Bahia Principe Luxury Ambar - Adults Only - All Inclusive

We arrived at the Bahia Principe Luxury Ambar via private transfer by Amstar transportation and have to say we were very impressed with the change to this service. The vehicle was very well kept and the driver was very professional and courteous. We always enjoy the private check-in at Privilege lounge to start the vacation off stress free. Also there are a few staff we would like to especially acknowledge. First and foremost is Anabel Alcala, our guest service contact who was a real joy to have looking after our needs. She always made sure we had everything we were needing. Adriel, who came to the rescue to connect our streaming device and already was always around to share his cheerful personality with us and made sure we were enjoying our stay and finally our housekeeper Festividad who seemed to go above and beyond to make sure our accommodation was top notch. She always greeted us with a cheerful smile in the morning! The buffets and ala carte restaurants were very good and the staff were always pleasant and eager to please and serve you!

The hotel was beautiful the rooms was spacious and comfortable the food and drinks were also good then staff was great too fair play to entertainment staff I couldn't do what they did every day will definitely be back in a few years time

This was our 2nd visit to this resort,some say when you revisit a resort it aint ever as enjoyable as your 1st,but we did truly enjoy this resort as much as our 1st visit. So if you’re are considering booking to come here,honestly just book it,you’ll definitely will not regret it 👍

We have never stayed at a Bahia resort, and this one was a pleasant surprise. The best asset they have is their staff. From the groundskeepers to the front desk staff, they could not have been friendlier and willing to help with anything. Everyone had a smile and a HOLA for us. Our guest experience person was Horam. What a very nice gentleman. He was always available to answer my foolish questions and deliver us ice. Also, we had a great couples massage with Joreidy and Eudy(hopefully I spelled their names correctly). After a day of horseback riding, we really needed them. As with any place, there are some cons. The buffets were nothing to rave about. The breakfast was typical for a resort, with fresh fruit (delicious), eggs. pastries, etc. The problem was that the hot items were not always hot. The lunch buffet was not any better. Unfortunately, many items were dried out and cold. Your best bet would be to go to one of the fresh stations and hope they weren't just reheating the items. I realize that it is hard to cook in bulk and maintain top quality, but there are some tricks to mitigate some of these problems. The à la carte restaurants were okay except for YURTA, which was excellent (we went twice). I expected a better product from MEAT and the Brazilian Steakhouse. They were not bad, but not great either. We went to an Italian restaurant, which we did not care for, but some of that is personal taste as we are half Italian. Of course, a big con that seems to have no solution is the loungers that are taken as soon as the sun comes up. No resort seems to have an answer to this problem. The aggravating part is when the chairs go unoccupied most of the day. I would definitely return to Ambar. The at times subpar food would not keep us away. Hopefully, the staff works at this.

We visited the Luxury Ambar within the Bahia Principe resort in Punta Cana in November - We have been here a few times before. I'll break this down into TWO parts: (1) The Good; (2) The Bad (1) The Good The location, beach, and sea were, as always, wonderful. There was NO seaweed at all (The summer months had heaps of the ugly Sargassum). The sea water was so warm and pleasant and translucent green. The ocean was warmer than the pool. The days were pleasant, warm, with almost no rain at all. The SPA was great (we went to the Ambar Spa) and although this smaller spa doesn't have the water facilities that the larger Bahia Spa has, we went for the massages. Our therapists were very good, and pleasant. Kudos to both therapists: Martine and Nairoby. We had 10% off due to Bahia points. But we always tip the Therapists directly. The drink service on the Ambar beach was great as Bianca and Gloria did the route all day and got to know us. We tipped them all the time. Our room was great (a typical Junior Suite) with no issues at all. Everything was good, the shower, the air conditioning, etc. The restaurants in general were good - I have some comments in the next section below on improvements that could be made. We ate at the buffet restaurant "Palmyra" every day, and the breakfasts were very good. Lots of choice. In particular we want to point out that "Felix" the omelet chef was amazing, friendly, fun, and very competent. Loved him making our omelets. Hope he gets promoted. And Kerwin the water boy was very pleasant. And what can we say about "Nono"? He is a legend !! This bubbly, flamboyant, and colouful guy is the "show" as he goes around serving his "COFFEE - COFFEE - COFFEE - COFFEE!!!!" What a hoot - the beautiful Nono!! We ate at the buffet a couple of dinners - which were decent. The a la carte restaurants we ate at were: M.E.A.T., Portofino, Limbo (Gourmet); Tequila; Casa Bella. They were all different. Portofino probably the best. I'll comment on Limbo below. The maid service was great, we got to know our dedicated maid - LUZ in building 62 who said she'd been there for at least 4 years in the same building. Very pleasant. We tipped her always. Anyone who cannot tip the waiters, maids, servers, etc. does not understand the low wages and lifestyle they have. They make about $300 US a month and rents are maybe $400 a month !! A lot of them have families. Take DANIEL waiter at the Portofino - has a wife, family, and drives an hour each way to get to work here and then go home. Most of the staff live in Higuey and hour's drive away. The atmosphere is beautiful, with nicely landscaped grounds. (2) The BAD ! Yes there are some rough edges, some that have gotten rougher since we were last there... and management should pay attention. BUT know that the Bahia resorts have been partially bought by the Hyatt Hotel Group - so we will see what happens. Our main beef for the 10 days we were there was the CONSTANT noise, and loud blaring music from 9:30 in the morning non-stop until 11 PM at night. It was crazy - and the pool was an epicentre of "go go go" and not a second to relax and read a book. It was the centre of activity coordinators trying to keep the juice level high all day and night. Unfortunately you can hear this from our room. If you don't like to PARTY all day and night then I'd say stay clear of the pool - maybe get to the beach which was quieter. I think the Ambar needs to reconsider that a lot of older people like us are there to relax and NOT party. We, and those like us, have NO OPTIONS. Yet we have more money to spend as retirees - on average. Unfortunately, solely because of the constant NOISE, we are considering going to a smaller, quieter resort, maybe up in Samana. The feral Angora cats that roam everywhere, as cute as they are, seem to be a problem that the Bahia cannot get under control because they cannot come up with a humane way to deal with it. The cats are actually listed as wildlife species on the list of animals in the "jungle eco zone" !! We had a big issue with the "Limbo Gourmet" restaurant - This restaurant used to be, a few years ago, the "Don Pablo Gourmet" - BUT, since then they have removed ALL the great meals they used to have. In particular the Chateau Briand Flambe that used to make an appearance at your table as an unveiling under a silver dome !! It is gone the way of the Dodo bird. Also, no longer do they have the Flaming Crepe Suzette at your table. Now you get a flaming banana - but the Crepe Suzette was so much better. So this restaurant has really tanked. We hope they bring back the Chateau Briand Flambe. Even some "managers" working there still remember the good old days - and told me so. The drinks are watered down, and you need to make an issue of this at the bars ! You need to watch how much liquor you're getting and if not satisfied - ask for more. Well that's it - we cannot give it 5 stars because due to the issues we mention it cannot be a 5 star. It's Ok as all inclusives go - they just need to reconsider some issues to get back.

Stayed for 3 amazing nights! The staff was so professional and friendly, always willing to help with anything we needed/wanted. The food was so delicious and they had a lot of options! We had dinner at 3 of the à la carte restaurants (Italian, Brazilian and steak house) 10/10 in all 3, the menu had allergens information as well as the ingredients for each dish which made it very easy to order without having to bother the staff too much. Went to the bar and the bartenders were so nice and fun to chat with! They were even dancing sometimes!! The room was a dream! excellent view, very clean (and my partner is very strict about that lol) the Room Service crew was fast and efficient and always answer no matter the time

I want to be balanced here as it isn’t all bad. The good - The staff are mostly very nice. Customer service is good. We stayed in a corner swim up junior suit and generally we got good service. There were numerous things in the room that were old and broken. On request we got several of these things fixed or replaced. The question is why weren’t they already done as these were things that clearly had been broken for a while. Anyway on the whole the staff are great. What was surprising was how many didn’t speak good English given their target audience but obviously I respect I am the tourist and the language barrier is my issue not theirs. The property looks nice on face value and the communal areas do feel quite premium but scratch the surface and there are quite a few maintenance issues that could do with addressing. The pool area is nice and again the service from the bar and wait staff is great. The bad The real issue is the quality of the food and beverages. Now I fully appreciate that all inclusive resorts are going to be a compromise but I really expected a lot more, not in terms of quantity but in terms of quality. We ate at numerous of the pre-booked restaurants on site and to be honest it was not good. The food is bland, batch cooked and of low quality. It all felt a bit like school dinners. There is the tendency to take orders for starters, main and deserts all in one go and then it comes out like machine gun fire. I fully appreciate they need to turn tables but you barely get chance to draw breath. We got a cab on the last night to an offsite restaurant as we were desperate for some food with flavour. I don’t think we are foodies as such or especially picky but it really doesn’t present what you would expect of a 5 star hotel. Now to the beverages. This blows my mind a little . For whatever reason mixers are served from plastic bottles that often don’t even have caps and are therefore flat. So you get a spirit and mixer often in a plastic cup with a flat coke. We never got a decent drink. It was ridiculous. In the end we went to the store and paid $5 for a can of redbull just to get something fizzy. And don’t get me started on the beer. Yuk! It’s actually slightly better from a can than the pump. Tip - go to the sports bar and pay extra for a bottled beer, it’s the only decent drink on site. It’s such a shame as they are clearly trying but food and beverage is such a big part of a holiday and it just falls so far short of what it should be. If you’re happy with batch cooked conveyor belt food and flat drinks you will be fine. If you feel 5 star should represent higher quality this may not be for you. We met people who go back to this hotel every year so clearly some people do like it. Unfortunately we expected more so it’s just not for us.

This is my 4th time here and I used to love the resort from the entry levels at punta cana and bavaro, to staying st the aquamarine and upgrading to ambar. This time I went straight for the abmar and I am very disappointed. The rooms used to be pristine now they are falling apart. My package had upgrades avaliable still had to pay an addition 200 to upgrade for a swim out. Didn't receive any perks until I asked multiple times. The buffet is extremely subpar to its previous experiences. Also, the ambar bring top tier you used to be able to go anywhere and eat anything now you are stuck with your sad little buffet. The entertainment is lacking quite a bit now too. Only thing really saving this trip is the diving excursions I set up and even then the local beach dive group is so unorganized now who I certified with years ago. I recently found out it is under new mamanagment and it really shows. I would look else where now until they figure it out.

We arrived at the Ambar reception quite late at night after an evening flight. We were checked in smoothly… the night guys English was scant, so very hard to understand wifi code, but he helped us, and ultimately we had what we needed for the moment. Note… fabric wristband with room key embedded… very nice touch. We were able to enjoy a few drinks at the Sports bar before it closed at 2:00. And found our way back to our room in the dark… good sleep. Nice firm beds. Morning light brought everything into focus for us. Grounds are well maintained… beach swept, etc… pet peeve at all resorts… how quickly the shady spots are claimed with towels. So many claim chairs at pool and beach then leave seats ‘taken’ for hours on end… very frustrating. Restaurants all serve great food… we were able to book a la carte dinners first day for the week, and they emailed us our schedule, so no scraps of paper to keep track of. nice. I found it busy… but it’s a big resort, so that’s to be expected… my daughter enjoyed the entertainment in the evenings and went to the disco at Aquamarine a few times. Beach was great for walking… again, lots of people… If you like a busy resort then come to Ambar! Top notch… we quite enjoyed our holiday. Check out was easy and bus had us to the airport in good time.

Just come back from a perfect week at this hotel with my husband. Oh my goodness this hotel is fabulous. From the attention to detail a nice welcome plate in the room to how clean this hotel was the maids were constantly available and nothing out of place. The entertainment staff were friendly Good fun, yet respectful if you didn’t want to join in. The waiting staff cheerful and always smiling. There was always something going on in the evening that would suit most tastes. The restaurants fantastic a tip for you pre book before you arrive to get the restaurants you want. That said we had help from Issac at the enquiry desk who booked for us and recommended a few restaurants that we probably wouldn’t have tried at home. Couple of areas of improvement that the hotel could learn from which we didn’t complain about as it wasn’t a big deal just abit disappointing, when we arrived we were escorted by a lady to our room who said we didn’t have any robes and commented on the fresh paint smell which she said she would come with some freshener with the robes, she never arrived. Then I quickly discovered that the floor to the shower had been freshly painted as my feet stuck to the floor as it wasn’t quite dry. So perhaps honesty would have been better to warn us of this. But like I say we didn’t complain about it when we could have as everything else was wonderful and we didn’t want to spoil our holiday. The issue was fine in the shower the next day. But it was a clear attempt to keep everything to a high standard so fresh paint isn’t an issue in my view. Just perhaps it might have been better not to use that room till the following day. So some other hotel staff can learn from.