We picked the Holiday Village as it is geared towards children and wanted something to keep the kids entertained. If you are adults traveling on your own you might want to pick somewhere else, although this hotel does offer adults only section which looked very nice. The hotel is owned and operated by British Tour Operator, FIRST CHOICE HOLIDAYS. The only one from Canada that travels to this hotel is Signature Vacations. I traveled with my daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren 5 and 2 ½. We were a little worried after reading some of the reviews but we had a great experience with this hotel and the kids are already talking about when they go back next year. Flew with Signature/Skyservice, flight was on time and we arrived in Puerto Plata at 10:15 am. Flight home was early and we arrived back in Toronto 45 minutes early. People it is a short flight, please keep your seats in the up right position as the people behind you don’t have enough room as it is!!!!!!! (thanks, I had to get that off my chest).
Check-in:
Check-in was done on the bus on the way to the hotel. As you boarded the bus they put your all inclusive bracelet on you and you received an envelope with your towel cards and hotel reservation paper (which was already filled out for you). You signed the back of it and gave it back as you were getting off the bus. Check – in complete!!!!! If you wanted the remote for you TV or safety deposit box key then you had to go to the front desk to request these.
Rooms:
We had two family rooms 13-2 & 13-3, great location, across from the water slides/wave pool and right beside the kid’s park. We could not have asked for a better location. (I did email the hotel and ask that our rooms be close together) Each room had a king size bed, TV, ceiling fan, air conditioning and a separate room with a set of bunk beds and a TV. Rooms were clean and very comfortable. Mini fridge was stocked everyday with 2 Pepsi’s, 2 7ups, 2 beers and 2 large bottles of water. Our maid kept our room spotless everyday.
Pools:: This resort had a few pools, the wave pool with pirate ship. The water slide pool and the main pool. They also had a small pool at the kids club. Royal section had their own adult’s only pool. The wave pool is where we spent most of our time. The waves came on every hour on the 15 minutes and lasted 20 to 30 minutes. The kids big and small enjoyed this pool and they would all run in when they heard the warning siren signaling the waves were about to start. My grandchildren spent a lot of time in this pool. The pool was built in the shape of an upside down capital T, one end of the T contained a large pirate ship which had water slides on it, this is where a lot of the smaller children played as the water was very shallow. The other end of the T was a little duck slide for the real little ones. The other pool in this area was the water slide pool which had two slides the “blue” one was at least 3 stories high straight down and the other “green” was a winding one which my grand kids loved. The adults had a great time on the large one.
We did not use the main pool so I can not comment on it. All the pools were clean and had lifeguards stationed at them. There were no wasps or bees when we were here.
Restaurants:: They enforced the dress code at all restaurant. We did the 3 a la cartes, Asian, Italian and Mexican, all have a children’s only menu also. We did not enjoy the Asian at all. The Italian was our favourite. Mexican was also good.
Buffet was good and had a good selection of foods most meals were geared towards the British and I found there were a lot of deep fried foods which we tried to avoid. They had a Pasta station every night. The kids had there own little buffet section with pizza, chicken nuggets, fries and ice cream that was built to their height so it was easy for them to help themselves. Breakfast they made Micky Mouse pancakes which all the kids were crazy for. Overall the food was good, you could always find something you liked. The snack bar at the wave pool served, hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken wings, chicken nuggets, salad bowl or fruit bowl. They had nachos and cheese on the bar which you could help yourself too.( a little to high for the kids to reach, they need to put this somewhere else) The Mexican a la carte was the Pizza place for lunch, they had a salad bar which you got yourself, pizza was good not great but good.
Beach::
The beach was beautiful, wide and very clean the water was a bit rough (I am used to the beaches in Punta Cana and must say the one here in POP was very nice) I was surprised how clean it was since reading other reviews. There is also a life guard on duty here all day. They did rent jet skis etc. but were very expensive 30 mins for $85 USD.
Casino::
Slots and cards, we didn’t play but had talked to people who did, they said it got very crowded later in the night as the other resorts and locals can use the casino also.
All in All::
We all really enjoyed out vacation at the Holiday Village Golden and if traveling with my grandchildren again we will definitely return to this hotel. I would highly recommend this resort to families traveling with children