Iberostar Hacienda Dominicus Rating: 3.0 Pearls

La Romana, Dominican Republic

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Watersports and boating at the beach

Non-stop activities for kids and adults alike -- bachata, water aerobics, water polo, beach volleyball, quiz games, you name it. This place is definitely fun, but it can be hard to relax with upbeat Dominican merengue music always playing somewhere in the distance. Still, Hacienda Dominicus feels a little more subdued and manageable than the giant Iberostars in Punta Cana (Dominicus has 498 rooms, while the entire Iberostar complex in Punta Cana has 1,202 rooms). Another big plus: The Hacienda Dominicus has a nicer beach than Punta Cana. The water here isn't quite as turquoise, but the sand looks and feels like flour, and the water is much calmer because a natural reef is a few hundred feet from the shore.

Hacienda Dominicus is one of six Iberostars in the Dominican Republic, all of which are extremely popular. It attracts a broad range of guests, mostly European families who come back to the resort year after year. However, Dreams La Romana, which is roughly the same price and just a few minutes down the road, has significantly nicer, newly renovated rooms, and better food. Scuba diving is a major draw here, and though it’s not free, families are always training in the pool and working on their breathing techniques before an afternoon dive.

Friendly bartender at El Faro Beach Bar

On arrival, porters greet all guests and whisk away their bags while everyone makes their way to the check-in desk. Virtually everyone is delivered a sweet, slushy, virgin rumrunner, though I was inadvertently overlooked. While I waited an hour for my room (I arrived at 2 p.m. and normal check-in time is at 3 p.m.), the person at the front desk gave me a full presentation of the property and a detailed explanation of the tedious à la carte reservation procedure. Reservations can be made at guest services between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. only, and most guests are stuck waiting in line for more than 30 minutes).

Service requests, however, aren’t always reliable. My requested towels never arrived, probably because the woman who answered the housekeeping phone didn't speak much English.

Service at El Ingenio, the main buffet, is very good. Several staffers even said "excuse me" when they removed a dirty glass or plate from the table, and a few others were so chatty and engaging that I couldn't get any work done. This is a big step up from many all-inclusives, where waiters often swipe plates before you’re finished eating.

The evening drinks service in El Trapiche, the lobby bar, can be a bit slow at times -- I waited 20 minutes for a sparkling water -- but even when three enormous busloads of people arrived at the same time, the Iberostar staff was large enough to handle everyone.

I asked the concierge how much a taxi would be to nearby La Romana and Altos de Chavon, a shopping area and artist's-colony built as a replica of a 16th century Italian village. He replied $60 for two hours, plus $5 for every additional hour. The tour operator posted at a desk less than 50 feet away had quoted us $100 for the same trip earlier that morning. Rip off. For peace of mind, check taxi rates with tour operators and with hotels, but chances are that taxis booked through the hotels directly will get you a better rate, and in this case, a far better rate.

View on a Larger Map

The Iberostar is on the beaches of Bayahibe, a former fishing village close to La Romana in the southeast D.R., and is one of a handful of all-inclusives along the resort-laden street of Dominicus Americanus.

Until the 1990s, Bayahibe was just a little fishing town where locals from La Romana and nearby villages caught crabs on the beach. Since then, a deluge of development has hit the area, with six mega-resorts cropping up in recent years. Still, its small-scale nature is the draw: It's not as insanely jam-packed with tourists as Punta Cana. There's a few restaurants dotting the waterfront, but not much else.

However, a 30-minute drive from the resort is the beautiful Altos de Chavon, an exact replica of a 16th century Italian village with beautiful views over the Chavon River.

Most guests fly into La Romana airport, which is 30 minutes away (even though it doesn’t have direct international flights). But the resort is 90 minutes from Punta Cana International Airport and about two hours from Las Americas International Airport in Santo Domingo. Both taxi rides should cost between $100 and $120 one way.

Clean, calm beach

By and large the beach is clean. However, there is some garbage (I stumbled upon a few plastic cups and some leftover food, but surprisingly few cigarette butts).

The Caribbean Sea is calmer than the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Punta Cana, and a natural reef protects this stretch of coastline from getting too rough or windy, so the beach is a bit safer for families with small children.

One downside is there's only one bar. It's built to resemble a lighthouse. Some guests complain that there aren't enough bartenders when the beach gets packed, but I didn’t find this to be the case.

Resort security guards are posted at both ends of its beach, but guests can walk further down the beach in both directions. Though the stretch in La Romana isn’t as long as Punta Cana, runners could still manage a decent out-and-back trip of a couple miles or so.

Free mini-bars

With old beds, outdated décor, lukewarm water, and maintenance problems, the room where I stayed has seen better days. Though a king bed, couch, chair and dresser fit comfortably enough, the Iberostar’s rooms are relatively small by Caribbean standards. Though the sliding glass doors make the rooms plenty bright during the day, come nightfall, it's depressingly dark. There are five lamps in the room, two of which can be out-watted by a keychain flashlight.

The king-size mattresses are among the D.R.’s worst -- it felt like I was sleeping on a trampoline. Fortunately, the sheets are clean and the pillows firm, but look at nearby Dreams La Romana for a better bed (and an overall better resort) at the same price.

Free, in-room mini-bars come generously stocked with five bottles of water, four bottles of Brahma beer, and an assortment of soft drinks. But in my room, none of these were cold. Why? The fridge wasn't even plugged in. The socket was hanging out of the wall. Another mishap was unveiled when I turned on the light switch in the hallway -- the plate covering the switch fell off the wall.

Like in other rooms, the air conditioner didn't cool very well. I heard the same complaint from two guests staying in the same building.

Rooms come with old, standard-screen Zenith TV sets that have a few English stations like CNN and Fox, but like many rooms in the D.R., there’s no alarm clock.

Bathrooms are small, but they all have deep soaking tubs. Like all rooms, mine was well-cleaned by our housekeeper, Olga (I learned her name from the standardized note she left on a card in the bathroom). Unfortunately, a bath was out of the question -- I couldn’t manage to get anything hotter than lukewarm water throughout my stay.

Beautiful pool complex

There are three pools on the property (one very large), plus a tiny kids pool at the kids club, and the atmosphere is lively. A Jacuzzi sits on an island in the middle of the main pool, but like all Iberostars, the water is as chilly as in the pool. The pools are largely in good condition, save for some grime around water level at the main pool, and some missing tiles.

The scuba diving on the southern coast is superb -- the resort offers dives starting at $50 each, as well as an entire array of lessons and packaged dives.

There's a dark, outdated gym on the property with no air-conditioning. Equipment includes treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, several weight machines, and a very rusty set of free weights, but most of the equipment is still useable.

The spa isn't fancy -- the rooms are basic, just a table and a sink, and the products look pretty generic. There are a handful of rooms with several massage beds on the beach that get the job done. However, the services are overpriced -- a 25-minute massage starts at $40.

The business center was in the process of getting remodeled during my April 2009 visit. When it's done it will feature four PCs and will be open from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. The lobby and main area is Wi-Fi accessible -- a one-day pass costs $15.

Playground at The Kids' Club

There may not be water slides in the pool, but the Iberostar is great resort for kids. The biggest draw is the beach, which has much calmer waters than most of the D.R., so parents don’t need to worry about aggressive waves or currents.

The main pool’s gently sloping entrance into the water is great for young swimmers. For older kids, there’s a separate pool dedicated exclusively to activities like water polo and basketball.

At Lucy's Kids Club, open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the counselors speak decent English. The club accepts children as young as 5, and teens ages 13 to 16 are also welcome during the high-season from July 1 to Sept. 15. But unlike the Grand Palladium in Punta Cana, there are no separate facilities for older kids. The club is fairly small, but has a huge jungle gym, a very shallow kids pool, a game room with foosball, mini-pool and ping pong tables, and even a nap room (though the counselors say this room is never used). Activities include a "fun dance," free throw contest, volleyball, and a nightly “mini-disco” at 8:15 p.m.

The buffet is packed with plenty of kid-friendly options like vats of French fries, pizza, and burgers, and there are also plenty of bite-size pieces of fruit to sneak on their plates. High chairs are available at all the restaurants.

Immaculate hotel grounds

The resort is almost 10 years old, so some of the infrastructure is starting to show signs of wear. A few tiles are missing on the pool’s walls, and there’s a bit of grime in the grout. However, the lobby area looks newly renovated. The upholstery is immaculate and the ashtrays, which tend to pile up with cigarette butts and other nastiness at many all-inclusives, are routinely cleaned. Likewise, my room was perfectly clean, despite the maintenance issues.

Somewhat related to cleanliness, I saw several people slip on the slick tiles inside the lobby as well as the walkways around the pool. We definitely saw staff mopping regularly, but even the faintest drips can bring the steady-footed to the ground.

Dessert station at El Ingenio Buffet

The omelet, pasta (three different kinds of sauces and pastas, plus an assortment of toppings), and fruit (pineapple, watermelon, papaya, mango, among others) stations are consistently high quality. The bread selection is superior, with more than 10 different kinds to choose from, including a few whole-grain choices. In the morning, there's a fresh juice bar (though the orange drink is definitely concentrate). There’s even a high-quality (and well-covered) cheese selection during dinner with cheddar, blue and Gouda.

But El Ingenio, the main buffet, is half the size at Iberostar Hacienda Dominicus than it is at Iberostar Dominicana in Punta Cana. The limited options especially show at lunch, when carrots, cabbage, and beets are all there is at the salad bar.

For kids, lunch and dinner both feature a selection of delicious pizzas (wood-fire oven!), a selection of antipasto salads, and the usual burgers and fries.

There are four à la carte restaurants, including La Hacienda (Spanish), La Goleta (steakhouse), El Colonial (French), and La Geisha (Japanese), where they cook your food in front of you Benihana-style. They have the same menus as the other Iberostar resorts the world over. At La Hacienda, I ate a chicken breast with a "special house flavor," which was bad, even by all-inclusive standards. Still, the fresh guacamole and warm tortilla chips are great, as are the desserts. My personal favorite -- the très leches cake, stuffed with lime and caramelized coconut (it’s a bit like the Samoa Girl Scouts cookies).