resort review / Riu Bachata, Dominican Republic

I wanted to share pictures and a review of our resort with you - we ended up picking the Riu Bachata in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. Riu is a Spanish chain, which we were new to. Although you're welcome to scroll through to just see some of our photos (or watch our home video) I thought that a full review of the place may help another family should one of you be looking for a place that is a nice starter place as a family to visit. There are so many resorts to choose from, each a little different and offering different amenities. I found it overwhelming, which is why I wanted to post an extensive review of where we stayed! Should you like to read more about the resort, and my review, it's after the jump! (Because it is super long)

We spent a lot of time researching where to go. At the suggestion of my Mom, we enlisted the help of a travel agent after doing research online for a few weeks. We got the help from Yvette from YYZ Travel (her contact info is at the very bottom of the post).

We did some initial research and knew of what we wanted to begin with and an agent was really helpful in narrowing the options down more. When it came time for booking the trip - Yvette took the time to speaking to the resort in on our behalf requesting special items like an extra bed in the room for Oscar.

Some things that we did know when talking with Yvette - we had a budget for the trip, knew we wanted no less than four stars and, chose to go to the Dominican Republic. The Dominican was close enough for us from Toronto (four hour flight) which was manageable for me, considering it was Oscar's first flight.

In all honesty, I wanted desperately to do a trip via a Beaches Resort, Sandals, or Club Med because they all have the amazing reputation behind them of being great - especially with kids. But the prices were out of reach for us at this stage. I also was dreaming of going somewhere like Hawaii but the flight time was making it a no-go for Oscar's first trip. Maybe another day. Aubrey and I have both traveled to Cuba, Mexico and the Dominican Republic together and I felt most comfortable with the Dominican, so we focused in on that location.

We were going last minute in part to try to get savings, although we were running the risk of narrowing down our options of what was available. It was a risk we had to take to make a trip workable financially, and in the end it was ok.

• All inclusive - Takes the guess work out of budgeting
• Four stars or more
• Child Friendly, although not necessarily geared towards kids. I wanted a mix of relaxing but child appropriate. 
• Small resort - we didn't want to have to walk very far to the beach / food / rooms. Some resorts we had been to in the past, you hop on little shuttles to get to the beach. That ruled out any resort immediately.
• Small Beach - I didn't want the beach to be full of party animals. (been there. done that.)
• Great bedrooms - with a small child I knew that we'd be indoors more than previous trips
• Pool 
• Close to airport - we didn't want to be on an hour long bus ride to the resort

Riu Bachata, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic via Sunwing Vacations. Below are my ratings of the features. The rating system is going on the base knowledge of what an all inclusive, destination resort offers you. It's not the same as a five star / four star hotel in Toronto, so you kind of have to read the review.

Staff: 10/10 
Always really friendly, not vying for tips as I have experienced in resorts that we had gone to before. Here, should you choose to tip, it's a sign of appreciation but not required or expected.

The hotel staff all seemed to have a great repor with one another, which I think shows a great work environment. Kind, helpful, and always really nice to Oscar. The main desk staff wasn't really all that friendly but you deal with them so infrequently that I didn't deduct points. Staff aren't intrusive, but if you need something they were really helpful. Lots of staff, and finding someone should you need something was never an issue.

The food: I say 5/10, Aubrey says 7/10
I wasn't a huge fan of the food and found it repetitive. Aubrey says I'm picky and disagrees with my rating. I don't disagree with him, so I'm putting both of our reviews in. :) Breakfast was great. No complaints - croissants, pancakes and eggs along with many fruits and other dishes. (A child would be happy with any of the choices). Lunch and Dinner there was a lot of selection but I just didn't really warm to it. Pasta was a go-to choice for Oscar every night. Ham and cheese sandwiches were always available, so we just took the ham out and pretended it was a grilled cheese sandwich and Oscar was happy. :)

Food Services - Hours of Operation: 4/10
The hours of operation of the main restaurant I found frustrating when you're trying to feed kids. But it's all inclusive so I guess you have to take the good with the bad. The breakfast was always fine - it ended at 10am and it closed down until 1pm for lunch - which I thought was late for kids. (Oscar eats usually at noon) And then dinner wasn't open until 6pm which I found awkward. There was a snack bar area that operated in between those hours but the food wasn't super healthy or ideal for little ones.(French fries, hot dogs etc)  I've preferred resorts where a snack bar operated 24 hours, which meant less scheduling around meals. They had "A-la-carte" restaurants which we didn't go to, but I overheard other guests saying they were good. The services at the restaurants was always 10/10.
Tip: Bring snacks from home to have at the resort if you have kids. It makes the break between lunch and dinner way better. (More on that in another post)

Rooms: 9/10 : We booked a "Family Size" room. Our room was on the main floor - number  715 and the Building was Number 7.  It was the perfect location - although we could kind of hear the club / entertainment at the main lobby area at night - so had Oscar been much younger it may have been hard to get him to sleep. We ran the air conditioning and fan in the room which muffled the sound slightly, but if you have young kids maybe bring a sound machine.

Pros:

• There was a small bistro table with two chairs in the room so we could eat in our room should we choose to bring food back from the buffet. 
• The rooms were really, really well maintained - better than some high end hotel rooms I've stayed in, in Toronto. On a number of occasions I saw people touching up paint on rooms when guests weren't in them. They definitely take care of the property. 
• They clean the rooms daily when you request it by putting a sign on your door
• A lot of closet space
• Mini Bar that they replenish with beer and bottled water for you
• If you're the drinking kind, they have alcohol dispensers in the room
• Air Conditioning and a Fan
• Little porches off the rooms with chairs and a drying rack for your towels / clothes
• Extra pillows and blankets at the front desk

Cons

• The shower was kind of small, and awkward. The hot water wasn't overly hot - but I have to tell you that I'm someone that cranks up the heat in showers and if anyone were to go into a shower at the same temperature they'd scream. I like hot, hot showers. I'm sure that 100% of anyone else that you'd ask would say the temperature was fine. 
• Beds weren't all that comfortable. It wasn't awful, but I definitely missed my soft bed at home. 
• TV Channels are all in Spanish. Not that it is a con - I just wanted to mention it because if you have a little one and want some quiet downtime I'd suggest an iPad or other tablet loaded with movies. Personally I liked watching the Spanish Soaps in the afternoon. Had no idea what they were saying but it was quite dramatic. ;)

Our hotel room was 715 [See A above] which overlooked a grassy area, which was nice because you didn't have walkby traffic. If I were to visit again, I would request the same room [Family Room] or, possibly the buildings 1 through 5 [See B] as it was quiet and 2 and two overlooked the Ocean.




Beach 10/10 : Kind of rocky in some areas but the stretch of beach gives you some variation. It's a public beach so you do have the occasional local vendors approaching you to sell you items / services although they are very respective of when you say no thank you and they don't hassle you. I loved that at one end of the beach there is a lot of tree cover close to the water - which was great for if you had kids. You could be in the shade, hang your towel from the tree, and within seconds jump in the water. The beach is what would make me go back to this resort.

Pool 10/10: Although I'm not really a sit by the pool person, I have to give this section of the resort a great review. Clean, large, lots of activities should you want to do them, swim up bar, drink cart that goes around. They have a towel service - you get a card per person that gets you a towel. Return the towels for fresh ones. It's a great system. There is a fair amount of chairs and shade. Although the pool wasn't my area of choice in the resort, it was without a doubt beautiful, large and had room for a lot of guests to find seats. There is a small pool that I thought was a hot tub, but it turns out it's a wading pool for kids - which was an amazing feature. Oscar loved playing in it in addition to swimming with Aubrey through the larger pool with his water wings on.

Kids Activities 4/10:  Don't let the rating worry you. The resort is totally welcoming of kids and even has designated kids areas with swings and some sand toys - but I gave it this rating because it's not really a resort that is designed for kids. Did Oscar have a great time? Yes! He loved it! He loved the beach, the swimming pool - but he was pretty young for any organized activities. I didn't see much going on with older kids. This isn't really a place that goes out of the way to supply families with stuff and there wasn't any play area where you could leave your child to play with a supervisor if you and your significant other wanted to go for dinner. We didn't expect them too have these service so we weren't dissapointed, but I just wanted to illustrate that you have to entertain your kids! Just bring Grandma with you if you want a babysitter. :)

Aubrey and I were talking about our thoughts on the resort and I think he says it best when he said that it's "As Advertised". It's pretty much exactly as they show you on their website. It's a nice resort - well maintained, attentive staff. No surprises at all which is for me, a really great plus. Overall it was a nice trip. By the end I was feeling a little homesick in part because of the food, but also because we were in the minority - not many people spoke English as their first langage. Aubrey attributes to this to the fact that Riu is a Spanish chain and appeals more to Europe perhaps? It made making friends or small talk pretty hard. The main lobby is a little dated, but you don't really hang out in the lobby so I didn't see it as a negative. We may try another resort another time, but have no issues recommending this one as a great "As Advertised" place - with or, without kids.

Links:

• Our Travel Agent for this trip: Yvette Erdos-Levine at YYZ Travel (1-877-999-4768) or yvette[at]yyztravel.com  (Aubrey's Mom has used her help for years, so came recommended)
• Riu Bachata 
• Sunwing, Riu Bachata