Just finished a week long trip at the NOW Larimar in Punta Cana 6/5/11 to 6/12/11. I have a mixed report, so there are some good points and some not so good.
Bars and drinks:
Being my 3rd all inclusive resort, I felt a little smarter than the average guest for remembering to bring my own tall cups for drinks at the bars (which I didn’t see too many others that did). That being said, the mixed drinks were good, some bar tenders made stronger drinks than others, but were more than willing to add if it wasn’t strong enough. The ‘frozen’ drinks were made from a mix and were overly sweet (and not too frozen), so after a few days, I stuck to basic mixed drinks such as gin and tonics, Cuba Libres, etc. The Lobby Bar was pretty cool & low key and had live music each night, but a bit long of a wait to get a drink, and you had to be very aggressive to get the bar tenders attention to get you the drink. If you waited for a waitress, it took even longer. The swim up pool bar was great – Pablo was awesome, and was always willing to snap pics for us. Lisette at the bar close to Sea Pro Watersports was very nice and there was never a wait there.
Restaurants:
The sit down restaurants were good. Unlike other a la carte restaurants @ all inclusives, reservations were not required or taken. Dinner at the a la carte restaurants will take ~2 hours each night – after you sit down. We were prepared for that and were OK with it. 1st night we ate at Bluewater, and I ate the surf n turf (beef filet and shrimp) – it was excellent. The 2nd night we tried Spice, the Asian restaurant - food was average, but we were only 4 people and the trick is to sit at the “show cooking” which requires 12. We went another night and begged them into doing the show just before closing and had 2 others join us – warning – it was HOT sitting there – almost unbearable. We had awesome soup, sushi (I do not eat sushi, but the others liked it), and the main course was fried rice, beef, shrimp, chicken and veggies – very good. We had house red wine and water, and a nice fried ice cream desert. One night we went to Capers, the Italian restaurant, also excellent. You will wait for a long time to get service, and you will have to flag them down to get them to stop and get you what you need. The French Restaurant would not allow minors inside, so we did not eat there. Breakfast was definitely the best, get yourself an omelet. The various juices reminded me of the drinks at the bars – overly sweet... Use the coffee machine at the buffets for an expreso coffee – very good. Room service – don’t make your order complicated – Spanish is my 1st language and they still managed to mess it up royally the 2nd time (omelet was not as ordered) (1st day I ordered in was a simple order and perfect). Lastly, after trying most of the a la carte restaurants, we ate mostly at the buffet so we could eat quickly, but I will say that all 4 of us thought the last night of the dinner buffet was GROSS – not edible – not sure why.
Activities:
Note: ALL PRICES are negotiable, and our extra cost activities only involved scuba and parasailing.
Scuba: I used Sea Pro divers, on site at the hotel. Four days of diving (2 tanks per day) cost me $200 ($50 per person per day, which is excellent). I was originally quoted $300 per person. They asked if I wanted to do the Catalina Island trip. I was originally quoted $200 per person, which I thought was ridiculous and I let them know it was not an option. They offered me the trip for $80 per person on top of the $50 per person for the scuba (so $130 for a Catalina trip WITH 2 tanks and all food n drink). I thought since it was on the south side of the island, the water would be clearer, etc. The visibility is directly dependent upon the river that empties into the sea. Due to the rain, the wall was not divable – visibility would have been like that of a Texas lake. Both dives were done on the south side of the island to about 40/45 feet, visibility was no better than right there in Punta Cana, but the reefs were definitely nicer, and more alive. Note: for Catalina, you’ll be on a CATTLE CAR boat, and I knew this prior, but my goal was to dive the wall and give my GF and kids that experience. Needless to say, Catalina was a disappointment to me – but was not the resort’s fault. We also did 3 days of Punta Cana diving which included two wrecks – the Monica and the larger Astron (pretty cool). One of the days we went to Shark Alley and we saw a shark from the boat, but none while diving. Last dive of the trip, we dove with 3 live manatees in the wild. Note: this was not a “canned” dive – it was totally by chance. The manatees were approachable, allowed themselves to be pet, even rolled over for us to pet their bellies. They even went up for air and came back to us for more. I’d been waiting 22 years for that opportunity and my GF and daughter got it on their 8th ever ocean dive.
Parasailing: I heard people paying up to $120 for a tandem ride, I bought my trip from “Johnny Cash” who continued to supply me with free Cuban cigars on the beach all week – last one was a Monte Cristo even. I paid $60 for a tandem ride. Note: Don’t buy a tour unless you’re ready to do it right then and there – you may not see the guy you gave the money to the next day or even a few hours later.
Resort Shows: We did not have the opportunity to see entire shows, but we caught part of the psuedo cirque de soleil show where they did acrobatics, and fire twirling – was pretty cool to watch. We caught the tail end of the Michael Jackson show too. Being from Dallas, we were far more interested in seeing the Mavericks games at Scores, the sports bar (we didn’t drink there). There was 3 bowling lanes in Scores, but it was extra, we didn’t play a game since we weren’t carrying money ($10 per game and 4 could play for the $10). There was another dancing show one night, but I wasn’t too into it. There were also movies on the beach each night next to the dive shop, sound quality and screen were nice. I usually just found a quiet place to sit on the beach and listen to the waves at night with my GF.
The Beach: The beach was absolutely gorgeous... White sand, super tall palm trees and clear warm Caribbean waters... There was some seaweed, but it was not a lot, or anything I wouldn’t see anywhere else. We did not have any trouble finding 4 beach lounges, even under a cover all week.
Gym: kinda sparse in equipment, but I did not use it – do not remember seeing free weights as stated on the website.
Spa, Kids Club, Eclipse night club, tennis courts, casino, I also did not use.
The website states that they have these things (none of which I saw): Inflatable climbing iceberg, Ocean trampoline, Ocean iceberg, Euro-bungee, Spanish classes, Dance classes, or the 3 pool tables. Not saying they weren’t there, but I felt I saw the whole resort and did not see these things.
They did have vendors in the area between the pool bar and the beach and they were relentless in trying to get you to buy things from cigars to jewelry to whatever else. I actually started to consider avoiding going to the beach to avoid dealing with them – they were like cockroaches. I just ended up walking past them w/o stopping or acknowledging them. Still it was annoying.
The rest of the activities and attractions may have been there, but since I was not interested in them, I did not seek out to sign up and it wasn’t obvious where to sign up.
Hope this review helps, loved Punta Cana, might stay here again, but I might pick a different place with better food n drinks.
