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Cacao Beach Resort Spa and Casino: Traveller Reviews

3.0 of 5
1 Playa Las Terrenas, Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
Hotel amenities
Cacao Beach Resort Spa and Casino
Ranked #26 of 29 hotels in Las Terrenas
3.5 of 5 stars 21 Reviews
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21 reviews from our community

    Trip type
Traveller rating
    3
    6
    2
    8
    2
Date Rating
england
1 review
“good hotel bad location”
2 of 5 stars Reviewed 22 September 2007

the hotel was empty only 30 guests. The staff were faultless and very eager to please. It is technacally BEACHFRONT but the sand immediadley in front of the hotel is used as a road by the locals , which consist of a very busy flow of motorcycles and 4x4 jeeps. The beach itself is not so great. The noise from 4x4's with smelly petrol engines and the mopeds and not to forget the stray beach dogs also beach peddlars harrasing you every half an hour, it is not very relaxing at all. Turn right and walk along the beachfront for half an hour it does get queiter and more idylic. LAS TERRANAS is a shanty town and under development . It has very little pavements/sidewalks with very uneven ground to walk upon and again constant busy traffic, you are effectivley walking on the road. There are the usual tourist shops and one or two nice french restaurants and thats it.

Stayed September 2007
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montreal
1 review
1 helpful vote 1 helpful vote
“Do Not Be Fooled!!!!”
1 of 5 stars Reviewed 28 May 2007
1
person found this review helpful

My friend and i travelled from Feb 26th-March 5th and i was not at all impressed to say the least.

My first issue is that the bus ride from the hotel was not 35min as listed online and in a few travel magazines but 90min....for me this was absolute torture since i was extreamly sick both in the plane and on the bus (i realize this was not their fault but it definately did not help) I took consilaton in the thought that eventually the ride would be over and i would be in paradise....little did i know.

Upon arrival i was expecting a lot more...check-in was very unorganized and i soon realized that most of the staff barely spoke a word of english. As we made our way, in the dark unescorted to our room i noticed that the hotel seemed a little empty but i figured that everyone was at the disco or sleeping since we arrived at night. Our first nigt at Cacao Beach did not go over well at all....mainly because i woke up in the middle of the night with a cockroach on my night table!!!!!

The next morning my friend and i changed rooms and discovered that the hotel was indeed fairly empty and that the daily activities did not exist...which obviously did not earn the establishment any points....what can i say the only thing we were looking forward to at that point was the spa,nightly shows and the disco....To our dismay NONE OF THEM EXIST!!!!!

Now because entertainment in this hotel did not exist in any way shape or form we relied on the tv to entertain us....however, the television did not work. We spoke to the front desk about this matter and they sent a maintenance guy who only spoke spanish and did not seem to have a clue what he was doing...finally we changed rooms...again...the last one was satisfying considering the circumstances...no cockroaches and a working tv.

The food was not appetizing at all and the beach was the ugliest i have ever seen.....the only good thing was that it was long and you could walk for hours

Being a student in Hotel Management i perhaps im a little too critical of the resort simply because I know how things are supost to be done...and because i have had much better travel experiences in other 3 star resorts

I am also appauled by the fact that we were mislead because the services and ametities that we chose this resort for did not exist....i feel that the least they could have done was warned travellers that the hotel is under renovation and that certain services would not be available...

All in All we tried to make the most of our vacation although there was not much to make the most with....thank god we had nice weather other wise i dont know what i would have done...

On a positive note being a new touristic destination we were taking our chances, but the area has potential, as for the hotel perhaps once the renovations are done it wont be such a bad place...

  • Liked — the weather
  • Disliked — the non-existant entertainment
  • Stayed February 2007, travelled with friends
    • 1 of 5 stars Value
    • 2 of 5 stars Location
    • 2 of 5 stars Check-in / front desk
    • 1 of 5 stars Rooms
    • 3 of 5 stars Cleanliness
    • 1 of 5 stars Service
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Singapore, Singapore
Contributor
14 reviews 14 reviews
Reviews in 10 cities Reviews in 10 cities
28 helpful votes 28 helpful votes
“Empty Resort”
2 of 5 stars Reviewed 11 May 2007
2
people found this review helpful

We came to this resort on a beach hopping trip and didn't make any prior bookings. The Staff was in general very friendly and helpful. We decided to stay for 2 nights all inclusive. The bungalow was clean and OK but for approx USD 100 per person/night way too much.
The food in general was far from any recommendation and we eat outside after that. The beach in front of the hotel is badly maintained but you can stay at the pool inside the resort which is quite nice.
Can't recall how many bungalows the have but the only time the resort gets a bit busy is during casino hours. We didn't check the casino itself but look good from outside.
Overall I'd say look for a different resort and don't go for all inclusive, there are many excellent restaurants around the corner.

  • Liked — Hot Shower
  • Disliked — Condition of the room and the food
  • Stayed May 2007, travelled with friends
    • 2 of 5 stars Value
    • 3 of 5 stars Location
    • 4 of 5 stars Check-in / front desk
    • 2 of 5 stars Rooms
    • 2 of 5 stars Cleanliness
    • 3 of 5 stars Service
    • 2 of 5 stars Business service (e.g., internet access)
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Montreal
1 review
3 helpful votes 3 helpful votes
“Not what you expect!”
2 of 5 stars Reviewed 9 March 2007
3
people found this review helpful

Me & my friend booked with sell off vacations a week before leaving. We left with transat on feb.26 for a week. Once we arrived at the airport we were told it was an hour & a half drive to get to the resort instead of 30 mins of what it was supposed to be. Now once we got there this is how everything was :

Front Desk: My advice is learn to speak spanish because there was definatly a language barrior with them. I think there was only one who spoke english well enough but the others never really understoo what you were trying to tell them.

Room: I had to change rooms twice. The first time we found cockroaches in our room which no one else seemed to have & the air conditioning wasnt working very well. Then when we got to the second room we kept it for awhile but the tv wasnt working & the shower was broken so we finally changed to the last room two days before leaving.

Entertainment: Non-existant. There is a staff & they're quite nice but there arent any night shows or anything like that.

Disco : Biggest lie or all!! there is none!!! Don't be fooled.

Beach: I've been on vacation plenty of times & it was by far the ugliest beach i've seen. The only good thing about it is that you can walk on it for miles.

Food: Not the greatest but you'll survive.

Like they say it's what you make of your vacation but in this case there just wasnt much to make a vacation with. If it's going to rain it will be by far the worst vacation you'll ever have so I wouldn't recomment this hotel.

  • Liked — The sun
  • Disliked — The fact that there was no nightlife
  • Stayed March 2007, travelled with friends
    • 2 of 5 stars Value
    • 3 of 5 stars Location
    • 2 of 5 stars Check-in / front desk
    • 2 of 5 stars Rooms
    • 3 of 5 stars Cleanliness
    • 4 of 5 stars Service
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
Toronto
1 review
5 helpful votes 5 helpful votes
“Ghost Hotel - Worst hotel....”
1 of 5 stars Reviewed 25 February 2007
5
people found this review helpful

We went last Dec. 26 to Cacao Beach Resort-Spa Casino and we were very disappointed by the lies promoted in the Sunwing brochure.

It actually takes 1 hour and 40 minutes to get to the hotel from the airport. When we got there it was like being in a ghost hotel.
There were only 4 more guests! and the 9 of us, it made it 13 people on the hotel. I don't know if the hotel is under construction, renovation or if it went bankrupt, but regardless, they shouldn't be open for business under such conditions.
The bathroom doors wouldn't lock. Hotel management could only justify it by saying: "are you a family? then, why do you need to close the door?"

They were offering 5 restaurants, but only one was functioning. The food was ok, but of course, limited in choices. The third day they opened another area 'restaurant', buffet style. Upon opening this restaurant, the other remained closed, which meant that we didn't really have an option of where to eat. Forget about ordering diet coke, they would give you coke mixed with water. After a couple of instances we realized that you needed to ask for coke of diet (coca cola de dieta) and then they will give you a diet coke. Asking for hot water for tea took more than 20 min.! The hotel advertised to have a Spa? look at the pictures, that is what they had for a spa. Thinking about going into the Jacuzzi? look for yourself, it was still in shambles. The only entertainment offered was playing chess, and domino. Forget about the snorkelling classes by the pool, sports, beauty salon, and gym facilities. Everything advertised for this hotel was a lie.

Beach front? if you consider crossing the main road part of the beach then yes, it was beach front. Activities by the beach, NONE! The volleyball court was full of garbage...it wasn't until our fourth day there that the entertainment team started playing some volleyball (after management decided to clean the area following numerous complaints).

It is appalling to see how travel agencies can take advantage of tourists in this way. We have contacted itravel2000, who sold us the package, and Sunwing Vacations. But of course, none of these companies are willing to take responsibility for our disaster.

If what the manager, Mr. Pimentel, said is true, they were paying them $35.00 per person, yet no one is stepping up to the plate to take responsibility.

  • Stayed December 2006
    • 1 of 5 stars Value
    • 2 of 5 stars Location
    • 1 of 5 stars Check-in / front desk
    • 1 of 5 stars Rooms
    • 2 of 5 stars Cleanliness
    • 2 of 5 stars Service
    • 1 of 5 stars Business service (e.g., internet access)
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Cacao Beach Resort Spa and Casino Also Known As

  • Cacao Beach Hotel
Address: 1 Playa Las Terrenas, Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic

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