i have been twice at sirenis, the first time it was like not excellent but the second was sooooo good... I have never ever been in a resort with such a great service... oH MY GOD they are always soo happy and they want to please and make u get many pounds lol i would say that it is a really good resort to have fun, to relax in the spa, lots of kids activities, sirenis band and so...

Travel Dates July 27-08 - Aug 03-08
My husband and I just returned from "our time" vacation.
In general we had a nice time. At check in/out we worked with Mohamad and Palliany....both are SUPER, GREAT, FUNNY and will REALLY try and help you with or solve a problem/concern you may have!!!TRUST ME GO TO THEM!!!!
We booked through APPLE VACATIONS.
To us this was much more a family resort than a romantic/relaxing couples vacation. But great for families at that!!
The resort is HUGE, as is the pool. To us the pool was a very comfortable temperture, however in the shallower areas it could get to warm. There are two swim-up bars both, near the shallow childrens area. This can be a good thing and a bad thing depending on how your traveling, i.e..
with or with out children. The pool area restrooms need to be attended to more often. A problem we noticed with the pool bars was that, both bars offer hard plastic (washable) and soft plastic (throw away) cups. As the day went on and more drinks were poured more and more plastic (throw away) cups ended up in the pool. This becomes a safety hazard for the children and not to mention poor hygiene for everyone. Way to many people/families/kids left stuff (cups, dishes, silverwarem etc,) lay around. LEAD BY EXAMPLE, PICK UP AFTER YOUR SELF.
There is one bar on the beach, and if Henry is there he's the one to become friendly with. He is pleasant, smiley and attentative. Tips are VERY MUCH appreciated. There are also beach attendents and the only one we really became familiar with was Antonio, he too always crossed the beach to see if we need a fresh drink. The beach has grill open only for a few hours a day. Here they offer chicken, burgers, hot dogs and french fries. In between the main and specialty restuarant hours you can find something to nibble on somewhere, sometimes this was a pain but we survived.
The main buffet area was pleasant and air conditioned. A pretty good variety of foods daily(breakfast, lunch and dinner.) All of which have a cook to order area. Just go out on a limb and try something new you maybe pleasantly surprised. After all did you really go on vacation to eat exactly what you can get at home?! There are several specialty type restuarants: Japanese, Mexican, Italian and a Steakhouse. We ate at all of them and there was something good at each. But in some the main was just average.
On Wed. nights they offer a beach "Lobster" party. You have to pay $30/adult and $15/children. This was very nice. It is an all you can eat type. You tell me, where else can you get an "all you can eat lobster dinner" for $30. Our advise is to arrive early, this way you are not waiting for another large pan of tails to come out.
There are numours bars througout the complex. We stayed primarily at main/lobby bars. Here there are a couple wonderful servers as well. Phillipe an "Unforgettable" smile that has no end reminded me of Nat King Cole. Felix also was high on the list for great service. The main lobby restrooms are HOT, not alot of air circulating in there but clean.
The activities team were a group of great guys. They will entertain you with gamesl, dance lessons and aerobics. Two that really stand out are "Spaghetti and Chico Rico". Spaghetti is talent that needs to be discovered, he has to much talent to go unnoticed. Chico Rico is flat out funny, he just turned 24 so if you travel soon wish him a belated birthday. Isreal is great also.Remember these guys work the evening show too. The WHOLE team works so hard from sun up to way past sun down. If you don't like their work appreciate them for their commitment!!!!!!! The evening shows were charming. Funny, silly and entertaining.
Our room attendent/s did a nice job as well. A couple of evenings when we came in there was a swan made from towels with flowers and another time the bathroom was dressed with flowers as well. We tipped daily. I also purchased school supplies and left something daily for the attendent. i.e..... crayons, paints, pencils, colored pencils and glue sticks. These families I believe really appreciate these small gifts. Room service was availiable free of charge to us (some others also) , from 7am to 11pm (order before 10:30pm) Food was great as was the service, timely too.
My husband played the tables abit and he says "if your lucky enough to sit at a table with players that know how to play, you might do o.k, but if your not....get out!!!"
The disco was the cleanest/nicest looking disco we have been in yet. We've gone to higher rated hotels and the disco's were pretty gross. Great music...local and homestead type. I love all music so as long as there is a beat I'm happy.
One real sour event was we booked an off resort excursion with an on resort (beach) not our tour rep. BE WARNED!!! This guys name was "Happy Man", mind you this guy or his company has a permit to sell on this beach via the hotel. This guy misrepresented himself and his machines (four wheelers) SSSOOOO POURLY!!!!
Great sales guy, but definetly 'THE BAIT AND SWICH." Play it safe, it may cost a bit more but, BOOK WITH YOUR TOUR REPRESENTATIVE!!!!!!
So travel safe, have fun, don't sweat the little stuff, but let someone know if something is not right. Beacause if no one speaks up it will continue to go unresolved. I will post pictures as soon as I can;)

We Just returned from Sirenis Tropical Suites on Aug 1/08. The hotel is clean and well maintained, however, as others have pointed out it is out in the countryside quite far from the airport. This is not a bad thing should you be looking for a relaxing place away from the congestion of the more popular hotel areas. Most of the tours and excursions take longer to get to. The suite we had was clean although the furniture and the linens are a little worn out. The washroom had been renovated and hot water with lots of water pressure was always available.

The beach is nice and clean with lots of palm trees and huts for shade from the blistering summer heat. We had no problem finding a shady spot whenever we went to the beech, although the best ones are guaranteed by arriving before 7:30 am.

As others have mentioned, Jade and the steakhouse were quite good and are easily booked if you follow the booking instructions. The Buffets were typical of this type of resort and were adequate unless your extremely fussy. The beech barbecue for lunch was nice and we took our food to the nearby buffet (Mexican restuarant at night) to get salads and sit inside out of the sun. They even had crepes (or what we heard the English visitors call pancakes) and soft ice cream with cones and sundae toppings available here. We found the barbecue chicken quite good.

We only took the "Bucaneros" tour (jet boats and snorkelling) which was quite fun although the drive to the boats was long and rough in the open truck the tour picks you up in.

There is FREE internet in the lobby area if you have your own laptop or wifi device. The speed is pretty fast. Just ask at front desk for your free access card (thanks to a prior poster for the tip).

The hotel did get busy on the weekend with locals from the cities in the Dominican. They were quite loud and dominated the pool bar and lobby bar, however, it did not hinder our enjoyment of the resort too much.

I will warn you ahead of time this review is probably going to be long, but I encourage you to stick with it. I am not some neurotic freak who looks for stuff wrong when I travel.I believe in giving an honest assessment. There are positives and negatives to be told.

I traveled to Sirenis Tropical Suites booked through Apple Vacations from July 16-23, 2008 with my husband and three kids ages 13, 11, and 7. I usually plan my trips a least a year in advance, but this one I planned about 4 months in advance. As far as the price I found the Sirenis to be a good value especially for a family of 5. It can be hard to find a place to accomodate 5 in one suite. For that I give them credit. I will try to break down my experience. There are some perks you get by being an Apple vacationer, like a free safe, etc.

RESORT AND GROUNDS
Beautiful. It truly is gorgeous and well groomed. The smell of the flowers are amazing. The resort is rather large so be prepared to walk. There is so much to see at the resort. We stayed in L building on the Tropical side. We were in the middle of the resort and we still had to trek all over the place, but not a real problem

BEACH
The beach is lovely. It is a wide expanse which is awesome. I did find the beach did have trash such as cigarette butts, plates and cups left out..... Now my feeling on that is a 50 / 50 responsibility. I do believe nasty guests should take their trash and cigarettes butts and dispose if them properly. But I feel the resort should have more trash receptacles around and if people still want to be pigs then the resort has an obligation to the guests and the environment to make sure it gets taken care of. It was disheartening to see water bottles on the beach at 6 am and still not cleaned up later in the day.Smoking is also allowed at the reort which I personally find gross.

I cannot leave this section without talking about the people we call " THE PALAPA PESTS . " Yes........they do exist. Yes.......they will be there at the Sirenis. I didn't find it to be a huge problem. I always got up early to watch the sunrise and saw them cradling their towels focused on the task of palapa possession. I chuckled to myself. I could and did get a palapa twice. I only have a problem with people that get a shady spot and then don't come down til late morning or early afternoon. We were at our palapa by 8 am. I also chose the ones at the left side of the beach close to the shops and parasailing. I liked it since it was quiter and a little less busy. If you like the action and noise then you should try to get one in the center of the beach. Still there were plenty of charirs to go around.

The water is pretty, but very choppy and it has a strong current due to the fact that you are in the Atlantic Ocean and not the Carribean Ocean I believe. Be cautious please.

POOL
Big, beautiful, and clean. You will find the occassional straw floating around because of the pool bar, but it went with the territory. I saw the employees trying very hard to keep it all clean. No problem getting served at the bar. I did not tip at the pool bar as I didn't exactly have a place for dollar bills. Still the bartenders were pretty nice, attentive, and quick.

I will put out the warning since it was my first experience with it. The pool is large and wonderful, but VERY DEEP. It starts at a slight grade like a beach and gets deeper. When I say deep I mean it is 7 feet 8 inches deep at its greatest point. Not great when you have kids who don't swim or are strong swimmers. I am just making everyone aware because I did not read anything about it. I would rather be safe than sorry.

Also I brought along floaties for the pool. They were too big to blow up manually. I asked around and was directed to the watersports area to get them inflated. They wanted to charge me $ 5 for the air to blow up the pool toy. Just so you know. I did decline and decided not let it dampen my vacation.

KIDS CLUB
Not as great as I have seen like in Jamaica at Beaches last year. I also could find little info on it before we went. The girls who worked there seemed nice enough , but the hours sucked. They are open from 10 am to12 pm and close then re-open from 2-4pm. The girls that work at the kids club also work for the animation team. The hours made it hard to do actviites that were not suitable for smaller kids like the quad bikes. That tour last 2.5 hours and the club is only open 2 hours.

DISCO AND SPA
Did not go so I cannot comment.

FOOD
The specialty restauraunts that we went to were pretty good and beautifully decorated. We went to the Jade twice. The second time was better than the first. The sushi is mediocre at best though. I found that the British couple we met thought it was like the best food they ever had, but the also do not have Tepanyaki near where they live and never did it before the Sirenis. I have had better at home, but it was pretty good. The Steakhouse was good. The chicken wings were very small, but yummy. The Italian places food was good, but our waiter was a bit of a jerk. The Mexican restaurant was good as well. They brought us a cake and champagne to help us elebrate our 10th anniversary. Quite a nice touch. I loved it.

Now for the buffett...........I found it monotonous and limited. I have done all inclusive before so I know the buffets are not as fun as the specialty, but the Sirenis was particularly bad. It was the same food every day and I mean the same EVERYDAY. I was sick of it by day 2 of my week long vacation. There were days when there were bugs on the fruit. I declare I think I lived off of watermelon and french fries for breakfast and lunch each day. I could not wait for dinner just for some stinking variety. I now know food quality will rank very high for me when I travel in the future. There is no feeling worse than being in a foreign country and having no real food choices. You can't exactly leave the resort and take in the local cuisine if you are not familiar. Not to mention leaving the resort alone is not really smart.

A huge problem for us is we are not porkeaters and that's all there is as far as the eye can see, especially at breakfast. If you eat bacon, sausage, or any other pork product then you will be fine. Last year in Jamaica we told the resort of our dietary requirement of no pork and they were awesome enough to get us turkey bacon. Sirenis was unreceptive and I asked more than one person, including the buffet manager. I even asked if they had some kind if fish they could put out like alot of places in the Carribean do for breakfast. I got nothing for my troubles. I ate salad for breakfast more than once because I could not stomach that food there. Not that I go on vacation looking to gain weight, but you almost anticipate it a bit, but I actually lost weight.

The beach barbecue was not great either. Veal burgers, french fries, chicken, hot dogs ( most likely meat, with pork). Same stuff you can get all around the resort. I thought there would be more variety. It was a little disappointed.

ROADS
Bumpy, but tolerable. They are working on them. Do take something if you get carsick.

PUNTA CANA AIRPORT
Take plenty of snacks for coming and going. USA 3000 charges $ 7.00 for a picnic box of snacks. What a joke. It a sign of the times I guess, so prepare yourself. The Punta CAna airport has food that is outrageously expensive. $ 8.00 for a Wendy's chicken sandwich combo meal. Not cheap when you have to feed five. I am glad I bought snacks. Drink your beverage before getting on the plane. I saw people buy drinks after passing security and thought they could take it on the plane.You can't.

If you don't want to tip they guys at the curb as you are dropped off to the airport a few bucks to roll your bags 30 feet to the counter be ready to armwrestle to get you bags back. I did and I won. It was very annoying because I was tired, ready to go home and, made it clear " NO gracias" and he just kept trying to push my hand off of my suitcase and pull it away anyway. There is a reason I buy suitcases that roll.

DRIVING
Absolutely crazy !!!!! Got great pics of all of the near crashes.

LOCAL PEOPLE
Some were very aggressive in sales. Some seemed unfriendly, but I am guessing it was really a language barrier. There were people who worked at the front desk that knew limited English which is not helpful when you work at the front desk. ENOUGH SAID !!! Even if they initially spoke fluent English it quickly went away if you had a problem as I witnesssed and experienced first hand. I had a concern about something and the same woman who registered us just days before and spoke perfect English said she didn't understand me and English well. She told me to go to another line. Very frustrating!!.

MISC
Sirenis is the first place I felt uncomfortable because of the workers leering at me and my very developed 11 year old. I think the resort should do a bit more to address that issue. There were topless sunbathers and I never went topless but you were sure made to feel like you were. Oh yes.........there are some topless sunbathers just in case you have young kids who are not accustomed to that. I have a 13 year old boy and we forewarned him about girls going topless. As expected he did not find it the least bit of a problem. LOL

Two of my three kids got gastrointestinal issues.It put a damper on several days of our trip having our babies sick. Please be very careful and be sure your kids don't drink the water from the tap or use it to rinse their toothbrushes. They give you lots of bottles water to use for rinsing. Monitor what they eat . I steered my kids away from the lunch meat just to be safe. No one else got sick though.

If you are celebrating anything be sure to let guest services know. They had a cake and champagne brought to us at the place we ate dinner the night of our anniversary and a fruit basket and more champagne sent to our room. I thought that was great. They also honored my request for a second room floor. There were plenty of towel and washclothes. The hot water was plentiful and the water pressure was fine. Our room was kept clean daily with no problems. Juana always came early and did a great job. I left a tip for her daily as well as various gifts.

Take bug spray and sunscreen and make sure you have more than you expect to need. It is very expensive to buy there. The mamajuana , which is the local drink is pretty good. There seemed to always be some activities going on around the pool and beach. I saw people kayaking and using the catamarans, although I never did.

One of my least favorite things to do in the Carribean is souvenior shopping. The Dominicans are probably more aggressive than even the Jamaicans were last year. I recommend when you are ready that you buy from Willie who has a shop on the left side of the beach by the Ramon brothers quad bikes. Willie is very honorable and a nice young man as well. We did parasailing with the Ramon Brothers, but weren't able to do the quad bikes, although lots of folks did and seemed to love it. Be careful because lots of locals have a hustle going on. Make sure you don't buy stuff your first time out. Price things and shop around. Don't be afraid to say no thanks and walk out. They practice very high pressure sales and everyone will claim to have the best prices. Look first .........buy later. Don't allow yourself to be intimidated. It will save you some major dollars in the end. We bought a ton of stuff from Willie and it was extremely reasonable. I believe it was because he knew we would walk away as we had already. Please be aware also that all of them have the same things. No matter what they tell you. Just go into various stores and you will see that for yourself.

I went to Jamaica last year and loved it. The Sirenis had positives and negatives. I didn't go there expecting to find Jamaica and I didn't. They are different. There are definitely more Europeans vacationing there. The language barrier was not only a problem with the resort workers, but the guest. It was definitely an experience.

The Dominican is very beautiful....while you are at the resorts. It is not very different from most of the other carribean islands with the poverty and crazy driving that exist there. I would probably return , but am sure I will try another resort if i go with my kids. It may be okay if you are a couple. Sirenis is beautiful, the beach is lovely, the sunrises are to die for, but I don't feel it is really quite as family friendly as they would like you to believe. My kids tired of the food very quick and they will eat just about anything indefinitely. Even they could see the quality was different than what they had last year.

Sirenis is a good choice if you are looking for a cheap vacation in paradise, but be forewarned the coconuts in the trees may have to sustain you until you reach better food back home.

My plans are to return to my beloved Beaches. We are going to the Turks and Caicos next year. I know the difference now that all all-inclusives are not created equal.

I apologize for this being long and I am sure I have left things out, but please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I am more than glad to answer them.