced online and most people recommended avoiding it. When we arrived at the resort we walked in and were met by a woman with a clipboard, she directed us to the front desk to check in with instructions to see her afterwards. The staff at the desk gave us our bracelets, cards brief information about the room, water, ice etc. Some of the people were hard to understand due to their accents and switching languages. We went back to the lady with the clipboard and she brought us to our concierge. There were many desks stationed around the lobby and had concierges sitting at them. You get assigned a concierge for the duration of your stay. We ran into some timing issues and our room was not ready when we arrived so we were directed to go to lunch by our concierge and when we came back his shift had ended. Normally the process is to go to the concierge and they do your restaurant reservations, excursions (pretty sure they get a kickback if you book through them) and try and get you scheduled for a “welcome breakfast” which from the sounds of it is a sales pitch to “buy into” the Iberostar brand. We had to tell our concierge multiple times over a few days that we were not interested in the Welcome breakfast and had to get kind of nasty to get them to back off. I think what finally did it was when I told him I did not like being harassed on my vacation and if this was how Iberostar staff went about guest relations then I would not be coming back to and Iberstar. Again pretty sure they get kickbacks if people buy into what they are selling which is what makes them so pushy. We were pointed to the lunch buffet without any instructions and we went straight into the food room, bypassing the dining area. Once we got our food we went back to the dining area and sat ourselves. We saw a soda fountain station so we got our own drinks. A staff person came over and filled water cups and asked us if you wanted drinks, we told them we go our own which they seemed irritated by but they did not say anything. Each day the service at the lunch buffet was very lax and slow. But at breakfast and dinner the staff was very attentive in getting you when you walked in, sitting you and taking your drink order. The grounds and beach area were clean and beautiful. There were people that walked the beach each day and tried to sell you stuff but they were not too pushy. A firm no thank you would usually deter them. In reading our paperwork for our excursions through Amstar we realized we needed to speak to the Amstar rep at our hotel, which are stationed at the theatre area off the lobby. They were very informative and gave us a bunch of safety tips and helpful information which made us way more comfortable leaving the resort. We flew in on Saturday and out on Saturday. We did excursions on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Monday was driving dune buggies and visiting a natural freshwater cave that we could swim in, Wednesday was visiting a monkey preserve on a mountain, Thursday was a shopping trip to a collection of shops in a gated complex (this was a free trip as we booked our other excursions through Amstar) Friday we went snorkeling off a party boat which was by far the best of all the excursions. We did scuba diving, swam with nurse sharks and manta rays and then docked the spent time partying on the boat and in a shallow area tossing around a football. Lots of dancing and music on the boat. During each excursion except the snorkeling one there was a demonstration and taste testing with cigars, coffee, cocoa and Mama Juana which is a liquor made in the DR. There were also options to purchase souvenirs at every excursion. On our off excursion days we hung out at the beach. A ways down the beach there were huts where you could shop and buy things. The people were very excited to try and sell us stuff and most of them were really nice but some were aggressive and pushy and did not want to take no for an answer. We decided not to visit that place again. We had rain for the first 3 days but it was really warm rain and usually a shower or too then it would clear off for a bit. Very warm but not too warm every day. The day of the carnaval they resort decorated between breakfast and lunch, festivities happened around dinner time, we only caught some of them as we had reservations for dinner. There is music and dancing everywhere down there. The staff would sing when working or dance with guests. Checkout was again a mystery process. We called guest services, they sent a bellhop to bring out our luggage. Our driver was already waiting for us. We had to go to the front desk to get a check out ticket before we could leave with our driver. The airport out was standard process and when we arrived in Boston went through security/immigration then used a kiosk to go through customs. Fairly easy process. We tipped a lot. Every driver, every time we ate, we did not visit the bars more than a few times so we did not tip there as much. We had 5 people and usually left 1$ per person for breakfast and dinner at the buffet, since lunch was not great service we usually left $2. Dinner at the restaurants we usually left $10 unless the service was over the top then we left more. These seemed to be good amounts as we literally had people fighting over us (wanting to serve us) at the dining areas. If you want souvenirs from a shop the prices are set but the tables and locals you can and should dicker with from what we have read.