Wyndham Alltra Punta Cana — Hotel in Higüey

My wife and I recently (August 08 - 13, 2025) stayed at the Wyndham Alltra Punta Cana for a week and LOVED it. We enjoyed many of the amenities, including all of the restaurants, the buffet and had a couples massage. ||All of the staff there were fantastic. Check-in was a breeze, we were quickly done with it and brought to our room. The room was great (5513), it had a fantastic view of the pool, the swim up bar and the ocean. The bed was very comfy and the bathroom was spacious and included all the needed items, like soap shampoo, conditioner and a decent blow dryer.||The mini fridge was a welcomed item. As the water in the rooms isn't for drinking, having an adequate supply of bottled (still) water and soft drinks that you are able to keep cold is a great trade off. ||The two masseuses for our couples massage were very nice, very good at delivering a wonderful and relaxing massage and very pleasant. The massage being done in a very tranquil and secluded location at the resort very nice. ||The nightly entertainment was great. We could choose from a number of options each night. There was an open air venue between the pool and the main theater building which hosted karaoke, DJs and small, intimate performers with a bar nearby. The larger theater had a good mix of entertainment from acrobats at the circus night to an 80s show and the like. All the performers were high quality and very entertaining.||The staff at the restaurants were very attentive and personable. The hostess at the buffet got to recognize us by the second morning. The food there was of better than many we have seen. The portions of food in the trays wasn't so large that it stayed out too long. It was never dried out or overdone. And the staff were attentive so that if a try was getting near empty, they were they very quickly to replace it with a fresh tray. The food was very tasty and varied by day. Each of the dinner restaurants was closed at night on a rotating schedule. The buffet would have a representative set of offerings that would always include some of the food offered at the closed dinner restaurant for that night. There was always a plentiful amount of fresh fruit, salad and seafood available as well as the requisite carving station/grill with cooked to order steaks, burgers and usually a pork offering. They had many cook to order locations in the buffet, usually including a crepe station, a pizza station and a pasta station for lunch and dinner. Breakfast would always have omelet stations, pancakes and french toast as well as eggs to you request (over easy or the like). ||The individual dinner restaurants (Steakhouse, Seafood, Italian and Pan-Asian) were very nice, some of the portions were a little small, but it made it easy to save a little room for the fantastic desserts. They each offer a different type of food, all of which were very good. The service at these locations was great. We were always seated quickly, but as a party of 2 I would expect it was easy to do so. We did see them accommodate a party of 14 on two of the nights we were out and even that size group didn't push the wait for the average table beyond a few minutes.||The pool there was unbelievable! It takes up the majority of the space in the middle of the resort and while it is not deep, it is a comfortable depth throughout. It is one of the very few pools that we both were able to walk into without even a second of adjustment to the temperature needed. It was literally like bathwater. In fact there were some places in the pol where the water got warmer than we liked and we just moved back to the area we did like. It appears that with the addition of the kids play area and pool, the main pool had very few children in it and no "horseplay" that we saw. The kids that were in the pool, all ages from infants to teens, were enjoying themselves but not bothering anyone that we could see.||We were there in mid-August and expected the ocean to be an issue with the seaweed. We were right. It was the season that the beaches are inundated with seaweed, so the beaches are not ideal. But there were a few days it was usable and people were taking advantage of that when they could. ||We were so impressed with this resort that we have recommended it to several friends and are planning to send some good friends there as a wedding gift for their honeymoon. We highly suggest visiting this resort if you’re looking for a relaxing all-inclusive resort in Punta Cana. ||It is about 45 minutes away from the airport and the only negative thing I would say is that they should either offer a shuttle or links on the website to recommended car services. We used Premium Transfers Punta Cana JGDR. I found them on Viator and was very happy with them. I will say that if you are looking at booking with them, make sure you read the specifics of where they run to. They offer 2 different services, based on where your resort it located. Since the Wyndham Alltra Punta Cana is in Uvero Alto and farther away from the airport than many other resorts, there is an additional charge for the service. It was still reasonable at $137 US for round trip transportation to the resort and back to the airport for 2 adults and...

We recently stayed at the Jewel Punta Cana. While getting transportation, I found out the resort just recently changed their name to Jewel due to a bad reputation. The location is about 35- 40 minutes away from the airport so you may want to make transportation arrangements ahead of time. When we arrived at the resort it was absolutely beautiful. There was someone standing outside with a refreshing beverage in champagne glasses (non-alcoholic) to greet us. The staff at the front counter was very inviting and made you feel extra special. After we checked in and received our room keys, the bellman escorted us to our room. The rooms are located in apartment style buildings. Now here's our good and bad experience:

GOOD: The customer service and the aesthetics of the outside of the resort was fabulous. The grounds are immaculate and there's lots of trees and decor and statues to add to the ambiance. The swimming pool is crystal clear and it runs the entire length of the resort which gives you your own space to move around and enjoy swimming without running into other people. There's plenty of seating around the pool and the towels are kept stocked and warm for your use when needed. The flamingos walk around the pool during the day, but they do not bother you. (Make sure to bring actual swim suits/ shorts because they do not allow regular clothes in the pool). Every night there's a dance party or some sort of entertainment and the entertainment crew is amazing! There's plenty to drink no matter where you go around the resort (for drinkers and non-drinkers); I loved the pina coladas.

BAD: When we entered the room, it had a strong mildew odor. We had adjourned rooms with our kids and their room had that same odor. You can tell the resort is not the newest and they tried to put a fresh layer of paint to make it look more appealing to the eye but whoever did the painting did a horrible job, they even left paint in the tub/ shower. You could still see mold in the corners and the botched repair jobs where there was cracks and holes. The sheets and covers felt damp and first I thought it was just the temp of the room (because the AC was definitely doing its job), but my husband and kids felt the same dampness (maybe because it's very humid in Punta Cana). The food at the buffet was cold (they should definitely invest in some better heat warmers to keep the hot food hot). Speaking of the buffet, the buffet restaurant is located inside the main building of the resort but there were birds that kept flying around over you and I was afraid they were going to drop some poop on me or my food. There are several restaurants on the property but they're not all open everyday, so you would have to go to the front desk everyday to get a new sheet that details the activities and where you can locate food, which is blocked off in time frames (makes all-inclusive more like limited in-clusive). It advertised free non motorized water sports but all we could find were ppl trying to sell us excursions. It's very annoying being harassed by ppl constantly trying to sell you things while you're just trying to relax, and they won't take no for an answer, so I found myself having to be aggressive in my tone for them to leave us alone. You're only allowed to access about a few thousand feet of beach area before they say you're out of boundary for the resort (very strange) and there's only a small space of area for you to play in the ocean. The beach area was packed with seaweed and you have to climb over it if you want to go in the ocean. Maybe they could hire someone to come get it up every so often, especially since the authorized area for the resort is so small. The worst part of my whole stay is when we arrived. The tub and shower are together and it was FILTHY. I call and requested it to be cleaned but it still looked the shower curtain only goes half way. Only food to find during the day was at the pool where they give you sample sizes with limited options.

Overall we had a great time but definitely wouldn't stay at this...

I traveled to Dominican Republic with my family for a short vacation and we stayed at the Dreams Hotel and Resort in Punta Cana. I was with my wife and two teens. Overall we had a good time. I would say that if this hotel is at the top of your budget, definitely choose it with confidence, however, you may want to consider other options. Here are some of the good and bad highlights. Be sure and read the bonus tip at the end.

The Good:

-This is a beautiful property. The landscaping is lush and well-maintained. -There is an extensive swimming pool that is about 4 feet deep throughout. I’d recommend you bring pool noodles or a boogie board. They do sell these things at the shop by the pool, but if you can, just bring your own. There is one swim-up bar. -We upgraded to “Preferred” and had adjoining rooms and they were just perfect. Very nicely appointed, comfortable bed, in-room safe, nice shampoo and lotion. -The hibachi at the Himatsu Asian restaurant was fun and the best food we had the entire time. There isn’t a reservation system though, so you’ll probably wind up waiting for a table. We really enjoyed the Monkeyland excursion. You WILL have monkeys walking all over you.

The bad: -The hallways outside of the rooms are echo chambers. That means that if someone is -anywhere near your room talking, etc, you’re going to hear it.

-Unfortunately, on most days hotel employees with communication radios blaring and or just sweeping the stairs woke us up by 7:30am. This is obnoxious and inexcusable on the part of the hotel. -They also turn on “relaxing music” at the pool at maybe 7:30 or 8:00am. If you’re a light sleeper, you’re going to hear it and wake up - it’s pretty loud. The food on average was “okay.” Dreams would do well to improve the overall food quality, particularly at the buffet. Other guests definitely agreed with me on this point and you’ll find other recent reviews saying the same. -Service in the restaurants and buffets really varied. Sometimes it was quite bad, and others it was over-the-top good. (Shout out to Juan in the morning buffet for great service) Don’t count on a given restaurant being open. One night there were two “special events” that closed two of the restaurants without warning forcing us to go to the buffet. The remaining restaurants had huge lines, so there really wasn’t any choice. Restaurants were randomly closed when we were there, and there can be very long waits for the ones that were open. Again, for the most part, the food in the restaurants was “okay.” -They really need to work on improving their Sushi. It was on the buffet one night and it wasn’t appetizing at all. -It is quite loud in the Asian and Italian restaurants. So loud in the Italian restaurant that I couldn’t easily talk to the person next to me. -The beach is lovely, but unfortunately, like almost every island in the Caribbean, sargassum seaweed is prevalent. The hotel tries to control it by removing it with a bulldozer, however, there is still plenty in the water. It is mostly harmless but does take away from the experience. -As I mentioned, we upgraded to the preferred club. I am not sure if it was worth it. The best perk was the Oceana restaurant near the pool for lunch and dinner, but unfortunately, they closed it on our second to the last day, and we had to walk up to the reception area for a different restaurant (Portifino) that was not equivalent and the waiter was NOT accommodating to us at all. We made a simple request to have chicken burgers instead of beef and were met with a “NO.” Even though there is a boneless chicken breast dish on the menu …we ended up going to the buffet.

You also get special towels when you are in the preferred club, but good luck finding them–especially near the beach.

Bonus: You need to fill out the MANDATORY documentation to get into (and out of) Dominican Republic. They call it an “e-ticket” and it is basically your online entry declaration Do it before you go to...