Vitalis Garden Club Puerto Plata

For this resort you have to set your expectations correctly before you go. There are 3 resorts in the same complex and the Garden is definitely the cheapest of the three. Once you accept that this is not a posh resort, you should end up having a great time. Bear in mind that the following comments are based on the resort being probably only 25% occupied. When the place is full (school holiday times?), you may not be able to get issues sorted by the staff.

The "huts" are perfectly adequate except that they do not have fridges. My wife needed a fridge to keep medication cool and they bust a gut getting us a fridge. The staff were extremely friendly and helpful but a few things were totally beyond their means - such as a plug for the sink (take a universal plug with you, just in case). Remember to close the shower/toilet windows slats at night to prevent sharing the room with local wildlife (a tree frog in our case). Yep, the food can get monotonous, but they have just introduced a better booking system for the a la carte restaurants (generally good food). However, there are still very limited a la carte places available for us "cheapos" staying at the Garden Club. There should be two bottles of water waiting in your hut. Keep the bottles and constantly re-fill with iced water at the bar/buffet. The only real problem we encountered was that we were at the highest part of the site and water pressure varied between adequate and non-existent. If we needed a cold shower to cool down we'd usually walk a few hundred yards to the pool and jump in, or used the poolside shower. There is almost nothing of note in the vicinity of the beach and it was too hot and humid to walk anywhere anyway. The most dangerous aspect of being in Dom Rep is death-by-motorbike. The American tourist discovered Dom Rep a few years ago and the filthy tourist dollar has generated greed in some locals. My guidebook said that "your dollar goes a long way". No it doesn't. Taxis and restaurants are far more expensive than you expect and not worth using. The organised trips from the resort were generally thought OK and many liked the trip into the interior ("Monster trucks" I think it was called). The evening entertainment in the amphitheatre was better than it had a right to be because of the enthusiasm and friendliness of the locals. A lot of the daytime entertainment was in the "posher" resort towards the beach. Puerto Plata isn't up to much but the cable-car trip to the top of the local mountain is well worth it (go up in the morning as cloud often covers the peak in the afternoon). You'll need 200 Pesos per passenger as they do not accept dollars.

We went for just one week and that was fine. We would have got a bit bored if staying longer. Most of the guests in the Garden were Brits, but plenty of Americans in the other two resorts. The whole resort is just about the furthest you can get from the airport and will take about 45 mins along some very "Interesting" roads. You'll never complain about roadworks in Britain again once you've seen theirs.

So: set your expectations; pay as little as humanly possible for the holiday; go prepared as you would for any hot/humid/third-world venue; be friendly to the staff; and you'll have a great time.

very friendly stuff! excellent location of the resort; restaurants 7 bars-personel excellent exept of zZorro restaurant; rooms clean, air-conditioned and you spend most of the day and nighy outside! Special thanks for Geronimo, Gonzalo and.. hm... Amigo and our cleannig Lady!

Week of total relaxation!!!

Just got back from staying at the Vitalis Gardens...not good from the beginning. We checked in, went too what seemed really cute little houses from the outside but once we got inside it was a different story. Ants everywhere and when we opened the bed it was dirty with blood stains really bad! I went to reception to complain and they said they would clean straight away, little did i know that this was just the start of many more problems to come. Later on the bed was still the same and ants still everywhere and a cockroaches to add to my stay! Spoke to reception and they said the hotel was full, and so i had to stay in that room. Next day went to reception to complain and so i was put into another room. The first thing i done was look inside the bed and see if there was any ants or other insects there...there wasnt any! So i went to the pool to catch some sun and start to enjoy my hoilday and a dip in the pool, very nice and clean. Later on i decided to go and have a shower, no hot water and 1 towel. The TV didnt work and then when i did try and go to sleep and this alarm started going off for around 1 hour i was not impressed. This all went on for most of my hoilday and no one seemed to care if i complained cuse nothing seemed to change in the end i decide to give up just enjoy my holiday outside my room! I must say i really enjoyed my hoilday i went horse riding and on Quad bikes. I also saw the most amazing private island with the most beautiful clear blue water and white sand! The night life was really excellent, Domicans really like to dance and enjoy themselves to the maxiumand they are all so friendly ! I would go back to Domican Republic but not reccomend the hotel to anyone.

What can i say, it was the longest week of my life, I don't even know where to begin. The pool bar/swim-up bar was a cabana style with a grass roof which was very pretty, but the birds that lived in it had droppings all around the bar to the point that you ducked and ran to get a drink on the deck side and on the swim-up side, their droppings were going into the pool or down your back. The bathroom at the pool was flooded and backed up 4 or 5 times so if you were drinking at the pool you had to go all the way to your room to go to the bathroom. The restaurant was open-concept but again the birds flying in and grabbing the cheese directly off the buffet and hopping on, and pecking at the bread was enough to make you not want to eat. The power went off everyday even though the weather was beautiful, there was not enough hot water to get a shower even if you did it in the middle of the night when you would think nobody else would be getting one. We went to the beach for one day and the sand flies were so bad that i'm still scratching, beach maintenance seemed to be very minimal as there were broken bottles, and just general garbage everywhere, but the worst thing about the hotel was the rat that fell out of the roof of the restaurant in the middle of supper on our (thankfully) last night there. The staff were not concerned about it and laughed at the guests that were quite obviously upset and scared of a rat bite in a foreign country. I cannot stress enough how bad this place was. Everybody that we talked to that had been there for more than a few days were extremely sick and by the middle of the week me and my husband were both violently sick and we missed two days because we couldn't leave our room. I would not recomend this hotel or any of the Sun Village resorts in Puerto Plata. It was a disapointment from day 1 and the only bright spot was leaving Monday morning.

I have recently stayed at the vitalis and I had a great time. The cottages were charming, i was a bit concerned before I arrived because of the inexpensive accomadations, but I was pleasantly surprised upon arrival, staff were very helpful, they didnt speak much english but that is what i expected when visiting a foreign counrty. Out of respect for their culture I will be brushing up on my Spanish for my next trip. Beautiful pool , very clean and well maintained, excellent bartenders providing us with as much filtered water as we wanted. Excellent food( the same menu as the 4 1/2 star next to us) great variety everynite, and great entertainment daily and nightly, much more than we had expected. Greeted daily by a pleasant maid with an ola, senorita( who also had plenty of bottled water on hand). Beautiful view of mnt. Isabella and a breathtaking beach just minutes away. Vacation is supposed to be fun, dont sweat the small stuff and enjoy yourself. I would go there again next year in a heartbeat!!!!

What can I say; I hated everything but the sun and the pool.

I am also very surprise and disappointed that "Go Travel Direct" are associated with this kind of hotel. If you want to have fun, feel secure and enjoy your stay, go somewhere else!

Both my boyfriend and I were looking to take a vacation that would not cost much money, yet still provide us with clean and sanitary conditions. The Lifestyle Vitalis/Garden Club was exactly what we were looking for. We went for 7 nights from March 2-9. Sadly before we left for this trip we read the above review that rated this resort as horrible. This really made us uneasy and unable to be excited about going. Please don't stress like we did! The resort it not half as bad as the review above! Yes, it is only a three star hotel, but you definitely get what you paid for.

The food was good. The buffet did become a little boring by the 6th day, but that is the same anywhere. When I was in Mexico and St. Maarten the buffet became boring towards the end of our trip as well. The a la carte dinners were very delicious and it was not that difficult to make a reservation. We gave in the reservation at 9am and it only took a few seconds. The food was definitely not "questionable". They had signs that explained what each type of food was. The signs were in english, french, german and spanish. They provided you with a bottle of water in your room and whenever we asked they refilled it with clean filtered water. While we were there, nobody was sick, hooked up to IV's or had to be hospitalized. Just don't drink the water from the tap and you will be fine!

The villas were very cute, but once again the resort is only a three star so don't expect anything too fancy or extravagant. They were definitely not huge, but the size of an average hotel room. There were only showers and no bath tubs, but it was ok. The rooms were clean, but if possible bring bug spray because you have to remember that the villa is on ground level so some bugs may come in. We did not have a bug problem, but we brought a can of raid and sprayed around the door and windows every night just to be safe.

Although the hotel was not right on the beach, it is only a few minute walk away. The beach was clean. The pools were nice and the staff was very friendly. Almost all of the staff did speak english, just not extremely well. You have to remember that english is not their first language. Every night at the amphitheatre they have activities like karaoke, which was fun.

Overall, we both feel that this trip was well worth our money and we had a great time! It was not anything extraordinary but it was still great if you are looking for an inexpensive and pleasant trip.

One word sums up the place -- BASIC. No Frills. Hot water was lacking. There were two very tiny hot water tanks on each roof, each roof covered four separate units or cottages, so our unit received one-half of one very small tank, which did not complete one person's shower. Rarely saw a maid. No screens on any windows. Buffet was large, but it was all open except for the roof, and birds flew all over the inside, pecking at the bread and rolls in particular. Cute to look at but....... The disco was open from about 10 p.m. until 4 a.m. seven days weekly with loud music, bass, blaring, and after closing at 4 a.m. people talking and singing loudly on the way to their cottage. Disco was on site and about 5 minutes away from each cottage. Staff was friendly but hard to find one with English, and they did not take care of incoming English phone calls from outside country which could be a real issue for people. There was no internet available either at cost or for free. The option of reserving a la carte should not be suggested as it is too difficult to get.

My spouse and I spent a week at Vitalis Gardens Beach resort and we throughly ehjoyed ourselves. Met loads of wonderful people both tourits and locals who are always more than willing to help out. The food at the resort was great, always a variety to choose from and very tasty....never had a problem with stomach upsets at all. Beach is a 5 min. walk from the hotel, not a problem. The accomodations were 3.5 star and our only complaint was that a couple of our windows were missing the glass (no screens either!)....so the wooden slats on the outside did not keep the mosquitos or creepy crawlies out of our room...I did not mind sharing my shower with a ghecko one morning, but the big black beetles were startling! A scream or two was heard in our cabin! All in all it was a great experience for our first trip to the Dominican...town of Puerto Plata is a bit dirty but it made us realize how good we have it at home. Bring treats for children on the streets and beaches, or US coins as it will give you a great feeling to see how much a little gift means to them. Ballcaps are a great idea as well. Have fun and enjoy...that's what vacations are all about.

The Hacienda/Vitalis Garden Beach Resort - the accommodations were glorified huts! Some did not have doors (just a shower curtain) on their bathrooms, the shower stalls for were no bigger than a broom closet, no or very little hot water, some guests in our group had bed bugs, the bed was a single mattress on a wooden platform, most of us had no air conditioning that worked, some had ants (lots of ants!) and several people found huge (the size of a man's palm) spiders in their rooms!!! This was probably because the door of each 'bungalow' was raised a couple of inches off the floor and, the windows were only covered by wooden shutters (no glass)!!!

On to the food - UGH!! Except for the a la carte restaurants we were only allowed to use the one buffet restaurant. The buffet was the same food day in and day out. The quality and freshness of the food was questionable. Identifying some of the food was also tricky! And the selection was quite limited. For any of us on our side of the resort, we had to stand in line 8:30ish each morning and try to get a reservation to one of the available (not all restaurants were open every day) a la carte restaurants. Our side of the resort was also allowed so many seats (10 in most cases) - so once they were filled up, you were out of luck and had to eat at the never changing buffet! Eating at the a la carte restaurants allowed you to get freshly cooked food, so the seats were very valuable to all!!! We had a couple of cases of severe food poisoning in our group - in one case the person was so sick that they had to be hooked up to an IV for fluids. For myself, I had my own case of intestinal upsets for the first few days until I stopped trying to eat the food - black tea and toast was my mainstay!!

Now, I have been to Mexico in the past and have experience amazing guest services - at this resort they haven't heard much, if anything about keeping their guests happy!! Almost all requests are greeted with a 'no'! No late check out, no hospitality suite - at least it was 'no' until they had a mob on their hands! Requests for bottled water was greeted with a 'No' until you tracked down your maid who we found out had the 'in' on the bottled water!! Alot of the employees did not speak English which was difficult some times but when I tried Spanish (the little I do know) it did not go much better! It seemed that most did not want to be bothered with the guests.

Public washrooms were almost non-existent on the whole resort! They hide them - we finally found 3. The one on the 5 star side was under construction so it was out-of-service, and 2 on our side. Now the two on our side were scary!! Water on the floor, dirty, smelly beyond belief - basically a walled in out-house!!

This was the worst vacation ever - the only good thing is that we are finally home!!!