OCEAN EL FARO RESORT - ALL INCLUSIVE PUNTA CANA

We just came back from a lovely spontaneous family vacation to Punta Cana, where we stayed at the newly opened resort, Ocean El Faro to celebrate my husband’s 40th birthday. When I first started dreaming of an escape from the cold Pennsylvania winter, I stumbled upon this beautiful new resort. It mostly caught my eye because of the significant price difference from the older and more dated resorts on the island but then I was immediately swooned by the décor. It felt a little like Joanna Gaines meets Punta Cana, so I booked it right away! Just joking, because who books a vacation anywhere, without reading at least 5,000 reviews on Trip Advisor first? I love the inside glimpse that reviews on trip advisor give you and it's always nice to see travelers photos that have been to the resort, rather then the perfectly photoshopped ones used on the resorts website, It gives you a very realistic look at the property. It was also helpful to follow all the related hastags on Instagram, ones like #oceanelfaro and #oceanelfaropuntacana. It was also helpful to join all the facebook groups for people that have visited or are interested in visiting the resort, my favorite was Ocean El Faro ~ Punta Cana ~ Guests & Travelers. We can all dish and talk about concerns but also get real time answers from travelers at the resort. Keep in mind, when reading reviews online that some people love to be grumpy and can't be pleased, read the reviews and think what are the most import things to you and your family, you will never find a resort with all positive reviews. From what I learned the resort was having some minor issues since they had just opened two months ago the positive things that jumped out at me were the new rooms, comfortable beds, good food, and friendly staff which honestly are the most important things to me when traveling. I can do with a few leaking sinks and some construction, so I decided that the newly opened, not quite finished Ocean El Faro was worth the risk in order to save some money on our first family trip to Punta Cana.

I Called our local travel agent, Nittany travel in Lock Haven, PA and spoke with Ray and Michelle and got some tips on best days to fly out of our nearest major airport. It turns out that Frontier flies a plane, direct (as long as there are no mechanical issues, long story) every Wednesday to Punta Cana, which means more savings for us. Nittany Travel was able to get us a great package deal on hotel, flight, transfers, and a week at the new resort through Apple Vacations for my husband and I and our three little ones. I booked the non privileged basic Jr. suite, my thoughts were to not spend any extra since it was a new resort and they didn't have all of their services in order yet. If I paid for basic and didn't get what I ordered there was no where to go but up! Nittany Travel also recommended buying travel insurance through them rather than the major brands, and I was able to save even more money, they have the hook up! I highly recommend using a travel agency to make sure your getting the best deals and finding the best flights. I also have used Apple vacations for almost 10 years and have always been satisfied and they make transferring to and from the resorts super easy and stress free, just look for the brightly colored floral shirts after you get through customs. 

The best benefit of booking a trip last minute, is that before you know it, you're own the way! It was our first time taking our youngest kids out of the country and they were excited to have a break from winter and use some of the very basic Spanish we tried to teach them. The trip there went well with some quick deicing we made it out of PA just before a major snow and ice storm hit.

Ocean El Faro was a 30 minute drive from the Punta Cana airport and we were blown away when we pulled up. The grand entrance and super classy main lobby are nothing short of spectacular. The endless arches, outdoor lobby, and beautiful grounds would be beautiful for a wedding. I would love to have the opportunity to capture a destination wedding at this resort in the future, the places to take photos are endless. Check-in did take longer than any check in I had experienced, you can tell there has been a bit of a learning curve. I ended up being asked to write everyone’s names down on some scrap paper and signed where the employee had marked an X under the names.  Once we had our room number, we left our luggage with the bell boys and they brought it to us a little while later. After a  long walk, we finally arrived to building #9 room number 9217 in the first building off of the beach, low and behold the room key did not open our room. We found a maid to let us in and most of our cares were washed away when we opened the door to huge room, located at the very end of the building, with a beautiful view of the light house and ocean.  

Our room was beautifully decorated and very spacious, it seems like the end units are almost double the size of the regular rooms. We had a room with two very comfortable double beds plus a nice sofa bed. I loved that there was a separate bath and shower so more then two people can get cleaned up and that the toilet is also separate. We had more then enough room and loved the outdoor space. The balcony was beautiful, loved the swing! We loved that there were hardly any bugs and left the doors open a lot to feel the nice ocean breeze. There was no humidity when we were there in February but it did get a little damp in our room when we left the doors open, because we were so close to the ocean. Our room was made up daily by the maid and the mini bar restocked as much as we needed. We did use the safe for all of our valuables every time we left the room and it worked great.

It didn't take for us long to settle into a vacation routine and once we found our favorite pools, snacks, meals, and bartenders, the three day wait to get the key fixed seemed like a minor issue after all. Our favorite meal and the food most like back in the states was breakfast. They have one main buffet opened for breakfast, El Mercado and it seems like the lines are the lowest right away at 7:30 am or if you wait till 10:00 am. They have a wide variety of food but we stuck to the egg and omelet stations with toast and bacon.  Someone on the resort told us that nothing is imported, all of the food comes from the island so amazing fruit but not so amazing steak. For lunch we typically ate a quick bite at the snack stand by the pool. The fried chicken wings were delicious, but there were times you had to wait a bit for the snacks that were good. They also have the main buffet  El Mercado open for lunch and the one beside the ocean, Pez Dama. We liked the pizza and french-fries there, they also had good rice, fish, and fruit. The restaurants all open at 6:00 pm and the trick is to get there right when they open, they seem to get super busy around 7:30 pm and you will have to wait an hour to be seated. If you don't manage to get there early you can put your name down for a table, if there is a wait. There were some nights I went and did this then went back the room to get ready. We found that there was anywhere from an hour to a two hour wait to get your main dishes after you ordered. There appears to be only two cooks per restaurant and sometimes only two waiters. If you order a few appetizers this helps, or even make a quick trip to the buffet before dinner for a light snack. Since we had kids with us there were times we even fed them at the buffet before dinner so they did not have to wait. There are kids menus with spaghetti, chicken, and hamburgers, you just have to ask for them. We loved the Hibachi, it was a lot of fun. I am glad we saved that for my husband's actual birthday dinner. The manager went above and beyond making him feel special with bringing out a birthday cake and having a big group sing to him. We also loved the Mexican, and Route 66. We did find that we loved the appetizers more than the main dishes there though. The chicken dish and the penne pasta was amazing at the Italian restaurant but we did have some things that were not good at all. The steak house was our least favorite with the longest wait. The ice cream stand is so good as well as Mike's, the coffee house. We enjoyed stopping at them after dinner, I just wish they were open a little later. If you are hungry after 11:00 pm you don't have many options.

The ocean  water was beautiful, it was not the most beautiful beach we have ever been to, the waves were pretty rough, and the sand in the water was rocky so if you love to swim in the ocean bring water shoes. The photos shown here were taken a little further down on either side of the resort where the scenery was much prettier. There are plenty of lounge chairs and lots of shade directly in front of the resort. There was quite a bit of construction on the beach but it didn't bother us. There was also a lot of sea weed that washed up, that also didn't bother us. We walked and played in the sand and waves but saved the swimming for all the amazing pools. 

My kids loved the pools, lazy river, and water park. There were plenty of pool floats for the lazy river so no need to bring your own. It seem like everyone is bringing them but not taking them home, so plenty for everyone. They do have lifeguards on staff, and the pools are only 4ft so very nice for kids. The water is a bit chilly in the mornings but warms up by the afternoon. On Saturdays they have a foam party and my kids had a blast just keep close eye on them, we lost two of ours for a split second in the foam. The daisy club building was not open. The kids club met in the teen club. My 9 year old son like going there or an hour or two a day for a break from the sun to play the playstation there. There wasn't enough things to hold my girls attention and they didn't want to to stay at all they are 4 and 7. They did love the live music, dancing, and face painting each night. The staff is wonderful with kids and called them "babies" they loved to give them high fives and singing to them. They made them feel very special. The resort also had karaoke on Sunday night that was very entertaining to watch. I didn't expect the bowling to be one of the highlights but it ended up being so much fun. You will need to bring socks each time. They do have them available for purchase if you forget, they are $3.00 each. You can only play one game a night and your whole room must all play together. They do have a disco, that we didn't check out, a sports bar that has a pool table and some TVs to watch, the casino is not opened yet. My favorite entertainment was the young lady that sang each night from 9 pm to 11 pm each night and watching my daughter dance to the music.

The resort is huge and can be very tiring walking back and forth, make sure to bring comfortable walking shoes and use the blue trolleys as much as possible, I do wish they ran later though.. The plain white trolleys take you to the light house for the time share presentation, which leads me to the last draw back to mention. The white shirted H10 Premium guys and gals they really try to trick you into going into the light house. Instead of being up front and stating what they are trying to do. I would recommend just sitting through it the first day and getting it over with or they will not leave you alone. They are trying to get you to purchase their discount membership for their hotels. The first guy tries to lead you to the lighthouse to be passed to their boss and then after a while they pass you to the last guy. The membership is basically a travel agency that will cost you $10,000!!! they must think we are loaded! Anyways we felt like we wanted to help our guy out and sat through the presentation so he would at least get paid and they would leave us alone, we ended up becoming friends so it was all good. It seems like a big waste of a beautiful light house, would have made a nice restaurant. Overall we had a very nice stay at Ocean El Faro and it was a great resort to bring our kids to for the first time despite the long walks and long waits for meals. 90% of the staff are very helpful and friendly. It is a good idea to bring small US bills to tip for meals, service, and drinks. The workers do not make very much money and small tips go a long way. As you go through your stay, write down some names of employees that went above and beyond so you can mention them in the comment cards that the resort hands out during checkout. We also found out that they get something special if you do a Trip Advisory review and mention their names. The servers here are so nice, we would go back for the people alone. We made some friends that we miss already. Thank you Ocean El Faro for a wonderful stay and special thanks to our new friends Wilman, Masiel, Dayni, Damien, Vladamir, Maria, Carolina, and Beneldo you guys are amazing!