Hola Fashionistas!
I’m so excited to share with you that I happily turned 54 on May 7th. I feel so blessed and just grateful to have celebrated this new year.
If you follow me on Instagram, then you know I celebrated my birthday in Punta Cana. Again. I just love this place and the warmth of the people.
My husband and I love to hop around, so the first couple of days we stayed at the Iberostar Grand Bávaro and then we headed to The Level at Melía Caribe Tropical.
This was our second stay at the Iberostar Grand Bávaro.
This place is magical.
The restaurants, personnel, rooms, service, resort was top notch. We had butler service, which assisted us with our restaurant reservations and any other request we had. We honestly didn’t use this service much, other than to reserve dinner, oh and to schedule early coffee in the mornings.
This place also has the best Dominican cake that I have ever had. It’s vanilla cake, with a whipped topping and it’s absolutely delicious.
As you can see, they made my birthday extra special. And that chocolate mousse cake was DELICIOUS.
My favorite person at the buffet, pastry area.
Ok, for the part that I was not pleased about, beach/ pool chairs, umbrellas, cabanas. If you want one, you better be prepared to get up at the break of dawn to find a covered spot. And once you find it, you better not leave for more than two hours, because you will not find your things when you return. You will have to go to the Lost and Found to retrieve your items.
After not finding a spot the first day, we soon realized the hubs would have to go to the gym, super early (6:00 am) then go secure an area with our towels, magazines and beach bag.
One morning he set our things down and jumped into the pool to do laps, when he was done, our things were gone. He had to go ask a security guard where our things were. He was then advised, you couldn’t set your things on the chairs before 7:00 am and you couldn’t leave chairs unattended, for over two hours. We had to time our walks on the beach and make sure they were not longer than two hours.
I don’t know about you, but if I’m on vacation, I do not want to have to get up at 7:00 am to make sure I find a covered seat by the beach or pool. I found this to be quite stressful. Why not have cabanas that you can reserve? This place is 5 star, we don’t mind paying to rent the cabanas for the day. Oh, and by 7:05 pretty much all the covered chairs had towels, magazines and stuff already on them. #nobueno
So if you don’t mind getting up super early to secure a covered area to lounge in, this place is highly recommended. We’ll definitely will be returning, hubby will get up early. 🙂
Almost forgot, wifi. Yes, it’s available, but not very good in the rooms or pool area. You can go by the main lobby, for good signal.
Now we move on to The Level at Melía Caribe Tropical. We’ve stayed here three times and each time I fall in love with it even more.
I’ll begin with the rooms. We are gold members, so we stay at a slightly higher level room. By all means, it is nothing fancy. The rooms are comfortable, very clean, they have a jacuzzi in the room and a balcony, with chairs and table. They have 24 hour room service, as well.
The resort, restaurants, personnel, pool and beach area are excellent. We didn’t know this, but they do include free kayaking, paddle boarding and wind surfing. My husband took full advantage of these amenities.
We had no problem whatsoever finding a great spot to lounge for the day, the entire time we were there. When we went down, there were dozens of chairs, cabanas to choose from. We also noticed that they began the day, by placing clean towels on the chairs for the guests. Once you picked your chairs, all you had to do, was lower the back part of the chair, to indicate that it was taken.
The Level area has several excellent restaurants to eat, including the buffet. Perfectly situated with ocean view. Or if you choose to, you can go to the other restaurants on the resort. You can walk, hop on the trolley, or just get a golf cart ride. We always choose to walk, as we want to burn those extra calories we are eating and drinking while there.
My favorite of the restaurants is the Dominican restaurant, mofongo, tostones, chicharrones de pollo and sancocho. Delicious! (Then I wonder where these extra pounds came from)
They also surprised me with their Dominican cake. Delicious!
The resort is beautiful. As you can see I was trying to get a picture with one of the beautiful peacocks that roams freely around the resort. After this picture was taken, it made a loud sound and jumped in my direction. Yes, I ran and almost lost my sandals.
Both resorts were wonderful, one fancier than the other. I enjoyed myself equally at both.
As with anything, before you book your next vacation, be sure and read as many reviews as you can. It’s good to see what others are saying, before you book.
When traveling overseas, make sure to go with an open mind and always be respectful of other cultures.
Safe travels any blessings,
FashionistaOver40
