BlueBay Villas Doradas, Puerto Plata

A view of the front lobby.

Location:  BlueBay Villas Doradas, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic (4 star resort)
Date:  May 22-28, 2010
Length:  6 days, 5 nights
Booking:  bookit.com
Cost:  $650 CAD, all inclusive with flight and hotel, all you can eat and drink

Look of the resort from above, and the circled is where my room was approximately located!

Backgrounder:
This was sort of a random trip, at a random time.  I always wondered why anyone would go to a tropical place, when it's already close to summer back home.  Well, this turned out to be me.  A friend of mine invited me to go, and I thought why not?  I really wanted a vacation, didn't go on one since Vegas, and it coincided with May long weekend, so I could save a vacation day!  I'd heard wonderful things about the Dominican, its beautiful beaches, and yummy food.  In addition, the website pictures looked amazing!  Given as such, I was quite excited for this one (and it did not disappoint)!

The view from the plane.  It is so green!

The Dominican Republic
It's funny how things turn out.  Although Haiti and the Dominican Republic are connected on the same island, they are vastly different, like night and day in terms of economic wealth and development.  Some differences which I noticed include:
- the Dominican Republic drives on tourism, and they do it very well, and are economically strong compared to Haiti
- in the Dominican, most people are lighter skinned being mixed between native/black/Spanish, while in Haiti it's more black
- in the Dominican, there are many farmers as it is lush with vegetation, while in Haiti, their people are living on aid and facing starvation due to years of deforestation for firewood

A map of the Dominican Republic

Itinerary:
For a vacation, we had quite an aggressive itinerary, so we could see everything while we were here.  In fact, my friends wanted to do even more, but it just wouldn't fit!  This unfortunately led to less time at the beach.


Day 1:  Arrival in the afternoon in the wonderful country of Dominican.  Head to the beach for the rest of the day.
Day 2:  Beach day!  All day!
Day 3:  Day trip of Paradise Island for snorkeling, and stopover at a cigar factory on the way back.
Day 4:  Pool day in the morning.  Dune buggies in the afternoon.
Day 5:  City tour of Puerto Plata, including the Brugal rum factory, the amber museum, the cable car to Loma Isabel de Torres, St. Felipe fortress, lunch, a stopover at the main town square, as well as a supermarket and shops for souvenirs. 
Day 6:  Departure back to Toronto.

My perspective of the lobby/reception area.

The Resort:
First of all, what was interested is that a number of the resorts reside in a gated area complete with security guards

BlueBay is an adults only resort, which meant that it mostly consisted of couples or groups of friends out to enjoy a vacation. The resort itself it pretty small, but it has everything you really need at a all inclusive including two pools, workout facilities, multiple a la carte restaurants, and one very yummy buffet (more on that later).  There was also a theatre area where daily shows are performed every afternoon and evening.  For those interested in golf, an eighteen hole golf course is located just beside the resort, though I didn't try it myself.

The resort gave me a quaint and familiar feeling, with the staff recognizable, and the decor in the main areas was pretty.  In fact, it was quite nicely done - modern, tranquil, with nice clean lines - as opposed bold tropical colours found in Cuba.

One of my favourite and most memorable part about the resort wass the friendliness of their staff.  They were so wonderful and accommodating.  What I found interesting yet endearing is that many of them work to organize particularly since many of them work the night shift to become our entertainment for the night.

The Room:

I got a ground floor room, close to the middle of the resort, which was right where I wanted to be.  They initially had a mix up with the rooms, where they thought we wanted 3 rooms (when we had 6 people), but the number distribution in the rooms was as follows: 1 person, 2 persons and 3 persons.  They fixed that quickly and it worked out!  It was interesting in that they did not fold interesting animals/shapes out of our towels every day.  There was only a standing shower and no tub, but they were relatively clean.  It was a nice welcoming on the first day, when we had rose petals scattered around the sink and in our toilet !

The only major con was that for some reason, my room was connected by door (but locked) to perhaps the maid's quarters/another room.  This door was very thin, and so I could hear their conversations and television clearly in the mornings and at night.  In retrospect, I should have requested to switch rooms.  My friends' rooms were fine though!

The Food:

View of the buffet

Compared to Cuba, the food was DELICIOUS!  Its table of fresh fruits at every meal was so sweet.  There would be chefs to cook fresh eggs in your choise of style in the morning, and pasta/other meat for the other meals.  Also at breakfast, are freshly made fruit smoothies which were also very very good.

Every night, there would be a certain theme for dinner.  Surprisingly, I loved the spring rolls for Asian night, and there were even live oysters for seafood night!

There were also food available during the day, between lunch and dinner in the restaurant by the beach.  It was a little stale, but think of it as beach food - don't expect too much!

Some of our food at the indoor seafood restaurant.

There were three a la cartes to choose from - Chinese, grill, and seafood.  I'd really wanted to try the seafood and the Chinese, but Chinese was booked full so I went with seafood and grill.  There were various items for each course on the menu.  Some were really delicious, and others were just okay, so it really depends what you choose.

Our food selection at the outdoor grill restaurant by the beach.

Overall:
It was hot,  the weather was mostly sunny, and when it did rain it would be in the afternoon just for a little bit,  so I really have no complaints.  As opposed to Cuba, I found that I could actually slept in, and I really  had to struggle to wake up for breakfast to get my beloved fruit smoothie.  I loved the intimacy of the resort given its size.  You get to know the whole entertainment crew, people on the resort are recognizable, and you never have to worry about losing your friends!  In addition, it was much easier to relax without children running around screaming during meal times and around the beach.

My flip flops in the sand

I would definitely come back, though next time I would probably go to Punta Cana just to visit a new place.  The Dominicans really know how to be hospitable and make you feel welcome in their country.  Plus the food was good (which is very important while on vacation)!

Next time I go to an all-inclusive, I would also stay the full week because you know what?  It's really needed :) with all the excursions and activities, I felt like I didn't quite have enough time as I would have liked to be on the beach!

A view of the beach.  Can I go back please?