Occidental Grand Flamenco – Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

The Hotel

(Note: Click on pictures for a larger view.)

The Occidental Grand Flamenco Punta Cana is billed as a 4 star resort, and in many ways it fills this assessment. There are several pools, bars and restaurants and a small bit of entertainment in the evenings, so technically it meets the requirements of a 4 star billing. The staff are plentiful and work hard to keep everything clean and presentable.

Entrance

Upon entering the open air lobby you will be greeted with beautiful views of the pools and interior grounds, which are beautifully landscaped and expansive. Once you are checked in, you will be taken to your room – with your luggage – in a golf cart. You may wish to tip your attendant.*

View From Lobby Bar

The rooms and suites are laid out in a network of buildings (edificios) and are fairly nice – spacious and tropical. As you might expect at a 4 star in the Caribbean, there are certain issues with the rooms. For instance, many have problems with water flow in the bathrooms, and in our ground floor room (we moved after two days to a balcony room on the second floor) we had a pet cockroach that lived in the floor drain of our bathroom. There are some inconsistencies such as missing pieces (ceiling fan and luggage rack in one room but not the other), but overall the rooms are quite acceptable. The vast majority of rooms have no ocean view; you will have either a garden or a partial ocean view if you’re lucky, unless you’ve paid extra for an ocean view.

Junior Suite

View From Balcony – Royal Club to the Left

The Punta Cana Beach

The beach in Punta Cana is actually called Bavaro beach, and it is as stunning as the pictures you’ve likely seen. The sand is powder-soft and pinkish-white. If you look closely, you’ll see tiny bits of pink in the sand, which are pieces of crustaceans from the ocean and which give the sand its pinkish hue. Rolling up endlessly all along the beach are waves in the most brilliant shades of turquoise – the water is clean, clear and safe, and there are no rocks or dangerous sea life to worry about as in other destinations. Often, seaweed will be left on the beach overnight and it is usually cleaned away by hotel staff who work along the shoreline at dawn. Note there is not much quality snorkelling to be had along the main hotel stretch of Bavaro beach – there simply are no rocks or coral to attract the fish.

Bavaro Beach, Punta Cana

The hotel grounds are directly on the beach and all rooms are within walking distance for anyone with normal mobility. The beach itself is absolutely stunning, from sunrise to midnight and beyond…always there is a beautiful experience to be had. As other reviewers have mentioned, the beach chairs do get taken fairly quickly (I saw people putting ‘reserved’ towels on chairs when going for a sunrise run at 6:30am!), and you’ll not find a chair under a palapa unless you’re very lucky, until people begin to leave at sunset.

Our stay in Punta Cana was during Holy Week, in April of 2009. We were informed beforehand that many activities, such as watersports as well as the availability of alcoholic drinks outside of our resort, would be severely curtailed during this week. We found this to be an exaggeration – the entire week, the beaches in front of the hotels were full of vendors selling watersport experiences; parasailing, boating and snorkelling, and many others.

Schedules

Note that many of the activities listed as included are either not readily available, are listed incorrectly on the hotel schedule, or are difficult to find and are offered for sale far more prominently. For instance, respectively, horseback riding was only available two or three days in the entire week of our stay, and when we asked (Tuesday) it was too late (no more riding until the following week); one family arrived for the archery listed at 2:30pm and were told it had actually been at 9am; watersports and excursions were being pushed extensively throughout the resort – it’s difficult to walk the grounds without having to say ‘No, gracias’ a few times.

Dune Buggy and ATV Excursion, Dominican Republic

The Staff

This brings us to the Occidental staff, most of whom spoke Spanish and little to no English. The service and attitude here falls short of 4 star by a long shot. While in other resort destinations when we attempt to speak the local language out of respect and are met with appreciation, here the staff seem to be annoyed at the guests’ inability to speak Spanish. If they do understand any English they often pretend not to, unless they are trying to sell you something. If you’re asking for something (a drink or a room change) they are not particularly gracious, and in fact give the impression that you are putting them out. Unlike in hotels in North America, the staff do not seem to feel as if they are there to help the guests. I would chalk this up to the poverty on the island, except that I have experienced gracious hospitality in many poor destinations, such as Mexico, Jamaica and many other islands. Also note that the ‘guest services’ concierge in each edificio is little more than a salesperson for the Occidental Royal Club membership program.**

Food & Drinks

This is another area where we felt the 4 star promise fell short. We know that in many places food is not the strong point, especially at all-inclusive resorts, however this resort failed miserably. The food was abysmal, even at the specialty restaurants, which were pretty but offered food that can only be described as sub-par. We knew from our first meal that it was going to be a long week food-wise, and had hoped that the a la carte restaurants would offer us a break, but alas our hopes were dashed. Throughout the resort, the food was almost uniformly flavourless – we joked that they must have a flavor-extracting machine in the kitchen. Even the fresh fruits and vegetables had no taste, as if they had been soaked in water for hours. Pasta was limp, sauces were bland and drinks were almost certainly watered-down. We would not complain, of course, given how little food many of the locals have access to, however there are many resorts and other venues (Royal Caribbean cruises come to mind) which do a far better job of providing a variety of tasty food. We found ourselves longing to ask the locals to bring us a little sample of their own cooking – we imagined it to be spicy, tasty and genuine – very unlike the resort fare. Also, the tables, plates, cutlery and glasses in the restaurants were not always clean, a big negative for us.

Tipping

*While this is technically an all-inclusive resort and tipping is not required, one look outside the resort areas will show you the abject poverty which prevails here. Some, but not all, guests bring a supply of American dollar bills to offer various staff for tips. We tipped our driver, our room maids and various waiters, and they all seemed to appreciate it greatly. Even if they don’t show appreciation (not the friendliest staff here overall), we are sure that every little bit helps. Indeed, if you take an excursion you will see many small children with nothing more than ragged shorts on – many people bring candies, clothes or other small gifts to give to the local kids when traveling outside the resort areas.

The Royal Club

**Like many resorts these days, Occidental offers a ‘special’ place for guests who are willing to pay for extra service and a sense of privilege. The Royal Club enjoys a separate block of rooms at the center of the resort, and many of these rooms are ocean front. Note with caution however that many are NOT ocean front, and in fact have some pretty un-extraordinary views. At this resort, Royal Club members enjoy their own private restaurant, several ‘extra’ services and a private beach area with covered loungers. Royal Club membership allows members to enjoy privileges at all Occidental resorts, and you can find information about entry costs both online at Occidental.com as well as on each Occidental property. Note that as a ‘regular’ guest you will be subject to attempts to get you to attend an introductory session detailing Royal Club membership benefits. Once we had made it clear to our building’s concierge that we were not interested, he had no time for us and only said hello if we did.

Pool Area, Occidental Grand Flamenco

Like this? Please share it by using the convenient share/save icon links above!