Ocean El Faro - All Inclusive

Customer ratings & reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

8919 reviews

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  Lovely resort property

  My wife and I are mid-50's and have been travelling to the region for 20 years. We mainly stayed at 5-star resorts (Excellence; El Dorado; Ocean). The property is very well laid out. The pools are expansive. The "Main St" aspect is particularly nice. The quality of food is quite good (the beef in particular). I don't love the online reservation system as the premium guests get first dibs and fill up the slots for the à la carte restos. The coffee place is a gem (pretty much a Starbucks). A few things we noted: - the property is lovely at a macro level......but there are some issues when you look closely. The rooms are a bit plain but clean. Our shower wand was hanging loosely from the tiled wall. Screws not secure to the wall. Tile degradation. - housekeeping was consistent and thorough - didn't seem like there were enough washroom facilities near the pool/beach areas - some loose handrails and a few suspect wooden stair treads here and there - Attention: the white plastic grating around the pools is a hazard. We saw a gentleman step on it and he punched right through it up to his mid-calf. He could have easily broken an ankle. Apparently, this happens with some regularity. - the handful of feral cats were fun to have around - the protected lagoon adjacent the property is perfect for swimming. Sandy bottom with some gentle waves. All this being said, we are returning in April. Some of our friends have also gone to this resort and have chosen to repeat it. For comparison, I feel this is a step up from from the Ambar Blue section of Bahia Principe.

  Feb 22, 2025
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  Service from the heart!

  Always had service with a smile! Never a bad meal. Beverages were made with love and passion. Beds are extremely comfortable. Shower had good pressure and always hot. Clean grounds. Joel, awesome butler. Jhon at the El Faro pool bar is the man! Ask for his specials. Gabriel on the privilege beach el Faro side... never without a smile. It has been our Privilege to serve you! Dont miss out on Ramone's fun at the Blue Moon restaurant! (Sorry Ramone for spilling my wine).

  Feb 22, 2025
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  Paradise near Punta Cana

  Well I am sure I don't understand some other reviewers negativity. Hotel staff all friendly and willing to help you, even when you don't tip every time. Reception and check in excellent and quick, even though they did forget to take my payment and had to ring me for it mid holiday 😀. We booked a junior swim up room and got 9118 which is close to beach and excellent for lazy river and pool bar. Waitress from bar looked after us well bringing drinks right to our verandah. Our personal concierge was there each time we needed them. When I left my phone on the buggy that takes you around the hotel, when our lights wouldn't work (apparently opening the bathroom door fixes them). Food in all the restaurants was excellent and waiting staff nearly all excellent Why not 5 stars, just one little blip on last night in the steak house where service was real slow compared with everywhere else.

  Feb 22, 2025
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  Won’t recommend/come back to Ocean El Faro

  I stayed in Ocean El Faro back in April 2024, not the best experience as well. The room smelled very moldy/ musky, which grosses me out…. At the time I thought maybe it’s just the humid weather making the room smells like that? But of course it’s not the case. I couldn’t sleep well for the time I stayed there because of the smelly room. The beach wasn’t great either, rocky, dull grey looking. It’s a lot of seaweed on the beach when I was there. I didn’t pay extra to go to the adult only section, so I wasn’t assigned to a butler. There was no staff to show me around/ book reservations for me so I need to figure everything out by myself. And their booking system SUCKS! Every time I checked, there’s no availability. And why would I want to wake up at before 7am every morning on vacation??? It doesn’t make much sense to me. Food options in the resort are limited as well. Food quality wasn’t that great imo. I also felt that most of the staff aren’t helpful/ efficient. On the day of my arrival, I got dropped off to the building I stayed in. I was told the bell boy will drop off my luggage afterward. I ended up waiting 40mins, no one showed up. I need to call different extensions, to track my luggage down. After another 30mins, my luggage finally got delivered to my room. One day prior to my check out day, I called the bell boy to arrange luggage pick up. On the check out day, no one showed up. I ended up dragging my luggage to the main lobby by myself! Communication was a bit of an issue from time to time, either they don’t speak English or they know limited amount of English. There was a staff at the restaurant having a hard time understanding me when I tell her my room number. I ended up writing my room number down for her which is okay for me what annoyed me was that she looked impatient/ given up? She just made me felt I was the problem at the moment 🤷🏻‍♀️ They also have some stalls set up selling jewelry in the resort while I was there. Those people were quite pushy as well which was quite unpleasant to deal with. I was so happy to check out and come home at the end lol overall i wouldn’t go back to Ocean El Faro

  Feb 21, 2025
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  Don't go on the tour!!!

  The regular staff are amazing nothing I'm reviewing is about their actual service. Let's talk about how short staffed they are. We were at the pool bar which wraps around to a bar you can sit at out of the e pool also. They had one bartender there trying to take care of both sides while it was VERY busy, probably because the other is trying to restock the whole bar. Where are their bar backs? One bellboy to try and help with bags, trying to make sure he has everyone's names down who are going on excursions etc only time I seen enough was the first day we got there. Short staffed at the buffet area. There were multiple days where there weren't enough clean tables to sit at or utensils. (Probably because they're short staffed) Let's talk about them doing some landscaping lol after you see all the save our planet reminders they ripped up the grass and put plastic turf in. (Maybe that's them saving their water bill) but after the "tour" it was tacky. Don't go on the tour. It's not a tour but a lure in to their info session about their membership. They said an hour it was more like 4 hours. They wanted $6k as a down payment on $22k!!!!!!!!!!! And that was the cheap end. Our salesman was great. His manager was pist we said no and to respect our time. She went from customer service face to f-u face real fast. Then, the kicker, a few days after, a different person approached us trying to finesse us into going on a tour. I said no and walked away. Wtf what other hotels do this? The audacity to waste peoples precious vacation time on the lie that it's a tour. If I would have known from the beginning I was going to a seminar about buying a membership I would have declined. Funny enough I told my family before the "tour" oh how nice they're going to give us a tour so we know where everything is. Hahaha in the end it's more like learn all the places you can't go because your aren't a member lmao. I was left HIGHLY unimpressed. Added is a photo of the turf that they were actively installing for 3 days of our 5 days vacay. May seem silly but it was the cherry on top

  Feb 20, 2025