Sosua Bay Hotel - All Inclusive Rating: 3.0 Pearls

Cabarete and Sosua, Dominican Republic

The pool

The crowd -- and there is definitely a crowd -- is mostly couples, from middle-aged to elderly. Though a few families bring their kids, the resort is mostly an adults-and-up kind of place. Like most Dominican resorts, the guests are predominantly European or Canadian. As Rafael, the resort’s bellman, explained, the only way to get a beach chair is to wake up early and claim one. Otherwise, he said, it's "too competitive." There are not nearly enough lounge chairs by the pool or the waterfront. Accordingly, guests are highly territorial about their seats. Those who don’t wake up early enough to claim one are left with nowhere to sit.

The hotel is part of the Lifestyle Holidays Vacation Club, a time-share outfit. A patio outside the lobby has Lifesyle Holidays Vacation Club written on the building, though it remained locked and unused for the duration of my stay.

Traveling from any point A to any point B requires multiple flights of stairs. There are no elevators to the rooms, so getting from the lobby to the second level of rooms requires going down two flights and then up another two. Four flights and several long walkways separates the rooms from the pool. The à la carte restaurants are all carved into the side of a white building, and are accessible only by a long, narrow staircase. Many TripAdvisor posters also complain about the enormous number of stairs.

Staff at Bar La Piazzetta

Despite a front desk person calling everyone "my friend," numerous guests didn't receive the service a friend might expect. A bellman looked on as guest after guest dragged their own luggage into the lobby. Check-in was interrupted numerous times while the staff struggled with multiple other issues. Most reviewers on TripAdvisor agree that the service is neglectful. However, most staff members are reasonably familiar with English, and many are fluent in French and/or German.

View on a Larger Map

The hotel is in the heart of downtown Sosua, a 15-minute, $10-$15 cab ride from the Puerto Plata airport. Walking a few steps off the property leads one to Sosua's endless string of small bars, restaurants, confrontational motor scooter taxis, and constantly soliciting prostitutes (prostitution is legal in the D.R. -- and a major part of the tourism industry).

The property is built along a long, white beach, which is open for public use (like all beaches in the D.R.). The lively beach town of Cabarete, the Caribbean's kite-surfing capital, is a 15-minute, $15 cab ride away.

The beach

Sosua Bay has soft sand and ample lounge chairs, but the beach is hardly private. It’s built on the banks of Sosua Beach, and guests have just a small stretch of private sand. Otherwise, they're subject to the same hustlers, food vendors, and crowds as any other tourist.

Sosua Beach is beautiful (the shimmering Sosua Bay is a highlight), but also a bit harrowing in spots. An attendant at the hotel's scuba center explained that he often has to escort guests past the throng of business-starved boat owners. "If we don't take you past, all the guys selling boat rides and other services can get really aggressive."

The Standard Ocean View Room

The rooms possess a rustic, unfinished-wood feel. In the dizzying smell of cleaning supplies sits a deep, cushion-less wooden armchair, a handsome dark wood desk, two heavily nicked end tables, a six-drawer bureau, and a king-size bed perched atop a low wood frame. But the rooms are extremely dark, even with the lights on. Two lamps, one on either side of the bed, and one small overhead light near the door don’t lighten to room enough to read or write.

The bed is very comfortable, and comes with three ultra-soft pillows. But the electronics are limited. The remote for the 18-inch LG Flatiron TV is tethered to the bedside table. This means that only the person sleeping on the bed's left side can use it. In my room, the remote didn’t even have a volume control. The room does not have a clock or radio. Internet is not available in the rooms, but the lobby has a small business center with Internet access. Wireless usernames and passwords are also available for a reasonable $3/hour.

The bathroom's vanity top is made of clean gray marble. Although the bathrooms are small, they’re very clean and have outstanding water pressure. The coral blue tiles and yellow walls make for a relaxing Caribbean décor.

All rooms come with a small balcony, confined by wrought iron bars. In my room, like most, there’s a superb view of the shimmering Sosua Bay and the expansive Sosua Beach. Two natural-finish wooden chairs sit facing the water and the sun. The balconies play a considerable role in setting the hotel's tone. The many guests sitting out on their balconies are chatty, and often talk with walkers-by.

Squash courts

Two pools are separated by a flight of stairs, but both share views of Sosua Bay. Lounge chairs, however, are hard to come by during peak sun hours. Music blasts by the pool, and during my stay it was pure 1990s dance and Eurotech. Thumping beats spooled through the day, and classics like Corona's "The Rhythm of the Night," made repeat plays. Inside the lower-level pool, a hotly contested volleyball game seemed a little unfair -- a lifeguard who was playing stopped the action every time his team was about to lose a point.

The fitness center is one of the best in the D.R., and one of the only modern fitness rooms anywhere in the D.R. It’s a massive, high-ceilinged room stocked with new, modern weights, stationary machines, two squash courts, a yoga floor, and on-site fitness trainers. It’s housed with the spa and the After One Discotheque (which, as one might imagine, opened at 1a.m.).

A British gentleman working at the PADI-certified dive center explained the facility's many offerings. Free services included one hour of snorkeling, kayaking, or boogie boarding, as well as a "taster" scuba experience in the hotel pool. ("Why pay to go before you know you like it?" he asked.) The Discover scuba dive in Sosua Bay cost $50, and the three-day open water certification course was $350.

The business center on the top level of the lobby holds a few small computers. Wireless Internet access for laptops is $3/hour, and only works in the lobby.

The hotel casino, a rarity in the D.R., is open from 8 p.m.-4 a.m. It has poker, roulette, blackjack, slots and (appropriately) Caribbean poker. Nightly Texas hold 'em games commence after 9 p.m.

Though there wasn’t a great number of families at the resort during my stay, the hotel does have a kids' club—or “Ninja Club”—that provides baby-sitting and activities from 10 a.m. -- 5 p.m. daily. However, given the huge number of stairs leading everywhere around the resort, this is not the place for strollers or young children.

The hallways

The room's earthen floor tiles have smudges, scars and black marks. Meanwhile, the hallways -- bedecked in the same tiles as the rooms -- are even more stained. Pockmarked sections look as though they have been riddled with cigarette burns.

However, the hotel’s facilities, notably the restaurants, are extremely clean. Walkways and the pool areas were well-kept.

Marco Polo restaurant

The La Bahia buffet is a hit with guests, and it is easily among the best buffets in the D.R. (which generally has notoriously bad buffet fare). "Of all the buffets I've been to, this is one of the best," one guest said, piling salad on his plate.

Open all night, the Las Olas Beach Grill serves burgers, hot dogs, pizza, and drinks. "The idea," said one airline employee from Canada, "is that any time the restaurants aren't open, this place is open."

There are four à la cartes: Marco Polo, El Patio, Sabatini and L'Etoile D'Or. TripAdvisor reviewers rave about the à la carte restaurants.

Marco Polo, the Asian à la carte restaurant, is extremely popular. Chicken satay, sushi, sweet-and-sour pork, Sichuan beef, and other Chinese/Japanese dishes are served in an air-conditioned indoor dining area with views of the water.

El Patio, an open air Mexican restaurant, is "really good," according to most of the diners we met. The menu includes taco salad, quesadillas, tacos, burritos, and grilled beef with salsa and guacamole.

Dining at Sabatini costs an extra $15/person. Traditional Italian dishes include prosciutto, beef Carpaccio, all types of pasta, beef fillet, and veal scaloppini. It has a no-T-shirt, no-sandal dress code.

The French à la carte, L'Etoile D'Or, is also the priciest. A $25/person fee granted access to an intimate indoor space with white high-backed chairs and fine glassware. The menu features Angus rib-eye steak, grilled lamb chops, fried Camembert, duck confit, and lobster medallions. A group who had dined there called it "excellent," adding that it "sure beats the buffet."