Sanctuary Cap Cana

We had the best time at Sanctuary Cap Cana. Definitely worth booking a Castle oceanview room. our concierge Camacho was so wonderful, helpful and went above & beyond. Service at the hotel was excellent! From the beach/pool (Jensy and Oscar) and the restaurants (Miguel and Niky), everything was great. Wok was our favorite restaurant/meal of our trip. There was, as expected, some algae / sargassum while we were there, but they had people cleaning up the beach throughout the day, so we were able to really enjoy it! The hotel and its grounds are beautiful. It is more intimate and relaxing than the larger chain all-inclusive hotels in the area. We can't wait to go back!

We had a wonderful stay at this all-inclusive resort! The rooms and public spaces were always very clean, and the service throughout the resort was consistently excellent. If you are considering upgrading, it is definitely worth spending the extra money to stay in the Castle. Our butler, Alex, truly elevated our trip. He handled all of our dinner reservations, sent us a daily schedule of events, and made everything feel effortless and relaxing. The food was good at every restaurant we tried, but Wok was by far our favorite. The atmosphere was amazing and the food options were excellent. One thing to note is that the beach area is very small, and the sargassum was quite bad during our stay. The resort staff works hard every day trying to manage and clean it up, but if a large, beautiful beach is a top priority for your vacation, this may not be the best fit. Overall, we still had a great experience and really enjoyed our stay.

Gorgeous Hotel Beach Closed due to seagrass!

I thought this would be an easy 5☆ review before we got there, but sadly, Sanctuary does not live up to its name. Italian restaurant. Luke-warm sticky, sludge-like spaghetti that any real chef would be ashamed of. Room-temperature white wine with a very odd taste. Panacotta which is weirdly rubbery and far too sweet. This restaurant should be avoided if you like Italian food. We never went back. The Steak restaurant was good, and ok to get into as long as you don't arrive around 7.30 with everyone else. Seems to be closed more often than it's open so we only went once! Blue Marlin was good, but with a limited menu, especially if you are not keen on fish. We only ate here for lunch. Breakfast was OK, but the food isn't very warm. There was often a really loud noise, like a food blender, coming from a waiters station. No idea what it was but it was unpleasant. Service is a mixed experience. The Wok is by far the nicest restaurant and with good food. Seems difficult to book if you don't have a Butler but it's a nice setting with good food. They allowed children in one evening which spoiled the vibe a bit. The Burger Factory in Sanctuary town was still all-inclusive for us, but not any more. It's a shame because the food is really good there. We ate there twice. In my opinion, they should close the Italian and move Burger Factory in house. Yolo is fine for lunch on the beach. However, the sargassam weed was really awful and often there was a massive, noisy bulldozer, pumping out disgusting black diesel soot, working on the beach to get rid of it. Again, not remotely peaceful. The buffet restaurant has slow drinks service and the food is never hot. Only open one evening for the Dominican night which is best avoided in our experience. Underwhelming hotel buffet quality food. We wasted a night here which was a shame as we could have gone steak or burger The Castle Accommodation. After our reception at the hotel when we were told how we could expect a lovely tranquil experience, our first full day was subjected to a continuous barrage of drum and baseline music from an adjacent hotel. By the end of the day, we were genuinely ready to go home and worried how we would put up with it for the whole holiday (an absolute first for me!). It's not the fault of the hotel, but the fact is that Sanctuary is absolutely not a peaceful place, and they should perhaps not advertise it as such. We moved rooms within the Castle because we wanted the swim-up, but the noise was just as bad. The next day it was there again, a constant and incredibly monotonous and tuneless baseline. I imagine exactly what you would wake up to in CIA captivity! To their credit the hotel responded brilliantly and managed to sort out the situation to our satisfaction thank you very much Sanctuary and thanks to our excellent Butler, Joan. A word of warning, I was absolutely eaten alive by mosquitoes at the Castle so take plenty of mosquito repellent with you. Swimming. Was fine in the Castle swim-up, but the other pools are just for leisure. Swimming in the sea is just unpleasant and to be avoided. Zero visibility and loads of weed constantly in your face. Really horrible. The main pool often has loud unrecognisable music playing for some reason, we didn't like it and avoided the area. The beach cocktail bar is excellent and full of character when the right guy is on duty, otherwise it's a bit naff and they can't mix cocktails very well. Again, you get constantly subjected to the noise and fumes of the beach tractor when it's working. Bars are all ok, tipping is essential as it is everywhere. Sometimes staff get annoying as they still hover for a tip when it's not well deserved. Staff are generally very friendly and welcoming. There's lots of comfortable seating, inside and out. There were a few private events which meant a loss of amenity for guests, and on one evening, meant really offensively loud yoof music being played which dominated the whole hotel. The next morning we had to navigate litter and broken glass to get to breakfast. Such a shame. In summary. We did enjoy our stay and are very grateful to the hotel who moved us to a lovely quiet location. We did really miss the loss of our swim up room though, and we didn't get the holiday we wanted. The hotel overall didn't deliver the tranquil holiday promised, you really have to book the beach villas to get that, and even then, other areas are not at all peaceful and the food offering is no longer adequate for the pricing. If you don't mind party noise from other (and your own) hotels, if you like being bombarded with unfamiliar music in the pool, and if you enjoy the sound of a heavy tractor, and the smell of burnt diesel on the beach, you will like Sanctuary. If you don't, you need to book elsewhere I'm afraid. They have a big problem with the Steak restaurant which was closed 4 out of 7 nights! This with the loss of the Sanctuary Town amenity on the all inclusive, makes for a dismal future I think. We would not return and unfortunately, would not recommend it to anyone. It's a premium price from the UK and doesn't hit anywhere near the mark. We have experienced much better alternatives for similar or less money in the Carribean. To be honest, we would not return at any price.

The entire resort was well built. So many places to visit. We stayed in the castle side in the honeymoon suite facing the ocean. The view was unreal. We even had our own personal butler. Camacho was very accommodating and informative. Anytime I had a question or needed a ride to the pool or dining we would be there or make sure someone else did. Great experience!!