Luperon Beach Resort - Puerto Plata - Dominican Republic - Caribbean

All inclusive is a must; there is no limit on what you can drink,how much or when, other places where I have stayed on an all inclusive basis impose limits eg you must pay for cocktails & icecream and anything after 10pm. I would advise that you take a themos mug with you which can be bought in the UK for 99p (they are sold in the hotel for between 10$ - 15$), the bar staff have no objection to filling them with your chosen drink and it has the added benefit of keeping your drink cool.

On arrival in your room I would recomend that you check everything works; the lights, shower and that the balconey door locks. We found that our didn’t lock and as we were on the ground floor I felt uneasy, we asked in reception if this could be sorted and they immediatly gave us the option of moving to another room and gave us the key so that we could ‘inspect’ it and make sure we were happy before moving. Our new room was on the third floor which gave us an excellent view of the beach and appeared to be in a much better condition (newer bathroom and brighter lights). Our room was cleaned daily - bin emptied, towels changed, floor swept and mopped)and flowers left on the beds and in the bathroom which was a very nice touch. The pools were cleaned daily even if they had not been in use; it was quite fun to watch them wading in the pools with the large mops.

I can not fault the food and the choice was vast catering for all tastes. Breakfast consisted of fresh fruit, pastries, yougurts, ham & cheeses, toast, meats and eggs how you wanted them. Omelets were made to order. Unlimited fruit juice, water, tea and coffee. Lunch in the dining room again offered a vast choice including soup, salads, a selection of hot items and cold meats; a large choice of puddings and icecream. Lunch in the beach bar worked on an alternating basis of fish & chips, and burgers / hot dogs with pizza on a daily basis. I would recommend the fish & chips; very light and not covered in oil. Evening meal in the dining room again offered a vast choice with fresh meat and fish being cooked in front of you and a choice of at lease 4, lots of vegetables, rice and salads items, local speciality dishes and pasta cooked to order. Unlimited fruit juice, beer, water, wine and soft drinks; the staff are very helpful and will bring the drinks to you even though it is self service. If you have the munchies late at night snacks of brugers & hot dogs or toasties are available outside the disco from 11pm. Although there are 4 alacarte restaurants on the site you have to book a table; included in your welcome pack from the hotel are two booking slips for each week you stay. We didn’t get round to booking any but the reports given to us by other guests were favourable. If you do plan to use these it is advisable to aim for the weekend as domicicans are booking into the resort for weekend stays; we were there for a dominican national holiday and the hotel was full.

The resort is about 1.5 hours drive away from the airport and the infrastructure leave something to be desired however it is fun to see just how many people you can get onto a moped. The resort is beach front and there are signs advised of sea hedgehogs(sea urchins) so it is advisable to wear beach shoes but there is a section marked out where you can enter the sea in a sand only section and for the most part of it is only chest height deep. There are lots of sun beds and palm tree umberellers available and the beach is regularly cleaned by the ground staff. Be firm but fair with the beach front sellers if you don’t want to buy although it becomes an art to check out what is on offer as you walk past; if you stop to look they immediatly ‘offer help’. If you do want to buy something from them barter and barter well as it is a way of life for them. The hotel has a wide expance of greenary which attracted many birds and to my pleasure very few bugs. There are a number of resident peacocks in the grounds which wander about freely and in the pond by the Tropical Luperon reception there are flamingoes.

I could not find fault with the staff, and I spoke to most of them including the maintenance men, gardeners, VIP timeshare men and cleaners. My advice regarding the VIP timeshare men if you don’t want to be hastled by them is to tell them that you are already a member of RCI and that you pay no maintenance costs; we went onto a sales pitch with them and the package that they basically offer is either 25 weeks or 50 weeks over a 15 year period for a cost of about £5000 - for this you can stay in any RCI accomodation over the world but if you return to a dominican property you stay for free and only pay from your flights and daily all inclusive (about 30$ per day). This took about 30 minutes out of our day and I had no intention of signing up to it; told quite a few porkies during the sales pitch but got a bottle of rum given to us with a thanks for listening. All staff were polite and friendly with a smile on their face. Their aim is to please guests as they hope to receive a tip for good service. Tipping is a way for staff to earn more money as they earn no more than £200 per month, if you take money with you ask for you dollars to be low denomination - it is easier to regularly tip 1$ than to expect change from a 10$.

The annimation team is made up of locals and needs to be refined; most of the adult entertainment starts from 9pm and can be quite repetative but the dance & music shows on the weekend are quite fun to watch. The entertainmant that is ‘bought in’ is very good but this may be due to the fact that they are professional entertainers. The mini disco for children becomes annoying as the same 5 songs are played every night but to avoid this just make sure that you don’t leave the restaurant until 8:30pm. During the stay we never got round to doing any of the activities that are on offer eg horse riding, archery, salsa lessons etc but there are events taking place daily.

I would go back to the hotel again as it ticked all the boxes I needed. However, at the moment it seems that there is refurbishment work taking place in block 20 (this did not have an impact on our holiday and there was very little noise - only dominican republic guests were put in this block)and I was told that there are plans to update the site as a whole which would benefit from an update. The one thing that we weren’t told on our transfer from the airport which I felt was important is that you should not put paper down the toilet; the dominican republic has the same poor plumbing as greece, this information was passed on in the welcome meeting the following morning and thankfully we had no blockages.

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