Reviewers Rating: 
Great
The Victoria Resort, Playa Dorado.Dear All
I have just returned from a two week stay at The Victoria Resort with my boyfriend and my best friend and her husband. We had a wonderful time. I have outlined it below to make it easier to read.
Arrival at Puerto Plata Airport was fine. The coach pick up point is very close to where you get your cases. All I can say is take your own case to the boot of your coach as there are quite a few people hanging around who make you think they are your driver and take your case a few yards to the boot! They are actually porters and ask for dollars for this “service”!
Arrival at The Victoria Resort was good the cases were taken to our rooms and we went separately by buggy. The staff already seemed very friendly. Got to use the few Spanish words I had learned straight away, i.e. hola and gracias!
Rooms are very spacious and we were put next door to each other as requested. There are different blocks of rooms each three stories high with private balconies. Not too many stairs though even to the third floor. Mini bar stocked with fizzy drinks and beer and water machine and ice was never more than 30 seconds away (you get a thermal jug in the room for this) Air conditioning is very effective and included in the price. Safes are in every room and you get the key from reception for not too much.
There are four eating places:
Main Restaurant, buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner. Very good variety of food for all meals. For breakfast the banana bread is delicious. The chips are good (sorry had to say it!) and the staff are really friendly too. At dinner look at the menu as well as the buffet as it is something you can order separately, we did not know this until week 2!
Mexican Beach Bar Very nice nachos! Altogether really nice food open till 4.30pm only.
A La Carte is very nice too, there are 2 sittings 7.00pm and 9.00pm. I recommend you go for the earlier one as the entertainment in the hotel starts at 9.30pm and you may miss it. Book this at reception on the day you want to eat there. We had no trouble at all getting in each time.
The Pizzeria is very nice too. Again you have to book it on the day you want to go we had no trouble doing this though. I think this was my fave eating place and I don’t even normally like pizzas!
There are two pools the adult pool and the larger pool with entertainment…WAKEY WAKEY time! The games are good fun and the lads who do the entertainment are very hard working and really friendly. There is a bar by both pools too. There were always plenty of sunbeds and towels are provided so I would not take space up in your suitcase bringing one. The hotel do not let people reserve sunbeds which is good.
DO get out of the resort. We found the people who were moaning about having a bad holiday were those who lay by the pool all day eating and drinking too much. We tried to go out every other day. There is nothing to be scared of the Dominicans are really nice people. We went to Puerto Plata. The first time we got a taxi from outside the hotel and there was a guide sat in the front seat. It cost more but was unavoidable (annoyingly) he just took us to his mates shops to buy stuff from them. We heard a lot of this going on. The best thing to do (which is what we did) is ask the hotel manager to organise someone he knows to be your driver. We had a good one who dropped and picked us up when we wanted.
We went to Sosua, Cabrete, Sanitago (second largest city in DR very interesting no other tourists there!) we did the Outback Safari and went to Paradise beach and also to Puerto Plata a few times. We might not have tans as good as the people who stayed in the resort by the pool for two weeks, but tans fade and our memories and photos will last forever!
An altogether brilliant holiday was had by all. We decided we would go back but would maybe spend a week in the south first as we really wanted to go to Santa Domingo but it was just a bit far.
Please e-mail me if you want any more information and I will be glad to answer any questions.
Kind regards
Amanda (& Phil, Sarah & Marco)
DR 26 Nov – 11 Dec 2001
Amanda
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