Paradisus Palma Real Golf & Spa Resort

We have spent our vacation at Paradisus Palma Real several times now; it is a superb resort, but the children's room—and its delightful staff—deserves special mention. Each of the teacher is a true master of their craft; the daily entertainment program and the care shown toward my son made our stay truly exceptional. Thank you so much!

The team here is genuinely kind, welcoming, and always ready to help with anything you might need. They really go out of their way to make you feel comfortable and taken care of. If you’re looking for something to do in the evening, you can spend some time at Kicks Bar it’s a great spot to relax and enjoy the night. When you’re there, feel free to ask for Diorgenis; he’ll make sure you’re well looked after and have a great experience.

We had a lovely night and 2 Weeks every evening at kicks and wanted to give a special mention to Andreina, who looked after us brilliantly. She was friendly, welcoming and really attentive throughout, making sure we had everything we needed and making the experience feel special. The service was smooth, professional and always with a smile. Thank you, Andreina — you really made our visit even better. Would definitely recommend!

We are winding down our vacation at the beautiful Paradisus Palma Real in the DR.This was our third time at this beautiful clean resort .The people are lovely and friendly. We would like to thank our beach attendant Martin who greeted us every morning with a smile .He made sure that we had the same palapa and beach chairs every day and did everything to make our stay enjoyable. We would also like to thank our butler Eriol for his assistance in making our restaurant reservations and keeping us up to date on the daily activities! Great vacation and wonderful people!

My partner and I, a couple from London, England, stayed at Paradisus Palma Real Golf & Spa for 8 nights. The first thing to note if it is your first time visiting the Dominican Republic (DR) is that the entire Melia group hotels are together in one perfectly curated compound. On arrival we were stunned at the beauty and as far as hotels go in terms of aesthetic and amenities this does try to encapsulate it all. We had originally booked the adults-only section with a king size bed, however, when we arrived, despite the front desk staff being polite, our first room was two double beds. We were told that we would have to remain in that room for the first night and would need to attend the front desk in the morning to see if our desired room was available. Fortunately, this was the case and we were moved that morning. In general, the resort is a pleasant all inclusive hotel which can cater for couples, families and friend groups.  Dining: the hotel has one main buffet and 6 a la carte restaurants for regular guests which you can book in advance, whilst 'Reserve' guests have one extra buffet restaurant and 'Melia Circle' members have an exclusive a la carte restaurant. There is also a beach club with buffet/al a carte options.  In general, the food varied between each restaurant. Notably, the best were Mina and Tokimeku. We would also like to thank Jean from Mina who was amazing in terms of service and who was one of the only members of staff who provided us with second drinks without being asked. The food at Mina was arguably the best with the most options and best ambience. We are not steak eaters so we were hesitant to eat here but after our experience at The Winery (see below) we enjoyed our second visit. We also ate twice at Tokimeku and loved their menu. There is the option for Hibachi dining which seemed like a lot of fun (something which we did not book). We would also like to deeply thank Romeris who is the head of Tokimeku and the breakfast service at the buffet. She is warm, friendly and attentive. She continually ensured we were well looked after and it was a pleasure to see her in the mornings. She is a credit to the team.  The restaurants which were most disappointing were Flora, Blue Agave and Mascalzone: Flora - this is said to be the Dominican restaurant, having not had Dominican food before, we were excited by the menu, however, when the meals came the "slider" was a piece of meat in some bread; the goat main was even worse - whilst in a tasty sauce, the quality of the goat meat was very poor and we were effectively served a bowl of fat and bones...a real mess of a dish. We also experienced the world's worst passionfruit "mojito", which was actually recommended. I can only describe it as a medicinal flavour with gone off mint leaves which was also made wrongly, so bad technique coupled with rubbish ingredients.   Blue Agave - again, we love Mexican food so were excited to try here. We ordered the el pastor and fish tacos. The fish tacos were raw - the batter was not cooked which was fortunate as it fell off and revealed the raw fish beneath. My partner and I were not openly bothered but were surprised by the lack of interest in the fact that we had just been served raw fish and that it was not sushi. However, the el pastor taco was brilliant. Excellent flavour and well cooked so we ordered another plate of this. The churros were not freshly fried and tasted a little stale which was another disappointment, though not as life threatening as the fish. (1/10 for the food safety, great al pastor taco though). Mascalzone - we were hesitant to try the Italian given our travels to Italy, and we were correct. This is an americanised italian restaurant. The meal started off positively with two very good appetisers, however, whilst we were still eating our appetisers, the mains arrived and were aggressively put on top of our starter plates. The mains consisted of an overly cheesed pizza which was supposed to be a diavola pizza but could have easily been an oven pepperoni as it lacked any sort of spice. However, the true horror was the pasta dish, which instead of being a tomato based sauce was more of a cheese sludge. The colour of the sauce was orange and it had so much cheese in it, it was gloopy. My partner refused to try it after I had struggled through two bites before admitting defeat. We opted for tiramisu for dessert and whilst it was an ok dessert it simply was not a tiramisu. The rushed service ruined dinner even further and is not necessary as there are plenty of tables. 2/10 unless you are a mouse or despise actual Italian food, when this would be for you! The Buffet - we ate here every breakfast and most lunches, there were some occasions where food had not been cooked properly so, we started opting for vegetarian meals to be safe. This, of course, is not enjoyable and you do not go on holiday hoping that fish and meat is handled and cooked properly. There were, however, lots of great rotiserrie options, fresh fruit, ham and cheese stations, an american fried food area etc., though the true standouts were the morning egg/omelette stations in the morning with our favourite manned by Leudy, who made fantastic omelettes and was very cheerful.  The Winery: this is a great concept, and was our favourite dining option. Our server was Jonathan who was excellent. You were required to purchase a bottle of wine or champagne (over a certain value) and then your default dinner was from Mina but you could opt to order from any other a la carte restaurant. The wine options were extensive with options from all over the world. The dinner service is calm and considered and the ambience is an excellent date night spot. As we wanted to try other restaurants, we sadly only came here once but if we were staying longer, this would have been our go to as it was, good wine, good food and great service - this was a 9/10 experience at the resort, especially compared to the other restaurants. Service: The poolside service by Dilania in the adults only part of the main pool was phenomenal. She genuinely brightened up my day, she was always smiling, singing and happy. She was efficient, polite and a great joy to be around. We would also like to shout out the bar men at Celsius who were always singing, cheerful and made wonderful drinks. There was also one lady on breakfast and lunch in the buffet who was amazing as she was attentive and provided good service, however, we did not get her name as she wasn't as pushy as some of the others in obtaining reviews. The Rum Republic bar served the best evening drinks.  The service by other members of staff varied, whilst staff were polite, we think the overall system at the buffet needs re-working. There was often a wait for cutlery or for tables to be cleaned. I think there needs to be more of a core group per section whereby you have a manager who greets guests and finds a suitable table, you then have the staff member who takes their drinks order and deals with this. You then have additional staff members who deal with clearing and cleaning in a quicker more efficient way. I also am not sure if there was a staff incentive to gain reviews as it suddenly became a little intense as the week went on.  Spa: my partner treated me to a massage, given the hotel is a Spa resort. What was good is that if our hotel did not have availability you could use the other Melia hotel Spas. However, the cost of what is effectively a standard body massage is quite extorniate and unfortunately, once my massage had finished and I was led into the spa there was a group of very loud individuals despite signs saying "we honour silence" leading to me leaving promptly as this was not relaxing. Although the golf pricing is good value, the spa pricing was unnaturally high for what is marketed as a Spa and Golf resort, with no apparent reduction or subsidy for the services: Being from London it was premium pricing but not for much added value. Although we did get 30$ off a treatment over 50 minutes, the massage still came in at a whopping £105 (£125 without the discount) which is double London pricing. Whilst Ana Spa at Zel was lovely and my masseuse was lovely it was not worth the cost.  Housekeeping: In general, it was ok, I would rate this a 5/10. Having stayed in a lot of 5* hotels, differing between B&B, half board & all inclusive, this was the worst and not for a lack of cleanliness, although they did not clean our mirror one day despite it clearly needing a proper wipe. It just seemed slightly lazy. Yes the towels were replaced but we do not think our bedding was. As I mentioned, the mirror wasn't cleaned. When we moved into the second room we had to request a second robe and a pair of slippers. Our items were cleaned around and not moved, cleaned and put back. That being said, it wasn't to say the room was dirty, it just didn't have that extra touch that one would expect in a 5* resort. Other: there is one very expensive shop in the hotel which does sell most things you may have forgotten, but as mentioned previously, given the hotels are on one compound we are not sure how long or how much it would cost to go outside of this. When reviewing our expenditure, we had actually spent a significant amount on incidentals $47 than in The Winery $53. There is an ATM which charged us a 4.5% transaction fee. Tipping is pretty commonplace and we opted for between 1$ to 5$ depending on the service provided.  Overall, we enjoyed our holiday and the good weather and people of the DR. I think this hotel is teetering in and out of providing 5* services and requires some changes to really elevate peoples' experiences. If it is the case that only Circle Members receive 5* service then the hotel overall should be downgraded to a 4*.