We recently enjoyed a spur of the moment weekend trip to TRS Cap Cana in the Dominican Republic. This is my first time visiting Dominican Republic and first time visiting any of Palladium’s resorts. We really haven’t experienced much in the All-Inclusive market other than Sandals Resorts so we weren’t sure what to expect. So like most things, there was some good, some bad, but overall, we were impressed.
Since this was our first trip to Dominican Republic, we were not familiar with the airport. This proved to be our first downfall. Since we booked the hotel directly from the hotel website, we were given private transfer upgrade with a small fee. However, we were never told what company was handling this upgrade or what to do when we arrive. So once we made it through the customs, we were ushered aside by uniformed individuals that looked like they worked for the airport, but instead turned out to be people that work for other resorts trying to sell us timeshare. They assured us our private driver was coming and in the meanwhile, they are just going to tell us about their resort and culture a bit. You can see where this was going.
So long story short, we started sniffing out that this is not where we should be and refused to sign the papers that would have given us “free” blah blah blah in exchange for a timeshare presentation. Moving on, we walked towards the outside of the airport. There were lots of taxi service people with signs but we couldn’t find our names. Someone else with a name tag approached us and told us he can call the resort for us (since they speak Spanish and we don’t) and explain our situation. He got on the phone, took my reservation number, talked to the resort, then told me that since their private driver didn’t show up, all we have to do is getting on the next available taxi, pay by cash, take the receipt and the resort will reimburse us.
That turned out to be another lie. We DID get in the next taxi, had a safe and uneventful trip to the resort, the driver gave us a receipt, we took it inside the resort and got checked-in, but resort denied ever having any conversation with anyone and absolutely refused to reimburse us with any money. At this point, I showed them the email confirmation from the resort that provided the private transfer link, and the credit card transaction that was charged. They still denied everything and started becoming rude and calling us liars. Keep in mind we are only looking for a $30 refund and we spent well over $1000 for our 2 night stay. And whether the guy from the airport lied or not, he got us here safe and sound, so it’s the hotel’s (partnered) private transfer that didn’t deliver. At this point we were getting frustrated. But the resort manager was undeterred, even telling us, “go write whatever review you want on TripAdvisor”.
So we did! THREE TIMES! Each time, our review was removed very promptly without any notification or explanation.
Up until now, I never thought much about traveling to foreign countries, but now I realize that perhaps I have been naive and some countries do have corruption running deep…
The Resort
Here’s the part that really kind of upsets me… Despite all the bad beginnings, we actually really like the resort! We loved our butler, we thought for the price paid, the resort had great food and amenities…
The Japanese restaurant Izakaya was VERY good. The tuna sashimi was the highlight of the meal. The Argentinian restaurant El Gaucho was decent. The beef carpaccio is the best I’ve ever had. This restaurant requires reservations, so make sure you have one before showing up! Make sure you find out which restaurants are open which days, so you can try them all during your stay. In the morning, El Gaucho becomes Capricho, a sit down breakfast restaurant with a self-service buffet area. The bar has full service even during breakfast time, and their Bloody Mary is very good, but very spicy! The breakfast buffet has the most impressive fresh fruit spread, with passion fruit, mango, kiwi, grapes, pineapples, etc. This is the only place I have seen where the kiwi is skinned!! Their charcuterrie spread is very impressive as well, with a great selection of meats, cheese, smoked fish, fruit jam, etc. There’s also a waffle bar with many toppings. There’s also the seafood restaurant for dinner – Helio’s. I think Helio’s and Izakaya are without a doubt, the two best restaurants on-site. Helio’s does serve lobster (at least for the one night we were there). Since it’s the Caribbean lobster, it’s not as good as the Maine lobster that we are used to, but still very good. Overall, I find the restaurant service to be better than Sandals. I was surprised that there’s no salt or pepper shaker on the tables and the food was overall on the low sodium side (which I like). Their website mentions another restaurant (Tentazione) but this restaurant was nowhere to be found at the resort.
We didn’t have a swim-out room, which seemed very popular at this resort, but considering we didn’t get in the pool at all (the water was cold!!) I think it worked out well for us. Our room was on the top floor with a huge balcony and hot tub.
The pool service was amazing – they learned very quick what our favorite drinks were and kept them coming. This is something Sandals definitely could do better on.
Our room came with Butler service, and unlike Sandals, we weren’t given any cellphones to keep up with – the butler shares his WhatsApp number and we could text him any time we wanted something. This was quite nice as well.
Despite the airport (and what you may have seen on your way in from the airport), this resort appeared to be in a very safe area. We felt safe to be walking around this small resort and the surrounding area and made a leisurely stroll to the casino. We didn’t gamble because the casino was only open limited hours and we didn’t want to walk there at night. The resort has a sports bar on site, but it’s very small and did not have any games we wanted to watch. Since all of our other all inclusive resort experience has been in Jamaica, we must say that Dominican Republic seem to be a LOT windier.
Next time, I will know how to handle the airport situation better and I think our trip would start out on a much better “foot”. I’m not sure how I feel about the resort removing our reviews from TripAdvisor (which would explain why this resort is reviewed so highly on there!). This makes me question how honest all of the Palldium’s resorts’ reviews are, and how honest TripAdvisor is. I know there are a lot of other resort companies in Dominican Republic that would certainly want our business, so while I’m not writing them completely off, I’m going to start with someone else next time…
Until then, see your next week when we’ll be on the Norwegian Escape cruise!