Rating:
"The hotel was clean and staff was friendly. The food was hot and tasty with numerous locations to grab a snack. The beer in the mini fridge was always stocked and the shuttle service was frequent and fast. The pools were clean and the beach was amazing. Would stay again 100%."
Reviewer: reviewer7015
Date: Jun. 29, 2011

Rating:
"We booked into this resort on February 20th and from the get go it was a positive experience. I cannot think of any one thing that we found disturbing other than that we were on the back of the building adjacent to the service road and it was quite noisy at times.The staff were friendly and helpful with all of our requests (which were few because everything was taken care of anyway!). We are not beach people but we enjoyed our quiet time on our balcony reading or just relaxing and enjoying each other's company. The one thing I would cast an negative towards would be the food which is plentiful, but all cooked in the same oil and not very tasty. And the fruit which I was looking forward to was in short supplyand not very appetitzing the pineapple was woody and sour, the watermelon tastless, but the bananas were great as well as the mandarin oranges. The canned peaches and canned pears were a disappointment! Breakfast was always good, but lunch and dinner at the buffet became boring in just a week. Having said all that, the rest of our vacation was wonderful. the Grand Bahia Principe Ambar is a wonderful resort."
Reviewer: Brenny
Date: Feb. 28, 2010

Rating:
"Excellent service. 5 a-la-carte meals were included in this 2-week package. Staff was very helpful and friendly. Room staff did not necessarily speak English very well, but office staff was more than willing to get you whatever you needed. Lots of food at the buffets, 3 times daily. Big variety and you could choose what you liked. Beautiful weather while we were there, lots of sun and surf."
Reviewer: mamabean
Date: Mar. 03, 2009

Rating:
"We were greeted on arrival with the news that the hotel was overbooked and that they would try to find us accommodation in other parts of the complex which they eventually did, but w/o any communication as to when or where. The following day they were to move us to the Ambar but again no idea of when, not a "5 Star" experience.
Food was generally good, accommodations nice and surroundings beautiful but definitely not a "5 star" property."
Reviewer: jbray4606
Date: Feb. 28, 2009

Rating:
"Gran Bahia Principe Ambar Punta Cana Dominican Republic January, 2009

Who we are and where have we been
We just returned from spending a week (January 4-11th, 2009) in Punta Cana at the Gran Bahia Principe Ambar Resort. This was our fifth trip to the Punta Cana area of the Dominican Republic. Our previous stays in Punta Cana were at the Sunscape Grande (Grand Oasis Punta Cana), Iberostar Bavaro, Bavaro Princess All Suites and at Secrets Excellence. We are "experienced" sun travelers as we have been going to the Caribbean, Mexico and South America for the past 30 years, most years at least twice. We appreciate "good/fine" dinning, so when we travel, food and service are our top priorities and to a lesser extent the rooms of the resort as we like to spend our time enjoying the beach and what the resort/island has to offer. We believe .that our vacations begin at home which means we research the location and the resorts before we leave and have a very good idea of what to expect when we arrive.

Conclusion/Summary
We enjoyed our week at the Gran Bahia Principe Ambar and would recommend it. Having been to the Sunscape Grand (Grand Oasis, not a good beach), Iberostar Bavaro, Bavaro Princess and Secrets, our favorites would be Excellence and the Iberostar Bavaro. We think that would go back to either of them and the decision would be based on which of the two (2) resorts would be less money. The resorts in Punta Cana offer exceptional value for your dollars. We normally go to Jamaica at least once per year and over the past number of years we have noticed that where Jamaican resort value is good, if you can get a "real" sale price on the resorts, Punta Cana is just that much better value for our dollar at all times of the year.
You can view of photos of the Gran Bahia Principe Ambar at the following link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15636629@N07/sets/72157612495314 881/



Flight
We booked this vacation with Air Canada Vacations and the flight was direct out of Winnipeg and was scheduled to leave at 7:00AM. We left at about 8AM because of de-icing and the usual delays. Over the past few years, we try and choose Air Canada Vacations as they use "real" airplanes, not the cramped planes of the charter carriers such as Sunquest, Signature, etc. We upgraded to the "Executive Class" seats at the front of the plane which is the only way to go if the extra $299 each is not too expensive for you.

Arrival
We arrived in the Punta Cana Airport at about 3:15PM and it took about 15 minutes to clear customs and get to the waiting area for the taxis and buses to the resorts. There were about 15-20 couples going to the Gran Principe complex on our flight and about half of them were going to the Ambar and the rest to the bavaro section of the Grand Bahia Principe. The transportation was provided in a large bus.

Check-In
We arrived at the resort at about 4:15PM. We were told to get off the bus at the Gran Bahia Principe Bavaro lobby and gather our bags and then get on a "tram" which would take us to the Ambar lobby. This took a few extra minutes but went smoothly. When we arrived at the Ambar lobby, we were greeted by the "Butlers" who told us to leave our luggage and go to the check-in counter and check in. We went to the counter and were immediately asked for our documents and were given a "hospital" style bracelet to wear which was also to identify us as Ambar guests. Gran Bahia Principe guests wear bracelets of different colours to identify what section of the resort you are staying in. Our bracelets were "clear" where other sections of the resorts had green, yellow, etc. I will describe in more detail later on as what Ambar are entitled to versus the rest of the guests.

Size of the Resort and Clientele
This resort is huge compared to most resorts in the Caribbean. In Punta Cana most resorts are large, at least 400 rooms but this one had approximately 2200 rooms and they were all very spread out on the property. They had a number of "trams" that circled the resort every 5-10 minutes and depending on the location of your suite, the tram could be full some times when it came to the stop near your suite. All the rooms of the Ambar are the closest rooms to the beach and the layout is much more compact than the other sections of the resort. We used the trams the odd times when we were eating in one of the restaurants in the other sections of the resort.
We enjoy going to Punta Cana because there seems to be a much more "worldly" group of people compared to some Caribbean islands and Mexico. What I mean by that is the majority of people staying at the resorts are NOT English speaking. This was NOT the case this time. The Ambar's clientele for the time we were there were mostly Canadians (55%) with Russians probably the second most and then a lot of other counties. The resort was at 100% occupancy and we were told this by the General Manager who also told us that Canadians were the majority.

Ambar Section versus the rest of the Gran Bahia Principe Sections

The Ambar section of the Gran Bahia Principe Resort is by far the most elegant and luxurious and it is ADULTS ONLY!.
The rooms are the closest to the beach and are very well laid out such that you do not have to use a tram when staying within the Ambar section. Actually, there is no tram within the Ambar. If you want to go to any of the other sections, you go to the Ambar lobby and catch a tram from there. Ambar guests can have unlimited a la carte dinner reservations in any of the restaurants within the entire Gran Bahia Principe Resort.
Ambar guests can use the facilities of the other sections but the other sections can NOT even enter the lobby of the Ambar. We saw many instances where people with other coloured bracelets were turned away by resort staff at bars,etc. This is enforced but we did see some children at the pool and on the beach in front of the Ambar, it was open to all Gran Bahia Principe guests. The Ambar section had a small series of fences on the beach identifying it as Adults ONLY but we did see children on the beach areas near the Ambar section.

Rooms (actually Junior Suites)
All of the rooms at the resort are what could be called a "junior" suite. The rooms are contained in blocks of 48 suites that are 3 stories. The room numbers are grouped by villa number first, then the floor and then the suite number. We were in Villa 67, 2nd floor unit 8; 67208. This was a corner unit with a larger balcony and sitting area. One issue that people should be aware of is that there are "connecting" doors in 50% of all suites at the Ambar! We did hear some noise one night but other than night, the rooms were very quiet. The suites are very spacious with a large balcony or main floor patio.The rooms are very well decorated and very clean and no "musty" smell and we did not see any insects at all. There is a min-bar that is sometimes stocked. Ours was stocked 4 of out the 7 nights but we always had plenty of water supplied. Normally the bar would have soft drinks such as Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, 7-UP, 2 airline bottles of scotch and 2 cans of Presidente beer.
This was one of the better rooms that we stayed in during our 25+ years of traveling in the Caribbean.


Room Service
Room service is included for all guests and it is available 24 hours but you can only get continental breakfast and not a full cooked breakfast. The menu included all types of breakfast items and other items like sandwiches, ceasar salad, nauchos,etc. We didn't use the room service but you should know that you can NOT order drinks as part of room service. They tell you to us the mini-bar for that.





Beach and Pool
The main reason why we go to Punta Cana is the beach! The beach in front of the Gran Bahia Principe Ambar was as good as any beach could be in the Caribbean. White powdery sand, clear turquoise water and a gentle slope towards the water describes it. Some of the beaches in Punta Cana have some "seaweed" in the water and this can wash up on the beach from time to time. The beach at the Gran Bahia Principe did not have any of this seaweed.
There were many palapas to choose from and if you were up and on the beach by 9AM, you could have your "pick" of the palapas. By 10AM, most of them were taken but there was always some chairs available. Chairs on the beach were always available but we have noticed that most resorts in the Dominican have more than enough chairs to go around.
We would bring our beach bag, towels, hats, etc and leave them on the chairs with no problem. I have to mention that I am an early riser and that I would reserve our palapa by about 7:30AM and there were many palapas that already had towels,etc on them. The resort was at 100% ocupancy the week we were there, so in other times the reserve a palapa game might not be that bad.
The main pool by the beach was very large, clean and very warm. During the afternoon it got a little more crowded but nothing to bad. There were lots of chairs and the chairs under the palapas around the pool went first in the morning. It seemed that most people were sitting on the beach this week as there were always lots of chairs available around the pool, even more than on the beach. Maybe it's a Canadian thing. We never sat around the pool as the beach is what Punta Cana is all about! There was a swim up bar as well as a standup/stool bar around the pool which was never busy so drinks were available very quickly.

Restaurants
As we had mentioned in our introduction, we like good food when on vacation as well as the option to dine a la carte for all evening meals. The Gran Bahia Principe Ambar gave us this option and we took advantage of the a la carte dinning for all of our evening meals. Generally we thought the food was from good but not great. We never really had an entrée that was memorable but we survived.

Ambar Buffet
This is the main restaurant in the resort and it is buffet for all meals. We ate about half of our breakfasts here and the selection was very good. They had the usual persons making fresh eggs of your choice, great breads and sweet breads, cereals (no high fibre cereal) and a good selection of fresh fruits. The service here was excellent in the section that we choose to sit for all of our breakfasts.
We ate lunch here a couple of times and the selection was good. The journey from the beach back to buffet restaurant was about a 3 minute walk. We are not that big breakfast or lunch eaters, so we thought that Ambar buffet was adequate for our purposes, good but not great.

Garden Grill Steak House
This is the main steak house of the Gran Bahia Principe complex. It is located within the Bavaro section near the "premier" pool. We had heard lots of good reviews about it, but it was very disappointing to us. The appetizer bar had lots of items but most of them were cool or over cooked. We tried the Pork ribs and they were not edible. The shrimp wrapped in bacon was good and my rib-eye steak was grizzly and just down right nasty! We left immediately after the entrees arrived and we couldn't eat them and went to the buffet in the Ambar.

Don Pablo(Gourmet)

This restaurant is the Gourmet restaurant of the Ambar section. It is the only a la carte restaurant that does NOT have an appetizer bar. We ate here twice and the cheese salad and smoked salmon appetizers were very good. For entrees, we had the lamb twice, a seafood medley in a baked crust, the beef tenderloin and the lobster. None of the entrees were that great with the lamb being the best, the first time we ordered it, followed by the lobster. They had many dessert options but the wait staff was a little clued out as to what was available. They had bananas stewing for flambé but no one to do the flambé! On our second visit, we left after the entrée and went to the buffet for dessert.

Porto Fino(Italian)

El Olivo (Mediterranean)

Maiko(Japanese)

There are two (2) Japanese restaurants in the Gran Bahia Principe complex. They are both identical and are the tepanacki style of grilling all meats and vegetables in front of the guests. This was by far our best meal during our stay. The meal started with a cold appetizer of tempura vegetables and shrimp as well as some vegetarian sushi. Very good! Next, the "chef" asked all of the people (12) at our table if we wanted fish, shrimp, steak, chicken or all of the above. Everyone at our table said YES to everything. The chef then proceeded to cook all the meat and some fried rice in front of us and then went around the table and served each of us what we wanted. All of the meats were cooked perfectly, fish not dry, meat not overcooked, etc.
After the main course was eaten we were asked to move to another section of the restaurant and then we were served dessert by a waiter. We had the fried ice cream which was different than any fried ice cream we have evr had. Not bad, just different.

El Charro (Mexican)

This restaurant came in second for the best meal next to the Japanese one. The appetizer bar was great and everything was hot and well prepared. You could definitely do a meal from the appetizer bar. For our entrees, we had a Pesca Veracruz (fresh fish) and a special from the Chef of three different quesadillas. We didn't stay for desserts.

Beverages
This is where the Ambar is supposedly upgraded compared to the other sections of the Gran Bahia Pricipe Resort. You do get some "International" quality alcohol included in the Ambar lobby bar such as Baileys, some vodkas from Russia and some better gins such as Tanquay and Scotches such as J & B, Dewars, JW Red Label but you pay extra for Grand Marnier, Drambuie,etc. If you want Canadian whiskey, it will cost you $13US+ per drink for Canadian Club(CC). You can't be a Five(5) star resort and charge extra for decent alcohol.
Now, to the included wines. They were BAD! The white was from Chile (Sauvignon Blanc) and the red was a Cabernet from Spain. Both were typical European everyday house wines which most North Americans would not drink at any time. They had aan extra cost wine list which we did not use because the meals in general didn't command spending extra money on decent wine for an average entrée. I am a wine snob!

Service
We found the service to be overall very good. On our fourth day, the maid didn't get around to clean the room until after lunch which for us is too late. I found our maid and asked that she make up before noon. The room was always made up by 10AM and the maid left us lots of extra soaps, flowers and towel sculptures.
We did tip a little over the week. The maids received a couple of bucks and lots of unused cosmetics such as lip sticks .We did not tip any one else throughout the week. We always said "Hola" to everyone and it sure pays off in service. A pleasant "Hola" and "gracias" goes a long way with the Dominican people. Actually it goes a long way in any country and at home.

Entertainment
The entertainment was non existent at the Ambar. All of the entertainment was at the Main Gran Bahia Principe theatre area which was located just infront of the Bavaro/Punta Cana sections of the resort. Here they did a children variety show from about 8-9PM and then the more adult entertainment would begin. We saw a show about Michael Jackson and it decent. Other than that one night, we would go back to the Ambar lobby and have a drink and then be pretty tired and off to the romm. The Ambar lobby did have a musician playing an organ of some kind but other than that, it was VERY quiet.




Gary & Norine
Winnipeg, MB
Canada
"
Reviewer: Winterpeg
Date: Feb. 09, 2009

Rating:
"We went for 2 weeks for our honeymoon. This was our first time to the DR. We had a wonderful stay. A few hiccups but nothing major and they were rectified rather quickly. The food was increadible!! The variety at the buffet was really good. Each day they had a different "theme" and so the food changed completely. You didn't even have to check out the à la carte restaurants if you didn't want to. Though we did and let me tell you, there were soo many different choices I think about 10 different places to choose from. Because we stayed at the adults only section, we had access to all the à la carte restaurants from the adults only area and the family area where as they only have access to the family restaurants.

Everyone spoke English so we didn't have any problems, though both of us speak Spanish. The rooms were beautiful, big washroom with a jacuzzi tub and a walk-in shower. The beds are all king size and extremely comfortable with a plasta tv with satellite feed.

The 24/hr pillow service and room service was wonderful. The pillow service is basically a menu of different types of pillows you can choose, when you find a type of pillow you enjoy, you can call the butler and he will bring you by the end of the day that pillow!!

The tours were pretty good lots to chose from. We didn't have a chance to check out the local mall mostly b/c a taxi cab ride was $25US!! but maybe next time if we find another couple to split it with.

Definitely one of the nicest beaches on our strip. Would definitely go back!"
Reviewer: jimena.gonzalez7809
Date: Feb. 05, 2009

Rating:
"Beautiful buildings, with spacious, well kept rooms, but consistency seems to be a problem. We have stayed here twice now and laugh at the way things change almost daily ! Many comments from other reviewers about the food, some good, some bad. On our first trip the food was excellent, but on our last trip November 2008, the food was mediocre the first week and good the second week, not excellent. The beach bars kept running out of 7- Up, for days on end, but don't forget, this is the Caribbean ! Overall, though, the ambience of the buildings and surroundings, and the facilities offered, make this a good choice"
Reviewer: Anonymous [via Escapes.ca]
Date: Jan. 17, 2009

Rating:
"It was supposed to be a 4.5 - 5 star. The food was hit and miss with more miss than hit. Some days trying to find something to eat was difficult - unless you wanted hambergers and hotdogs without trimmings and prefab crust pizza. I have stayed at other 4.5 stars in the area and they had very good to excellent food - this was below average to good. A la carte dinners were a great disappointment. Hot food was tepid to cold. Mash potatoes for breakfast ... Coffee was scarce and more like a tepid brown slurry when one could acquire it. Service was below average to average. Rooms were clean and would rate as good/average to very good. Three out of seven shows were good. Beach excellent as were the pools. Would not go back to this hotel."
Reviewer: Anonymous [via Escapes.ca]
Date: Nov. 28, 2008