Iberostar Bavaro Resort – Punta Cana Pictures

So here are some of the long awaited for photos from our vacation at Iberostar Bavaro Resort in Punta Cana. As I mentioned above, I am breaking these posts down into sections so I don’t have to place all my photos in one huge post. I am sure the people with dial-up will appreciate that…that is if you are someone looking for photos of Punta Cana.

I always hated it when someone goes on vacation and comes back with either their hair braided or with a million stories. “Ohhhhh, it was SOOOOO gorgeous!!!” Really now. Just tell us about it, only if we ask. Normally people don’t care about someone else’s vacation unless they are planning a visit there themselves. If you are at home and still have the braided hair, just know that people are talking about you. Sometimes pictures are fun to look at though.

Laura and I had many questions before leaving for this trip. I will write the Q & A below (these apply only to Iberostar Bavaro, Punta Cana and Dominicana resorts)…

– Does the resort have internet access? – Yes, but only in an internet cafe. The computers look kind of old and we didn’t go in to check them out. No matter what you read out there, this resort does not have any wireless access available yet. To use the internet cafe, you have to go to the front desk and get a ticket that they will charge to your room.

– Does this area have cell phone coverage? – Yes, I called my sister a few times and it worked fine with good signal. I didn’t have to dial any differently than I do at home.

– Does this resort have American style electrical outlets? – Yes, the outlets are merged with the European style outlet (I think). Everything we had plugged in and worked just fine.

– Can you drink the water? – Yes, this resort had its own water purification system. Neither Laura nor I had any issues. Some friends of ours felt a bit sick, but that may have been because they were drunk the whole time. The hotel recommended that we don’t drink the tap water in the rooms or use it to brush our teeth and we didn’t. It did smell chlorinated though. They said that the water in the restaurants and bars was filtered. The ice is fine too.

– Can you make phone calls from the rooms? – Yes, you can call other rooms and make outside calls with a credit card.

– Is there an iron and ironing board in the room? – Yes, they have both.

– How is the food? – I would have to say that it was pretty damn good, even at the buffets. I actually preferred the buffets more.

– Is the resort safe? – I would say so. We felt very safe. There are security guards standing at all the enterances during the night and the staff suggests security if you want to leave the resort. Even with the security, we didn’t really feel them there.

– Are there any medical services at the resort? – Yes, there is a doctor’s office, a pharmacy and an ambulance.

– Do people steal stuff from your room? – No one stole anything from us. I brought a laptop and a cell phone. There is a safe in the room. I fit my 15.4 inch screen sized laptop in the safe, along with everything else of value that we had. It was nice not to have to worry. We also used those little suitcase padlocks to keep our suitcases locked. Also, you can just put the “Do not disturb” sign on the door and the cleaning lady won’t enter the room.

I know there were more and I will add them if I can think of them. Let’s get to the pictures. I tried to pull out the ones with no, or few, people…

This is a photo of one of the many paths at the resort. The Iberostor Bavaro is made up of one big main building and many small apartment style buildings where the rooms are. There are 8 apartments in each of the small buildings. I liked this better than the other resorts because it had so much more character this way.

This is one of the fountains. This one is located at the North side of the Iberostar Bavaro leading into the Iberostar Dominicana.

This is just one of the shots I took from our room balcony. I took this with Laura’s camera, which handles color much better than mine. I think I was smoking my first Cuban cigar at the time, but don’t tell anyone that.

This is another random photo that I thought looked pretty good. If you are planning to go on a trip anywhere, you really analyze every photo.

Ok, back to my camera. This photo was taken when we first arrived at the resort. We were walking out of the main desk/reception area, over this little bridge towards the rooms. To the left was a big buffet hall and to the right was a stage for entertainment and a bar.

This is another photo from our balcony. Do you like these shots? I do, that’s why I took them.

This is a photo of the front of our building. We had room number 1138. We were up the stairs and to the right. Laura’s brother and girlfriend were right next door.

This is a nice shot of a path leading to the main pool.

We were out for a walk one evening and I think I kept taking pictures of the same things. Well, this is one of them. Just some of the trees and some lawn.

They had the coolest man-made pond in the middle of one of the paths. There were all types of fish in there. I liked it because the fish were actually the same ones that I used to buy from the pet store for my tropical fish tank.

This is a good shot out on the beach. I was facing North trying to get the beach path. I think I even got a European with a Speedo for your own pleasure.

This is a photo of our walk to the buffet and main reception area. There was a nice wooden bridge type thing that would bring you to various places, like the buffet room and some of the restaurants.

There were many gardens with water features that I took pictures of.

Here is a rest/drinking area out near main reception. People like to sit here and relax.

This is another chill out area located out in the middle of the apartments. There are chairs and a small pond. Also, in the back left, you can see a cage type thing. I beleive there were some birds in there.

As I mentioned above, there were some wood bridges. This is one of them. Be careful, they are very slippery when wet.

I think I took this picture right after the wedding. We were eating and I was crazy hot, so I got up for a break. This path leads out to the beach.

On the right side of the wooden bridge, there were really nice ponds and gardens. I will get to the animals later in another post.

Here is another picture of some of the landscaping.

This is a great shot of the wooden bridge near the buffet and restaurants.

Ok, so I think the resort is really nice. Everyone was very pleasant and accomodating. If you like people doing things for you, you shouldn’t have a problem here. Laura and I thought that 5 days was a good time to stick around. I think you might get bored after that. There were plenty of things to do, but the humidity kind of made us lazy. The heat wasn’t bad…very similar to up here in New York, but the humidity will kill you.

I did like some things I saw related to energy efficiency at the resort. Here is a list of what I noticed…

– CFL bulbs
– Window film
– Air conditioning shuts off when the sliding doors are opened
– Two flush buttons on the toilet…one big one and one little one. Each lets out a different amount of water. Use your imagination.
– Many trees shading the building
– Automatic switch shuts off closet light when the closet door is shut

The Dominican Republic needs a bit of work with their automotive exhaust, but it’s good to see that they are trying to conserve electricity.