I was married on August 29 at the Riu Bachata, and honestly, I don't really know how anyone can complain about this resort. The rooms were beautiful and clean, the housekeepers were prompt and came without fail every day. You do get your towells a bit later than the room is cleaned, and if you can reuse your towells, hang them up and they won't replace (nice water conservation effort which I applaud, hotels across North America are doing this as well, of course). Otherwise, throw them into the tub and they will take them away and replace them with fresh towells... just later on in the day. We did have a few roaches in the bathroom, but they were small, and you have to expect things like that in the Caribbean. A couple of times they gave us pretty flower decorations in the curtains, too. My sisters all got a towell shaped like a swan. The mini bar is filled every two days, and if you want a bit extra, just put two dollars in the fridge and they fill it right up! If you run out of bottled water, you need only ask for more at the front desk, and they'll oblige.
The pools were maintained frequently, but the pool by the swim up bar can get a bit dirty despite this (but that's because there are lots of people frequently drinking in the pool... hard to avoid) They test the water and skim almost every 45 minutes or so, though. The other pool with the waterfall in it was definitely cleaner. I read a review where someone complained about the smell near the pool, and I did notice that but it was just the fertilizer on the plants... pretty sure it was manure.
Anyone who complains about the locals is not being terribly open minded. On the weekend there were some locals there, but they kept to themselves like all the other guests, and there were more than enough chairs to go around -- and we had a large party of people who needed chairs. There was no need to go early to the pool and put towells on chairs.
The staff on the resort is absolutely amazing, very busy, constantly cleaning, so so so sweet and they were awesome to the kids that came with us! I would definitely recommend a wedding here if you're looking for a beautiful, laid back ceremony. Maria the wedding planner was adorable and accomodating, and she took care of every detail right down to the letter for me. But if you want specific music played during the wedding, bring a cd. I just asked for their standard music, and I walked down the aisle to Bob Marley's "Is this love?" which was awesome, one of my favorites, but Shaggy's "It wasn't me" came on just when the ceremony had ended, which is now one of our favorite jokes about the wedding.
The food was really, really good. Always fresh, and they worked very hard in the dining room. Don't forget to leave a little for the people who clear your tables and bring your drinks at dinner!
My only real complaint was the prices.... they were extremely high! Don't feel that the prices on the resort are set.... the price of cigarettes in the lobby store changed everytime, and I'm not a haggler, so I paid it. But you could probably challenge. Also, my sister bought something with American money and they gave her change by giving her a pack of gum. I would bring pescos the next time I go.
Also, one last thing to remember, you should definitely bring an power adapter! I hadn't read or heard that piece of info anywhere. The front desk does have a few, but not quite enough.

Over all, the Bachata was amazing, we loved the beach and people and cleanliness. We had the best trip of our lives there, and we would have enjoyed it just as much even if we weren't getting married!

We arrived at the Riu Bachata on September 19, 2008. The resort is about 1 hour from the airport, which is fairly long, but it was well worth the drive. We were checked in promptly and when we entered our room we noticed how clean everything was. We were steps away from the main bar, casino and theatre. The scenery was breathtaking, the beach was beautiful and shady. There are plenty of beach chairs and there were lots of activities for people of all ages. The food was mediocre at best but the drinks were great. The employees were always smiling and very friendly. It rained a few times but only lasted a few minutes. The nightly shows were good. Overall we had a wonderful time, met wonderful people from around the world and I would reccommend this resort for people who are out to have a great time and are not nit picky.

RK
Toronto, Ontario

Went to Riu Bachata in March, 2008. This is what happened to us! Please be mindful when you choose your next vacation.

At about 1:25am, I woke up from a noise in our room. When my fiancé turned on the light, we discovered a thief standing inside our room. I immediately started yelling at the intruder – “What are you doing in my room!?”, and my fiancé started screaming. The intruder tried to intimidate us by saying “shhh”, at which time I got up from the bed and started moving in his direction, preparing to defend myself. At that time, the intruder started trying to open the curtains and the balcony door (which he appears to have closed after getting into the room1), and then escaped through the balcony.
We immediately locked the balcony door and started calling reception by dialing “0”. It took 3 calls to different numbers to reach somebody who spoke English and could comprehend the situation; we asked for a security guard to be sent to our room immediately.
The next 15 minutes we were left petrified, scared and panicking continually calling reception wondering where the security guard was. At about 1:45am, the security guard finally arrived. To our complete disbelief, he did not speak English and we had to communicate with him using reception staff who spoke English via the phone. Translation to explain what happened and to describe the intruder, that in itself was even more stressful!

No investigation has been done since this incident happened...!!!

We were also very disturbed by the comment made by the Sunquest representative while discussing the incident with us. He stated that "the resort security can’t really be controlled". What a ridiculous statement! At other 5 star resorts, we have seen fences and well-positioned entry checkpoints; pairs of armed guards patrolling the territory at night; mosquito net doors that lock and allow for additional detection should somebody try to open them or cut the net. And I am not even mentioning other aspects of guest’s safety (or lack thereof) at Riu Bachata, such as the absence of lifeguards at the beach. The resort tolerates shanty-town-like markets adjacent to the resort territory; the entry and presence of non-guests on the resort territory is not controlled; the fact that it took several calls to get someone at the reception in an emergency situation and more than 15 minutes for the security guard to arrive is essentially as there was no guard at all!

The morning after the incident, we have contacted Sunquest representative in Puerto Plata and called our travel agent; we insisted to return back to Toronto. Unfortunately, this option was not made available to us and instead we were offered to relocate to a nearby 4+ star resort. Before we relocated, we repeatedly asked the Sunquest representative to assist in ensuring that we get a room on a high floor. However, it still took us the rest of the day to get a quiet room not on the ground floor; we had to move through 3 different rooms as staff at the other resort was not aware of our recent experience and didn’t appreciate the importance of a secure room to us. As you can imagine, we spent the rest of the vacation blocking doors and windows with furniture at night; my fiancé couldn’t really sleep well and was waking up even from a slightest noise.

My boyfriend and I have just returned from the Riu Bachata and had a fabulous holiday. I actually tried to cancel a couple of days before as I was worried about the hurricane situation and also because I had read such awful reviews here! We were so glad we never cancelled - no threat of hurriance and only a little rain and then it was in the evening after a lovely day on the beach and we had no complaints about the hotel.

I will admit, I don't really think it should be classed as a 5* hotel, but it was very clean, the room was cleaned every day with fresh towels (ususally formed in towel art into swans), the staff were all very nice and always had a smile, the food was quite varied and you could also have branded drinks at the bars. The entertainment staff work so hard to make sure everyone has fun with shows every evening and also lots of fun around the pool (however I would say this is not for people who want a relaxing day at the pool as it can get quite loud). We spent a few days at the pool as it has the swim up bar which is great, but preferred to relax at the beach.

Also some reviews have complained about the locals coming at the weekend, ok it was busier at the weekend, but it was no problem and I would go at the weekend if I was local !

The hotel guest services manager, Hector, chatted to everyone at dinner to see that everything was ok and I did tell him about the bad reviews here and how pleased we was with the hotel. I just think those people must have nothing better to do than complain - some people are never happy!

So, ignore the bad reviews and enjoy your holiday!