Iberostar Selection Bavaro Suites - All Inclusive

Customer ratings & reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

13593 reviews

• 

  Beautiful beaches and wonderful resort!

  We were pleasantly surprised by the resort as we vacation at a Barcelo resort in Mexico over New years and were expecting some of the same hassle over spring break. Check in was pretty fast and we were taken by golf cart to our accommodations. We were offered rides throughout our stay which was a nice bonus when you are walking to dinner. Layout of the resort was nice. Our concierge was able to book reservations for us at all the specialty restaurants no problem… the steak house and Japanese were great… service was perhaps lacking but not unexpected. Beach was beautiful… did NOT have to get up super early to stake out beach chairs which was so nice. Did NOT have to stand in long lines to get weak drinks. There are vendors that walk through but I didn’t find them too aggressive. But you will feel locked in if you make inquires. The pools were clean and a nice temperature. The Barcelo buffets were probably more impressive but we loved the coffee shop open 24hrs and the bar outside the coffee shop. Also the snack bar by the beach was convenient to grab a burger and we also love the sandwich shack with their version of a cheesesteak & fresh fries. The entertainment was also a good effort compared to Barcelo Mexico- beach party and circus were fun! Though we didn’t travel with young ones, there is a kids club that seemed fun. We were also warned about the sales pitch so we were able to avoid it.

  Apr 15, 2025
• 

  Nice family vacation

  We spent 1 week here with our son, his spouse and their 2 children (4 years and 22 months old). It's only about 30 minutes from the airport, which is nice. We liked the rooms, the layout, the pools, and the beaches. Gym and spa facilities are impressive. The ice cream stand was very popular and appreciated! Hotel staff were very good, very kind with the children. There was one notable exception (I'll come back to that later). Food was plentiful and basically good. For the specialty restaurants, Mediterranean was good, Japanese was good, Mexican was OK (not great), Italian was good (service was not so good), French was good(We went twice, 2nd time service was not good) and we didn't get into the Steakhouse. Would be nice if earlier availabilities were possible for families with young children. I had an unfortunate accident, slipped and fell on a wet surface at the pool. Resulted in requiring stitches for a cut to the scalp. Hotel staff provided first aid which was excellent. Our only negative experience, and it's a big one, was with our concierge, Rudy. He tricked us into attending a presentation/sales-pitch. Although I considered myself warned about this from previous reviews here, he offered us a "special" breakfast and free massages for 2 people (my son and his spouse got the massages and found them excellent). The breakfast quickly became the presentation/sales-pitch in which we felt trapped, and the staffer assigned to us became less and less friendly when it became clear that we were not interested. Also, Rudy supposedly made reservations for us at the Steakhouse for our last night's supper. When we got there there was no reservation for us and it was full. Very disappointing!

  Apr 13, 2025
• 

  Good food, good atmosphere

  The food is good. The outdoor is beautiful and clean. The pool not so much clean. The staff: mostly good. We did have problems with one of them, a guy calling himself a concierge. His initials are C.U. He was very aggressive with us. First, he told us that he was assigned to be our concierge and as a result, he would help us . He told us he would do the dinner reservations for us, and sitting in front of the computer, he told us the 3 dates and 3 times of our dinner reservations. Then, he asked us to attend a "presentation". We told him that we weren't interested at all, and that's where he started to be pushy with us. He told us that if we didn't go to this presentation (he refused to call it a "timeshare"), not only he would not get new points, but his boss would even remove the points that he had already earned. Basically, he was trying to make us guilty, so we could accept his invitation. We didn't! I go in vacations to spend time with my family, not strangers trying to sell me things I don't need. The following day, when I tried to confirm the 1st dinner reservation, I found out that he had not reserved any dinners for us at all... Other than that, our vacation went smoothly. The staff there are very nice, and really try to accommodate your needs. The room/unit was outdated. It needed a fresh remodeling. The bathroom smelled like mold. When we took showers, the water would go all over the bathroom. We had to put towels to prevent the water spreading everywhere. There are no fans in the bathroom - that was annoying. The food is good. Apparently, there were more restaurants there than we heard or knew of - we found that out the very last day as we were leaving. We had a dinner reservation at the Steak House and we saw cockroaches there, so we lost our appetite and left early. The Italian restaurant was good. The Japanese restaurant was good as well. The chef there really tried to entertain us and he did a very good job. We liked him. The resorts tries to keep the beach clean from the seaweeds. I was pleasantly surprised with how clean the beach was. The beach - we had to wake up early to get 3 chairs for our family (as early as 7am). The later you went there, the less chances you had to get a chair. Same thing with the pool chairs. I noticed that there was no drink service by the beach chairs. You had to go to the resort to order the drinks and bring them by yourself to the beach chairs. Towels - not very happy with that service!!! They would not bring clean towels after 2 or 3pm. You had to keep the same towels all day long. When we asked the towel guy what was the reason they wouldn't provide us with clean towels in the afternoon, he directed us to the Front Desk, as he told us he wasn't in charge, and this is how things were there. The entertainment team - the very best!!!! This resort is lucky to have such an amazing entertainment team, who are amazing dancers too. We enjoyed their entertainment! The spa is amazing! They use carts to go around the resort. Most of the time, the carts were very punctual and we did not have to wait a long time. We had a problem with losing a few items from the room. Learned my lesson that if you have valuable things, put them in the safe provided in the room. In general, the service staff there works very hard there. They were not just hard working, but also nice and eager to help. It was a good resort, but honestly, I do not think I will return there anymore. We had a good time, but not a wow!

  Apr 04, 2025
• 

  Family spring break 2025

  This was our first all inclusive trip as a family. The pool was great and well situated close to the beach with bars and ice cream stands in the middle of it all. The resort is lovely and there are golf carts around all the time to transport you from A to B. it was fun walking the beach and popping up to the other Iberostar sites to check out their pools and properties along the way. Our 6 year old LOVED Star Camp and participating in the evening kids programs! The Star Camp team was great with the kids. They have a nice air conditioned indoor play area for the kids to cool off, and take them to the various pools, the beach, and more. You can pick up and drop off throughout the day wherever the group is, check their live location, and communicate with the staff and your child through WhatsApp. We relaxed but were never bored. All in all a great trip that we’d take again!

  Mar 29, 2025
• 

  Great resort

  This was a very nice resort and I would recommend it. The rooms were a good size and well laid out for 3 people. The rooms were cleaned every day and we never ran out of anything. Our room was between the beach and quiet pool which was a perfect location. The walk to the main building was about 5 minutes. The pools and beach were great and we were able to get chairs every day. The chairs with shade were all taken by 8:00 though so you need to get up early. The ala carte restaurants had good food and we were able to get reservations into all 3 where they were required. The Mediterranean was good as well, but it was very quiet when we were there and no atmosphere. The buffets had a good selection with average quality. The one surprise was the Star Cafe is closed until 8:00am on Sunday mornings for cleaning, but I was able to get coffee in the main buffet that day. We liked the water stations throughout the property, but never found one with ice (the water was cold though). The fitness center was perfect for us and we used it every day.

  Mar 23, 2025