Coral Level at Iberostar Selection Bavaro — Hotel in Higüey

Great trip and great place. We stayed here at what is the Selection Suites 22 years ago and the DR has definitely changed and filled in. Really liked the Coral upgrade, private lobby and location and exclusive restaurants and infinity pool. That made it worth the upgrade for us. ||We arrived around noon, checkin smooth, room not ready, but they got us wristbands, to the beach bar and food. Started things off awesome. Concierge was helpful, but of course the push for the "Special Breakfast" - NO NO NO. Have stayed at Iberostars 5 times and I wish I could pay $20 to not have that pitched at me. I don't want your timeshare - let me enjoy your resort and leave me alone. They werent as pushy as Mexico, but more tricky in trying to get that to happen, but you have to be persistent with the "no" or they try to weave deals into getting you to that. If you don't do that, good luck getting the concierge to get you any dinner reservations at steakhouse or Italian. He did help us book golf, which was nice - great course, affordable and fun day.||Golf carts were everywhere and they bussed you around anywhere you needed if you needed up to main lobby and a dollar or two went a long way. ||Restaurants - food was good - iberostar quality. We loved Salt and Soul with the upstairs and view of the beach and open air and El Faro as well. We wanted to eat at the Italian and couldnt get in which was a shame. Kinda frustrating that in 5 nights it is already booked up. But having El Faro and Salt and Soul as you exclusive options works great in my opinion. Food was always fresh, didnt see any food/health risks that have seen at some other AIs.||Drinks - were great...they have topshelf alcohol and siplay it proudly. But unless you specify it each time, and watch, you will not get. They are a bit slow on making drinks....might be the culture, but compared to mexico where I saw 3 bartenders hustling and serving 20 people fast at a beach/pool bar, I saw them mixing drinks at a snails pace w 3 bartenders and 2 people at the El Faro bar. Once you relax and get on island time and realize you can have as many as you want, it is fine. Service was so-so - yes tipping helped, but sometimes it just wasn't there. Sometimes at dinner, I got three drinks....one night one and they never even came back for our dessert course so we just left and went to the buffet for the dessert. So be prepared to tip and also just know, sometimes you don't know what else is going on and service can be inconsistent.||Room - fine in my opinion - love the location of the coral ones - we had adjoining family rooms for our teens which was great and were so close to beach/pool/restaurants. Ac worked, minibars full, secure, etc.||Beach - is beaituful and soft sand and so close to inifnity pool and bar....and then it drops off to the water where sargassum is coming in every day. AND TONS OF IT. Got worse while we were there....the first day the ocean was swimmable, the second, only in the morning. Rest of the trip huge mats of seaweed constantly coming in and then stacking up and blocking even walking along the water. It si crazy and so sad this has changed - I used to snorkle in front of this resort! But it is not Iberostars fault!!!!! They work all night and day long and clean it up - the winds and currents were just against them while we were there. It is a problem for ALL of Punta Cana and getting to be in Mex as well. Awesome thing about Iberostar was the way the beach dropped off you coldnt see the seaweed - it was just out of view and you coudl be on the beach and watch the waves and not be hindered by it....if you are looking for a beautiful beach to go to - go to the locals beach up in Macao - it is beautuful, so gradual, so calm and no seaweed. Again, the seaweed sucks, will only get worse through the summer, but the resort is doing all they can do.||Activities - we found the Coral level to be calm...almost too calm especially for my teens. And with our timing May 25-31, there were NO other US teens there. Star Friends seemed a bit less active and a bit less engaging than with other resorts, but they had less to work with. We played golf one day and went on a tour with Punta Cana Mike one day (do that - any of his tours to see the real Domincan culture and get toured around by what feels like a family member).||Pools - Inifinity pool was awesome - location, view, breeze, right next to bar/rest/beach. Inner pool is very quiet. We went over to the main Selection pool and it was pretty busy.||Language - do learn some Spanish - it is the language. Some of our service would've been better I am sure IF we could speak better Spanish. Broken Spanglish wasnt cutting it....sometime resulting in "No problem" which meant "I don't understand you gringo, but I am gonna make this drink my way, and you...

Check in—We arrived at the hotel 3 hours before check in, so we knew our room would not be ready when we arrived. We arrived at the Selection hotel (main lobby) and was asked by the bellhop what hotel we stated the Coral hotel. We were told to stand by the Coral hotel sign and someone will come and pick us up to take us to check in at the Coral lobby. We waited for about 10 minutes before the golf cart came to retrieve us and our bags. The bellhop, golf cart driver, and check in lady were very nice. When we arrived we waited for another 15 minutes because a family of five was checking in and there was only 1 person to check you in. When it was our turn we were greeted with a pleasant smile and was told our room was not ready, but we can check in, go have lunch, and they will let us know when the room was ready. After we checked in, they kept our bags, and we met our concierge personnel, Alberto who was exceptional throughout our stay! He called for a golf cart and they took us to El Faro, buffet lunch.||Food—We went to the lunch buffet (El Faro) when we arrived which included an array of food options including snow crab legs, lobster claws, steaks, salads, fruit, pork chops, salmon, burgers, and lots more. I was pleasantly surprised and excited, because I love seafood. The staff in the restaurant were very welcoming. For dinner, I made my own reservation on the Iberostar app for Brave the steakhouse. Brave was good and my family enjoyed it, but nothing to write home about. The Japanese and Italian restaurants, Alberto arranged for us. The Japanese restaurant, Kabuki was good but definitely not enough food if you don’t eat sushi. The hibachi itself is really a small hibachi bowl with about 4 pieces of chicken , shrimp, and steak with rice. For those of you who likes yum yum sauce—there is none not the salad with ginger dressing. It is a set menu and everyone gets the same dishes. My husband and son don’t eat sushi and the soup and hibachi bowl was not enough. The Italian restaurant, Il Forno Italian Restaurant was the best out of all 3. The food was hot and delicious and the dessert was the best dessert we had all week long. The Gala night at the buffet at the selection was amazing that including grilled lobster tails, chicken, pork, steaks, beef, fresh pizza, salad, desserts galore including different chocolate flavored desserts, and lots more food options. The food that night was excellent. We ate breakfast daily at El Faro, which was pretty much the same each day. I had made to order omelet each day. Lunch was pretty much the same as well. The room service and beach menu is limited and was just okay. The buffet food was always lukewarm and never hot except for the made to order food. I did not try the Mexican restaurant or other restaurants at the sister properties.||Room—My room was on the top floor of a building that was located near the pool, beach, and El Faro restaurant. The room itself was basic and nothing spectacular. The maid service was everyday and the ladies were very nice and accommodating.||The beach and pool— There are 2 pools on the Coral side both are small but nice. Be of the pools is literally steps from the beach. The beach is nice and like other reviewers there is seaweed but staff does a good job cleaning it up. The huts on the beach were plentiful and enough for everyone. However, I’m not sure if they are cleaned everyday or not. I sprayed my hut everyday with Lysol. Locals constantly come by asking you to purchase any and everything. It can be annoying to many, but it is typically in the Caribbean. There are lifeguards on the properties; however, they are not actually on the beach but under trees facing the guests and pool areas. So I wasn’t sure if they would help rescue anyone in the ocean or if they were there to oversee those in the non deep pools. ||Check out— Very easy process. Go to office or call from your room to check out and request a golf cart to pick you up and your luggage to take you to the selection lobby to be picked up for airport transfers.||Overall—Iberostar property is massive with all of the properties together next to Riu properties. For the most part the staff is always smiling and friendly. I didn’t encounter any staff that wasn’t friendly to me and my family or the group we were with. You are approached about attending a membership presentation, but it is typical when visiting most Caribbean resorts. Although, the resort is all inclusive and you will not find any tip jars anywhere, I recommend that you do. These employees work so hard and very long hours and are very appreciative of the tips. I give the resort at the coral level a 4.5 star due to rooms and...

We stayed here from August 27th to September 3rd as the first week of a two-week vacation in Punta Cana. It was about 20% cheaper than our second week at the Finest, and in my opinion, this price difference is justified.

The Coral Level is a separate section of the Iberostar Selection Bavaro, featuring around 80 rooms in 20 suite blocks. These rooms are all upgraded in decor compared to the standard hotel. In addition to the upgraded rooms, the Coral Level has two separate pools with bars, two separate restaurants, an exclusive club lounge, and an exclusive section of the beach. This exclusive access was appreciated, especially when comparing to the standard Iberostar Selection, which might have been slightly disappointing without these extra facilities.

Several staff members made our trip memorable. Jose Miguel, a waiter at the Coral quiet pool, was incredibly attentive and kept us supplied with drinks. Marleny, the hostess at El Faro, always welcomed us with a smile and chatted with our twins. Akeny at El Faro provided excellent service with a smile, and Ramon, a waiter at El Faro, also offered excellent service.

Our "pool access" room was perfect. The rooms are large, on split levels, and very clean. The maid tidied up nicely every day and left nice flower/towel arrangements. We really liked the self-service water machines at each block. It saves a huge amount of plastic, which is always a good thing. The minibar service always replaces two new bottles (1L each) every day. The plantain crisps in the jar by the coffee machine refilled daily were delicious! You also get a Nespresso machine. The TV also has a built-in Chromecast system which was perfect for playing cartoons for our kids from Youtube on our phones.

The two pools at the Coral Level are a perfect size for the number of guests staying there. They are both very clean and the infinity pool at the beach is just so nice the way it almost blends into the sand. The quiet pool is also serene, peaceful and a good depth and width for swimming. The only downside is that both of these pools get SO warm, especially in the late afternoon, so there's nowhere to cool off.

The cocktails at the Coral Lounge were fantastic, made with high-quality spirits. The wine at the Coral Level was also very good. The drinks at the rest of the resort were good too. Although you didn't get such top-shelf spirits, the wine was good and the drinks were made with care.

The breakfast and lunch buffet in El-Faro was fantastic. Not hundreds of options but just what you needed. Everything was fresh and very high quality. The other buffets were very good also, quality a little behind that of El Faro. We visited the Mediterranean twice and it was delicious. The Italian was great, I very much enjoyed the lasagne and my wife had the pasta where they made it fresh at your table, and tumble the spaghetti inside a big wheel of parmesan. We didn't try the Mexican or the hibachi as we couldn't get a reservation.

The beach itself was beautiful. The seaweed was always cleaned up daily. The Coral side of the beach was the best with the best slope into the water. The only major downside though was that the sea water itself was brown and it had a funky smell like fermenting seaweed. This meant that it wasn't very pleasant to swim in as you couldn't see the bottom.

The pools were amazing, except the temperature of the Coral pools. The main pool at the Iberostar Selection is split into zones, there is a diving zone with an amazing 7ft deep pool, a shallow, beach-like zone which is great for small children getting used to the water, and there is a swim-up bar zone.

We didn't catch much of the evening entertainment due to our toddlers' bedtime. The daytime entertainment and the one Dominican-show we saw were very good.

Overall, we loved our time here. The resort is beautiful, meets elegance, and the food in general is fantastic. We would definitely book again for the right price. A note of caution: avoid the "VIP breakfast" offered by Ricky at concierge. It's a sales pitch and not...