Iberostar Selection Coral Bavaro - All Inclusive

Over all not bad. Iberostar Selection Bavaro Coral is a lovely hotel. And the site is beautiful. But is this a five star resort? Rooms are comfortable but need upgrading (fabric soiled or fading). Room service is uneven. We could not find a bottle opener. Bottles in fridge require one. Some days you get a face cloth but not on others. Shell fish is not always properly cooked and beware of lobster! Overcooked or undercooked. And one last thing : although Dominicains are lovely friendly people, they are loud! Staff streaming from one side of the dining room to the other.

Family of four with two kids (5 & 3). We had TRULY the best time. We started every day at the main pool because the zero entry pool was best for our kids. Lunch we had every day at the coral buffet. And then we would nap the kids on the lounge chairs at one of the quieter coral-only pools in the afternoon. Lastly, finishing each day with dinner and a walk around the resort. Food: You can eat every meal at the coral buffet restaurant. Truly, don’t even bother with anything else. We did the Mexican one night, it was okay, and the Italian another night, again just okay. The meals we enjoyed every time were at the Coral buffet. Breakfast and lunch every day was absolutely outstanding; rotating each day with the most amazing selection of foods. Our favorite dinner was the Dominican night at this same restaurant. Incredible. Rooms were great, nothing wildly amazing or wildly bad. Standard rooms with restocked mini bars. The bathroom sink was really high so we called and requested a kids foot stool and they brought one right away. Beach was fantastic, water was great, hotel grounds were beautiful, staff (especially at the Coral area) were welcoming. No one ever expected a tip. Sometimes I gave one, sometimes not, more so just when I remembered to bring some bills with me. But it was never an issue. If you’re looking for a great quality, low fuss, luxurious vacation then I couldn’t recommend this resort more. ONLY con, as I’m sure others have said, was the person selling a ‘members breakfast’ was really pushy about it. But I had read enough on here to know I was not interested and I just politely but firmly said we are not interested and they never mentioned it to us again.

Enjoyable relaxing visit. We stayed at this resort for 10 nights, late January into early March, my husband and I, and another couple. Overall, we enjoyed our stay. Room was good - comfortable king bed, mini-fridge stocked with beverages (beer and pop). Plenty of storage in closet and drawers. Safe was of a good size. Bathroom was okay, but would have preferred 2 smaller sinks instead of the one very wide one. Only complaint would be that it took 3 days to get umbrellas and it did rain almost every day, although only sprinkles for most part. We felt that the upgrade was worth it, as we had access to 2 extra pools and 2 restaurants in addition to access to the pools at the adjoining resorts (except for JOIA). We ended up eating mostly at the coral buffet for breakfast and lunch. Although not that large, this buffet had a very good selection of food, with different items each day, so didn’t get boring. Some of our favourites were the pizza, fried chicken, and the desserts. ice cream was really good too. For dinner, we ate at a variety of restaurants throughout the whole resort complex. Reservations needed to be made for 3 of the restaurants - Italian, steakhouse and Japanese. Our favourites were: La Sibila (French) in the Dominicana resort, Salt & Soul (seafood) in coral level and El Faro (international) in the coral level. On our last night, we tried the buffet El Tapatio in the Bavarian suites area, and were pleasantly surprised by the quality of food there. With all this good food, we all put on a few pounds of course.. The beach was beautiful, sandy all the way into the water, no rocks at all, but it did tend to be a bit windy most days. So no need for water shoes. You could walk in both directions for quite a way. It was fun bouncing in the waves, but not ideal for children. Not sure if it was the time of year, but it did get quite windy some days. We did tend to put towels down to reserve loungers with palapas before breakfast, as on the first full day there, we couldn’t find any, of course this tends to be a common problem at many all inclusive resorts these days. One thing we appreciated was not being limited to one towel per person, and the towel hut was right there on the beach, and close to the infinity pool. We liked the 2 pools in the coral section, the infinity one right on the beach and the more squarish one nestled among some of the coral buildings further back. The water temperature was perfect for cooling off, and swimming laps. As coral level guests, we were able to use the spa water areas for a one-time visit with a reservation made ahead of time. We enjoyed this too - there were a few whirlpools, an outdoor pool, steam room and sauna. Massages were way too expensive though.. Golf carts were easy to get if you just went up to the small coral lobby. We preferred to walk most r the time, but we did get rides a couple of times when needed to get somewhere fast. No real complaints from us, but since we like to try different resorts, doubt that we would return.

Iberostar Selection Coral Bávaro was a perfect match for our needs: not too crowded beach, easy to reserve a cabana, El Faro restaurant with better food than specialty restaurants.

Where to start… My biggest, most upsetting thing about this vacation happened after we left and returned home. Within 1-2 days I noticed that a pair of sunglasses, $100 USD was missing from my wallet and also $60 worth of antibiotics that we purchased had been taken from our hotel during our stay. I’ve sent 2 messages about this and have had NO response back! Food was not that great (buffets) but the restaurants were better. Our TV did not work well in our room and was never fixed. Some of the toilets DID NOT have toilet seats on. There was also not any music playing by the pools and when we asked about it they said they would look into it, but never heard anything back. There also was not many entertainment/activities during the day. Especially for teens. Multiple water bottle & ice stations not working. Also, we were supposed to get resort coupons upon registration but we did not receive anything. The same thing for getting a private dinner with an upgraded wine selection. Last but not least we were really pressured to go to the “breakfast meeting” and listen to your talk about the time share even after saying no multiple times. I’m just totally disgusted that we were violated like this! Absolutely disgusting! I will NEVER come back and come to one of your hotels EVER!

I have back and knee issues and there were no benches to sit and rest along the pathways, very few ashtrays for us smokers along the pathways, public washrooms at the beach and pool ,toilets were missing the toilet seat, not every room got bath robes, some rooms not cleaned until the evening, and no Canadian or US rye whiskey, and the pools were cold. Positives the food was great with a good selection of food, staff were friendly and helpful and the grounds overall were clean. Lots of shuttles to get around

The food, drinks and the staff was very good

Loved the beach

Problems with the suite - found hair in the bathroom sink, broken shower handle and not working phone which required three visits to the reception before it was fixed.

We had an amazing time. The property is beautiful and we were treated special everyday!