Hey Y’all –

So every year I take a birthday trip the first week of September to somewhere I have never been before. Its been a tradition with me and my mom since my dad passed away. The only exception is that we can go to Disney World because it’s my mom’s favorite place 🙂 But other than that it’s always a new location.

This year we decided to go to Punta Cana.

My mom is not really a “beach” person and neither of us had even been to the Dominican Republic. We bought our flight and hotel and a week later there was the whole “people are dying in the Dominican” thing……It almost stopped my mom but we decided to go anyway. And, I have to say it was a really good time.

We stayed at the Barcelo Bavaro Beach which is a section of the Barcelo Bavaro Palace Resort. It was all-inclusive and we picked the premium level so we got extra perks like a separate check-in area and a free bottle of rum.

What I didn’t like first…..This is not necessarily a dislike but more of an FYI. If you are American and Spanish is not your 1st or 2nd language come prepared if you go after Labor Day. 90% of the guest seem to speak Spanish fluently and a lot of the staff didn’t understand English very well. I have known other people to go to the Dominican and the language was never a problem. Even another American in line with us at the airport seems to be confused by the language barrier. We didn’t see any shows, but from what we could hear and from what we were told by another American, they were all in Spanish. I didn’t have too much trouble has I do know some Spanish, but if you are a person who only knows “Hola” you may want to study up. My theory is that they are aware of American holidays and after Labor day their American tourist drops off and they just assume most speak Spanish.

Now, this is more of a dislike…..When I booked my room online it said I could get two full-size beds. When I got to the resort they said that was not a thing. I was with my mom, so sharing a king-size bed with her was no problem (I didn’t even know she was there). But, If you are going with friends or people you just don’t want to be in the same bed with, be careful. Only the regular hotel rooms can have 2 beds – the suites have only one (but a very large couch!).

Check out my room tour below. (Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel).

Check out my pictures below from the trip as well. The resort was beautiful and the food was pretty good. I don’t really have a lot of complaints. I would recommend this resort for sure. Check out my food pics on my Instagram (@potatoesandpearls)