Bahia Principe Luxury Ambar - Adults Only - All Inclusive

Rooms: - New? Yes. - Luxury? No. - Lighting? Sort of. (40% of our lights didn't work, incl. the coffee area & balcony. We asked 4 times to fix it. 4 times, they were not). - Clean? No. (Woke up w/ leg bites, sore throat, coughing, daily. - Housekeeping? No! Ruined our trip actually, it was so bad. We had to call them daily. (They do make the beds & sweep. They do not wash anything: floors, counters, sink, shower, toilet, etc., Damp rooms & bed linens. Towels are replaced, never the same sizes, or quantities. Maybe a new garbage bin... maybe with a bin bag... maybe not... They use the used towels to wipe up wets spots, incl. your counter. Barf!) - Restocking the fridge? No. (I had to call daily). - "Private" toilet? No. (Translucent door, with an airplane toilet seat!) - Showers? Meh. (No bathroom & shower door = wet & cold). - Beds? Hard. (Like sleeping on a brick wall). - Pillows? Hard, thick, small, dusty, FEATHER (not down!) pillows. = not luxury! Pool: - Small, but pretty? Yes. - Pool Bar? Good. - Pee in the pool? YES! (A couple told us, they don't leave the pool bar all day. Like all their new pool mates, they just drink & pee in the pool all day. Lobby Events? Good. (A few hours every night, of D.J.'s, live performers. Mostly really good. = not luxury! Food: - Service? Atrocious. (A thousand servers, or not enough servers, most of which do know what they are doing, do it very poorly, or don't do it at all. No one speaks English. Not remotely). - Food? Meh. Edible. (Average, or below average). - Variety/Fresh? Yes. (Papayas & pineapples so good, as to be expected. (All breakfast buffet eggs are cold, which is gross. Stick with an omlette! Book the Adults only restaurants as a start, if you go to this tourist trap from hell). - List of edible foods: Coffee shop (excellent pastries & coffee), Meats, Indian, Limbo, Brazilian, Japanese were all good. Any beef steak & tuna steak will be good. - List of awful foods: Brisas Beach & the Mexican, any all poultry will be overcooked & dry. - Drinks: Beach Bar & Pool Bar good! And the wine is pretty good everywhere. - Tables & Chairs? Wobbly, uncomfortable& unmaintained in most restaurants (not the buffet). = not luxury! Beach: - Beautiful? Yes. (But that is not the resort. That is nature). - Diesel Fumes? Yes. (All day, everyday. Motor boats are at the Ambar beach. Reeks & is disgusting. So much for the sound of the breeze & smell of the ocean. Why did I come here?...) - Umbrellas/Huts? Get up at 6am to get shade! (The Esmerelda guests can also use the Ambar beach & Esmerelda is MUCH CHEAPER & BETTER! (We toured the newly renovated suites). = not luxury! Services: - Language Barrier? Yes! No one speaks English (except the welcoming staff). All Latin Spanish speaking only. Not the tiniest amount of English, even to do 1 job. The words "face towel", "new bath robe", "wash floor" "more coffee", "5 more minutes". How hard is that!? We tried our Spanish, with hand gestures, but no one understood. They didn't even try (with arrogance). I've been all over the WORLD, without sharing a common language, and NEVER had this problem. (And don't tell me to use Google Translate at an international resort: I Shouldn't have to!!) - Concierge? FAIL. (Never at this desk/available. Called daily, for something done wrong... or not done at all). - Tipping? Yes! All the time, over & over. (There are so many employees, 80% doing their job poorly, with arrogance, and no management. You feel like you have to tip someone every 5 mins, for just showing up). = not luxury! Resort: -Groundskeepers? Excellent. -Large? Yes. Gigantic! Get your Crocs, Birkenstocks, or running shoes. (If I wanted to do this much walking there are prettier places to go... or I would have just stayed in the city). -Trolleys? Completely disorganized. (Why do I have to move off of the sidewalk, onto the grass, 10 times for trolleys & delivery diesel-stinking trucks, all day & night? Are you kidding!?) -Cats? Yes. A lot. Everywhere. (And the ignorant guests & staff pet these flea ridden resort rats - which is why they exist - share the buffet with you & serve you. Barf!) -Path Lighting? No. (Try not to get hit by a trolley or step on a cat). = not luxury! Views: We had a lovey view. Majority of the rooms do not. = not luxury! Clientele: -Ages? 18yrs-88yrs (Weird). -Party resort? Yes. All day, everyday, until 11pm. -Guests? 80% = obnoxious, drunk, nasty, loud, poorly dressed, with ill fitting swimsuits, peeing-in-pool, ignorant, low class, ferrell-cat-petting idiots, coughing & sneezing everywhere. 20% = Normal (aka expected calibre of clients at a luxury resort). = not luxury! The Ambar is a frustrating, misery causing, awful, painful, useless, waste of time & money resort. Not worth it. Never again. = not luxury! The Best Services (aka met expectations) Were: 1. The Beach Bar, bartender. 2. Miguel, a beach caretaker/manager. 3. The evening Coffee Shop service employees. 4. The groundskeepers. Q: Why does this place get good reviews???... They don't know any better?... They don't care?... Too drunk to care?... I don't get it.

Food quality was subpar, I would compare it to Cuba.

Had a wonderful time! Beautiful resort, great food, pool and beach!

4 star for food, 5 star for entertainment. 4 star for beach or pool chairs with sun umbrellas)must be up by 6:30 to get one! 5 star in buildings, pool and lobby area!

We originally booked to go for 10 days and then decided to make it 14 days and I'm glad we did. The Ambar didn't disappoint the staff were excellent the hotel grounds were spotless. We downloaded the app to book the al a carte restaurants which was easy to use. Some restaurants were better than others Meat was especially good. The pool does get busy but we always managed to find a sun lounger, the one thing I did find annoying was people reserving beds and not using them as they were using the sun loungers on the beach. We are both in our 60's and we didn't find the music and pool entertainment too loud, the entertainment team do work very hard to keep everyone happy. The pool side drinks service was excellent they were constantly coming around and asking if you wanted anything. to drink. The beaches were very clean with a little bit of seaweed every now and then we did walk for miles up and down the beach and were never pestered by beach vendors. We would definitely return and recommend this hotel.

Check in, fine, managed to get corner room of our liking. Butler was super efficient to be fair for the first 4 nights, after that we only got him when we looked for issues. Room clean (except for bathroom sink) for first day and full mini bar, downhill from there on. The room was just swiped clean for at least 10 days out of 13 days, and then the maid had the brass neck to knock on our door on the last night asking for a tip! Aye clean the room pal. For a supposed luxury hotel, no extras at all like cotton buds, shower cap. The mini bar and coffee station in the room - leave tips or you will get no refills! The air con, well take it or leave it, set at 16 -19c all the time, no matter what you do. Bed was comfy enough, plenty pillows and also plenty bed bugs. Room service for food was very efficient to be fair, but limited choice, service fab. Pool - oh how hell the pool was if you didn't pay the pool guy to reserve your chairs. The are certain people from other places that reserve chairs via this method, get up at 4.45 to steal the places! I do not spend my hard earned money to do this kind of rubbish. The pool bartenders are only interested if you are young and have a cleavage bobbing in their vacinity. God forbid you are just wanting a drink, they ignore you or just say 'no'. Also, hopefully this will change with Hyatt, every other adult whether they were Ambar or not were allowed to use full facilties of the Ambar, there were adults walking around with their kids and strollers. And in all honesty, who wants an adults only experience with foam parties, constant dunk the contestant contests and constant drunk parties by the pool. We were sold an adults only quiet experience to be met by USA/Canadian frat party experience. Buffet was mostly fine, the a la cartes in the adults only were good. The A La Cartes in the family section - less than average. its not five star, its a 3 star aiming for a 4.5. one really good point - the coffee shop is 10/20.

It was a very nice and clean resort. It’s part of a complex of seven resorts, which gives you access to several à la carte restaurants across the property — a great bonus. The staff were very friendly, and there were always plenty of them around if you needed anything. The pool bar was good, although the experience depended a bit on which bartender was working. The sports bar and lobby bars were excellent, with well-trained bartenders. We tried a few à la carte restaurants — Indian, Brazilian, Italian, and Mongolian. The Mongolian restaurant was the standout, offering a wide variety of options. The Indian restaurant was also very good. The pool was very clean, and the beach was wide and well maintained. The only downside was the lack of daytime and nighttime activities. However, the resort was very quiet at night, making it easy to relax and get a good night’s sleep.

We came here on our honeymoon and it was one of the best holidays we've been on. Part of the massive Bahia Principe complex (there are several other Bahia Principe resorts connected to this one that you can walk to: Esmerelda, Fantasia etc), it definitely seemed the best from what we could see. The three restaurants are good, with Portofino being our favourite though the cocktails in the French restaurant are great. The pool is very loud in the day but the beach is much quieter and, with the breeze, much more pleasant to relax (the humid heat was a lot for a pasty Brit to take!). Our room was impeccable - we had a corner suite on the 1st floor and loved it. Our only gripe was that it wasn't obvious where to go once leaving the airport to find our private transfer. A women in TUI blue feigned being a TUI rep, helped us find our taxi driver (who was a stones throw away) then demanded a tip very aggressively. The tipping culture is much more US based than European so we'd recommend taking US dollars and tipping $1-2 a few times a day to the coffee shop (which is great!) and bartenders etc. We didn't tip at meal times (saw some people doing so but seemed fine to not) and made sure to tip our porter. Some people advised tipping ~$10 at the start of the day to then receive more preferential treatment which may be true but again, I didn't find that necessary at all. Reception can break larger bank notes for free (tip them too!) but try to get there in mid-morning before they run out (or, if you're more organised than me, bring lots of $1 bill with you instead of taking 10s and 20s!). The buffet was pretty good compared to most all inclusive resorts - nothing to shout about but pretty decent. The drinks are also a step above most all inclusive resorts I've been to - the cocktails are made relatively well (lots of people loved the frozen mango and strawberry daiquiris), the beer/lager is very drinkable and the spirits are decent too. I found staff to always be accommodating and friendly. All in all, would highly recommend this and we will definitely revisit once we manage to get a holiday without kids!

Firstly we would like to recognise and thank our customer experience lady, Candy who went over and above every day to make our holiday the best she could. Her smile and enthusiasm was second to none and the new owners Hyatt need to recognise Candy by giving her a management apprenticeship as she is a perfect example of what customer service should be. So we stayed here for 10 days, from 18 March (returned home today). Although reading other reviews we had hopes of a good holiday experience and here is our story. Firstly after a long haul flight, you are dropped off at Bahia Aquamarine where you have to wait for a golf buggy to take you and your luggage to Ambar as there is no direct drop off. This takes time and isn't welcome after a long flight. Whilst checking in there were no welcome drinks but the Team member that met us walked us to our room (we arrived in the evening) so this was good as the lighting on the pathways isnt great and he explained where things were and ensured we were happy with our room. If you struggle with stairs be aware there are no lifts so you should ask for ground level otherwise you will struggle. Our room was big, clean and had a large balcony. The housekeepers kept it clean daily, but sadly the mini bar wasn't replaced daily. Oh and if like me you like a cup of tea in the morning in your room that's a challenge as there is a coffee maker that can make tea too but not at the same time, so this meant I had a cuppa whilst my partner was still waiting for his coffee to brew, not ideal and the hotel would benefit from putting a kettle in the rooms rather than a coffee maker which was quite old fashioned and not quick. The hotel grounds are well kept, clean and tidy with a big effort on the environment and recycling. All the staff are friendly and happy. Big thank you to the entertainment team who really work hard to make the holiday fun, especially loved the foam party So food and here we find issues, the main buffet was the star of this place, from breakfast with the 'coffee,coffee' man to the Evening meals you can't go wrong, in fact probably one of the best buffet experiences we have ever had. Steak cooked to order and loads of choice you won't go hungry. However the biggest let down is the Al a Cartes, they are sole less, staff are not interested and food is cold. If like us you have been to Al a Cartes before with dress codes you expect silver service experience be prepared to be shocked, these Al a cartes are more like Diners and a big big let down, especially if you make an effort to really dress up. Advice don't waste your time use the buffet at least the food is always hot. The other most upsetting and disappointing let down is that this hotel is geared up for the American market and staff feed on this. They are consistently tipped by Americans and have grown to expect tips. If you don't tip they don't go out of their way to make your stay memorable. They will also provide a better service to Americans in particular around the pool, where cans of beer are available but not if you are from UK.. Half way through our stay the hotel was taken over by Hyatt and there were clear changes, including taking Luxury out of the name and adding Escape. There were more managers on site and more customer experience people asking how the holiday was going. When our experience was shared we were all of a suddened treated better but it was already too late and sadly for us we won't return. We met some really great holiday people from many countries who were regulars and made our holiday memories but for us we will spend our hard earned wage and we'll earned holidays else where as this hotel really didn't hit the TUI Platinum mark and was not value for money or reached the expectation of other hotels we have stayed at in other Countries.

The resort was great last year. This year the changeover to Hyatt has taken place and I cannot get Hyatt .com or the new Bahia app to find my reservation for April 5. The Bahia app gives you a page to contact them but my email never goes through. Very disappointing start to my vacation. Tenth and likely last trip to the Bahia now Hyatt complex.