Occidental Caribe

We were a 12 members of the family and we had an amazing time! Weather was awesome and the beach perfect.

Truly some relaxing and enjoyable holidays, staff and food above expectations, mostly after reading a few very bad reviews. Room was clean and cared everyday. We are definitely looking back here next February. [Details]

I really want to write this review, since I have read a few very bad ones lately.

It's a great property, certainly with some years of use and abuse, we were told the Hotel is one of the most popular in this spot, and I can attest it, over 1.700 customers, most of them, Canadian folks.

Staff must be highlighted, so kind and hardworking. Chef Minaya, Alvaro the manager, Lisbeth, Hector, Ismael, so many nice guys giving their best.

We are coming back next year if they dont close to significant revamping, at least thats the hearsay around. [Details]

Deverley Nunes on the pool grounds was very helpful. Always welcome us with a smile and went out of her way to make sure we were comfortable.
Specialty restaurants need much improvement.
Buffet must cater to International tastes.
The food was very bland.
The beef was always hard like rubber. Too much waste.
Fish having extra salt. No shrimp at all. [Details]

This was a nice resort. There were a few issues with making it a great review, but I'd definitely recommend to friends. Air conditioning was our biggest complaint. [Details]

Nice clean grounds, pool and beach. Our room was clean and bed comfortable, but safe didn't work and patio door did not lock. Seems like a lot of guests had the same complaints about the safe and patio door. Room and bathroom could use a little refresh. Food was okay, but I am not a fussy eater. I could always find something to eat. They had omelet and spaghetti making stations. Fish at the beach buffet was really good as was the pizza. Specialty restaurants were good, not 5 star, but edible. Check-in was slow, but all in all staff was very courteous and helpful. Staff wear their mask most of the time, but very few guests wore them. Mask were required to enter buffet, but were taken off right away. No other precautions taken in the buffet area; everyone using same servings spoons and breathing over food. Covid testing, provided at the hotel - $90US for PCR, was easy and fast. [Details]

we had a great time....staff were awesome
beaches were the best [Details]

The employees of the Occidental Caribe were always exceptionally friendly and caring from all levels (room service, maintenance, bar service, restaurants, front desk, management, and so on). Employees seemed to enjoy their job, and this reflects well with guests. The commitment to cleanliness was unbelievable; I cannot recall being in a resort so clean, everywhere. And sticking with employees and service, we found everyone to be very professional, efficient and effective maintaining high inner work standards that were committed to doing a good job. Check in and Out was so fast that there was absolutely no wait time.
This resort had some of the best beaches we have experienced. The food was above average with some places providing exceptionally good meals (the Mexican). Loved the pools and that the fact that all pools as well as the beaches were well supervised. [Details]

It was kind of boring ..nothing to do in the evening time.. [Details]

The resort was beautiful, the staff were friendly. 2 days into our trip the resort became overrun with 22 year olds ready to party. The staff quickly became worn down and not happy, you couldn't get a dinner reservation unless you sat in a line before 7 am. Security was not enough, one kid strung out or drunk urinated outside his own door (near mine) at 5 am. I would go to this resort again but definitely not when there is a college break. [Details]

The hotel was amazing , the staff where excellent, helpful and courteous.
We had 3 rooms, all where very clean the beds where comfortable and the pillows were great !
The food was really good especially the hut at the beach the beef was some of the best I have ever had,and the alacarte restaurants also had amazing tasty dishes.
The beach was beautiful and was only a 3-5 minute walk from all of the hotel rooms with 6 people in our party we never had a problem finding a spot at the beach or either of the two pools however I would not recommend going during American school break as they arrived the day before we left and were very loud and disruptive into the early morning
We won 300 at the casino and the free wifi worked well! I would go back for sure [Details]

The room we stayed in was beautiful and waking up every morning see the ocean was a great start of our day. The room was always cleaned when we came back from breakfast. We are already looking next year to come back again. [Details]

Staff not friendly - Entertainment staff more interested in courting/flirting than working. Buffet food always the same. [Details]

The hotel is right on a fantastic beach! Our Ocean-view room was literally overlooking the water, about 200 feet away. [Details]

Was a wonderful experience. The hotel room , buffet, pools and beach were totally awsome!!! The staff were very friendly and curtious . Definitely will be going back! [Details]

Tall palm as you enter the scenic driveway to the well maintained resort. Variety of daily entertainment to choose from. The white sand beach, very clean. Our room was huge with ocean view. A plentiful, tasty, variety of food was in abundance. Were allowed to reserve all 6 a-la-cartes. Staff was friendly. Nightly entertainment at the theatre. [Details]

Great experience! [Details]

Not one of my best hotel experiences. [Details]

Beautiful beach and grounds are immaculate. The rooms and hallways (a lot of broken tiles) could use some updating. We were in building 2 and the auditorium was in front of us. Very loud from 9pm to 11pm during the shows. Wouldn't recommend this area of the hotel if travelling with small children. Overall our experience was good. [Details]

When I read these things I always find them confusing because I don't know who wrote them from what perspective:

I am a 44 year old 'middle class' Canadian guy who went down with his wife and 4 year old. For perspective, I don't think I had more than 4 drinks a day and if they said the price included a four drink maximum, I'd be fine with that. My party days are long over and we didn't visit the disco or the casino.

This resort is pretty good overall. We chose it because it had a large beachfront and that paid off. (We stayed at another resort on the same strip a few years ago and we had a long walk to the beach, and when you got there it was tight for seating.) The Caribe had a ton of beach space and chairs. That's the best part.

Beautiful white sand beach was lovely, but the surf in late March was pretty choppy. (My wife made me include that as a negative. I think it's a positive because I like to play in the big waves, but my 4 year old wanted nothing to do with it.) If you want to float around leisurely, you can't in PC in late March.

Check in was okay, but the front desk staff don't speak much english and are (understandably) a bit overwhelmed and beaten down. Smiles aren't always forthcoming.

No free WIFI was a downer. There's a dank internet cafe where it's $3 for 15 minutes on a pentium-2 with a broken spacebar on the keyboard. We expected some sort of free hotspot in the lobby. Nope.

The room was clean and nice, but be forewarned the walls were paper thin in our room (the ones with loft ceilings). Not everyone had that complaint, so it seems to be the loft style rooms only. I literally knew the neighbours email password ("Jamie1975") because he told his wife , and had to listen to their 1 hour late night conversation about the differences in what the word "cake" means in different countries. Luckily they were quiet overall but it could have been a disaster. The room itself was fine, and the cleaning staff were good.

The pools are great and quite large. There are 3. The party pool (with the swim up bar, volleyball net, and stage) the kids pool (with the slides), and the quiet pool that is as described. They all serve their purpose well. We didn't really go in the party pool much but everyone there seemed to be having a good time. (although late in the day the combination of alcohol, families, and flirtation produced a tsunami of arguments. Some truths are floated in that pool in the late afternoon, and it's not a pretty sight.) It also goes without saying that in that pool although the drinks are always flowing the men's bathroom is always empty. You know what I'm getting at.

The kids pool/slide park was great. It has a full time lifeguard and a big plus is that you can sit on the beach or at the quiet pool and still have a view to keep an eye on it. We also enrolled our son in a few 1-2 hour events in the kids program (aka free babysitting) and it was exceptional. The staff and events in there were a pleasant surprise.

We pretty much spent our vacation at the quiet pool. It's big and has some features that make it kid friendly (kind of a shallow shelf along one side like a splash pool). It's big, and has sprinklers all around that create some nice white noise so not a lot of racket. It was underused and mostly empty (probably because there's no swim up bar in it). I loved it. If we had to be in the party pool all day it would have been a much less relaxing week. The quiet pool being so large and far from the party pool is a big, big upside.

You can pretty much always find something to eat. The buffet food was okay (not great), but the a la carte restaurants were better than expected. It's a big resort, so you generally have to get up early to sign up or line up for the good stuff. Make a point to discover the lunch at the restaurant next to the quiet pool. No reservations required at lunch and oddly, a secret.

I didn't use the gym but it was pretty good and well located. The climbing wall and trapeze thing are a nice touch but no one used them much that I could see.

The theatre is surprisingly massive, mercifully not close to many rooms, and the shows are fine. Our little guy didn't stay up late enough so we only the saw the beginning of a few, but they were cruise ship quality.

Here's the biggest downside: We went the last week of March and we learned surprisingly that it's still spring break so there were a lot of wasted people staggering around the resort. You can't blame Occidental for that, but this place does attract a 'mid-lower price' client and there is always a few rough looking sunburned drunkards with oversized Canadian Tire insulated mugs in eyesight teetering around and yelling a lot as the day goes on. I generally don't begrudge the folly of youth, but there was some 50-60 year olds behaving the same way which is a downer. I know it's to be expected on vacation, but I'd say 20-25% of the guests were there specifically to get drunk, and the place probably holds 1000 people. That's a lot of drunks to contend with. Maybe that's every resort, I don't know.

Overall it was good value, and for a family that spent most of the time swimming with my 4 year old or making sandcastles I can't say there was too much downside. The sheer size of the place is both the best and worst thing. There's lots of space at the pools/beach, but the main dining room is noisy/busy, the long walk to the room was a bit of a hike for a 4 year old and the high number of people/low price point conspired to a high volume of drunkards behaving badly.

I can safely recommend it overall. [Details]

Overall good vacation. Buffet food needs major work. Selection not good. Internet service. Do not get thru hotel. Go thru your cell service at home. Terrible experience. Feels like we got taken. Got our service as soon as we arrived. Did not work. Went back down to fix. Girl said we were never connected and did again, only to realize at check out the first paper we signed was not destroyed so two papers with our signature was there at check out and said we owed double. I explained to the front desk staff as too what happened and he wS worried about is that he would have to pay out of pocket. I have reported this to my travel agent and myself personally will not return to this resort. It's a shame as all else was great. We had a great location and room was ready when we arrived. I will not recommend this hotel. [Details]

We had a great time. [Details]

We loved the hotel, grounds, pools, and activities. The beach was fabulous, never had to rush to get a spot or lounge chair, there were plenty to go around. The pool loungers are the best. It was nice to have a quiet pool as well as an active one. The kiddy pool was always busy. It was nice to see that this hotel was wheelchair accessible and had elevators. That was a plus. We enjoyed our stay there but didn't care for the buffet. The Japanese restaurant was fabulous as well as the Mexican. The pizzarea and pool grill were good as well. Would have preferred to have a tub in the bathroom as well as a shower. [Details]

Very nice ad friendly hotel, beautiful but windy beach. [Details]

went with my whole family. we were kept occupied. amazing staff and very clean! [Details]

was very good vacation [Details]

I was at the Barcelo Punta Cana for a family wedding.
My check in experience was a nightmare. The staff could not find my reservation, told me they did not have a room for me and after much discussion stuck me in s room directly above the buffet dining room.
I had booked a superior room and spent my first night with little to no sleep because of the noise.
I asked repeatedly to speak to a manager but no one came.
The next morning, the groom voiced his displeasure to the hotel manager and the wedding planner. I was eventually moved to a quieter room but the bed was broken, the toilet seat was broken, the sliding door to the patio did not lock, the shower leaked and the safety rail in the shower was not secure.
The air conditioning in the specialty restaurants was almost non-existent and made what should have been a great experience very uncomfortable. [Details]

My 2 kids and my friend really enjoyed our 1 week here. We had the beach, the pools, the activities, shows and other things that u don't often do. [Details]

Service is awful. No free wifi. [Details]

Beautiful outside: the layout is perfect, the beach is beautiful, the ocean clean, but really deceiving inside: ugly rooms, poor food, only local drinks, wine horrible, kids club not fun, annoying vendors (hotel's representatives) for spa or timeshare... [Details]

My wife, daughter and I absolutely loved our stay at Barcelo. The beach was fantastic. The hotel and the grounds were very clean. Everyone was really friendly and helpful with us (Juan & Ismael at the swim up bar; Ismael at the beach bar; Emmanuel at the Mexican resto) We took the Premium pkg - well worth the extra cost. A very special thanks to the ladies at the Premium lounge. Wilda, Yelitza and especially Rosa took great care of us and made our stay very enjoyable. We are already looking at returning next yr. If I had to choose something to improve, maybe some of the food at the a la carte could be better but for the most part it was really good. Will definitely try to choose a different week next yr however. Way too many Spring Breakers there when we went. Not putting them all in the same pile but when they start breaking stuff in the hotel and being out of control its no fun. But with that said, gracias to the staff (gracias Rosa) we will see you next yr! [Details]