whala!bávaro — Hotel in Higüey

We have just returned from a 2 week all inclusive stay at Whala! Bavaro. There are many nice things about this hotel but there are also some not very nice things about this hotel. I will break them up into Pros and Cons below:||Pro's- The Room.||- The room is very good but especially the ones in block 2. The room was spacious and clean (we did have an instance of a dead cockroach but this was dealt with somewhat promptly.). The bed was massive, easily one of the nicer ones we have stayed in on our travels. We had no problem with the air conditioning though it went a bit wobbly after a rainstorm. The balcony was spacious and offered an area to dry out clothes and towels. The bathroom wasn't in the best condition, the taps were quite limescaly BUT the shower was amazing and the toilet worked well. ||-Housekeeping was regular and friendly. We had a safe available to us (But be warned this is an additonal $30 charge when you arrive to the hotel) that worked and despite other reviews the room was left alone when we were not in it. ||Con's- The Room. ||- We heard that some of the rooms in other blocks were not as nice, they were dark and noisy at night time. Also, some of the rooms flooded in our block and forced another family to move hotels altogether. ||Pro's- Food and Drink ||-Alcoholic beverages were quite good. The cocktails were delicious, not overly alcoholic and usually quite swift with their making. The beer was ok. Soft drink wise, they were not very good at all. The exception being the mixing lemonade which when drank as a standalone was very refreshing. The hotel provides you with 3 bottles of water a day but it isn't the best water in the world but maybe this is a moot point, water is water after all. ||-Food (Week 1)- Food is essentially available 24 hours a day which is excellent. For the first week of our stay we thought that the food was good. They offered a great selection at breakfast, lunch and dinner. They offer a buffet and an a la carte but book this in advance. In the buffet they also had a station where a chef would cook whatever is available fresh for you, this included things like pasta and sauce and stir frys.||Con's- Food and Drink ||-The cola was hit and miss, sometimes it was nice but other times it was awful and had a a gross aftertaste of sewage. ||-Food (week 2)- We're not sure what really happened after the first week but the food on week 2 took a real turn for the worse. Selection wasn't great and it was far busier than normal, the quality was lacking too, we had a stir fry that was literally drowned in Soy Sauce and was far too salty to eat, the sea would have been jealous. The quality of the burger in the snack bar was awful too, full of gristle and stale bread. I opened my burger up and the inside was disgusting, although Goblin the snack bar cat disagreed with me. One thing to note, eat early as if you leave it later the buffet turns into a bit of a feeding time at the zoo scenario. One last thing to note, and this is no fault of the hotel but British travellors should be advised to take precautions with medicine, I did catch a bit of travellors belly, there is a pharmacy down the road that can help.||Pro's- Pool Area.||-There are three pools dotted around the ground and each has sunbeds available to access at any given time. There is a good vibe around the pools, with music playing and people having a great time. ||-The pools were also very safe, we left our goods on our beds when we went into the pools and they were fine. ||Con's- Pool Area||-The pool's did get dirty and never really cleaned. The pool's being dirty was not reallty the fault of the hotel staff but of other guests. Regularly we saw that people would spill food into the pool's and we did see children using the glasses of drinks as improvised water pistols. This meant that there was a lot of food and drink debris that created a fine film across the top of the pool. This was particularly evident in the front pool of the hotel, which was our favourite one until a whole plate of chicken was dropped into it by another guest and created a nasty slick which never went away.||-Pro's- Surrounding Area ||-After the drop off in quality of the food we travelled outside of the hotel to find restaurants. They are plentiful and delicious, we would recommend Kat's Corner and Bella Napoli. We would heavily recommend Castaways and Terra Negra.||Con's- Surrounding Area||-The road floods when it rains, and I mean FLOODS. There are also areas that are vert smelly, this is due to manual waste collection, this smell DOES NOT reach the hotel, just the road outside of it. There are also many people that will try to sell you stuff but they are not insistant and will leave you alone when you say no. ||Pro's- The Beach. ||- Short walk away from the hotel, there are sunbeds and a bar that you can chill in and the sand is nice and white and warm. ||Con's||- Sargassum. Now I wish to be clear here THIS IS NO FAULT OF THE HOTEL it is just an unfortunate situation with Mother Nature. The beach is filled with Sargassum, we happened to have booked our stay in a period of time where there has been record breaking amounts of Sargassum that made our beach unswimmable. BUT!!!! If you turn right at the boats and walk down about 2km (it was easier than you think) you can get to swimmable sea which is GLORIOUS! The downside being that you can't get a sunbed but if you want to swim you can put your stuff down and do so, we did this regularly and was never worried about our stuff getting stolen. Beware of the people who will try and sell you stuff, they are frequent but will leave you alone if you say no. ||Pro's- Entertainment ||-There was plenty on offer throughout our stay every night had a theme. They also have a daily shuttlebus to the big mall which runs daily if you fancy a change of scene.||Con's- Entertainment||-Not really a con as we did not engage with it, but most of the entertainment was in Spanish so we didn't partake. This is mostly our choice as we never really felt the want to go out late. ||Pro's- The Cats. ||- They had four cats. They were pretty chill. ||Con's- The Cats. ||- There were only four cats. ||To conclude, we did have a nice and relaxing stay at Whala! Bavaro. It is good value for money, especially if you make full use of the food and drink. Staff are useful and mostly friendly, they do not speak great English as most of the guests who attend the hotel are from Spanish speaking countries. 2 weeks was maybe a bit too long, this hotel is small and unless you plan on doing lots of excursion you can find youself a bit bored. 7 to 10 days would be a great timeframe for you to experience everything this has to offer. Hopefully in the future the hotel can find some time to renovate as it does have an awful lot...

Whala! Load of Rubbish

Three of us were on this holiday together. The hotel itself looked great from the outside. The rooms were also nice and clean until the following day when we had problems with flushing the toilet. On 3 separate occasions we had the same problem and report this to reception. With each call it took longer and longer for maintenance to arrive to resolve the problem. On the final call to reception we told them that we want to be moved as the problem is a recurring one. Eventually it was fixed after harsh conversation with the manager.

Before we could be moved there was another problem, this time with the Air Condition, where water was coming from the equipment and running down the wall and forming a puddle on the floor, which we were constantly cleaning up. Again we called reception and informed them of the problem. Two maintenance men arrived and we had to speak to them using the App to translate English to Spanish because that was the only way they could understand us. In the end it could not be fixed and we ask for a room change. When we called reception to inform them that we would like to change room, we were told that no manager was available to speak to us. Really!! A hotel with no one in charge. After telling them we did not believe such rubbish, sometime later a member of staff came to tell us that we were being moved to another room. Yipee!! This was short-lived.

The new room had a balcony with no view or the view of the dining area rooftop and we were in the last room on the corridor, 3212 with building work going on daily. As we were out most of the time, we stayed.

On returning to the room one day, I entered the toilet only to be greeted by cockroach lying on its back on the bathroom floor. I called the cleaner who was in the corridor at the time and asked her to remove it, which she did. What next??

The bathroom sinkhole was rusty and so was the shower. The bathroom door needed painting, the door handle was also rusty and the shower would only work if you took it off the holder and held it in your hand.

One evening whilst having dinner in the restaurant, my friend saw a rat shimmering up the pipes next to our room. She ran upstairs to check that the balcony door was closed to ensure it didn't make its way into our room.

Towels

We had 1 towel each which was expected to be changed every 3 days. Really!! In that heat we showered at least 2 or 3 times per day and was expected to use the same towel over and over again. No way!

Toilet bin

The day before we leave we went shopping and came back bout 4 0'clock and our room hadn't been cleaned. Beds not made or bin emptied. We saw the cleaner cleaning other rooms up and down the corridor and waited for her to come to our room, but she did not. Take into consideration that the bin contains used toilet paper as their system does not allow for toilet paper to be flushed you would think that common sense would prevail and they would at least empty the bins. My friend had to call reception, again, and point out to them how unhygienic this is to not empty the bins every day. Shortly after the cleaner came and did her job.

And finally!! the stench coming from the overflowing drains outside the hotel, when it rained, is enough to make you puke.

Considering this is supposed to be a 4* hotel, it was disgusting, more like a 2*, if you ask me. I would not stay there again, even if they paid me. Avoid...

Our travel agency JETLINE TOURS was a total nightmare and after a bait and switch, we ended up in this resort Whala! Bavaro instead of another resort last minute. I read the reviews of this hotel and panicked. The reviews didn't make it seem nice at all. My husband and I kept an open mind and knew that we had the power to make the best of any situation so despite my hesitation about the hotel initially, we decided to make the trip anyway.

It was one of the best trips we have had to Punta Cana! The resort staff was the friendliest staff out of any resort we have visited. (We go to a beach all inclusive about every 3 months and this staff was the top of the best of the best for being awesome). The staff was awesome and never once told me NO to all of my questions and requests!

We stayed in room 2308 and loved it. Housekeeping was perfect and daily! The AC was freezing and we were happy. We had hot water. Our toilet worked perfectly and we didn't have any issues. Our mini fridge was restocked daily with bottled water. We asked for 10 bottles a day and they provided it to us without any hesitation. There is a huge sign on the bathroom mirror NOT to drink the water from the sink so we didn't (A lot of review said the water in the room was bad, it's not safe to drink so don't try it. There are huge signs in the bathroom telling people this.) Our balcony door locked without issues. I felt very safe and we didn't use the safe which was an extra cost. The entertainment was great!

Everyone was an equal and I didn't have to listed to timeshare pitches or feel less because I wasn't priveldged status. It was so nice to have a friendly resort!

The food in the buffet was great. It was stocked up until the minute it closed and they didn't kick anyone out. We arrived at the resort at 2:45PM and they closed for lunch at 3. They let us sit and eat and everything was available and they didn't start putting anything away until they asked if we were done with it.

All of the tables are set. IT's a smaller boutique hotel so you don't have to fight for food or a table or a seat or a reservation. It was very calm and we loved that about the resort.

We ate breakfast and lunch daily in the buffet restaurant and had dinner every night at the snack bar which was converted to a menu dinner restaurant. You needed a reservation but not really. They always worked to get us in when I forgot to make the reservation before 3. We are there for all 5 nights so we tried everything and it was good.

The hotel is across a very tiny street to the beach. You basically walk 30 feet down a sidewalk to a beautiful beach.

I wish they had another restaurant but that would be my only complaint. Everything else we loved and had a great time. The staff and the management...