The Westin Puntacana Resort & Club

The reviews, both good and bad, are all mostly true. It's a nice resort, but I would recommend for people with small children or those looking to veg out by the pool/beach. I chose this location because I'm in recovery and wasn't ready to tempt fate with lots of free alcohol and drunk people all around. After my stay, I do wish I would have selected an all-inclusive resort. My teenage daughter and I were bored when we were on the property and wish they could facilitate activities for guests like Bingo, movie trivia, line dancing, and other fun options for people to enjoy. Things to consider: The property is very secluded, so book tours and excursions to entertain yourself as nothing is within walking distance. Do not take the cabs because they charge $20 to go down the street. Uber works perfectly fine and is very inexpensive (less than $10 each time). Download a currency converter app to help track your spending in your home currency because a lot of prices, depending on what you're getting (on & off property), simply aren't worth it. Pack snacks for the room because there are no options other than the restaurants. There is a grocery store nearby (not walking distance) to pick up things as well. There is a mandatory 28% tax on the island, and coupled with the already expensive food prices at the resort, it can be very costly. Take pics of your receipts as they don't give itemized versions when you pay; only one with the amount charged. I was charged a $5 misc fee for a meal from room service and told it was for a tip even though 10% of the 28% is supposed to be for gratuity. My birthday dinner was at Brasso, and the next day I asked if our food could be warmed up and was told there is a $10 fee to use the microwave, plus a service charge; that was very disappointing. So read the reviews and make your decision to stay based on what's important to you in a resort. I hope this helps.

From the moment we arrived, we were greeted warmly by staff, and given refreshing drinks as we checked in. The open air lobby is gorgeous! Rooms are clean, comfortable and we have a balcony facing the pool. We have been to all the restaurants at this hotel, and food is delicious, service is wonderful and we have loved every minute here. The pool is huge, immaculate with plenty of chairs, umbrellas and cabanas that anyone can use. The beach is very clean, the sand stays cool, and plenty of chairs, cabanas and umbrellas too. At night, we have enjoyed the live music coming from the cigar bar. The food is very good- yes it’s expensive, but you are staying at a resort- it’s going to run higher than normal. The grounds are very pretty and everything is clean and spacious. Would definitely recommend!

If you like a quiet peaceful resort with great service, nice pool, and a beautiful beach this is for you. If you enjoy activities, action, and something to do after dark, then this is not the place for you. First thing you have to know is that this is not an all-inclusive resort. It has no activities, shows, or even (while we were there) entertainment of any kind. It is located in a gated community that has a golf club, another resort, and housing. There are also restaurants within the community outside of the Westin Resort that they will provide free (with tip) transportation to. The Good: - Service was excellent! I am so surprised after seeing some negative reviews about service. Everyone was amazing. Shout out to Frankie who was amazing and so helpful, Angel (who lived up to his name), Hector, and the bartender at the Cigar bar (I am so mad I forget his name. Awesome). Everyone was so helpful, friendly, and attentive. I never had to wait for a drink or felt nothing less than valuable. They always went the extra mile from the front desk, bartenders, servers, and Bell staff. The only blip was the towel stand attendants who seemed bothered. - The pool is nice. Never had an issue getting a chair and servers were always wondering around taking orders. Drinks came out fast. No cushions on the loungers and pretty basic, but no biggie. - The beach is nice with plenty of chairs and umbrellas. It has a nice dock out over the water. The water is beautiful with a sandbar out about 100 yards that if you are a strong swimmer can enjoy. (I will get to the seaweed which is not the hotels fault later). - Lobby is open air and gorgeous. Check-in was efficient and friendly. The lobby bar is nice with great people. - The Cigar bar was a great touch and the only place open late (midnight). Great drinks and affordable cigars. You get a free shot of rum with a Cigar purchase which was amazing. Bartender was the best. I mean he made our trip better. - The hotel is literally 10 minutes from the airport but you wouldn't know it because it is in the middle of a nature preserve. - Hint: You can enjoy the restaurant, pool, and beach at the golf club/Spa which is VERY nice with a spa treatment. They may let you hang if you just buy drinks. This beach had less seaweed then the Westin beach. It was also completely empty. - Our room was spacious, bathroom was huge, walk in closet, and the heavenly bed. Actually had Westin products which believe it or not, many do not anymore. - 24 hour room service and you can honestly get more authentic DR food from room service then the restaurants. Not kidding. - Beach restaurant was good, but closed for dinner most of the time we were there. Bao the Japanese restaurant was good too. - Do the Soana Island excursion. Unbelievable. - Short cheap taxi ride to the Village and Downtown. Great proximity. The not so Good: - I like to relax, but not only relax..this place is kinda boring. Not even music at the pool. Thankfully we brought a blue tooth speaker. Not even a guitar player at night (We were there Sunday-Thursday). Everything closes relatively early except the Cigar Bar which is open till midnight. I liked having the run of the place, but it had to be 50% or less occupancy. Considering the lack of a lot of offsite action in DR, they should have at least a little something going on. - SEAWEED - the Sargassum was very bad (apparently worse then ever this year). We walked out for the first time to the beach and it was like a kick in the B@lls. It looked like a swamp up until 20 yards out. They cleaned it off the beach, but couldn't do anything about what was in the water. It varied from day to day and times of day. There were days and times that you only had to wade thru about 10 feet of it to get to clear water. Every hotel dealt with this to some extent I think. The sad thing is that there is the beautiful sandbar right in front of you where boats stop and people are partying on it. So close but yet so far. My suggestion would be for the Westin to shuttle people out there to get away from the seaweed. - Renting the non motorized water activities is not easy. You have to walk down the beach and they only offered part of what was available. We wanted a water bike to get out to the Sandbar and after an hour of walking around and asking.. nobody could tell me how to rent one. I think the summer is off season and they were at a very low occupancy rate. Things were randomly closed and no action at all. Maybe there is at other times, but the place is really boring. Some people like that complete peacefulness and if that is you then this is your place. Be respectful to the staff and they will be amazing to you. Be aware that from now till August you will be fighting bad seaweed and those pictures you see on the website will look more like a swamp at times, but when it clears, the water is stunning. Overall, a great value for the money and completely broke the rep of bad service in DR.

BEWARE! We came home from a family vacation and 3 of the people in the party had their credit card numbers stolen! We ate on property so we know the numbers were taken while we stayed there. The waiters in the beach restaurant made sure to remind us that we should only tip in cash. They said the hotel withheld 50% of their tip money and then gave the rest of the 50% to the waiters. Telling guests this doesn’t look good for the hotel management. The prices at the hotel were quite steep…for food and drinks. A hotel ride was triple the price of an uber. Will I be back….. no….

As someone who has traveled to 20+ countries, is a flight attendant, travels to Westin properties more often than not loves a balance of a good time and party, and loves wellness. SKIP THIS PLACE. Tbh I only came because of a wedding to friends and compared to so many other hotels here this just isn’t it. I’ll start with the pros; Beautiful location ( duh it’s a private beach and beautiful country) Yummy welcome drink ( just the welcome drink… ) Big pool Quiet Front desk people are the nicest Cons: •The food is over priced and nothing is exceptional let alone decent. The breakfast: I wanted to order just a normal plate and not do buffet as it looked basic and not very unique compared to other westins around the world. Server convinced me to get the buffet because coffee was included. Turns out it’s not included I ate a little of everything and nothing but the poached egg was good and the coffee was meh. • Service: Getting people to acknowledge me in certain areas, or get in a word inbetween their conversations with their friend or even put their phone down while they talk to me was harder than it should be. I had to tell them I’d wait for them to finish their call or text to get a towel, a drink so on. By the way I speak Spanish and obviously did it in a polite way never rude just simple saying I don’t wanna bother so I’ll just wait till your available. • “ safe private hotel taxi” I took their taxi/shuttle whatever it’s called to the city next door. They sold it as in being safer and easier because it’s private property and Ubers take a while and they could charge it to the room. I said great thanks and got in the car. Turns out a 10 minute ride ended up being $45 each way. And the hotel/owners town the taxi so it’s not like it was a private thing. Felt extremely taken adventurous of when I saw how much the uber would have been. • hotel recommendations Keep in mind, the people the own the land where the hotel is own every restaurant that’s near by and the recommendations they provide are less than honest. They want you to eat at their over priced underrated restaurants so that’s all they recommend. When you ask about other places they refer back to the hotels/ owners restaurants. Disservice to the community, to the culture, to the people. Overall, I’m pretty disappointed in this Westin. I usually love Westin’s in other countries way more than I like the ones in the states. This one is a unique exception in the worst way and I will not be coming back. Nor will I be recommending this place.