Iberostar Waves Costa Dorada — Hotel in Puerto Plata

Our stay at Iberostar has been a deeply disappointing experience, riddled with poor communication, substandard service, and accommodations that fall well below expectations. The issues began before we even arrived. Two days before our trip, we were informed that the transportation company, W2M, required reservations to be made earlier, despite our attempts to coordinate through Iberostar. Their response came two days after we arrived, offering a generic apology with no real solution, forcing us to arrange a taxi ourselves.||Upon arrival, the resort entrance felt like a chaotic marketplace. A staff member took our last name and directed us to leave our luggage, which was left unattended and accessible to anyone—a major security concern. After waiting 30 minutes in line with no refreshments offered (though we noticed a juice station on the other side), we reached the concierge desk around 1:30 PM. I had emailed two days prior requesting a room in buildings 1, 5, or 6 near the beach, but the concierge questioned whether I sent it to the correct address, despite my having a reply from Iberostar. They claimed they hadn’t received it and told us we’d need to wait until 3:30 PM for a room due to our “special request.” Trying to stay positive, we went to the buffet, which was large but had a mediocre food selection and acceptable service.||When we returned at 3:20 PM, we were assigned a room in building 2—none of the requested buildings. The room was a major letdown, more akin to a 2-3 star hotel than the advertised standard. It had a strong unpleasant odor, barely functional AC, visible dents and stains, and consisted of two twin beds and a single bed. We immediately requested a change, even offering to pay extra, as this was unacceptable for a 6-day stay, especially compared to our experiences in Punta Cana and other Caribbean destinations. The front desk told us to return after 5 PM for a room in building 6. When we did, the new shift claimed no knowledge of our request. After escalating to a supervisor, we were finally given a room in building 6. Shockingly, the supervisor seemed surprised we disliked the building 2 room, claiming it was “renovated.”||Dining was another major frustration. On our first day, we were told all restaurants required reservations, which could only be made from 9 AM to 12 PM daily. This left us with no choice but the buffet again for dinner. While the waiter was friendly and the food slightly better than lunch, the selection remained underwhelming, with only fresh pasta, rice, and fruit standing out. We later learned that restaurant reservations can be made up to two days in advance, but nothing is available before 8 or 9 PM. We tried booking at 9 AM, as instructed, and were told to use the Iberostar app. However, the app didn’t work for us, despite downloading it, leaving us stuck with the buffet yet again.||Another inconvenience was the lack of accessible water and ice. The resort provides only one bottle of water per room, so I strongly recommend bringing a thermos, as you’ll need to go downstairs to a water fill station to refill it. Finding the water fill station and ice was unclear, adding to the hassle. Back in our new room, the balcony was infested with ants, making it unusable, though mosquitoes were less of an issue. The beach, while scenic, had a lot of seaweed, though staff were actively cleaning it.||Overall, the lack of organization, poor communication, substandard accommodations, restrictive dining policies, and basic amenity issues (like water access and a non-functional app) made this a frustrating start to our trip. For a resort of this caliber, we expected far better. We’re only on day two, so we’ll see if things improve, but for now, they are the level of 2-3 stars hotels.||Day 3 Day two of our stay at Iberostar continued to highlight the resort’s organizational issues and subpar facilities, though some staff members stood out positively. We started the day early, leaving at 9 AM to visit another resort about 20 minutes away at the invitation of friends. Honestly, everything there was better—food, ambiance, service—except for the beach. To be fair, Iberostar’s sand and beach are superior, which is one of the few redeeming qualities here.||After enjoying breakfast and lunch at the other resort, we returned to Iberostar, spent some time at the beach, and headed back to our room to shower and prepare for dinner. Upon entering, we were horrified to find ants all over the bed. I immediately called the front desk, and it took a few minutes to explain the issue to the concierge. Long story short, I sent a message through the Iberostar app (which, as noted before, is unreliable for bookings but worked for this). A housekeeper, a very kind lady, promptly arrived and resolved the ant issue, which was a relief.||Thanks to our concierge, Bladis, dinner was a highlight. I used to work as a waitress, bartender, and concierge manager, so I know good service when I see it. Bladis is exceptional—hardworking, attentive, and genuinely caring. He managed to change our Japanese restaurant reservation from 9:15 PM to 6:30 PM, and we had a good dinner. The staff here, like Bladis and the housekeeper, are clearly dedicated, but the management seems to be in disarray. The “renovations” they boast about are substandard at best, and it feels like there’s either no investment or poor allocation of resources.||After dinner, we walked along the beach, which was pleasant despite an abundance of mosquitoes. The sand and beach remain a high point. We met another American family from Chicago who shared our frustrations about the resort. One glaring issue we all noticed is the pool—it’s dirty and overcrowded. A nightly water filter or better cleaning routine wouldn’t break the bank but would make a huge difference. Later, we enjoyed a Mexican-themed night with lively music, which was fun and helped...

My family of four stayed at Iberostar Waves Costa Dorada for 1 week. It was absolutely fabulous and I will be recommending it to all of my friends. We did not rent a car and simply used taxis and tours for the times we left the resort. From the moment we arrived, everyone was extremely friendly and made all of us feel welcomed. The resort itself is beautiful. There is a garden onsite, peacocks roaming freely, food aplenty, large pools, tons of cabanas, water sports options, kid camps for the young ones, pristine beach with powdery sand. Iberostar is serious about reducing waste so you will not find one-time use plastic which I appreciate. This is my family's first time at an all-inclusive and I loved it. Almost everything is already included. Anything that is not included and costs extra is obvious. We had everything we needed and more. I will definitely stay at an Iberostar resort again.||Peter greeted us at the front desk and explained everything to us. Every time I needed something at the front desk, he remembered my name and room number. He was always upbeat and handled every customer with care even when it was busy. I know he at least spoke Spanish and English fluently. I felt confident in all communications with him and his customer service was impeccable. ||Next person of note that we met was Lucy, who guided us to our room and explained the grounds and offerings to us. Again, she was fluent in English and wonderfully friendly. We saw her often around the resort and she was engaging with everyone, exemplifying the ideal concierge. Her personality was warm and welcoming and I am confident she could have handled any request.||The availability of excursion options in the lobby was perfect. We were able to sit down during our first full day and figure out a schedule for the excursions we wanted. He was patient while we tossed around several options so that we had the right mix of fun and lazy days. We knew we wanted to mix up our week with some days just hanging around the resort and other days exploring Puerto Plata and the surrounding area. The tours we selected included transportation. The tours were well planned, professional, and safe. The tour guides explained sites we were seeing along the way which was extremely interesting and felt like an added bonus. We decided to Zipline with Mega one day. We also went to Monkeyland, the Waterfalls, and Buggy rides with Runners Adventures (those reviews are separate, but I would highly recommend both companies.). One day we hired a taxi to take us around to the city of Puerto Plata, the fort, partially up the mountain for views, a few small museums, etc. This was again a safe and very affordable option. ||The restaurants on the resort were also great. We especially enjoyed the Japanese restaurant. The hibachi style meal was fun and lively. The chef entertained us the entire time and the food was delicious. We mostly ate at the daily buffet for breakfast and dinner. I visited Pedro every morning for my made-to-order eggs. He helped me order in Spanish but completely understood when I had to resort to English (I wanted to order in Spanish). I looked forward to my interactions with Pedro, as he too was extremely welcoming.||Iberostar Waves Costa Dorada has a wonderful entertainment and activities line-up. The entertainer that added immensely to our stay was Ninja. We started participating in the events a few days after arrival and I recommend looking at the schedule of "How to Have Fun at the Hotel" which you get access to via an app once you check in. We played bingo, archery, danced, exercised, crazy pool games (frisbee bowling, soccer bowling, etc.), Ping-Pong, and took in some of the nighttime shows. If I were to do it all over again, I would participate in more as it was always fun. Ninja's personality is absolutely perfect for his role as an entertainer. He makes you feel like friends from the moment you meet him. His smile is contagious. He is also fluent in at least Spanish and English. When he saw us around the resort, he would let us know what was next as he could see we were enjoying the activities. It was laid back and easy. No sign-up required. If you were there and wanted to join in, Ninja made that seamless. ||I am confident the other staff members were helpful, as I have the impression that Iberostar takes great care in selecting their employees. Every single person from the front desk, restaurants, cleaning and grounds staff, entertainers, etc. were excellent and friendly. The individual people that I mentioned made our vacation absolutely wonderful. I am so glad we settled on Puerto Plata for our vacation as it was a mix of culture and adrenaline tourist stuff with the ease you want in a vacation. We felt safe the entire time and recommend this...

Please do not stay here. We booked our trip via Costco (all of that went well including the airport transfers). I have visited Puerto Plata before and stayed at other hotels in the area, but this one markets itself as upper scale, which it definitely was not. We stayed midweek so the resort was maybe at 60% capacity. This resort did not really have many tourists, most of the other guests were locals. ||Pros |- Beautiful beach: plenty of chairs, very little seaweed compared to Punta Cana beaches, clean no trash and rarely any vendors. Note that there aren't beach drink waiter service, but not an issue for us. |- Service: Everyone we interacted with was very kind, the issues that we did had were resolved, the requests we made were completed timely after some calls. We did speak Spanish, so this may have affected our service. |- Oceanfront suite room location: We stayed in the largest suite rooms they offered in building 5. It was a 2 minute walk to the beach and beautiful beach views. Comfy beds and pillows. Minifridge actually cold. Quiet, no noise day or night. However, it was a 10 minute walk to any dining options since it was the furthest building |- Route66 disco is large, air conditioned, and a fun place if you are interested in dancing. Plenty of seating inside and one of the very few places at this resort with AC. |- Filtered water stations everywhere. However, most have very warm filtered water so use the Vero water machines at the buffets or pool buffet for ice cold water. |- Use the Iberostar app to request things, make dinner reservations, and use the guest services chat ||Cons|- The food is very bad and honestly scary to see their poor food safety regulations. Believe the reviews saying how people get sick. We got sick from the Japanese restaurant's poor quality sushi. The two buffets are both open air, with no air conditioning, allowing flies and birds to land on the food. Every single day we saw birds land and eat the food on display, the workers did nothing about it. The food is not kept at a food safe temperature - the butter is rancid, milk is warm, none of the salads or fruit are safe to eat as the are kept warm with flies all around. The cooked to order food options are bland and tough to eat, we did not have any enjoyable meals. The only indoor restaurants with air conditioning are the Japanese and Mexican which require advance reservations. Besides those, you will be sweating as you eat. We also ate at the Italian outdoor restaurant, which is just in the same location as the pool lunch buffet, and the food was not good at all. ||- The rooms are very small and outdated. We stayed in the largest room offered and it was still smaller than any standard room we have stayed in at other resorts in DR. The air conditioner does not cool as it should, we had to supplement with the ceiling fan the entire time. There is no way to adjust the AC - just on or off, and it never got below maybe 74 degrees in the room. Some light switches did not work as the bulbs were burnt out. There is no ventilation in the bathroom so it gets very warm. The shower is half open so you will make a big water mess on the floor every time someone showers. ||- Some rooms are worse than others. We were first given a floor on the 3rd floor which had a broken AC, dirty bed sheets with lint and random hairs, light switches that did not work, and a light fixture in the bathroom that was half falling off. We called the front desk who sent a technician - who could not fix the AC, and we were switched to a different room on the 1st floor. This all happened within an hour and they were very kind about moving us. The new room on the 1st floor was clean and had a working AC. However, we had amenities in the original room - a bottle of champagne and beach towels, that were not moved with us because we were in a different room, which was weird. ||- Poor entertainment: The evening shows were not great and mostly vulgar designed for locals, not really tourists. ||- The Jackie Chan jokes at the Japanese restaurant were unfortunate ||- Pool was never really cleaned the entire time we were there ||- Lots of mosquitoes - bring plenty of bug spray and check your room as housekeeping leaves the room doors open letting in bugs as they go through the room. ||- Lots of stray cats and peacocks on the property. The cats will get near you and beg for food at your table. The peacocks are aggressive and will eat food off your plate. We were told to just get up and move leaving them the food to eat to not agitate them more. |||I will stick to visiting Punta Cana since they have more resort variety, even though the beaches in Puerto Plata are nicer. Select a different hotel...