Viva Wyndham Playa Dorada Resort Rating: 3.0 Pearls

Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

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Guests on the beach

With a friendly, intimate vibe, the scene at Viva Wyndham Playa Dorada is perhaps the most European of all the Dominican resorts. I wrote in my notebook, ‘’Lots of Speedos, cigarettes, men wearing Rafael Nadal-style clamdigger shorts.’’ I heard French being spoken all around me at dinner, though those guests were probably Canadian. However, because Viva is an Italian company, management has confirmed that the company has a strong European client base.

The staff is especially warm. The activities team wears shirts that read, "amigos para siempre," (friends forever). This mantra is evident all around. At night staff members drinks at tables with guests, and during the day I saw them scoop up kids who ran into their arms on the beach.

Numerous TripAdvisor reviewers complain that Dominicans were ‘’taking over’’ the resort during their stays, both on weekends and during vacations when locals can obtain day passes for the beach, pool, and restaurants. I didn’t see this at all, but some guests grumbled that Spanish-language speakers receive different-color bracelets and preferential treatment from staff. Others complained about overcrowding and lewd acts in the pool.

The front desk

When I arrived, a bellhop took all my bags and immediately offered -- even insisted -- that I drink some cold punch. Four friendly clerks greeted me at the desk, and I had my room keys in less than five minutes.

But towels, somehow, became the bane of my stay. I initially asked the front desk about towel passes, but the girl at the desk just told me to look in my room and shrugged her shoulders. When I ventured out to the beach in the afternoon -- about a ten-minute walk from the room -- I went up to the towel stand only to learn that they had run out. In somewhat broken English the attendant conveyed that I should get my towels from the front desk, even though the front desk had just told me to get my towels at the beach! Too lazy to walk all the way back to the lobby, I took my chances and was able to dry off in the hot sun, sans towel. When I called guest services (there is no housekeeping extension) to ask for extra towels, a friendly voice assured me they'd be delivered posthaste. Two hours later, they finally arrived.

View on a Larger Map

Viva Wyndham is near the entrance of Puerto Plata's Playa Dorada complex. Playa Dorada is about 15 minutes west of the Puerto Plata airport. Pre-set cab fares to various hotels within the complex range from $30-35.

Playa Dorada is a gated complex of 15 hotels, a golf course, a convention center, two casinos, and a shopping mall located just east of downtown Puerto Plata. The neatly manicured mini-city has horse-drawn carriages that promenade up and down main street at all hours. It's extremely safe and walkable, even at night -- it feels like a gated golf community in the United States. The hotels in the complex range from Casa Colonial, a luxury five-star hotel (one of the nicest resorts in the D.R.), to a plethora of budget all-inclusives and time-shares geared toward families and young partiers, like Viva Wyndham, Grand Paradise, and the Celuisma Tropical. In the center of the complex is Playa Dorada Plaza, a two-story open-air shopping center that caters heavily to tourists with souvenir stalls, sundry and tobacco shops, a playground, and a couple liquor stores. There are also a few ATMs and banks, as well as restaurants and bars including Hemingway's, Senor Rock's, Coco Bongo, and even a Pizza Hut.

The beach

Viva Wyndham shares its beach with the 14 other resorts in the Playa Dorada complex. Therefore, it can be crowded and filled with vendors. None of the resort's guest rooms actually front the beach, which is a five- or 10-minute walk from the guest room area.

Though the ocean floor is sandy and smooth, the water itself is a little cloudy. There were biggish waves and the temperature was perfectly refreshing, but not at all cold.

For much of the time I was on the beach, an intense game of beach volleyball was going on. Since I wasn't wearing a Speedo, though, I didn't think I would have fit in. I also didn't quite look like the bronzed, topless women strolling the beach.

The Junior Suite Garden View Room

All rooms are relatively clean and pretty basic. The showers have good water pressure, though during my stay the temperature shifted erratically between scalding and lukewarm. The bathroom's basic toiletries include shampoo, body lotion, and a single bar of soap, which I had to carry back and forth between the sink and the shower. There are the standard features -- an ironing board, an electronic safe, and a highly touted mini-fridge with free cans of Coke and Sprite. However, the coffee and tea cost extra (this usually isn't the case in the Caribbean).

Unlike almost every other resort in the D.R., standard rooms don’t come with a balcony. Junior suites have balconies, as well as small sitting areas. Interestingly, the manager I spoke with told me that American guests almost exclusively stay in the junior suites. Apparently we’re a little harder to please, so standard rooms sometimes aren't even offered as a booking option on American travel sites.

Half the rooms are on the noisy, interior corridor. My junior suite, 4202, faced the main walkway area outside the lobby. Harmless enough, until I tried to sleep -- at 1:30 a.m. I could still hear the thumping bass of the disco from across the courtyard. At 7 a.m., I woke up to noisy French-speakers taking their breakfasts en plein aire. Request a room facing the gardens.

The junior suites come with a large, airy sitting area with a wooden couch, a wooden coffee table, and a small table with two chairs. The floors are a terra-cotta color of tile. The space is nice, but it feels a little sparse with only one piece of art on the massive white wall. Ditto for the semi-private bedroom -- it feels like a monastery with its simple décor, earth-toned colors, and two small lights. There’s no dresser, just a single long table with one drawer, a stool, and a vanity mirror.

Bathrooms are big and clean, but in my room I nearly slipped on a large puddle near the entrance. There was another puddle of water near my balcony door -- it seems the roof has a few leaks. My suspicions heightened when two staffers randomly showed up the morning of my departure for an "inspection.” When I asked if something was wrong, they just smiled and said, "No, everything's fine!"

The pool

Viva Wyndham's pool is large and very popular, though its shape isn't particularly exciting. It features a large waterfall under which both kids and adults enjoy frolicking. The Jacuzzi is up a faux-rock stairway directly above the pool. Surrounded by pretty landscaping, the hot tub affords good views of the property, and was a bit quieter than the pool area down below.

Like many resorts, Viva Wyndham offers lots of daytime activities near the pool. I witnessed a mellow game of bingo, as well as the most techno-heavy water-aerobics class I've ever seen. At one point, the loudspeakers were blaring a song that constantly repeated the following offensive terms: "Dirty Slut," "Bitch," "Whore," and "Shit." Not only was I shocked to hear this in the middle of the day -- around children -- but I was also offended by how awful a song it was.

Though the gym isn’t air-conditioned, the equipment is decent -- a couple of elliptical machines and three spinning bikes. There’s also a flat-screen TV. Most guests favor the adjacent sauna, though.

Though the Wyndham isn't very big, the property is quite lush and nicely landscaped. While walking the paths, I noticed a small sign for the Vivero nursery. It turns out the resort grows most of its own plants and flowers on the premises. There's a large, quiet tent, filled with rows of local flora beside a little swamp.

The resort also has its own tennis court, as well as a rock-climbing wall. Both were veritable ghost towns during my stay. Guests also have easy access to the Playa Dorada Golf Course, though I didn't see anyone at the Wyndham toting around clubs.

An evening performance

I arrived to see the evening entertainment just as guests were being called up to receive prizes for that day's contests. I had no idea what the emcee was saying, but every so often he would take a break, and a few members of the activities staff would start dancing to techno music. One woman went up to claim her prize and a staff member grabbed her toddler out of her arms and took the child backstage. She seemed to have no problem with this, but I was utterly confused.

The theme of the show was "Playback," an alternative term for "Flashback." Staff members lip-synched songs like "I Will Survive" and "Let's Dance." My favorite numbers were Lou Bega's “Mambo No. 5” and Queen's "Break Free," each of which featured multiple staff members dressed in drag. The whole thing was borderline offensive and at times risqué, but the staff members were clearly enjoying themselves. The silliness was infectious. I only wished I looked as good in a sequined mini-skirt.

I also caught the "Michael Jackson" show, which was a bit more straightforward. Wearing a mop head thinly disguised as a Jheri-curl wig, a single staff member lip-synched hits like "Black or White" and "Billie Jean." His moonwalk was actually par excellence. The grand finale was the theme song to “Free Willy,” replete with background dancers doing an interpretive dance in colorful pharaoh costumes. The house was packed.

The disco, Goa, is open most of the week and stays thumping until 2 a.m.

The grounds

Viva Wyndham may be ridiculously cheap ($69 ALL-INCLUSIVE per person during my stay), but the rooms and the public areas are clean overall. True, there were multiple leaks above my bathroom and near the patio door, but the floors were clean, the beds were well-made, and the hallways were generally free of carts and used dishes and cups.

Likewise, the grounds are nicely landscaped, and there's less trash than at a fairly comparable resort, Breezes Puerto Plata. A vast majority of Viva Wyndham guests are smokers, though, so those wary of cigarette smoke would probably not enjoy themselves very much. However, my room did not reek of smoke as much as I expected.

Las Palmas restaurant

When I arrived at Viva around 4 p.m., I was famished, so I made a beeline for an afternoon snack at the Ibiza Beach restaurant. There's a fairly lackluster salad bar, burgers, fries, and hot dogs, as well as some surprisingly fresh tortilla chips and mushy salsa. Most of the action is at the adjacent bar, where sunburnt guests in bathing suits smoked cigarettes and double-fisted Presidente beers. As I sat down to pick at my chips, techno music blared all around me. I left Ibiza feeling somehow more stressed than when I arrived.

The dinner options included the buffet, Las Palmas, the Asian restaurant Bambu, and a Mediterranean menu at Ibiza. Figuring I'd have plenty of chances to hit up the buffet, and wary of Dominican Chinese food, I decided to take my chances on returning to Ibiza. Much to my delight, the atmosphere does a 180 from the daytime, to the point that it actually feels romantic. The sound of the waves, the mellow acoustic guitar music, the white table cloths and the formality of the servers are a refreshing change from the pulsating, grease-laden afternoon scene.

The Ibiza menu is fairly large, and included dishes like paella, mussels, gnocchi, and Turkish lamb with mint sauce. I opted for one of my favorites -- gazpacho -- and grouper tossed into pasta. The gazpacho was pureed to a broth-like consistency, but the flavor was good. The pasta was flavorful, if a little oily. I also enjoyed the chocolate mousse-bombe dessert, even if it had clearly just been pulled from the refrigerator.