Sanctuary Cap Cana

The resort is lovely, convenient and very well maintained. The staff, all of whom are kind and upbeat, go above and beyond to make your stay as enjoyable as possible. Our butler, Samuel, was attentive, responsive, kind and so helpful. Felix, who helps guests at the pool and on the beach secure chairs and umbrellas was an absolute delight. He always had a spot ready for us and knew right away the kind of vibe (read shade) that I needed. The beach is well maintained (didn’t notice any seaweed, which we’d been warned about when we booked) though smaller than you might expect (but not problematic in the slightest for me). Highly recommend staying here. I’d be thrilled to come back.

My husband and I were in Cap Cana for 8 days in January. We were supposed to only stay for 6 days but we got stranded due to bad weather at home. Our first 5 nights were spent at the wonderful Hyatt Zilara which was booked up and could not accommodate us for the additional 2 nights. Upon a recommendation from trusted friends who were guest there 2 years ago, we booked our last two nights at Sanctuary. I can only assume that something must have changed in the last couple of years. Our experience was truly horrible and disheartening. The only reason that this has 2 stars is because of the general staff. The rest of it deserves 0 stars. I will start out with the good things about the property. All of the staff are amazing and kind. The hostess staff, waiters, bartenders, pool and beach attendants and bell staff were very capable and also very service oriented. The property itself is beautiful. The food was pretty tasty and drinks were delicious. The pools and beach are very picturesque although there didn’t seem to be ample chairs on the beach especially. We did find chairs to reserve although we did rise very early to do so. Now on to the nightmare experience. We went to the front desk after a nice time on the beach to retrieve our keys for check in time. I was ignored by two workers who walked right past me to ask the ladies behind me if they could help them. I had to actually say excuse me to get their attention. I was dressed in a tasteful cover up and nice hat and sandals. The original front desk workers had failed to give us back our passports when we visited the desk at around 10:30 am. It took about 4 people scrambling around to finally locate them in the safe. Not great and a bit scary. We were given our keys and after asking numerous times, we were finally told our actual room number. After being transported to our building, we could not access our room as neither of our keys would work. The bellman told us we would have to walk back to the front desk to get this resolved. Meanwhile we were waiting on our luggage and the other bellman who brought the luggage let us into our room. Here is everything that went wrong with our room: Junior Oceanview Luxury Suite???? Keep reading! 1. The only outlet next to the bed was not functioning. My husband uses a CPAP machine and this needed repairing. We called the desk. Over the course of the next 3 hours, we had 3 different maintenance staff in and out of our room. Mind you that no one from the management or front desk had called to see if all was well. We had to call them again and again. Finally, one of the workers fixed it by rewiring the entire master switch. During the course of this, it disabled our telephone. We had to call the front desk again from our cellphone. 2. Phone broken. Another worker-the 4th came to fix the phone. He couldn’t so we had to wait for a technology specialist. We then asked called to ask if someone would bring us new room keys. They said no. We had to go to the desk. 3. No hair dryer. Finally got to take a shower after phone was finally fixed by worker number 5. Got out-no hair dryer. It is a 5-star resort and it states that it provides a hair dryer. Come on The Hampton Inn gives you a hair dryer. Called front desk AGAIN. 4. Iron broken and leaking all over floor and clothes. Called desk AGAIN! Got new iron after we left for dinner-a bit wrinkled. 5. Ceiling fan broken! Came back from dinner and ceiling fan doesn’t work! Well, they can’t fix it because when they rewired the room, they disabled it. Never was fixed. Thank goodness air conditioningworked well. 6. Coffee maker-got up the next day and tried to make a cup of coffee. Coffee maker broken and leaking. Before dinner, my husband went to the front desk to get new keys and explain all of our troubles and to ask the manager if he could graciously try and get us a reservation at the nice Asian restaurant for dinner for one of the nights we were there for our trouble. This is an included restaurant that we were told was completely booked when we checked in. He never called or followed up with us. No surprise! On top of that, we were only able to get a reservation on night 2 at 9:30 in the included Italian restaurant. We showed up early at 7:30 and they were able to seat us. The whole time we were there, they were at least 8 empty tables which leads me to believe we could have been accommodated at the other restaurant had they cared or bothered to try. We are avid travelers and have never had anything like this happen. This is advertised as a 5- star resort. Marriott should be ashamed! No one followed up to see if everything had been repaired. Not the whole time! At the Hyatt, they called every single morning to make sure our pre-ordered coffee had arrived. Now that is service! DO NOT STAY HERE! There are many other properties that want your business. This is a beautiful property with a terrible management staff. Whoever the GM is of this resort needs to be made aware. I will be posting another review of the fabulous Hyatt Zilara that deserves the 5-stars! In the meant time this review will be sent to Marriott corporate, AAA Travel and Delta Vacations. They all need to know about our experience. And to think that one simple follow-up phone call to let us know that you cared was all that was needed to resolve our troubles. We would have been ok without the restaurant reservations. Just be a decent human being and do your job and all would have been ok and this review would have been avoided. Meanwhile, we will be taking our travel plans elsewhere. We are not pretentious, pushy or entitled travelers. We just expect service, kindness and care.

We just returned from our first all-inclusive Caribbean vacation. We chose Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic and booked a vacation through a third party to stay at Sanctuary Cap Cana, a Marriott resort located 15 minutes from the San Juan airport. The resort is beautiful, offering 5 pools and a small beach. There was no seaweed and everything was very clean. The property is very well maintained and the wait staff working here is very polite and friendly. A big shout out to Oscar who brought us our drinks at the pool. The resort offers one restaurant open for breakfast and lunch: CASA BELLA. This is a buffet style restaurant which has something for everyone, including Dominican specialties. 2 restaurants are open to everyone for dinner and you don't need a reservation: THE STEAKHOUSE – amazing food with many meat choices and very friendly staff. The ribeye was one of the best we’ve ever had! Very friendly staff, nice sized portions. Come early if you don’t want to wait for a table. BLUE MARLIN – seafood restaurant on the ocean. This restaurant can get quite chilly on windy evenings. The staff here is terrible. We ate here twice and both times, our orders were mixed up, staff was nowhere to be seen when we wanted more drinks or water. The food is ok. The 2 other restaurants on the property require reservations through the hotel. OpenTable reservations are not honored. We managed to get reservations and the other 2, but his was not easy to do and the restaurant reservations staff were not accommodating to everyone. It seemed they cater to those guests who booked directly through Marriott or those in the Castle. CAPRICCIO – Italian restaurant located at the front of the resort. Nice ambiance, slow staff, interesting menu. Very small portions! Our antipasto appetizer had 2 rolled up pieces of meat, half a cherry tomato and a little breadstick. The burrata had one small ball of burrata, a sundried tomato in balsamic vinegar. My spaghetti carbonara had one piece of guanciale and when I asked our waiter about it, they brough me badly charred pieces of meat (not guanciale) to add to my then cold spaghetti. My husband had a chicken dish which was mediocre. WOK – very nice ambiance, lots of Asian style food options but nothing was spectacular. We shared 5 dishes and each was just ok. The cocktails however were interesting. Located in the Castle area, at the far end of the resort. Sanctuary has 5 pools including the one in the Castle – open to everyone. The main pool has a swim up bar. All the drinks are watered down. The best bar hands down, was the Love Bar located in the main building. Ocean Bar in the Castle section is very nice also, and it overlooks the ocean and is next to a nice small pool. Sanctuary Town which has several smaller restaurants are not included in the all-inclusive. I didn't like that. Entertainment is limited, both during the day and in the evenings. It’s a very chill atmosphere, perhaps because it’s an adults-only resort. I’d have preferred more nightly entertainment but did enjoy the ABBA show, the Dominican Night and the musicians in the Love Bar. Overall, a nice stay, but the resort has a lot of things to improve. I suggest they open up more restaurants.

Came with 12 people. We were kicked from live Aqua because they sold our rooms for an event. You took us in and we loved it! Thankyou so much. I was celebrating my 55th birthday and I had just recently been hospitalized. Camacho or butler in the castle was so helpful and perfect! I couldn’t have asked for a better person to help us! He was awesome! Also Alejandro the restaurant manager at the Wok threw me the best birthday party/dinner I’ve ever had! I cannot say enough good things about both Camacho and Alejandro! Once they found out I had been hospitalized and it was my birthday they went above and beyond to make my stay there most memorable I’ve ever had! Thankyou so much!!!

Our visit to sanctuary cap Cana was awesome! Camacho was our Butler and was fantastic. He helped us getting to restaurants and took care of the mini bar. Anything you needed he could do for you. Much appreciated Camacho! Lastly, do not skip eating at the WOK. It is by far the best restaurant on property