The resort was very clean & nice. The rooms were fine – decent size. We had a building right on the beach with 3 rooms in the same building – 2 rooms upstairs with a partial oceanview and 1 room downstairs which would be considered oceanfront but because it was on the first floor we had trees between us and the beach.

In the rooms upstairs we had 4 people: 2 adults & 2 children (tweens). The hotel suggested that instead of getting 2 double beds, they take a king bed and let the kids sleep on the 2 couches in the living area. The kids didn't mind and the parents were happy to get the King bed instead of squeezing into a double bed.

The location of our rooms was far from the breakfast buffet but convenient to one of the pools, the beach and the fitness center which was well equipped and faced the beach. They have 24hr room service, but not for breakfast. My husband doesn't like the concept of buffets so we had to do a little maneuvering. The hotel was very full so when we went to make dinner reservations at the a-la-carte restaurants, we couldn't get into one for the first night. You are only supposed to be able to book 3 nights in advance for the a-la-carte restaurants, but they allowed us to book all of the 6 nights in advance as a special gesture of good will.

At the steak restaurant, the appetizers were buffet and the entrée and dessert were served to you. Same at the Mediterranean restaurant. The Japanese restaurant was totally a-la-carte. And there was a lobster buffet that was nice. There is also an adults only restaurant where they have a romantic couples dinner on Saturday night. They hand you a rose when you walk in and the menu has Surf 'n Turf.

If something was wrong, they fixed it right away. There wasn't really a problem with the language – some of the staff spoke better English than others, but we didn't have any problems. My husband had a little visit with the doctor to drain one of his ears that got clogged up probably due to the pressure on the airplane. Luckily, we had Travelex Insurance so the $240 bill should be covered.

The weather was great – the only day it rained was the Sunday we were leaving. The beach was very wide and beautiful with plenty of huts for shade. I still got up at 6AM to put towels on 3 huts to make sure we were together since there were 10 of us. It was hot but there was a good breeze off the Caribbean Sea. Snorkeling was included and it was good right off the beach. There was a casino on the property and even though I was looking forward to playing craps, to get to that particular casino was a 10 minute cab drive and cost about $16 each way, so I didn't go.

There were little shops so I could buy a couple gifts – a marble fish and a tee-shirt. The locals set up a market in the lobby one night. Nobody bothered you on the beach selling stuff. There was a guy selling Cuban cigars and the men bought them. We felt totally safe. There were golf carts to drive you from place to place if you didn't feel like walking. We did tip quite a bit even though we knew we didn't have to. We had a bunch of $1 bills and would leave a few on the table at dinner, etc.

The transfer from the Airport to the Iberostar Bavaro Suites was fine. When we arrived, we were the first stop on the route and on the way back there were 2 other stops before reaching the Airport. Did you know they charge $10 to get into the country? Welcome to the Dominican Republic – give me $10 per head! The countryside is quite a wreck. The hotel grounds were the exact opposite. There was a sprinkler system so everything was green and lush. The pool was constantly being cleaned. There was a woman there mopping all day long. Housekeeping was good. The minibar was always stocked.

The food was good for an all-inclusive – I wouldn't say it was gormet. This was the first time the kids ever went away on a trip like this. They all had an excellent time. We did find out that one of them doesn't like the beach, though. She spent the whole time at the pool. Funny, huh?