Bahia Principe San Juan – San Juan – Dominican Republic – Caribbean

The journey from the airport took about one 1/2 hours, which is nice as you get to see a bit of the country. We actually checked into the hotel on the coach, given our bands & our room key so we didn’t have the hassle of checking in once we arrived.

We were greeted with a welcome drink which was much appreciated & our luggage was taken to our room quite quickly. The rooms are OK. Clean but need updating (which they are actually doing now).

Your mini bar is stocked daily (hide your drinks if you don’t use them as they won’t restock if you have them in your mini bar). You only get a couple of beers, a bottle of water, a coke & a 7up. The pools were nice but I actually only ever saw them cleaned a few times (two people in our group had ear infection). Whether this was due to the pools or not I don’t know.

The grounds are beautifully kept & very clean. The staff are the friendliest people that I have ever met. They actually humbled me. They have so little & yet they are so happy. Food in the hotel was OK, a bit repetitive but I managed to find something that I enjoyed most nights.

The themed restaurants are nice as well. We done a few excursions. The Dune Buggies were brilliant! Not for the faint hearted though & you do get very muddy. We stopped at a little village a gave the children (and adults) some lollipops which they were extremely happy with. Mega Truck excursion is another must.

You get to see villages & a stop at a local school (take pencils etc with you). The school is always very grateful for these items. Swimming with the dolphins/sharks/stingrays was a dream come true. To see the look on my children’s faces was absolutely priceless!

The only downside to the holiday (and yes, there is always a downside) are the sand fleas/mosquitoes. I got mullered by the blighters & no amount of insect repellent deterred them! It actually put a downer on my holiday as I was itching for two weeks & they don’t look very pleasant.

Also the beach vendors who have shops along the beach are a bit persistent. If you don’t want them bothering you just say “No”. Don’t say “Later” as they will come back & hunt you down. All in all we had a fabulous holiday. Our rep Will was a great guy & gave us any help that we needed, so a great big shout out to Will!

For the price that we paid for the holiday package we couldn’t complain at all although I wouldn’t return, but that’s just for the fact of getting bitten by them pesky critters. If you want to pay that little bit extra go to Aruba & stay at the Tamarijn All Inclusive. Now that is a beautiful place to go! Happy holidays!