Dominican Republic hotel Be live Collection Canoa in Bayahibe (La Romana) full review with photos. Dominican Republic hotel Be live Collection Canoa in Bayahibe (La Romana) full review with photos What is personal data

Lately many Russian tourists Those who want something exotic go to the Dominican Republic, which is the right decision. It is beautiful, interesting, and almost every hotel here is located very close to the beaches. By the way, there are a lot of good hotels in these places. But I would like to pay special attention to Be Live Collection Canoa 5*.

Briefly about the hotel

The hotel complex was built in 1999. But the building, like what's inside it, looks modern and new. After all, the last restoration was carried out 4 years ago. And cosmetic repairs are done here regularly.

Be Live Collection Canoa 5* is located in the southeastern part of La Romana, near the fishing village of Bayahibe. Next to the hotel is the Vostochny national park- one of the main local attractions. One airport, Aeropuerto Internacional de La Romana, is a 30-minute drive from the hotel. The second one, located in Punta Cana, is a little further away. It takes about 75 minutes to get there. And the third airport is located in Santo Domingo. It takes one and a half hours to get from there to the hotel.

But what is located here in close proximity to the complex is the beach. To be more precise, the hotel is located right on it. The territory of the hotel, consisting of separate buildings, is huge, but well-groomed, planted with greenery and vegetation. By the way, the hotel has 871 (!) rooms in total. But, despite such a number of apartments, the hotel is rarely empty. And this testifies to its level and prestige.

Service list

Be Live Collection Canoa 5* has everything that guests could need: private parking, two large conference rooms (capacity 320 people), pharmacy, hairdresser, car rental, laundry, dry cleaning, small theater, medical center, several shops (one of which is a souvenir), a beauty salon, even a business center. It's all here.

But this is not the entire list of services. Naturally, there is a locker where guests can leave their belongings, a tour desk, concierge services, a currency exchange office, an ATM, as well as a 24-hour reception where they can conduct individual check-in.

Services for people with disabilities are also provided here. There are honeymoon suites and non-smoking rooms. And, of course, VIP services are also available in a hotel of this level. The staff speaks not only Spanish, but also Italian and English. Russian is not on this list yet - there are not many tourists from Russia in the Dominican Republic yet.

About vacation

On the vast territory of Be Live Collection Canoa 5*, every visitor will find entertainment for themselves. There are several large swimming pools with umbrellas and sun loungers, where an entertainment show is held in the evening. During the day, by the way, the animation team also organizes sports and entertainment events.

The hotel has mini golf, a gym with exercise equipment, a billiard room, a room with board games and everything you need to organize a fishing trip.

There is a tennis court and an archery field. Here you can go horse riding or aquatic species sports There are all conditions for volleyball and aerobics. And there is even a full-fledged golf course with 18 holes (but it’s further from the hotel, it’s about a 20-minute drive).

And, of course, Be Live Collection Canoa 5* (Bayahibe) has its own SPA center. Jacuzzi, sauna, massage, aromatherapy, health and beauty treatments - this is just the minimum of what you can try here. A full list of SPA center services is provided to guests upon arrival.

For the little ones

Many people come to this hotel with beautiful beach together with the children. And parents don’t have to worry about being bored. There are all conditions for the youngest guests. The restaurant has high chairs for children, small cots are provided in the rooms (on request), and a separate shallow pool is also organized for them. And an interesting animation program is provided for children.

There is playground and two clubs. One is for the little ones, aged 4 to 7 years. And in the second one it will be interesting for older children - from 8 to 12. Also here, upon request, the services of a nanny are provided, who, for a fee, can look after the child while the parents are resting.

Bars and restaurants

Many hotels in Bayahibe serve their guests on an all-inclusive basis. And given hotel not an exception.

There is a BUFFET restaurant that is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It opens at 6:30 (breakfast also starts at the same time) and closes at 21:30.

The hotel also has an Asian restaurant, the highlight of which is the presence of tables designed for large groups. It is open from 18:30 to 21:00, and to visit it you need to make a reservation in advance. There is also a dress code (clothing style is formal).

There is a snack bar where guests can stop in between meals for a snack and an aperitif.

The hotel has a gourmet restaurant called Gourmet. It will appeal to lovers of delights. Caribbean and Mediterranean cuisine is especially good here. This establishment, by the way, also works by reservation. And you cannot come here with children under 7 years old.

There is also a Mexican restaurant on site, open in the evenings, and a place called Rodizio, which serves Brazilian cuisine.

The hotel also has several bars. They are located in the lobby, by the pool, on the beach, in the theater. There is even one disco bar. In general, you won’t be able to stay here hungry and unsatisfied with drinks - everything is available, and in a wide variety.

Budget apartments

Now we can tell you in a little more detail about the rooms that are available in the hotel. Dominican Republic- the resort is not cheap. But, in principle, the prices here are high, considering that the hotel operates on an all-inclusive basis.

Most a budget option- this is the standard. The bright apartments have an area of 33 sq. m. Inside there is one huge “king” bed. There is access to a private balcony, air conditioning, ironing facilities, fan, telephone and cable TV. There is also a bathroom with shower, hairdryer and toilet.

If you come here together, you will have to pay about 155 thousand rubles for a week’s stay. However, sometimes there are discounts here. And prices also vary depending on the season and the tour operator - it’s worth remembering.

By the way, if guests have a child and they took him with them, then the price will increase to 178 thousand rubles.

Superior rooms

This category is also in this hotel. These rooms are slightly larger than the standard ones and are designed in a different style. The amenities are the same, but there are some nice additions. For example, the presence of a coffee machine and a terrace. And guests who decide to stay in these rooms are registered as VIP clients. And they have access to a lounge called Be Unique, which serves drinks premium class. There is also Wi-Fi, which is paid throughout the rest of the hotel ($25 per day).

7 days for two people in a superior room will cost 185 thousand rubles.

Junior Suite

The Dominican Republic is a resort where you don’t want to deny yourself anything. That's why many people decide to book rooms of higher categories. These include junior suites.

They have an area of 39 sq. m. and a huge bed with many pillows. By the way, the interior of the junior suites is different, more refined. There is satellite TV, an elegant seating area, a coffee table, a minibar, a coffee machine and, of course, everything that was listed earlier. A large furnished terrace is also available.

A week's stay in such apartments will cost approximately 200 thousand rubles.

Master Junior Suite

Apartments of this unusual category are also available at the Be Live Collection Canoa 5* hotel. Their area is 53 square meters. m. A bright, beautiful room boasts a furnished terrace with an amazing view of the ocean. The bathroom has a Jacuzzi, and guests are also provided with luxury toiletries.

270 thousand rubles. will cost 7 nights in such a junior suite.

Villa

And, of course, the Be Live Collection Canoa 5* hotel (Bayahibe), like any other hotel complex of this level, has separate cottages for guests who are particularly demanding in terms of comfort. The villas here are decorated in a bright modern style and are furnished with modern expensive furniture, which can be seen if you look at the photo provided above.

The total area of such apartments is 67 square meters. m. The space is divided into sleeping and living areas. The villas are located in a picturesque garden. It is the view from all the terraces, which, by the way, have hydromassage baths. Naturally, all the previously listed amenities are also available here.

But this option is the most expensive. For a week's stay in such a villa you will have to pay about 370,000 rubles.

About booking and accommodation

At Be Live Collection Canoa 5* (Dominican Republic), check-in starts at 15:00. But if the room the guest booked is free, then there is no need to wait. Check-out ends at 12:00.

When making a reservation, you must provide your credit card details. It can be “Visa” or “Master Card”. Then, upon arrival, you will need to provide it. You must only use the credit card that belongs to the guest, otherwise the reservation will be canceled due to inconsistency of data. By the way, you will also need to provide your identification document (civilian or foreign passport, driver's license, etc.).

By the way, although you have to pay for Wi-Fi here, everyone can use it for free in the lobby every day for one hour. You just need to find out at the reception what time it is available.

The be live Collection Canoa hotel in Bayahibe (La Romana) Dominican Republic (Dominican Republic) was not a favorite when determining a holiday destination in the Dominican Republic in October. But after reading reviews about hotels on the ocean coast with its algae and waves, the choice fell on the Caribbean Sea in the Dominican Republic. The trip in October was a little scary, since during this period the rainy season ends and the holiday season itself begins in November. But looking ahead, I’ll say about the weather in the Dominican Republic in October that it rained three times, twice at night and we didn’t see it, and once during the day at about 16-00. And it was a tropical downpour for 40 minutes. The rest of the time the weather was excellent, no rain, the air temperature was 30-32 degrees and the water temperature was 29 degrees (we didn’t measure it ourselves, but an hour spent in the water was slightly cooling). And so all the details about the trip and the hotel be live Canoa in Bayahibe Dominican Republic (Dominican Republic).

Pulkovo Airport St. Petersburg
Punta Cana Airport Dominican Republic (Dominican Republic)
customs and passport control at the airport of Punta Cana Dominican Republic
be live Collection Canoa hotel room in Bayahibe (La Romana) Dominican Republic (Dominican Republic)
what kind of sockets are there at the Canoa Hotel in the Dominican Republic? photo
hairdryer and more in the hotel room bi liv collection Canoe

You can mainly get to the Dominican Republic from St. Petersburg or Moscow by plane. The flight from St. Petersburg to Punta Cana Airport in the Dominican Republic takes 12 hours, and the return journey takes 10 hours. And accordingly, we also flew by plane from Pulkovo airport to St. Petersburg.

The flight was operated by Pegasus-avia. Our flight was in 2-30 minutes, so there were no traffic jams. Since Pegasus Air was only a brand, the airline company was from Krasnoyarsk under the name Icarus. Icarus does not have electronic registration on its website and, accordingly, if you want to choose seats for the flight, then arrive earlier and take a place in the queue.

Pulkovo Airport check-in for flight to Punta Cana

After check-in and baggage check-in, we move to the area passport control, since we did not have things to declare, we chose the green corridor.

Green corridor

After passing passport control we find ourselves in the Duty free zone.

After getting acquainted with the assortment and cost of the goods, we moved to the waiting room. Since the flight was at night, there were two flights wandering around the airport.

Pulkovo Airport Saint Petersburg international waiting room

We were pleasantly surprised by the presence of a phone charging stand.

Pulkovo Airport phone charging

The flight took place on time, without delays. The plane was Boeing, but it was old with narrow seats. Not any individual media monitors, only if you take your headphones, there was one channel with classical music. After gaining altitude, the stewards gave us juice, soda or plain water and almost immediately began giving us dinner. Dinner is modest, but quite normal for a charter. For the second course, fish or meat, cabbage salad, cookies and bread.

Dinner on board the plane

Dinner on board the plane After dinner, the whole plane fell asleep. After about nine hours, the salon came to life, most of the people began to stretch their legs, and the outside blossomed, so that one could see either the clouds or the ocean through the porthole.

Punta Cana Airport Dominican Republic

Overboard view

They quickly offered us breakfast of a sandwich and coffee or tea, and there were two hours left to look forward to landing at the warm and so distant airport. And here it is happiness, earth...

Dominican Republic

The plane landed softly and drove along the concrete road to the parking lot.

The airport has two terminals, a new one and an old one, as it seemed to me you arrive at the old one and fly out from the new one.

Dominican Republic airport Punta Cana old terminal

We were taken from the plane to the airport by bus and everyone lined up to pay $10 per person. The procedure is very simple: one counter and a person takes 10 dollars and issues a payment slip. Take dollars, since euros are accepted 1:1 in relation to the dollar, but sometimes they remember that they are not equal.

Approach the officer, present your ticket and passports, and they give you back a stamped passport and a form in which you fill out who is going and where (I was very surprised that all the fields had a Russian translation), after filling out the form you give it back to the officer and he takes the form and sends you off further towards the exit. You are all in the Dominican Republic, we run to the conveyor belt and look for our luggage. The conveyor belt is small and upon arrival big plane the belt becomes clogged with luggage and the airport employee throws it on the floor, so go to the luggage dump, maybe your things are there.

Dominican Republic Punta Cana Airport luggage belt

The arrival airport building does not have air conditioning, since there are no solid walls; a roof made of palm leaves and ceiling fans protect from the heat.

Dominican Republic Punta Cana Airport baggage claim area

Having received your luggage, we go further, pass the exchange office and the store, and there you are met by a representative of the tour operator Pegasus, who tells you which bus to go to to go to the hotel. And you head towards the exit towards the parking lot. The airport in the arrival area is small and it is impossible to get lost.

Dominican Republic Punta Cana airport exit to the airport

On the way to the bus you can stop at a small cafe.

Dominican Republic Punta Cana Airport cafe

The buses are all new with air conditioning, so it’s not hot on the way. Our bus was the smallest, since we were not going to Punta Cana, but to Bayahibe before reaching La Romana, and some further to Boca Chica. In total, we had 10 people on the bus.

Dominican Republic Punta Cana Airport parking

The journey to the hotel from the airport took 1 hour. The roads in the Dominican Republic are good, because we drove on a toll road, but maybe not because of that.

Dominican Republic roads

Hotel room be live Collection Canoa Dominican Republic (Dominican Republic)

We are approaching our hotel. We are greeted by two signs for the be live Collection Canoa hotel in Bayahibe (La Romana) Dominican Republic (Dominican Republic).

Dominican Republic hotel sign be live Canoa

As it turned out later, the hotel operates on a club system, so many people go to Canoe Veraclub. In general, this is one hotel; only Veraclub members have their own buildings and a dedicated beach area with special areas for sunbathing by the sea.

Dominican Republic hotel be live Canoa main entrance

The bus stopped under the canopy of the hotel entrance and we moved on, but then the hotel representative suggested leaving things at the entrance at the counters (pictured on the left side) near the Bell boy and going further to the reception.

Dominican Republic hotel be live Canoa front desk Bell boy

At the reception, the Pegasus representative established contact with the administrator, they immediately gave us a welcome cocktail and explained how to fill out the guest card and informed us that the rooms were not ready and we needed to come to check-in by 15-00, and the time was 10-00. This would have caused a storm of indignation if not for the Internet and reviews from tourists who warned that it was not always possible to settle earlier. And a large sign at the reception said Check at 3:00 pm.

After filling out the forms and putting the bracelet on our wrist, we went to have breakfast.

After breakfast, we took bathing things prepared separately in Russia, changed clothes in the toilet at the reception, went to get acquainted with the territory and went to the beach for a swim. Things were still standing near the Bell boy drain, although there is a luggage storage room and it is free, we used it when checking out. When we returned at 15-00 there were a lot of people at the reception, there were both French and Americans, so there is no need to say that only Russians are oppressed. At 15-00 our room was not ready, it was given at 15-20. As it turned out, the hotel has a quick check-in service that costs about $10, but we didn’t know. I would like to note that the next day tourists arrived from Moscow, and they were accommodated at 11-00 without any additional payments, so we were out of luck. It became clear why they were staying like this when they started living there, the rooms are cleaned until 17-00, which is extremely inconvenient and hanging a sign about cleaning does not affect the speed of cleaning. As we saw, there is only one cleaning lady cleaning the floor, and if she starts cleaning from your end of the corridor, then you will get a cleaned room before lunch, if from the other end, then how will it turn out. That's the whole point of late check-in.

Hotel room be live Canoa in Bayahibe Dominican Republic (Dominican Republic)

We were placed in building (block) 16, but this is a little different, since building 16 is the second floor in building 15.

Entrance to buildings 15 and 18

Our building was connected to building 18 (block)

Hotel be live Canoa view of buildings 15 and 18

View of building 15 from the entrance, to the right top photo and a view of building 18 in the bottom photo of the be live Canoa hotel.

View of building 18

Our buildings consist of three floors. The first floor has a balcony exit to the street, and the second and third floors have closed balconies or open balconies.

Hotel be live Canoa balconies on the 1st floor of buildings 15 and 18

The buildings are three stories high, but there are no elevators in them, so be prepared.

The entrances to the rooms are located on one side of the corridor, and the other side is open and opens onto the road outside the hotel, but very rarely anyone passed there. The road is separated by a fence and barbed wire and a video camera installed.

View from the corridor of building 15

And so we go into the room. To turn on the light, you need to insert the key card into a special switch. I would like to note that in a hotel, when you remove the key from the switch, the air conditioner does not stop working, as in some hotels. This way the room is always cool.

Dominican Republic hotel be live Canoa entrance to the room

The room turned out to be spacious, just free for two people. There is a large bed and on the opposite side there is a TV with 82 channels and not a single Russian one. For children there are 5 channels with cartoons and 3 channels with music.

Hotel be live Canoa room general view

I was not pleased with the lack of a table with a chair; there was only a pouf and a shelf that sometimes served as a table. But it was easier with a chair; we took it from the balcony, but there wasn’t enough of a table to work with a laptop. There are nightstands on each side of the bed. On one there is an alarm clock with a radio.

Cabinet and clock with radio

From another phone.

On each side there is an individual sconce and a switch for the ceiling fan.

Ceiling fan

The room has a door with access to the next room, because of this there was quite good audibility of the neighbors. A family with a small child lived in the next room, but they did not disturb us much. This is convenient when a large family or large group. There was also an interesting solution with glass doors to the toilet and shower, and a large glass window from the shower into the room, although it was frosted, it was somehow unusual.

Shared room is different

The place where the sink is located has no doors at all.

Canoa room washbasin

Hygiene products are provided at be live Canoa. Shampoo, conditioner, gel and soap. During the stay, funds were replenished and there were no problems with them.

On the other side of the sink there are napkins, glasses and a cosmetic mirror.

Like many people, they didn’t immediately bring towels upon check-in, so we had to catch a cleaning lady, and as we remember, she takes a long time to clean, at 16-00 she was still on the floor and cleaning the room. We approached her and asked her for towels, but she didn’t have any towels. To solve this problem, we used the guest desk and the Russian-speaking girl at the reception, and the next day we had a foot towel. We didn’t have any further problems with the towels, but I can’t say how often they were changed, since they weren’t thrown on the floor, and there was no obvious dirt on the towels.

Toilet room

The bathroom was without a brush and had a good hood, which turned on when the light in the toilet was turned on and it hummed very loudly. The shower room is simple and apart from the faucet or shower there is nothing, not even a shelf for shampoo. When taking a shower, water pours onto the floor of the shower room.

Be live Canoa room corridor view

Opposite the washbasin in the hallway there is a large closet. There is a mini bar in the closet. The mini bar consists of two cans of beer, 7up, Coca-Cola and 1.5 liters of plain water, of course this is free.

Hotel be live Canoa room mini bar

There was also a coffee maker next to the minibar. There were also bags of tea and sugar, and of course Dominican coffee.

Dominican Republic hotel be live Canoa coffee maker

In the large compartment of the closet, in addition to the hangers, there was a safe.

But the hotel safes are paid, $3.5 per day, and in order to use them you need to get a lock cylinder at the reception and from the day you receive the lock until the end of the period, payment is due. It is not allowed to rent the castle on special days.

There was also a hairdryer in one of the drawers, under the minibar.

Hairdryer

In the small compartment of the closet there was an umbrella, an iron and an ironing board.

Umbrella and iron in the room

Comfortable temperature is maintained by air conditioning, which worked around the clock. The control panel worked properly and the temperature could be adjusted.

Air conditioner remote control number

What worried us most was that we did not take an adapter to connect to the outlet in the Dominican Republic, but as it turned out, the hotel had universal American plus Euro outlets installed.

Dominican Republic hotel be live Canoa electrical outlet

Thus, you can use local devices with a flat plug and ours.

For ease of work, we take a regular tee, since sockets can be very loose, and on phone and laptop chargers the plugs have thin pins and do not connect well to the sockets. In such cases, a new tee saves the day, since its plug has thick pins and the sockets do not loose.

Number of electrical sockets with tees from Russia

Many are worried that in the Dominican Republic there are 110 volts, but this is not scary, since most of the radio equipment produced has an operating voltage of 100 -240 volts, so as not to rebuild production to produce equipment for different countries. So look at your power supply and you will see that you have 100 - 240 volts, but if the device is very old, then there may be problems with operation.

Laptop power supply

From the room we move to the balcony.

Dominican Republic hotel be live Canoa view 2 from the balcony in the room

Overall we were pleased with the size, equipment and service of the room. It was clean and calm, but the balcony doors were single, so if the hotel staff were dragging a cart along the alley, you could hear it. We took a fumigator with us, but it was not useful to us. We did not open the balcony in the evening and slept with air conditioning. If you sleep with the balcony door open, I think there will be mosquitoes. I would like to note one drawback of hotels in the Dominican Republic: the lack of free Internet. The hotel be live Canoa in Bayahibe Dominican Republic (Dominican Republic) turned out to be no exception, the Internet is only paid and at the reception too.

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Good day! This was our second time staying at this hotel, so we already knew all the advantages and disadvantages, so to speak, we knew what awaited us and where we had come. But first things first. At the end of the working year I really wanted to go to the sea and sun for a reasonable price without overpaying for New Year, but before the New Year in December, on the departure date approximately on the 20th, for two adults with a child of 13 years old, the price tag was simply sky-high, from 580 tr. and higher. As a result, the poorest and most extreme options were considered, such as living in a tent on a garbage dump on the island of Zanzibar, or hostels in Thailand 5 km from the sea, or a room in a slum in Goa in a hippie village between an elephant and a cow farm at the mouth of a stinking river with a cloud of malarial mosquitoes . But fortunately, we didn’t go there, and waited good prices to a normal hotel.

Thanks to a subscription to the news of the travel company "Rostur", on December 17th, very late in the evening, I received information that there is a ticket to the Be Live Canoe hotel for three adults (and a child over 12 years old is already on a tour as an adult), for 212 rubles. for 10 days, 9 nights. On the morning of December 18th, we paid for the trip remotely by bank transfer, received documents by email, packed our bags, and on the 19th evening we flew to Moscow, spent the night in a hostel for 3,400 rubles, which we were very pleased with, because in the morning we got up cheerful and full of energy, he did online registration on the website of Rossiya Airlines, so that everyone could sit together on the plane, and in the morning at 7:00 we arrived by taxi at Vnukovo airport for registration, departure at 10:40. Fortunately, in Vnukovo all formalities were completed in about forty minutes, which is much faster than in Sheremetyevo, so if there are options, it is better to fly abroad from Vnukovo. To be fair, I note that tickets from Krasnodar to Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo are cheaper than to Vnukovo.

For a child to leave with his grandmother, it is sufficient that there is no objection from the parents and consent from one parent, but border control requested notarized consent from both parents, and only after providing the original birth certificate of the child, and the original notarized originals of consent for the child to leave from both parents, after an oral questioning of the child about his consent to leave, whether the child knows with whom he is going and where , the child was released from the country and a stamp was placed in his passport. As is customary, during the aviation security inspection, they took away all the water and had to buy water on the plane in the waiting room before departure, 4 bottles of 0.5 liters for 100 rubles. They entered the plane through a sleeve, so many were already at the airport in shorts and T-shirts, they were flying on a Boeing 747-800, the screens in the backs of the seats did not work, the plane was fully loaded, there were 5 in total free seats for the entire cabin, the flight was operated by Rossiya Airlines, the flight was supposedly not charter, regular, but 90% of the passengers were clearly tourists. We were fed twice, there was fish and rice and terrible powdered mashed potatoes with meat. Water was carried 4 times, and if anyone came and asked for a drink, they gave it without restrictions. There was only orange juice, the cola ran out halfway through the flight. During the flight, we bought 2 more bottles of cola and 2 sprites from the flight attendants, 0.33 liters for 150 rubles, the child really wanted cola and sprite.

We arrived in the Dominican Republic exactly on schedule, without delays, the flight itself was calm, as always, on the approach to the Dominican Republic in the Bermuda Triangle area there was a little shock, the landing was smooth, the luggage was unloaded quickly. The weather was clear and had just rained, so it wasn't too hot, but very humid. At the airport I went to the exit, took a luggage trolley so as not to carry heavy bags, after the flight and the second day of travel, each bag seemed twice as heavy :) . The tour operator "Biblioglobus" issued printed black and white declarations filled out on a computer for entry into the Dominican Republic, they were accepted at customs control, paid $10 per person, checked with the tour operator at the exit from the airport that we had arrived, found out the number of the bus to the hotel, quickly found it, loaded our luggage onto the bus, and 10 minutes later we were on our way to the hotel. During the trip, the transfer guide told us a little about the country, about our hotels, answered questions about the weather, handed out envelopes with information and ended the story by saying that we would learn further details from the hotel guides.

Since we arrived at the hotel already at 17:00, we were quickly given room key cards. We asked for a room with three separate beds, but we were told that the hotel did not have such a thing, a room could only have one or two beds. Bill bravely took our suitcases from us, loaded them onto his cart, and we went to our room. We were greatly disappointed in the room; there was one large bed measuring three by two meters. We told him that we would not live here, and there was an unpleasant pause. I explained to him how he himself sees this situation, that an adult man, an elderly woman and a 13-year-old teenager will sleep in the same bed? Bill agreed that it was bullshit, and started calling the reception, he called back several times, and then took us to another building, to a room on the third floor, where there were already two separate beds, almost square, two by two meters. On one there was a grandmother and her grandson, on the other I sat. For his efforts, he was given $20, he was very pleased, and so were we. We read in reviews that changing a number costs ten times more. Since we were tired from the road, we went to dinner and returned to our room to sleep.

We set off to the sea the very next day in the morning, after breakfast and a meeting with the hotel guide. The meeting with the hotel guide was scheduled for 9:00, which is not a very good decision, since people arrived in a different time zone, no one really got enough sleep, everyone was sitting sleepy and tired from the trip, and no one came to the hotel guide, even though Ivan tried very hard. I listened, everyone was in a state close to prostration. Ivan understood our condition and significantly shortened his speech. Prices for excursions started at $120 per person, and were mostly in the region of $180-280. Seeing our surprised faces at such prices, Ivan said that these are the prices for Punta Cana, and for our hotel the prices are about a third less. Prices for excursions are shown in the photo for the review. Among the useful things for us, Ivan suggested a router with a local SIM card designed for unlimited Internet. To get a router, it was necessary to leave a deposit for the router of $80 and for using a SIM card of $50, but when asked how we would return the router and get money back for the deposit of the router, Ivan answered something incomprehensible, that in a personal meeting, when Ivan will be for work at the hotel, and there can be no other options. That is, if Ivan cannot come, or we cannot meet for any reason, then the router will remain with us, and Ivan will have the deposit for the router. The price for Wi-Fi Internet remains the same, $25 for 25 hours until the time for the entire vacation runs out, or $60 for 7 days, you can access the Internet only from one device, which connects first, that is, connect another device to the internet won't work. There was another hour of free Internet per day for one device near the pool, as soon as I connected, the hour immediately began to count down. On the Internet there is good advice. If you go to Bayahibe to the dive center Casa Daniel, if you stand with your back to the sea, on the right side there will be a pharmacy that sells local SIM cards. A SIM card costs 500 pesos and an unlimited week costs 250 pesos. Just take five days, it’s more profitable. If you need Internet on several devices, then take with you a router for a SIM card with Wi-Fi distribution. If you really want to use the Internet, you can walk along the shore to the neighboring Hotel Catalunya, they have free Wi-Fi on the beach, you have to walk about 300 meters to the lighthouse past the market. Other hotels also have Wi-Fi on the beach, if go further along the coast, just “Catalonia” is the closest. If you walk to the village, it’s about two kilometers, there are souvenir shops with normal prices.

The hotel area remained as well-groomed and green as a year ago, a lot beautiful places for photo sessions. A pier was built on the beach, the Tortuga travel agency operates on the hotel premises, there is also a representative from the hotel travel agency at the reception, they offer excursions to Saona departing directly from the hotel beach, the price is $80 per adult and $60 per child, you can bargain with them , they ended up knocking off $20 each, although by the end of the auction there was nothing left of their wide smiles. If there were more than 12 Russian people in the group, a Russian-speaking guide was provided free of charge, or $120, and Russian speaking guide will be for at least one person. The hotel staff began to know a little Russian, the simplest phrases, like yes or no, hello, bye, let's go, let's go. This is the hotel's policy, the staff is regularly taken to learn Russian in Punta Cana and Santo Domingo, the pronunciation is very good, but they know very few words. Raids local residents On the weekends, which some people write about in the reviews, we didn’t notice it, maybe we were just lucky.

Also at the hotel you can rent kayaks and catamarans for free for 1 hour a day, they take a deposit of $40-60, which is then returned, if you want to ride more or need an instructor, then this is for an additional fee. The national composition of vacationers on our visit was distributed as follows: approximately 30% Italians and French with knowledge of Spanish, 50% Spanish-speaking, 10% English-speaking and 10% Russian-speaking, and half of the Russian-speaking ones are pensioners from the USA and Canada, emigrants from the USSR. It rained mainly at night, and the more rain there was at night, the less rain there was during the day. Tropical rain is when clouds come up in 15 minutes, move across the sky very quickly, a torrential, warm tropical downpour pours down, which passes in 5 minutes, then the sun shines again. For us, this weather was very useful, since the sun was not hot, it was warm, and we still got a tan through the clouds. The water is 25-28 degrees, and the air is 20-24 at night and 28-35 during the day.

The air conditioning in the room was not turned on, we slept with the door to the balcony open, the mosquitoes did not bother us, a couple flew in, they were found and killed. The room had an ironing board, a safe for $3.5 per day, a refrigerator, in the refrigerator there were two cans of beer for 0.33, two plastic bottles of cola and Sprite for 0.5, updated daily. On the bedside table there is a coffee maker with a set of tea and coffee bags, another 1.5 liter bottle of still water for brewing coffee, in 9 days we collected 9 bags of coffee, that’s almost a pack of coffee for $10. The bathroom has a standard English toilet, which is filled, and only then everything comes out of it. We saw a couple of small cockroaches in the bathroom, probably crawling through the ventilation; there were no living creatures in the room itself. The bathroom had a bathtub with a shower, a washbasin, a mirror, and an outlet for a hairdryer. There was an iron and hair dryer in the closet. Due to the high humidity, the clothes in the suitcases acquired an unpleasant smell, but those hanging on hangers in the closet did not suffocate.

The 43-inch Sony TV showed 60 channels, but not a single one was Russian-language among them. Like last time, we connected Wi-Fi to the laptop for $60, and connected the laptop to the TV via an HDMI cable, and watched any Russian-language channels and YouTube videos on the TV via the Internet. The free internet near the pool began to work well, the access point is called FREE. One hour of free internet per day was given, and this really helped us out on the last day of departure. Identification is based on the MAC address, so if you know how to change the MAC address of the device, and you are not too lazy to do this, then you will have endless free Internet near the pool. Of the big positives, I would like to note that there are twice as many sun loungers, and they no longer need to be occupied early at 4 am. Nothing has changed regarding food in restaurants, and what kind of miracles can you expect if a ticket costs 70 thousand rubles per person? in 10 days with flights? We are realists and did not expect mountains of lobster with shrimp and mussels. Every day there was 2-3 types of rice, mashed potatoes, 2-3 types of chicken, 2-3 types of meat, sausages, cheeses, salads, pineapples, watermelons, melons, papaya, passion fruit, mangoes, oranges and tangerines, bananas. Very sweet pineapples and mangoes, melon and passion fruit are not very to my taste, watermelons are sometimes sweet, sometimes not.

New Year's Eve was seafood, there were unlimited quantities of shrimp, mussels, lobsters, several types of fish, Japanese sushi, all of this was beautifully arranged and deliciously prepared. New Year's dinner cost an additional $24, which the tour operator already charged us when purchasing the tour. When ordering a table by the pool, you had to pay an additional $25 per person. The entertainment in the hotel remains the same as it was a year ago, these are two volleyball courts, two tables for table tennis, a place to play bochu, dance lessons on the beach, aerobics in the water, various competitions organized by animators for children and adults. All animation in the hotel is in Spanish, so it was very difficult for non-Spanish speakers in animation and competitions to understand the essence of the task and the hosts’ jokes.

On Catholic Christmas The Dominican Santa Claus sailed to the beach on a boat, accompanied by two dark-skinned assistants and five Snow Maidens, and only one Snow Maiden was white, the other four Snow Maidens were black and curvy. To receive a gift, children had to take part in a competition and win. In general, everything is budget-friendly, without any frills or show-offs. The main attributes of a holiday are present, there is a sea, there are palm trees, there is a place to eat, there are basic entertainments, there is something to do in the evening, there are excursions. The balcony of our room overlooked the playground where she played in the evening live music. Some people don’t like this kind of proximity, but we really liked it when a live saxophone, or a guitar, or a piano played from 21:00 to 22:00. Beach towels were changed every day, and you could also get a free soccer or volleyball ball and tennis rackets. You can see more about the animation in the photos and videos on YouTube, links will be at the end of the review. One animator brought her two children, aged 8-10 years, who brought in the rest of the children, and her animation went off with a bang.

Last time I wrote and I will repeat again that this is a budget hotel in the tradition of the best Soviet boarding houses, clean sea, no frills or frills, good food, clean rooms. Ten days flew by quickly, and if you make an accurate calculation, then the day of arrival we were on the road, and arrived at the hotel at 17:00, that is, formally we found the day, but in fact our rest day was gone, and the day of departure was also actually gone, because at 11:50, with German punctuality, minute by minute, a fighter came to the room to take our suitcases, which we were very pleasantly surprised, since the hotel guide warned us about the lack of punctuality of the Dominicans. On the day of departure, I went to the reception early in the morning, handed over the cylinder from the safe, paid our expenses at the hotel, and ordered a fight for 11:50. If you get up at 8:00, have breakfast and go to sea at 9:00, and return to your room to pack your things at 11:00, it turns out that only a couple of hours at sea on the day of departure, but formally this day is also counted by the tour operator, like a day in the Dominican Republic.

In fact we have 8 full days rest and 9 nights. Taking into account the time adjustment of +7 hours compared to Moscow, normal well-being begins on the third day of rest. According to magnets, the hotel has several souvenir shops and stalls; after going through the shops, I found out that the most cheap price for magnets in a store near the Vera Club, at first they asked for $4 per magnet, we managed to negotiate down to $2.5, last year I bought magnets in the same store for $2.0. At the hotel we met our old friend Antonio, from whom we bought coconuts, the price of coconuts remained the same, at a dollar per coconut, but the purchase and sale began to resemble scenes from Hollywood films about the drug mafia, when garden service employees, as if accidentally passing by our sun lounger , they leave a bag of coconuts, and the buyer must put the money in an appointed place, where the coconut seller will then pick it up. As Antonio explained, the entire hotel area is lined with hidden cameras, monitored, and gardeners are punished for selling coconuts, which is why such methods of conspiracy are used. There is a real tension in the hotel with small dollar bills for coconuts and other services; in stores, mostly small dollar bills are required, and all tourists come with hundreds. After long and unsuccessful attempts to exchange hundred-dollar bills, Sasha from Ukraine told us that at the hotel reception there is an exchanger where you can exchange large bills for small ones. If you stand opposite the reception, the exchanger will be on the right, with the inscription “Exchange” in English on it.

At the hotel we met a Ukrainian woman, Sasha, who married a Dominican man and works in the hotel at the Tortuga agency. She told us that there is a very large Jumbo store in La Romana, which has a large selection of coffee and cocoa and prices are supposedly lower than in hotel souvenir shops for tourists. You can go to Jumbo by taxi, which is located outside the hotel gates. Taxi drivers immediately ask for $60, you refuse, they immediately offer $40 round trip, and there’s also a taxi waiting for two hours while tourists walk around the store. This is the price per car, that is, whether you are traveling alone or four people, the price does not change.

The Dominicans themselves travel by minibus; a minibus to Jumbo costs $2, and the travel procedure has its own characteristics. To go to Jumbo for $2, we leave the hotel, refuse a taxi, find shade from a tree, and stand on the road, waiting for an old, dead minibus like a Rafik or a gazelle. We let through expensive and new, beautiful minibuses, they are for tourists, we are interested in an old and rusty, broken minibus without air conditioning with windows open for ventilation. As soon as such a shabby bus appears, we raise our hands and shout “La Romana, Jumbo.” The dead car stops, we repeat to the driver our purpose of the trip a couple more times, he says “Okay”, we sit down and drive off. The peculiarity is that this driver does not have to pay anything, and as a rule, he goes to the bus station of the village of Bayahibe, where the driver showed us with his hand to another bus that went from Bayahibe to La Romana, we transferred to this bus, and there we already paid $2 per person. person.

The trip to La Romana from the Bayahibe bus station took about 30 minutes, and when we entered La Romana, at the second traffic light the driver turned to us and loudly said that we had arrived and gestured that we should get out. The bus stopped 100 meters before the store in the direction of the bus. We saw ahead on the left side of the road a large vertical sign in red "Jumbo" on English language, got off the bus, where we were correctly and politely attacked by local excursion sellers, who, after several decisive “But mani,” left us alone. In Jumbo, if you stand facing the store and your back to the road, in the very left corner there is a Burger King cafe, which has a free and clean toilet, as well as free Wi-Fi, the speed is really low, but you can send and receive messages , Can. Prices in “Jumba” for many goods are almost the same as in Moscow “Auchans”, some goods are a little more expensive, some are cheaper, you need to check. Our task was to purchase coffee and cocoa.

As it turned out, Santo Domingo coffee 460 grams is sold at the hotel for $10, see the photo for the review, and in the Jumbo store this coffee cost 274 pesos or $5.7, also look at the photo for the review, the rate is 48 Dominican pesos for 1 $. In terms of prices, we can say this: Jumbo has more choice, and the prices are almost 2 times cheaper than at the hotel. When we shopped, it turned out that we had spent 5,500 rubles on cocoa and coffee; the master’s card was accepted at the checkout without any problems; we were not asked to show a passport or identification document. At the exit from the Jumbo store, we were again attacked by excursion sellers and taxi drivers. Back the taxi driver agreed to take us to our hotel for $20, but we firmly decided to return to the hotel by bus, because we wanted to plunge into the Dominican hinterland and ride with local Dominicans. When the taxi drivers left us behind, I asked the store security guard where “Bus Stop tou Bayahibe” was located, the guard pointed in the direction of Bayahibe, in the direction from which we came, from where we came from the bus stop. We had to walk about 400 meters in the direction of Bayahibe until a parking lot appeared where there were three dead and broken-down buses; from the appearance of these miracle tarantaks, we realized that we had come to a stop for local buses.

When there were about thirty meters left before the bus, a skinny black man, apparently the driver’s assistant, ran up to us; by our bracelets, he determined which hotel we were from, and led us to the bus, which was already almost filled with people. We called the hotel again, and the driver said he would take us to the hotel. We got on the bus, a couple more blacks came up, the bus filled up, there were no empty seats left, and off we went. In Bayahib, at the bus station, the driver asked me to go to the bank and change $20 there, since the driver did not have change from $20, and while I was at the bank, the whole bus was waiting for me, as I understood, the driver and passengers were in no particular hurry and The 10 minute delay didn't bother them much. The driver took us straight to the hotel gate, and we safely got to our room. During the trip, no one treated us badly, everyone knew perfectly well that we were tourists, they offered their services, we refused, and they left us alone.

In general, as a result of such an outing, we all had a little stress, a little adrenaline, extreme sports, we saw how ordinary Dominicans actually live and how they drive, walked around the hotel grounds, and came to the conclusion that Dominican paradise there is a very ugly unsightly one back side, which cannot be seen or felt while living in hotels and traveling on new comfortable buses with air conditioning. If you live in a hotel, then everything is fine and wonderful, but if you live in the Dominican Republic permanently, which many dreamed of while lying on sun loungers in a hotel, then it should be noted that the Dominican Republic is a poor country, and you need to very carefully choose your place of residence, place work, with which there is very, very great tension in the Dominican Republic, that is, there is a lot of work, but the salaries for these available jobs are very, very low. According to local reviews, they pay very little, so the salary of most hotel employees is about $300, and prices in stores for food and household goods are the same as in Moscow, try to live in Moscow on $300 a month. And I have never seen locals swimming in the sea or going to the sea. In the villages of Bayahibe and La Romana there are a lot of young people who do nothing, a lot of idle people wandering idly through the streets. They are clean, they don’t stink, they are definitely not homeless, but they are dressed very modestly, in old, worn things, it is obvious that they do not live richly, and they have nothing to do.

Three days before departure, the hotel guide Ivan put a schedule for leaving the hotel in a folder for tourists. Via the Internet, a day before departure, we went through electronic registration on a Rossiya airline flight from Punta Cana to Moscow. We checked in just an hour after check-in began, but already 80% of the seats on the plane were occupied, and there were only three seating options for all three of us to sit next to each other. Unfortunately, Ivan, our hotel guide, never got in touch at all during our entire vacation, although he took our phone numbers from us and asked us to call him by voice and via the Internet using the WhatsApp and Viber services for any question, promised to send us a newsletter on WhatsApp and Viber about the departure and time of arrival of the bus to the hotel, but he did not send a newsletter, and when our bus to the airport was 55 minutes late to our hotel, we tried to call Ivan several times on WhatsApp and Viber, Ivan told us did not answer, for which he was given the lowest score in the questionnaire for communication skills. We had a feeling of abandonment and uncertainty, either they forgot about us, this sometimes happens, and we need to call a taxi and get to the airport on our own, or the bus is late, and we just need to wait a little more time. As it turned out, our bus was late because two new Russians got drunk on rum and delayed the departure of the bus from their hotel. Upon arrival at our hotel, these two new Russians went to get drunk in the bar of our hotel and the transfer guide ran around our hotel for about thirty minutes, trying to find these new Russians in order to persuade them to come on the bus and go to the airport to fly to Russia. As a result, the new Russians decided to stay in the hotel bar and refused to go to the airport and fly to Russia. This is how it turned out in the end.

On the way to the airport, according to the long-standing tradition of all tour operators, we were taken for a scam on loot to a store for tourists, where the prices for everything are 2-3 times higher than in the hotel stores, in Duty Free, or in the same “ Jumbo." The tourists were experienced, and therefore no one bought anything in this store, but many took advantage of the free toilet room in this store. On the bus we were given questionnaires, and many tourists noted in the questionnaire that the tour operator took tourists to expensive shops, and the prices for excursions from the official tour operator were 2-3 times higher than those of local travel agencies. Some directly wrote in their questionnaires that the tour operator was deceiving, promising the most low prices, but brought it to a store where prices are more expensive. In this situation, the most unpleasant thing is not even that you overpaid an extra 20-50 $ for a bottle of rum or a pack of coffee, or overpaid 200-350 $ for an excursion, but that such a scam is the official policy of tour operators who do this deliberately and organized. Dear tour operators, there is actually a crisis in Russia, the country is under sanctions, and offering a dolphin excursion, watching dolphins jump out of the water for 30 minutes, for 18,000 rubles, is, you know, too much. Maybe for Americans or Germans this kind of money for dolphins is a small thing, but for tourists from Russia it is a significant amount. As a result, almost no one on the excursion from the officials experienced tourists doesn’t travel, and they don’t buy anything in the stores where the official tour operator carries them. The times of scams, as it was 5-10 years ago, have already passed, but local hotel guides haven’t changed their minds, and continue to wait for suckers with big money, like the joke, Vasya, how much did you buy a bottle of rum for? For $200. What a fool, I bought exactly the same one over there around the corner for $500! :))))

A modern tourist, as a rule, knows English and a little local language, knows how to use the Internet, confidently rents cars, finds friends in the host country from locals or emigrants from Russia, and has a fairly good understanding of the prices of goods. One married couple was completely unlucky, they ordered VIP excursions from Ivan for more than a thousand dollars, some of the excursions did not take place at all, and some were in the general group, but they still have not received the money back (and we were already on the bus to the airport), and Ivan did not contact them. The transfer guide promised to help and figure everything out, but since it was on the bus that was taking us to the airport, and in two hours we were flying to Russia, it was obvious that her words were just routine politeness, in order to somehow smooth out the unpleasant situation.

The return flight went without problems, as always, I was a little shaken Bermuda Triangle. We landed in Vnukovo exactly on schedule and quickly completed entry formalities. Since we needed to fly further, we tried to go through the transit counter, but they explained to us that if you arrive international flight and then you fly on a domestic Russian flight, you need to get your luggage, leave the arrival area in the “city”, then go up to the second floor and check your luggage at the airline counters; you can’t do this at the transit counter, it’s so inconveniently located the transit check-in counters in Vnukovo. We flew to Krasnodar with Pobeda Airlines, which changed its hand luggage rules on November 15, 2017. Now the volume of hand luggage is important for the airline, and it doesn’t matter at all how much your hand luggage weighs, the main thing is that the hand luggage fits in the calibrator, when checking in for the flight, only the luggage was weighed, which we distributed in advance, to avoid conflicts and extortion during check-in 17-18 kilograms per suitcase, hand luggage They didn’t weigh her at check-in, they just put hand luggage tags on her.

The overall impression of the holiday was good, everyone was happy, but there weren’t enough days, 8 full days to restore health is, of course, very, very little. So the budget hotel has once again confirmed its reputation, and if you need service, lackeys with knowledge of five languages, if you eat whole bowls of lobster and shrimp with truffles every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner, then you definitely need another hotel, and most likely in Punta Cana. And since for me the main thing is the sea and the inexpensive price, we only came to the room to change clothes and spend the night, I really liked the hotel, minor household and service inconveniences do not matter to me, so whether to go or not to go to this hotel, draw your own conclusions yourself, look at the photos and videos, choose according to your wallet and expectations from the service. Video of the hotel beach in 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQh_NPTJ_1w&list=PL3oWTtKGScfZFXQ9EEATyxsKcKKQcl4R8
and video from 2016, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3oWTtKGScfZ17XQgDWsAkfkQ52YO7CBy
Read in full at https://tophotels.ru/viewrate/?id=1684820#comm-area-last
p.s. Do not buy excursions from hotel guides. There are travel agencies in the hotel itself; you can ask taxi drivers at the exit from the hotel, or at the market on the seashore, or in Bayahib. It will be much cheaper. Local hotel guides official tour operators got greedy. And last year there were frauds with the status of rooms, people bought deluxe, and they were placed in standard, so be careful, study the difference between the rooms and check what class of room you were placed in.
p.s.s. For those who don’t have enough information in the reviews on the site, there are a lot of videos on YouTube and photos on the Yandex Pictures and Yandex Photos service, videos and photos can easily be found by the name of the hotel “Be Live Collection Canoa”, because one is better To see once is to read ten times.

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