Be Live Grand Punta Cana - All Inclusive

This space is not big enough to relate all the bad experiences we had e-mail on way

You get what you paid for. Food was average at best, but you can always find something to eat. Best to go off resort for better food. The resort is very busy, lots of rude Europeans. If you want less people, quieter area, stay at the Catolonia just down the road. The beach is beautiful and well cared for. Walking the beach brings you to resort after resort. Walk to the left of resort for several miles and you will find private restaurants. Cab rides anywhere are very expensive and they drive like maniacs in DR. We rented a car and drove to Bayahibay, I would not recommend driving. Bad signage and thousands of motorbikes driving everywhich way. No one follows anything close to driving laws. I would recommend staying near Bayahibay though, the area is much nicer with more around it then just resorts. The room was clean and we had no problems getting towels etc.The hotel needs updated but is well cared for. Be aware that they allow vendors on the resort and they are aggresive, best to just say no and they will leave you alone. When you go off resort to area just outside of resort they are even more aggresive but just ignore them and you will do fine. There is a double standard for tourists and locals. They think tourists are rich and try to charge you much more. Set the price you are willing to pay and stick to it. They will come down by half the original price eventually.If you dont like to haggle then you will hate the shops. Bring lots of small bills because getting change is a pain. All in all, the area is beautiful but expensive. I would suggest a different country.

we lost a whole day of vacation after getting to hotel, only to find out they were over booked by 40 people. We sat in hot lobby till they sent us 20min away to condo. 4 hrs later we were able to get a drink and very little too eat. They said we could go back to hotel next day around 1pm. Very disappointed as i traveled with a sr. and a disable person. Not to mention we now only had 4 days left. The hotel it self was ok. The staff was excellant.

No one at this resort cares at all about your vacation. Upon arrival we waited for 2 hours to check in (after arriving well after check in time) only to be told that we did not have reservations at the hotel (we did!) but they sent us across town to another hotel for the night. The next day we had to take a bus (with all the other people who "didn't have reservations") back to the resort, where we waited another hour to check in. I had read the reviews about a few hours and I could have handled that but a day! They didn't even aplogize for it. We were promised an upgrade..but got nothing. You do need reservations for restaurants for dinner and you have to make them with the table by the main buffett from 8am - 3pm. No one told us that so we didn't get reservations until day 3. You have to be a bit demanding otherwise you end up with really late reservations or really early reservations. Once we did everyhting was much better. Again, no one cared...we would wait 10-15 minutes to get drinks at the free bars unless you had tipped them enough times for them to remember you. The shows and entertainment were all pretty bad. The maid would come at 9am or 5pm, times when you want to use your room usually. They shorted us towels and sheets! They use only flat sheets that move around when you sleep so you wake up on the mattress, gross! The mini fride in the room never was full enough, especially with bottled water. We called to get more and after the second call and another hour we finally got more. Stay somewhere else!

DR is beautiful, the hotel grounds, atmosphere, pools were all very nice. Except for the Front Desk service, all other service was top notch. A few dollar tips each meal or after a night in the bar goes a long way to get real personal service. All the staff are super friendly, many speak good English and all are attentive, the only reason you might wait for a drink is because of the lineup of other guests at the bar (again, tip and a waiter will always be there with another drink). The resort is older than some, we were with friends that have tried 3 or 4 others .. we had an excellent room with jacuzzi tub and walkin in shower for 2 .. Bldg 14. Bldg 9 - 14 are newer. If you want older colonial, more traditional look and feel the other Bldgs provide this, just the bathrooms are not upgraded. Maid service excellent. Food is the same on the buffett everyday, with only a few new dishes and a different roast. It got boring after the 5th day, but if you do Al a Cart reservations the Brazilian grill is amazing. The Aqua restaurant also serves breakfast and lunch with out reservation, so nicer place to eat for the atmosphere than the big hall. February is considered winter season and the beach was always very windy, not a light breeze. Beautiful white sand beaches, seaweed is being raked all day to keep it clean. A few things to watch out for, a Big No Thanks to the men in white polo shirts and black pants, they want you to do a 2 hour orientation to buy timeshares and you get a bottle of local rum at the end. Unless you're interested just keep walking away .. very pushy. Vendors on the beach selling excursions get annoying, but no doubt it is everywhere. Lastly, drink options are limited, local beer, and lots of slushy drinks or rum cocktails. All in all, if you just want to hang out on the beach, or by a pool and soak up the sun Be Live is fine, the people make up for the lack of Included amenities.

Good resort for the right price. Not spectacular, but just good. Get a room in the newer building and you won't be dissappointed. Good restaurants, good pools, beach is ok if you don't mind the seaweed.

I was pleasantly surprised. From reading all the negative reviews, I had really low expectations. Be sure to ask for a room in one of the new buildings - 11, 15. They are a bit further from the main pool, but are worth it. The food at the resort was 7/10. We really liked the Brazilian restaurant. Japanese wasn't bad either. Buffet was decent as well. There are a lot of pools besides the main pool, which is good if you want some peace and quiet. There were a lot of huts on the beach. The only complaint about the beach was too much seaweed, but if you walk about 10 minutes along the beach, its a lot better. Not a ton of water activities - the usual parasailing, bananaboat. The shows at the hotel could have been better. The alcohol selection at the bar is not bad at all - they have stoli vodka and red label, dewars, among the brand names. All in all, this hotel is worth it for the right price. Keep in mind the airport is outdoors with a tin roof and you have to walk to/from the plane on the tarmac and there is no air-conditioning in the punta cana int'l airport.

The Location was average. The rooms very dirty, sheets had stains on them and the maid said they are fine and refused to change them. Food was awful all left out in the hot summer day (including yogurt, Cold cuts, fruit and cheese) The staff was the worst of all. I wish they had a zero ratting cause that's what I rate the staff. No one was friendly they ignored you, and never wanted to help with anything. I would never go back even if you told me it was free.

Went there with one of my friends and we had such a good time we didn't want to leave! Staff is great. They made everything as comfortable as possible. Beach is right there so it was perfect.

This was our first time visiting the Dominican Republic. I will try to not let this resort be the reason I do not go back. From the moment we checked in we had nothing but issues with the hotel staff. Everything was about money! At first they tried to be slick and only give us one room when we paid for two because they said I didn't have the "voucher". We only used these for our ground transportation and excursions. We also had no voucher to print! The man at the front desk kept telling us we didn't have the paper, but when we showed him our e-mail confirmation he magically found my name. When we check our rooms out we found that we had two queen sized beds in both. When we went back to see if we could switch for a room with a king bed we were told they were overbooked and to go back in the morning when people checked out. We did that. We were told again, to come back in 1 hour. We did that, then we were told to come back at 3 and the lady at the front desk would check with here supervisor. She also asked me very rudely why? Now I understand there may be a cultural and language barrier but I believe manners and approach with a guest is universal. She was being very rude. We went back again, and the lady smirked and said go ask that man over there. She was pointing to the manager. We were so confused. We had to go ask the manager ourselves because she said it would get done faster that way! Wow!! So we did. He was speaking with other guest that appeared to be "VIP's" so we waiting patiently off to the side. He saw us. He never approached us and walked away with that couple. When we followed him back to the lobby he disappeared into his office and never came out. He never acknowledged us and the lady that told us to ask him never even went to tell him we were waiting to talk to him. Extremely unprofessional! Finally, after wasting most of our first day we decided to just leave it alone and make the best of it. The room was the bare minimum and very old. It was clean but far from luxurious or even standard. It's funny because we have stayed at many all-inclusive resorts ranging from 3-5 stars. This does not deserve the 3.5-4 star rating it is given. There is a newer side to the resort but were told it wasn't any much better by other guests. Another thing to mention, we tried throughout the entire trip to get change for American dollars and they constantly lied and told us they had none. It was like pulling teeth. This was especially aggravating because we were trying to tip the good servers we encountered and this resort made that impossible!! They lie- a lot! We went to the casino and I tried to make change for a $50. The girl told me they didn't have it and when I said I wouldn't gamble then she said she had it. The good I will say was that in the restaurants there was good service and the food was pretty good. Entertainment was pretty good too. Beach was beautiful and resort itself is pretty nice. But with all of the hassle we incurred with the front desk and getting change. We will definitely not be returning to this resort- EVER! and it will probably be a long time before I ever give DR a chance again. It's a shame, because I know it's just the resort but it left a bad taste in our mouth.