Yes, BEDBUGS, ants, mice and the odd rat were some of the critters to be found IN many of the units! As a bonus you have a better than average chance of experiencing NO water for 3 days in a row, broken A/C, toilets that don’t flush, toilets without a seat, long power outages, non-working bar fridge and TV. The public toilets don’t have running water, soap or paper towels! This place is a sickness waiting to happen. We have been enjoying visits to the Caribbean for 14 years, but this place is just unacceptable. I am representing the opinions of over a dozen other people who were at Don Lino at the same time. The food at the evening buffet was boring, lacking variety, over-cooked and always contained at least 1 type of "mystery meat" I heard the fish was good. Breakfast was excellent. The beach was nice but very windy every day, so only strong swimmers chanced it. There was also a lot of coral and sea urchins. There is a lot of wildlife running around the resort which was a treat – horses, pigs, chickens, dog, cats, lizards, frogs, toads and birds. The staff get a thumbs up. Most were extremely pleasant, but even than cannot remove the stain of our over-all experience. At $800/person/week, Sunwing should have told us what we were in for. We spent $1000 last year at Gran Ventana (4*), and it was so worth the extra. Unless you are a hardened camper, you might want to give this place a wide birth.
Room Number:
1027
Room Block:
?
Arrival:
The arrival went smoothly until we saw our room and then we returned to the front desk were the girl gave us a fist full of keys and told us to go find another room.
Rooms:
Very old, musty and broken down. Bathroom door knob falling off, our room flooded when it rained. We had no fridge or hair dryer. The TV didn’t work at all. The mattress was disgusting.
Restaurants and Bars: The new buffet was lovely but the food was dreadful. Only breakfast was good. If you don’t like rice and beans served 3 ways every night accompanied by cold over-cooked "meat", plan on loosing a lot of weight. The a-la-cart was pleasant, but the food was only slightly better than the buffet and you could only go once per week.
Bar service was fine as long as you asked for beer or simple rum drinks. The staff at both places were delightful.
Beach/Pools/Grounds:
Pool was small but immaculate. Nice sandy beach, but rough water with coral and sea urchins. The grounds were so parched from lack of water, but the groundsmen did their best.
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
There are trips available off resort.
Other Comments:
I know there are a lot of positive reviews for this resort – that is the only reason we agreed to go to a 2*. However, I soon discovered that by talking to other tourists, the people who liked its "rustic appeal" were ALL avid die-hard campers, so even the chance of the occasional shower or flushing toilet and electricity was a bonus. Kudos to them. For those of us who flourish on these amenities, we didn’t enjoy ourselves, and BEDBUGS should NEVER be okay.That couple bitten by bedbugs documented their bites and the bed itself with lots of pictures which they intend to put on line.