Amazing location! Everything about this resort was awesome. The beach is pure sand and the odd seaweed. All the pools and lazy river were spotless everyday, very clean. The lazy river was by far the best one ive been on, swim up bar in a cave at the halfway point was perfect. Feed at every location was very good. Buffet had a wide selection of food everyday. All the bars were fully stocked and loaded with friendly staff. Tips are very encouraged and do change how well your service can be. The only complaints I had was it took us over 2 hours to get checked in and get to our room which was very frustrating with 2 little children. The second being the app they make you download never worked for us and booking the specialty restaurants was difficult. The shows in the evening were always entertaining with lots of table service no matter where you are sitting. They also have a Cafe with had amazing coffee, sandwiches and treats from applied pie to orea cupcakes. The kids pool was a hit with all of our kids we had there. Lots of slides, water dump bucket and a bar for the adults right next to it. Would definitely visit again!

We arrived a week ago and had a great time at the Royalton Bavaro. Check-in was smooth, and the resort had plenty of fun activities, especially around the pool bar area. The beach was beautiful, and all the staff were friendly and helpful throughout our stay. The food was good, and for à la carte dining, we found that if you book any available time and then go down around 6:00 PM, the staff will often accommodate an earlier slot if possible very convenient! Check-out was just as easy as check-in. Overall, we had an amazing stay and highly recommend this resort. We were a family of six my wife and I, our two kids (ages 6 and 2), and my in-laws and everyone had a wonderful time.

This was our second trip here. What an amazing place with attentive staff. The nightly entertainment was brilliant, the buffet restaurant had an excellent choice of food from all around the world. The a la carte restaurants were outstanding and we never had an issue booking, infact we only ate at the buffet once or twice. Breakfast as the buffet was great, freshly made omlettes, fruit, meats and cheese...whatever your taste there is something for everyone. The beach staff are great, they go of there way to find you a spot, they clean your sunbed and then lay down your towels. Drinks are served to your sunbed, there's a great choice of cocktails etc. The only thing I would give a negative to is the speed of checking in, I'm not sure why it takes so long, but it does get frustrating after you've had such a long journey. Anyway, we've been twice and plan to return, so it hasn't put us off. See you next year you lovely people 😘

We booked 2 diamond club rooms and expected to have superior rooms and service.  I registered 6 months ago to have the rooms close together and in building 14 if possible.  I then followed up with a phone call to ensure that my request was accepted.  The rooms were the furthest from the beach without any real view (building 16).  The rooms were in terrible disrepair .  At one point, the access door in the shower fell down while I was showering.  Had to call the butler every day to get the normal stuff that should have been in the room daily (bath mats, bath towels, snacks, coffee, etc.).  Room service dishes are left in the halls for over 24 hours.  The aqua spa heater was broken for the entire week.  We had 1 free hour in the aqua spa from the Diamond club.  When asked if they offered any other service to make up for this loss, the response was "No we don't".  Supposed to have special coffee machine in the room, just a regular coffee maker.  Aromatherapy was promised through diamond club, not delivered.  The food is average, same thing every day.  Went to the steak house and after 2 hours, left without my meal.  They brought the rest of the table's meals after 90 minutes (and we have children 3,3,5), but neglected to bring mine even though I flagged down the manager.  Of course, they promised better service next time.  The up-selling is annoying.  I asked how they would deliver gold service when they couldn't deliver the diamond service...no answer. just apologies.  After this, the up-selling staff ignored us completely (not a big issue!).  The grounds were nice and the beach area was beautiful.  The staff were attentive and tried their best to deliver an appropriate level of service.  Fernando (beach bar) and Yenny (our Butler) were terrific and attentive.  Like most reviews, I expect that there will be a mea culpa from Cesar Garcia (general manager), promising to provide better service if we return (I've seen this from many previous travelers reviews.

I’m starting with the Cons, because these are the ones that stick in my mind: - TERRIBLE first impression at check in. 30 minutes wait even though we were next to be seen. No organisational or personal skills from the reception staff (literally the one place it needs to be!) This was especially frustrating after a long flight from the UK. - Hotel maintenance is poor. Plenty of broken stuff like decking, signs, lights etc, and when there is an attempt to fix issues it looks like schoolkids have done it, with poor filler, paintbrush strokes on furniture etc - Most staff just Dont Give a F. Apart from the odd few, theres a lot of lazy staff who just roll their eyes or stare right through you when asked a normal question such as “do you have a straw please?” It could be language barrier, educational, or cultural - either way, it should be miles better if the hotel wants to advertise itself as being premium the way it is. The service is so often so slow it might as well be timed on a sundial. If you speak Spanish you might have an advantage here. At least you’ll know what the staff are saying about you. - Tipping. Tips should be for great service, not just for doing your basic job. We are always happy to tip for great service, but unfortunately as the hotel is full of North Americans, their tipping culture has infected the place & means that unless you wave a couple of dollars at the staff they will barely do their job. - We went during the busy new year and it was full of North American families with teens who had clearly never been allowed to drink before and who were behaving poorly, vomiting & defecating into urinals for example. There was a distinct feeling the hotel was understaffed. Be wary during peak seasons. - We found some food a bit bland. The Dominican station was flavoured well & the seafood is good, other food is hit and miss. I think the hygiene can also be much improved. There is no fans or traps to stop flies buzzing around the food that is put out and I also observed staff using the same utensil to handle cooked and raw meat. -No smart TV in the room so could only watch normal TV instead of prime / netflix etc Pros: - A minority of staff ( Luisa, Wellington to name a couple) are very good, shame about the others. - The beach is nice, so nice that we never bothered with any of the pools (just make sure to put towels on by 8am if you want a lounger) -Food and drink selection is decent. - The hotel grounds are large & well kept, the hotel & rooms just needs a slight uplift to match -Plenty for families to do. We liked the lazy river & its bar. - Entertainment every night, some of which was OK. - The sports bar was good and had good snacks, the wife liked the coffee bar. -Rooms were spacious