Our Trip to Punta Cana

We recently returned from a fabulous trip to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.  We had a great time and got to really relax and enjoy each others company.

Upon arriving at the Punta Cana International Airport, we were greeted to a live band playing traditional Dominican music.  It sounded great!

We then proceeded to our resort.  We stayed at the Melia Caribe Tropical.  The resort is an all-inclusive resort, which means that all of our meals and drinks were included with the price of the room.  We always try to stay at all-inclusive resorts because the cost of food can get pretty expensive when traveling.

After checking in, we were introduced to our concierge Patrick.  He basically acted as our personal assistant while were were there.  If we needed something, he was the person to go to for assistance.  He helped us make dinner reservations, and answered whatever questions we had during our stay there.

Finally, we were taken to our room.

The room we stayed in was lovely.  I was surprised to see a bidet in the bathroom.  I had never used one before and just had to try it out.  The problem is I wasn’t sure exactly how to use it.  I actually had to look it up. Using it was a little weird, but I guess that’s because it was the first time I had ever used one.

Our room also had a little terrace.

Every evening, when we returned to our room, we would find fresh flowers in the bathroom.  What a nice touch!

The resort was very large.  Because of this, the resort offered a “train” as well as golf carts as a way to get around.  The train stopped at designated stops about every 15 minutes.  Of course you could walk around, and we opted to walk on several occasions, but it was really, really hot and by the time we arrived at wherever we were going, we would be drenched in sweat.

The resort offered lots of amenities.  They had a kids club, golf course, tennis courts, spa, theater, casino, shopping mall and more.

Food was in abundance at the resort.  There were 3 buffet restaurants as well as 10 specialty à la carte restaurants.  The buffet restaurants were open for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, while the specialty restaurants were only open for dinner and required reservations.  We ate in all of the buffet restaurants and in just a few of the specialty restaurants.  I can say that the quality of the food at both was excellent.

There were also 10 bars on the premises, so the drinks were always flowing.

We didn’t do much on our vacation.  We stayed on the resort and pretty much just relaxed.  We enjoyed the beauty of the resort and also enjoyed the wildlife.  There were lots of peacocks roaming freely around the resort.  They were very beautiful to look at.  We also saw lots of flamingos and other types of birds and ducks.

Our favorite hangout at the resort was the pool.  There were 10 pools on the premises and a few of them featured swim-up bars.  Z.E.N. enjoyed the swim-up bars.

Our second favorite hangout was at the lobby area swings.  We would typically swing in the evenings after dinner.  Swinging on the swings was very relaxing and there was always some type of entertainment going on.

For the most part, we really enjoyed our vacation, however there are a couple of things that annoyed us.  On the day that we arrived, our concierge informed us that he would be picking us up the next morning for our welcome breakfast.  The so called “welcome breakfast” turned out to be a sales pitch for the resorts Club Melia program, which is basically a time share.  This wasted about 90 minutes of our vacation.

We were also annoyed at the fact that they were charging $15/day for WI-FI.  Seriously, paying for WI-FI is outdated. First of all, our room, along with many others were not even wired for WFI, so we would not be able to use it in our room. We would only be able to use it in the lobby.  Second of all, we found out that there were areas of the resort where we could access WI-FI for free.  Why charge if you’re giving it away for free at some parts of the resort?

Nevertheless, we thoroughly enjoyed our Punta Cana vacation. We stayed for six days and were sad to see it come to an end.

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— Diane Nassy(@philZENdia) July 16, 2012