From My Point of View: My review of the Luxury Bahia Principe Esmerelda

April 18-25, 2018

Our one year anniversary trip, sans kiddos. I couldn’t have been happier to stay at the Luxury Bahia Principe Esmerelda. It was a pretty fantastic trip. I love my children with my everything, however going away with my husband was the best thing for us to celebrate our anniversary.

Our arrival to the Punta Cana airport was pretty smooth. We got off the pane, waited about 10 mins for our luggage and sailed through customs. We boarded our bus to take our 25 min ride to the resort. It was really neat to see the actual country we were visiting.

Arrival at our resort was slightly complicated. Mostly because The Bahia Complex is just that, a huge complex. There are many different sections to this whole complex each with a different level of resort stay. We got dropped off at the main Bahia Principe resort and loaded onto a double gold cart that took us to the Esmerelda section which was closer to the beach than the main Bahia Principe. The golf cart ride took about 4 mins and we got the chance to go past the Fantasia (water park with a castle section). It was really neat to be able to drive past it and see. I know the kids will love to visit one day. We arrived at the Esmerelda lobby and a bell hop picked up our luggage and said it would be delivered to our room. We arrived a little early so our room wasn’t ready yet, but that was no problem for us, since we had packed our swim suits in our carry on bags. We changed, and headed to the swim up pool. Which is right by the beach. It was a great pool, with a jacuzzi attached to it. It was nicely lined with rows of palm trees before you could see the beautiful blue skies and the ocean. The restaurants around the main pool were very close and easy to get to. Although YOU MUST MAKE DINNER RESERVATIONS BEFORE YOU ARRIVE. We did not know this, and when you tried to make any reservations they were all full. kind of a disappointment. The buffet was good. Always a variety of choices with different meat, veggies, starches of some sorts, cheese and deli meats, and a kids section to choose from. They also usually had pizzas and a pasta station with some sort of something from the grill.

When we got to our room, which was in building 91, and over looked the pool. It was fantastic really. We had a king sizes bed and a couch and a table and chairs on the balcony. We couldn’t have asked for more really. We walked the entire complex the next day and it is huge. It may not look so big on a map, it took probably 20 mins to walk from the beach to the end of the Turquesa section (that has a smaller water park for younger aged kids) – Kind of more like a splash pad with water slides. There is such beautiful foliage around the resort and the birds. The resort does have a pretty consistent trolly service that shuffles you around the resort. It was super easy to get to and from the main square which had vendors, nightly entertainment, the casino, the night club and the sports bar. Since we were there and it was hockey playoff time we spend quite a few hours at the sports bar watching the hockey! It was great!! Loved every minute. Great service, met wonderful people. And over all it wasn’t hard to get to by trolly or a short walk.

We spent most of our time at the Esmerelda pool, but when we did venture to the beach (which was B.E.A.U.TI.F.U.L!! White sand in our toes and blue water from the ocean, it was something out of a post card. If you looked either way on the beach, it looked like you could walk for ever. We did venture out and took a walk along the beach on a few days, we found these great little stores about a 40 mins walk from the hotel. We didn’t buy anything, but I did look around. However, when we got back to the resort we realized how much sun we got on our walk. Make sure you bring a ton of sunscreen.

Let’s talk food. First of all, I am anaphylactic allergic to shellfish and all nuts, which always make travel a little scary. I can honestly say that I felt pretty comfortable eating here each and every day for our stay. I will be honest that the one day they had a full seafood night at the buffet for dinner and we didn’t have reservations that night, and I knew that I didn’t want snack food, so we walked over to the Rodizio restaurant and ended up explaining to them the situation and they gave us a table and this meal turned out to be THE BEST MEAL EVER!! I am still talking about it and can not wait to go back to have it again. It is a Brazilian steak house, where they slice different types of meat off a skewer for you, and it just keeps coming. My hubby says he got the “meat sweats” from it, what ever that means.

The buffet was delicious every single time we went. I did like the main buffet a little more as you had the chance to sit outside before the weather got too hot. We ate lunch at the beach restaurant a few days and enjoyed the ease and simplicity of the BBQ and eating at the picnic tables.

We tried to get reservations at other a la carte restaurants for the other nights we were there, but the resort must have been at full capacity because they never had any spaces for us. We will have to go back and experience them all another time.

I enjoyed our stay here very much. Our room was very well kept tidy and we never had any issue with anything. Our AC unit was great – one trick we learned was to make sure the sliding door was shut all the way to have the AC unit working. I almost had to call for an extra blanket one night the AC was so cold (it might have had something to do with the sunburn I had gotten that day too). We always had hot water and our mini fridge was always refilled. (our favorite was the bags of chips we were get, they were a perfect snack before bed or while getting ready for dinner). I loved our room location. Although I did wish that they had elevators, but it wasn’t a big issue.

At last it was time to say good bye to this little piece of heaven that is now a part of my memories that give me a yearning to go back, every time I think about it.

Until next time Luxury Bahia Principe Esmerelda. You are the perfect blend of family/adult vacation in one.

Chat soon XO