Catalonia Gran Dominicus
Independent review of the Catalonia Gran Dominicus resort
This is an independent review of the Catalonia Gran Dominicus resort in Bayahibe, South-East Dominican Republic, following a 3 week stay in April/May 2009.
Above: Bayahibe in relation to the Dominican Republic
Above: Beach at Catalonia Gran Dominicus
Arrival in the Dominican Republic
On arrival at Santo Domingo [Las Americas] airport you need to have the $10 US dollars arrival tax available before collecting your luggage. As we were entering from the UK we had to fill out a couple of government entry forms.
I would strongly advise that these are filed out on the plane although you can fill them out in the queue if you are the sort that can write and carry several bags at the same time!
Unfortunately for me one of my cases did not arrival as it had been delayed in Madrid. We then had to register the claim at lost luggage
which is next to the the luggage carousel. Because your luggage is bar-coded they could immediately tell us that it was still in Madrid!
We had no alternative but to continue our journey and the luggage turned up 2 days later, delivered directly to our resort.
Two days were spent borrowing Ashers `T` shirts and shorts!!!
Introduction
This is an independent review of the Catalonia Gran Dominicus resort in Bayahibe, South-East Dominican Republic, following a 3 week stay in April/May 2009.
We selected this resort because we wanted to stay in a location from which we could travel to the capital Santo Domingo [for business meetings and gigs] and because we wanted to visit some of the nearby tourist attractions such as Catalina Island.
We also wanted to be near enough to be able to travel to the Bavaro area for golf.
In the Caribbean the quality of the beach was important and with the credit crunch, cost was also important. Put together these factors
required that we booked the 3 star resort at the Catalonia Gran Dominicus.
As the review is over several pages, please ensure that you click on the links to esure that you have the full picture.
Cost
After quite a bit of price research we booked the Catalonia Gran Dominicus from the UK through www.expedia.co.uk. Our 3 weeks in a double room [twin beds as I was sharing with my oldest buddy from school!] cost £1461 and the flight went from Heathrow via Madrid to finally end in Santo Domingo.
If you want to check this cost in your own currency check out the currency converter at the foot of our home page [cont left]
Catalonia Gran Dominicus Sport
Catalonia Gran Dominicus review
Catalonia Gran Dominicus Excursions
Catalonia Gran Dominicus Entertainment
Catalonia Gran Dominicus Restaurants
Catalonia Gran Dominicus Janeris
The Links Course Casa de Campo
Below: My video review of the Catalonia Gran Dominicus
The above video gives a good feel for everything that you may find at the Catalonia Gran Dominicus.
Car rental/transfer
As we were doing a significant amount of travelling we decided to rent a car for the full 3 weeks. It cost us about 550 UK pounds from AVIS.
This certainly allows you to get to the destination more quickly and to avoid going to every resort on the South Coast before being dropped off at the Catalonia Gran Dominicus in Bayahibe!
One thing that I would advise caution on is the choice of car.
We were allocated a VW Passat which was 2 litre and a decent saloon. Unfortunately after about a week we hit a very large pot-hole, the tyre burst and the wheel was damaged!
The moral of the story is go for a 4 wheel drive if you possibly can, that will give you maximum protection against pot-holes. [cont left]
Vacation tip for the Dominican Republic
Now my friend Ashers lived in Dominican Republic for 4 years and he confirms that there is such a concept as `Dominican time`. This basically means that events don`t happen when they should, they are normally much slower!
My advice is to accept this and don`t get stressed out. The staff will not usually respond with the same level of speed as they do in the US, Canada or Europe!
They do, however, try hard to meet your expectations so please give them a break!
My advice is to take a couple of credit cards even if you have paid up front. They will want to swipe a card in case of damage and do not accept all of them. VISA worked OK for us after the first card was rejected.
It took about 1 hour 45 minutes to drive from Santo Domingo airport to Bayahibe. It will take longer if you are on a coach dropping people off at various resorts.
My advice if you are visiting Bayahibe is to is to try to take a flight into La Romana. This will leave about 20-30 minutes transfer to Bayahibe.
You could also fly into Bavaro but will still have about 2 hours to Bayahibe from there.
To check out the rest of the review of the Catalonia Gran Dominicus, see below:
Catalonia Gran Dominicus
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