Travel Dates: December 2020
Hotel: Bahia Principe Luxury Ambar
This is an all-inclusive, adults only resort that is part of the larger Bahia property with other resorts on premise. We got dropped off at Bahia Aquamarine because cars are not able to drive to Ambar (the road is narrow), so we had to wait for trolly carts to come pick us up to take us over. Once we arrived, we were served welcome drinks.
Like most all-inclusives, we had to wear a wristband for the entirety of our stay. The wristband also served as the room key, where you tap the chip on the band to the door lock to open it. Our bedroom was stocked with free water bottles, soft drinks, travel-sized alcohol, and chips. The temperature was chilly in the room and we couldn’t change it ourselves. We had to call the front desk to send a technician to fix the thermostat. Once he changed the temperature, it was stuck like that for the rest of our stay. Pretty unfortunate that guests do not have the flexibility to alter the thermostat whenever they want.
However, the bright side of our room was it had a private pool and deck in the back (although we had to pay for the upgrade). The private pool was nice because we didn’t have to go to the main pool and share it with everyone else. We were also lucky that our neighbors didn’t use the private pool so we had it all to ourselves. Since we had a corner room, we also had a bathtub in the “living room” area.
The workers at Bahia Ambar are very hospitable and friendly. You are greeted by people constantly and all the workers are willing to help you. Waiters and drink servers would check in on us and housekeeping would ask if we needed extra water, even when we didn’t have them come in to clean our room. Of course gratuity definitely helped.
Food:
There’s a coffee shop on premise where you can get fresh coffee (e.g. espresso, cappuccino, latte, etc.) and they also serve baked goods. This was definitely my first stop every morning instead of getting regular, potted coffee at the breakfast restaurants.
Speaking of breakfast restaurants, there are two buffets: one in the back of the main lobby and one near the beach. We enjoyed the beach one better since you have an oceanfront view.
Since breakfast ends around 10:45am, sometimes we missed it when we slept in. Because of that, we ate at La Brisas, a restaurant near the main pool area that serves a small selection of salads, sandwiches, pastas, pizzas, and meat entrees…everything was made to order. Their escalope milanaise (veal cutlet) was very delicious and tender.
For lunch, you can also eat at La Brisas or the oceanfront restaurant reopens (buffet style).
At an all-inclusive, you can’t forget about the unlimited drinks. There’s a bar in the lobby, by the pool, by the beach, and of course all the restaurants serve alcohol too. There is also the Sports Bar, which is a bar with pool tables and an outdoor seating area for live music and dancing. It costs $1 to use the pool table and the token is dispensed at a machine. They will disinfect the pool sticks for you after each group.
For dinner, you have to make reservations in advance or else be stuck with the buffet in the main lobby. In order to make a reservation, you can use Bahia’s web app (QR codes can be found in the lobby of the hotel), use one of the 2x kiosk in the lobby next to the concierge, or just ask the concierge to book it. You will need your room number in order to make reservations. Because of COVID, reservations filled up quickly and after 2pm, bookings are locked out for same day reservation. If this happens, go to the concierge and they will call the restaurant to see if there any openings available. Also, we missed our reservation a few times and the restaurant hosts were very kind to still give us a table (although speaking Spanish did help).
During our trip, we tried Portofino (Italian restaurant), MEAT Steakhouse, and Thalia (Indian restaurant). At Portofino, we had BBQ and Caribbean pizza (which were both delicious and oven-fresh), gelato and tiramisu (which were surprisingly good even though they weren’t legit), and the amazing Aperol Spritz. At MEAT, the food was very dry the first time we ate there but more tender the second time. We had spicy chicken wings and Caesar salad for appetizers (both very good), ribeye and skewed meats for entree (ribeye was tender the second time we went), and Devil’s cake and double chocolate brownie for dessert. The best part of MEAT was their house cocktails–whiskey & cranberry and tequila & ginger. At Thalia, we had the Indian butter chicken and the sample platter, which were all decent. But again, the highlight of the restaurant was their house cocktail, which had mango juice in it.
Anytime you enter a restaurant (except the coffee shop and Sports Bar), you have to go through a temperature check where they scan your wrist. Tables were all spaced out and they kept track of which tables had to be disinfected after use.
Activities:
At the resort, there is a main pool and side pool (on the right of the oceanfront restaurant, if you’re facing the beach). Both pools are large, but of course the side pool has less people and less frequent drink service. There are lounge chairs, umbrellas, and mini cabanas to use that are first come, first served.
The beach is past the pool area and there are lounge chairs, umbrellas, etc. but they get taken pretty quickly! If you want to get a spot in the first row right in front of the water, you’ll have to get there by 8am if not a little earlier. The beach at our resort has fine sand, decent waves, and pretty shallow waters. You can do banana boat and parasailing but will have to pay the vendors. There is no jet skiing in Punta Cana due to too many accidents in the past.
Throughout the day, you’ll also have vendors walking around selling tour packages. Although these tend to be much cheaper than booking online or at the concierge (primarily because we haggled and bought multiple packages), I do not recommend going through this route because you do not know which tour company it is. We bought three packages through the vendor on the beach and two of our tours were disappointing.
Tour #1: Buggy
Family Buggy was the company for our buggy adventure, and I highly recommend you go somewhere else. Not only were they 30 minutes late picking us up from the hotel, but they also made us wait another 45+ minutes once we got to the place. In addition, if you want water or a bandanna, you have to pay extra.
Because they started our tour late, we were rushed and only had 5-10 minutes at each stop. The first stop was Macau beach, where we only had time to quickly run into the water to clean up (the entire buggy ride is very muddy and dirty, and you will be covered in mud even if you try to drive carefully). The second stop was a plantation where we tried Dominican coffee, hot chocolate, and cigar for free. The coffee and hot chocolate samples were very small but delicious. By the time we got to the third stop, a swimming cave, it was after sunset. Not only could you not see anything in the dark, but there were also other buggy tour groups there too, making the small cave very crowded.
The buggy experience was fun if you like off-roading, however the buggies at this company were not well maintained. Our first buggy broke down within 10 minutes–the accelerator got jammed and after multiple attempts, we were luckily able to kill the engine. We got into a second buggy and its engine broke down when we were in the middle of a mud pool. We weren’t the only ones with buggy issues–many other people had broken buggies in our group throughout the tour.
A heartbreaking moment on the buggy rides was driving through the rural farmlands where people lived. You will see children, without shoes, running up to the buggy groups and asking for money. It’s devastating to see the impoverished life they live and especially how their homes are right next to the buggy trails–they have to hear constant noise and smell the fumes from the cars.
TLDR: I would not recommend doing buggy adventures in DR, but if you want to, do not go through Family Buggy. Research other buggy companies and book through them instead.
Tour #2: Saona Island
Similarly to the last tour, we had to wait again. Of all the tour groups (5+ groups) to get on the boat, we were the last one to board. Apparently our tour company did not plan the boat reservations and our group had to be split up to join other tours where space was available.
After we finally got on the speedboat, they took us to a docking point where the water is shallow and you can snorkel and swim to see starfish.
Afterwards, we headed to Saona Island for lunch. The lunch that is included in the trip is buffet style with salad, rice, spaghetti, chicken, and pork along with some free drinks. If you want to shell out money, you can get lobster and piña colada in a pineapple. After lunch, we had about 10-15 minutes to spend on the beach. The sand is fine to medium here but the water is a beautiful turquoise blue. If you walk further down the beach, there are less people and more opportunity to see fish in the water.
Finally, we headed back on a catamaran with 50+ people on the boat–it was pretty packed. There was music and free drinks served, and after the boat ride, the people from the different tour group switched boats to go snorkeling. Unfortunately, our tour did not get the chance to go snorkel and instead, headed back to shore to concluded our trip.
TLDR: If you want to do Saona Island with more chance to snorkel, do some research and find a good company to book with.
Tour #3: Scuba Doo
After a quick ride on a small boat, you get on a floating platform where there are 3 underwater scooters. With that said, you’ll have to take turns using the underwater scooter (they wash the inside helmet part after each use). While waiting, you can grab snorkel gear and use the inflatable waist belt to swim in the ocean. Be aware that since you’re out in the ocean, the waves can be rocky.
When it’s your turn to get into the scooter, you have to swim underwater so your head can get to the helmet part (they have the underwater scooter in the ocean already so it’s easy to maneuver). Then once you’re on the scooter, you start descending to the bottom and can begin “driving” the scooter around, although ours felt like it wasn’t really working and we were drifting around. It’s more like bell diving than scuba diving and it wasn’t that deep–only about 15 feet–but you’ll still feel pressure from the helmet. The water was murky but we could still see some fish.
Since we were the one of the last groups to finish, we were lucky to get on a different boat back–a glass bottom boat where you can see fish in the water. Also, they handed out chips and drinks for us. If you were the first groups to do the underwater scooter, you would have went back on the small boat.
TLDR: If you want a similar effect of scuba diving but not interested in doing that, Scuba Doo is a fun alternative. It’s very similar to bell diving so you will have to be OK with the pressure in the helmet. And if being in an “enclosed” helmet tank doesn’t sound fun, then this might not be for you. Knowing how to swim is also helpful as you’ll need to swim underwater in order to get in and out of the scooter.
Other travel tips:
To get to the hotel, we spoke with one of the private taxi operators and negotiated the ride to be $30 (supposed to be $40). Otherwise, you’ll have to wait on a line to grab a regular taxi.
The primary language in Dominican Republic is Spanish, although most people speak English. It definitely helps to know some Spanish when speaking with waiters, housekeeping, drivers, etc. They also show more gratitude when you speak Spanish with them.
The main currency is the Dominican peso but they accept USD as well. I recommend you bring USD with you, and make sure you have some $1 and $5 bills as they rarely have USD change. However, if you do run out of money, you can use their ATM to dispense pesos.
Globe Trotter 