Finest Punta Cana — Hotel in Higüey

I recently stayed at the Finest Punta Cana for a friend's wedding. Because we were with a wedding party, there were specifics for how to do reservations online which were a little confusing, but ultimately easy enough to navigate. The site offers the ability to choose your own room - again, I found the site somewhat challenging to navigate. The file sizes must be huge because it look forever for pictures to load. Still, I was happy to choose a suite on the adult-only side of the hotel, where most of the wedding party was located.||This is also not a reflection on the Finest, but the DR requires an e-ticket for your flight. You must create this up to 72 hours before your flight and have it with your passport at the airport. ||I've traveled all over the world, and this has never been a requirement so another added nuisance to be mindful of - I thought the purpose would be to speed up check in/customs at the airports but it definitely slowed things down. From the airport, the Finest is about a 40-45 minute ride to the hotel. We had organized airport transportation which I was grateful for since my Spanish is lacking! ||Once I arrived at the hotel, I was greeted for check in with a wet towel and champagne. Our wedding party had access to the Excellence Club, where they have a full bar and lounge you can enjoy until you start the formal check in process. I had downloaded the app prior to arrival so I was ready to go. ||I booked one of the 2 story suites which exceeded my expectations. The room was very clean and cool, which was important to me considering how hot and humid it was during our stay. The bathroom offered a double sink, stand up shower and private toilet. We had a king size bed and a spacious living area, equip with a desk which I needed for work on one day. Off of the living room is an indoor plunge pool (jacuzzi). I loved that this was enclosed IN the room - you could relax and still take in the view without the direct sun/humidity. There was also a main level balcony with a cute daybed and bistro table. Upstairs was the roof deck which had a full size day bed, table and rooftop pool. If we weren't there for the wedding/with friends, I could have stayed up there all day!||As part of the all-inclusive, there is 24 hour room service. While the Market offers a great buffet, I much preferred to order breakfast to the room. They advise 40 mins for delivery; typically it was closer to an hour but I was definitely ordering meals at peak meal times. This didn't bother me because I was traveling solo, but I'd plan to order an hour in advance after this experience. On of the coolest things was a special closet once you finish your food. You put it in there for pick up so its not sitting in the hallway and no one needs to interrupt you to come back in.||Every morning, I walked to the coffee shop near the lobby for an iced latte. The shop offers some fun signature drinks, but I preferred to stick to my go-to and it was delicious each time. The coffee shop also offered ice cream, which I'm sure kids/families would love.||During our stay, there were 3-4 weddings and I was pleasantly surprised how quiet/relaxing the resort still feels at night. The lobby bar seems to be a central meeting spot, but most groups migrated to the karaoke bar, sports bar or night club during the later hours. As such, it's pretty quiet throughout the resort if you're with a family. While I spent most of my time at the adult only pool, the amenities for kids look amazing. It makes me want to come back with my husband and daughter! There is a cool food truck area, a giant bounce ball in the kids pool and a playground. I also walked through a theater area but never saw anything happening there.||Back on the adult size, the swim up bar and food truck were where I spent most of my free time. The staff work very hard and are all so polite. We were advised to bring cash for tips and I was glad I did since they were all working so hard to provide a memorable experience. I tipped $1-2/per drinks/coffee, $2-5/day for housekeeping, $5/dinner at any of the formal dining areas and $10 for my transportation from the airport. Because I was there for a wedding, 2 of my 3 nights dinner was prepared for us. ||On the last night, I chose to eat at Dommo. Dommo is known for it's tomahawk steak (which has no add'l charge), but I knew I'd never finish that. I ordered a tuna tartare which was incredible and the beef filet. The filet was just average, but all better than I expected with an all inclusive. ||I am not typically one to work out on vacation, but since I was traveling solo, I decided I'd get it in. The gym highly exceeded my expectations - so much that I went twice! They offered nice towels and even some post-work out beverages: green juices, greek yogurt smoothies, etc. which was all grab and go.||I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how well maintained the grounds are. Every day, I saw landscapers meticulously cleaning up edging or dead leaves. Additionally, they work tirelessly to keep the seaweed off the sand for the beachgoers. I prefer the pool, but they deserve praise for their efforts.||I had only been to Punta Cana once previously and this stay highly exceeded my expectations. All staff was personable, and professional. I highly recommend the Finest to anyone and I hope to return for a...

We had a decent time here, although we likely won't be back, as it didn't quite impress. I'll start with the good...it really is kid friendly. I chose this resort for that reason because we were celebrating my daughter's first birthday and I wanted her to have a good time. They had a kids club that catered to all ages (shallow pool with slides and a mini water park, and a soft play area with soft blocks and toys). She had a blast here and we took her two days out of the 4 we stayed. The property is well kept and clean. The room was really great! We had a junior suite with Plunge Pool so the plunge pool was private and we could use at anytime, which was nice to let the kiddo just have some water fun without having to trek to the resort pools. I did notice a few playground areas as well but these would be for maybe 2-3+ years old. There was also a lot of restaurants on site to chose from with lots of different cuisines. They do all have dress codes though which normally i wouldnt mind but they didnt have a breakfast spot that didnt have a dress code which isn't awesome when you want to hit the beach right after. The dress code was more restructive for men than women. Though it took several emails/weeks to arrange, thebresort was able to arrange making my daughter a dairy and egg free birthday cake which was super special. It would have been quite difficult to find a vegan cake in the area. On to the "meh". The entertainment each night was interesting. Granted, we didn't go to all of the nightly entertainment, however, our room was close to one of the theaters and we could hear it clearly when on the deck and even see some. It was amateur at best. It gave karaoke vibes but it was supposed to be a professional singer. I did hear a violinist play and they were pretty good. They had outdoor entertainment before the nightly entertainment in the big theater. The entertainment in the big theater seemed like it would be nice to attend but they always started so late at night like 9:30p. The beach was ok. It wasn't packed so that was nice. We did come in August so the seaweed (and quite a bit of it) washed up on shore. It was a wide band of seaweed so most places were not easy to step over to get to the water. And the water was kind of murky...of course the resort can't do anything about that just adding in detail for those whobare looking for the crystal clear blue waters.....ok things I really didn't like...each restaurant had a "whole food, plant based" menu which as someone who doesn't eat dairy was very excited about. My daughter also has a dairy and egg allergy so knowing I could easily get something for her put my mind at ease, until I actually saw the menu. Some items had chees...not a whole food and not plant based. The sweet shop had a plant based ice cream but it wasnt available during my stay because of the almond delivery...apparently they make it on site.....I will say, however, once i had come back several times to see if they had it, the chef did prepare a small container of almond milk ice cream for me which was nice. But at a few of the restaurants their plant based menu wasnt really plant based & at one of the restaurants I ordered specifically from that menu & they gave me something with cheese on top. Also some things on the menu were labeled as "contains dairy" but then several items that clearly contained dairy were not marked as such so it made it hard to trust. Speaking more of food, the food we did have did taste good. I mostly had wings and fries, eggs & oatmeal for breakfast from the buffet, we had sushi one night & steakhouse dinner the next. I ordered duck confit sliders & they literally came out with 1, 2 in slider, which was very disappointing. Ok last thing I didn't like was the customer service. I'll preface this with, when I stay at a resort level hotel, my expectations are quite high for service. While there were a select few who went above an beyond a vast majority of the service staff (not housekeeping) were just not friendly. Not rude..but just blah. Resort level hotels...

This place is a NIGHTMARE for FOOD ALLERGIES! We just returned from a week at the Finest Punta Cana. I had high hopes after reading the reviews. We have been to several all-inclusive resorts over the past 20 years; this was our third trip to Punta Cana. I would NOT stay at the Finest again unless there were no other options. The rooms are well-appointed, the facility is beautiful, the bar/restaurant staff and entertainment crew were all great, but that's about it. We were not greeted by friendly, welcoming staff with a cold towel and drink as we have been at every other facility. I found booking incredibly difficult and should have seen that as a warning and moved on. We are a family of 5 (and had another couple also traveling with us who stayed on the Excellence side), the Finest makes you book anyone over 12 as an adult, and you are not allowed more than 4 “adults” in a room…even the family suites. So we booked two rooms for our family, and we were assured that we would be in the same building, with a note made to put our rooms as close as possible. That didn’t happen. I argued and got nowhere. They consider 3 different buildings all the “same building” because they call them all “building 5”. Buildings are connected by walkways. We were in the front building, and our kids were in the last room of another building. I was told it was because of our room types, so I asked for an upgrade or downgrade to get us closer. I was told there was no availability, but the following day, my kids could move to another room that was close to us. The following morning, I packed up the room. Called and let them know the room was ready to be moved. After a few hours at the pool we went back to check and the room had not been moved, so I went down to the Finest Club check-in for a status update at which time I was told the room they were “holding” for me had been assigned to another guest because I “didn’t confirm” that I wanted to move. I couldn’t believe it. Miguel Angel tells me he will have a room to move them in 2 more days. He was the same person who promised to move us the first day as well. Needless to say, we spent a stupid amount of our time packing up rooms to be moved and never really got settled in. The resort felt like it was at about 35% capacity max-TONS of open chairs, never a line or a wait anywhere. The room keys are still cards-so you have to carry a card everywhere you go. Most facilities moved to bracelets years ago. There was also no differentiation between the upgrades that we paid for with the exception of a few dining options. We had friends with us who stayed in an Imperial Suite on the Excellence side, and we were in the Finest Club, but truly, there was no telling who was who. No bracelets or anything to identify who was supposed to be using the “exclusive” pools and beach areas. I would NOT suggest paying the extra for “club”…it does nothing for you because none of the staff have any idea who is in the “club” and who isn’t. There is a crazy double standard on the dress code. My husband and son couldn’t come into the buffet for lunch with a sleeveless t-shirt, but women are walking around in virtually clear “cover-ups” with a thong on?? Women are not permitted to wear shorts into the restaurants-not a big deal, but I wouldn’t have packed them had I realized this. My BIGGEST CONCERN is that I have a child with a severe allergy to peanuts. They have peanuts in packages in the room-not a big deal for us because my son is 10 and knows not to touch them. However, the buffet is a giant CROSS CONTAMINATED NIGHTMARE! The buffet is set up with all of the containers of food, labels at the back of the bar and a few spoons in the front. No clue what is what, nor what spoon goes to which dish. Literally, people would pick up one spoon and dip it into chicken, then fish etc. We got lucky-no anaphylaxis for us this trip, but I was on high alert the entire time. I also found the resort to be incredibly BORING! We loved our stay at Dreams a few years back-things to do for little kids and...