Excellence Punta Cana

Very old restaurant do not join the excellence club. You cannot obtain premium liquor after 11 PM. There is only one bar that sells premium liquor at one time then you must walk to the other bar as they never have two premium bars open on the entire resort at the same time the patios are extremely small in your room. You can’t stretch out your legs and the entire hotel is very dated and rusted.

Exceptional service from the second you arrive to the second you leave. Staff friendly, clean property and rooms, fun activities, and great food. 10/10 in every way!

Excellence was fantastic! The room service & bar service were fantastic. The wait time at restaurants was always over an hour and sometimes the food took a long time to come out, but the food was good! Our room was clean and anything we needed a staff member was there for! The shows at night were fun and it was overall a great trip.

no one pressured you into any sales pitches like other resorts… always a chair at beach or pool, always a place to eat or drink, service at pool and beach was excellent.. very clean, employees seems to enjoy working there, a very relaxing resort and you felt like you belonged!!❤️❤️❤️

Just back from an amazing 9 nights at Excellence Punta Cana - and we are already talking about coming back/trying one of their other properties. We did a lot of research and watched lots of reviews on YouTube (Coolist and New Travel Escapes channels particularly useful). We wanted a relaxing chill out spot at decent value and that is exactly what we got. Location: About 45mins from the airport via transfer arranged by the hotel. Grounds of EPC are absolutely stunning and immaculately kept. The botanical garden area is a great feature with some amazing birds. Grounds and property in general are immaculately clean and tidy. Style is more tropic/colonial than many of the more modern resorts - but done really well and it worked for us. Beach is large, great sand and excellent for walking along. Sea is choppy and so very much a jump in the waves experience rather than swimming or floating around. Loads of beach beds and great staff to help with towels etc. Room: We had room 1008 in the Excellence Club block, a junior suite with private pool. Generally we really liked the room, particularly the location and the private pool. This room also lets you walk straight into the main EC pool area - which was great for accessing the bigger pool, the bar and the beach. The rooms are a bit smaller than you might see elsewhere - not a problem for living, but could do with some more space for suitcase storage. The bath in the main room is probably a bit off trend these days, but didn't detract. The bed is amazing - large and extremely comfortable (as is the bedding). Minibar is great and kept very well stocks (and as across the resort, bottled water is readily available - which is great). Bathroom is very open (something to consider if not travelling with a partner), nice enough (if not really our style) and good toiletries. Not a huge amenity range (shower cap was conspicuous by its absence). The sofa has probably seen slightly better days, but was comfortable enough and again didn't detract. Housekeeping kept the place spotless and do a really nice turn down service. Probably the main downside is the aircon, which was very loud (perhaps more so the linked extractor in the bathroom than the main bedroom vent) and as I understand is the case generally with Excellence properties, doesn't get the room to 'cold'. It sat at 69F which meant a trickle of cool air and generally ok temp day and night, but just not that nice cool room feeling you can get elsewhere. Private pool was a great little luxury - for that room it was sunny in the morning and shaded in the afternoon - which suited us really well. Overall, we were really happy, especially with the location, and would try to get this room again if we returned. Restaurants: A bit mixed. New Travel Escapes do an excellent and, in our view, accurate assessment of this on YouTube. Magna in general was excellent, with amazing staff and cocktails. We ate there twice, didn't deviate much menu wise (the tomahawk steak is hard to look past) and really enjoyed it both times. Oregano, Lobster House and the Grill were all nice - Oregano probably the pick (although we only did lunch there). We did the Teppanyaki experience at Spice and really enjoyed this (book as soon as you arrive as very limited space). The Sports Bar had decent casual food and the staff were lovely and very accommodating in terms of finding the sports we wanted to watch. Agave was a bit bland, which was a shame as we love Mexican food. Maybe we ordered badly. We didn't do Chez Isabel - with on site feedback from guests not the best and the menu seeming to be limited with little jumping out to make us want to go. It's very popular though - so maybe our loss. Las Olas on the beach is a great spot, but we thought the food was pretty uninspiring - with the general poolside food being a better choice. The Kitchen Table buffet was excellent for breakfast and lunch (and the ability to get some salad at lunch made us feel slightly better about our general calorie intake!). Bars: Generally excellent. The pool bars do a great job of mixing drinks at pace - and the options are great (and slightly vary between bars). The Martini bar is very popular pre and post dinner. We generally used the bar in Magna for this, which if you have Excellence Club is well worth it - genuinely brilliant cocktails and service there. Prelude in the middle of the resort was our favourite during the day for location and service - try to get the seats on the one side that doesn't have a speaker overhead, as the music is pretty loud otherwise. Coco Loco drinks served in fresh coconuts are the star attraction across the resort and generally sought out as soon as fresh supplies arrive. Coffee shop was great too. Pools: Main pool is large - spanning most of the length of the resort. This is where all the pool activities happen, and is the more active of all the pools. We generally used the beachside EC pool which was right by our room - this was a nice hangout (more floating than swimming) and has a couple of jacuzzis. We didn't use the 'back' EC pool, which was very quiet. Poolside chairs could be at a premium at peak times, but staff worked very hard to help out. We experienced excellent concierge and bar service at the front EC pool. Vibe and Entertainment: There's a real mix of guests, from younger couples all the way through to retirees. It's definitely more of a couples place, but we did note some groups over the time we were there (there isn't much in the way of rooms for non-couples, which probably limits this a bit). Vibe was chilled and fun rather than raucous - with lots of space to be either sociable or secluded as suits. We didn't do much of the daytime entertainment or main evening shows, but there were some great singers in the early evening. Exercise classes were generally excellent (we did pilates and aero yoga and really enjoyed both). Gym and fitness: Great gym and class space, with towels and water available. Given the heat, the tennis, pickle ball and other outside activities don't get used much. Good pool and table tennis equipment freely available in that area too. Staff: Service was generally excellent across the resort - ranging from perfectly fine from some of the buffet and bar staff to fantastic at Magna. Shout outs to Pedro and team as you arrive/depart, Diaz - who kept us 'hydrated' at Prelude bar, Nicholas who looked after us so well at Oregano and Lobster House, Hendricks who is the epitome of excellent and personalised customer service at the EC pool, Manuari who looked after us brilliantly at Magna restaurant and Francis & Ricardo the master mixologists at Magna's bar. Apologies to anyone we've missed and for any name spelling mistakes in there - but huge thanks to these guys for the big impact they had on our stay and our impression of EPC. Overall - we had a great time. One of our most enjoyable and relaxing breaks ever. If you are looking for a good quality, relaxing break with ok to good food and great service, this is an excellent choice. PS: We did the VIP arrival option at the airport, and I'm not sure this is worth it. However, we wish we had done the VIP security on the way back, as the main security hall had very long lines (and there's no Business Class fast track). Looks like you can do this without pre-booking, and costs $30 each (plus tax I would guess).