Although I cannot say I am an experienced traveler as many out there are, when it comes to this resort, I feel I can input my fair share of accurate details and info.

I traveled at this resort for a wedding in Feb 2006, visited the resort again when I was staying at a different resort for a wedding in Feb 2008, and am now returning to this amazing resort to be married this Feb 2010.

The Bavaro is in constant renovations as it was an earlier built resort, however one minute you leave your room to go to the beach, and upon returning you then have a plasma as well as new bed installed in your room :) 

It is a massive resort, and although you may want to walk the resort from beginning or end, there are trolleys that run every 5-10 minutes to take you around.  The resort has seven restaurants : La Hispaniola (Buffet), El Gaucho (Buffet Breakfast & Lunch), El Gaucho becomes a steakhouse for dinner, Bella Pasta (Italian),  El Prescador (Fish & Shellfish), Chopin (Gourmet Buffet Dinner), Sakura (Oriental), Tanuki (Japanese Restaurant) as well not included restaurants International Cafe Del Mar (Balinese Style) and Gourmet Restaurant Licey. (One licey dinner included with Platinum).  They also have the McPrincess which is open until 11pm and has snacks like burgers and hot dogs or fries.  When I was there there were a few places open until 4 in the morning that served these as well.

Back in 2006 I was booked a last minute trip in a Junior Suite for $1500, I am now going this February, staying in a newly renovated Platinum suite by the ocean and paying $1599 for myself and over 33 guests (guests still climbing as deposit due date is end of this month).  For what you pay, this resort has it all when compared to other resorts.  We paid over $2800 to stay at the Riu Palace as I was maid of honor in a wedding there and although the Riu was brand new, immaculate and massive, it does not compare to what we paid and got at the Bavaro.

Upon arriving at this resort, we were greeted with Parrots and turtles and a huge open lobby.  We were handed a cold drink while waiting for everyone to get off the bus, we were brought in a room, greeted by staff whom informed us of what we needed to know, registered us, and gave us meeting times for info session and this all took less then 20 minutes and we were already on our way to our room.

Because we booked last minute we were given a Junior suite which was located in the front of the resort.  It is a building which looks a lot like the hotels here you walk around outside upon rows of doors to enter your own.  Upon entering you will have a 2 sink bathroom on your left and if you keep going left you will go through a door which has your shower, toilet and bidet.  If you go directly into your room you will have a huge king size bed, walk down 3 steps and there will be a TV, sofa bed, and coffee tables.  Through there there are patio doors which lead you to your balcony with more seating and beautiful greenery, as the resort is kept immaculate by all the staff.  Our air conditioning worked great and although the paint theme was a little corny, the only downfall to the room was that there was a 2 inch gap through the main door and geckos would sometimes get in.  Nothing a towel couldn't fix :)  Humidity was fine if you kept your air conditioning on, but again folks, this is the climate and any of the resorts have this problem.

We had a group of people with us as we were there for a wedding, and they stayed in suite rooms. These bungalows start after the small pool on the side of the main lobby and photo shop. There are 4 bungalows to a building and they are like mini apartments (approx 900 sq ft each). The platinum suites are located near the ocean on the right side of the beach, and if you book platinum, all the rooms have been renovated, with jacuzzi in the room, you have your own platinum lobby to check in, you do not have to wait to reserve your a la carte restaurants as you can book it all at once with your concierge, and this is a bonus as if you do not have platinum, you have to go wait in line every morning at quarter to 8 to book for the day of.  Platinum also includes 24 hour room service, a free massage for you and your guest, free internet, your own platinum area on the beach, free towels which you can just leave in room as opposed to getting a towel card and returning them to the towel staff prior to leaving and you also get to eat one night at Licey restaurant for free.  You must remember that their liquor there is not comparible to our liquor here, therefore if you are picky and would love smirnoff, crown royal, baileys or domestic beer including corona, then the route to pick would be Platinum.  They do make their drinks strong and we had to keep telling them to ease up a little as one little glass was filled three quarters liquor and the rest pop.  There are many more advantages to Platinum, you can go grab the wine, liquor or beer you need from your lounge or call it in, it is included in your room also and your fridge and mini bar are stocked in the room as well. If you do not have platinum, expect your pop to not have any fizz. 
 

Although this resort is all inclusive, tipping does go a long way, as the staff here is always working for next to nothing, and you will always find them smiling or going out of your way to make you smile.  Just walking around the resort, you will see the staff climb the trees to open up a coconut for you to drink (free of charge) although I tip them when they do so, other resorts were charging us 11-15$ USD for this same service.

You can get lost in these grounds, as I mentioned before they are massive.  To top it off, because you are staying at this bavaro, you are able to visit all the other princess resorts as well and some of these resorts have great restaurants and you also get to drink and eat for free. If you are Platinum, a trolley will pick you up at the resort and will drop you off after, however you can always walk the gorgeous Bavaro Beach with sand so fine and water so blue you will never want to come home.

There are two pools at this resort and 2 of the days we were there we spent at the pools, however we can frequent pools here and we don't have the beach here like at the Bavaro so we spent much of our time there, tanning, relaxing, playing beach volleyball tournaments, boogie boarding, watching entertainment and music on the beach on select days, swimming, banana boats, parasailing, paddle boats and so much more.  There was always staff there (not bugging either) that would try to get everyone involved and laughing and there would always be games, aerobics, dancing and excercise right on the beach at different times during the day.  There was a cute little beach bar to get your drinks and if you get tired of the beach, head back to the larger pool for some shaded areas, ping pong, swim up bar or just browsing the little shops to the right.

We did go out and do some excursions, and my only complaint about this hotel is that at the time there were no alarm clocks in our room that functioned, so we asked the front desk to give us a wake up call for our excursion the next day....good thing we set our cell phone to ring because they never called, and if you pay for an excursion and you don't show up at your selected time, you lose all that you paid for it and the excursion people are not part of the hotel so they do not care.  When we were staying at this resort we did the dune buggy, horse back riding, speed boat and snorkeling. We had friends go deep sea fishing (the wedding party) and friends that went to the marinarium.  We loved the speed boat and snorkeling. The little bus brought you to see some sights and dropped you off at a beach area with vendors, they all gave us free jewelry upon our arrival, gave us our snorkeling gear and fit it to size, then they gave us a boat (2 people per each boat) and video taped us driving the boat around. We then stopped in the middle of the ocean, and jumped off to feed and view the beautiful exotic fish. It was exhilerating.  The dune buggy and horseback ride I would never ever do again, we drove around in a circle in a malaria infested mud field, drove through a couple of local streets where you felt so bad for the children, they brought you to a supposed spring to wash off, yet the water was so dirty I waited to return to the resort.  Once this part was done you were brought to the horse ranch, where most of the horses were mal nourished, with a bed foam under the saddle and whipped with twigs and what not.  I was trampled by someone horse during the event because the horse was whipped by a ranch employee and I would never ever return to this.  The wedding party went deep sea fishing, were only given cola's for 8 hours and never even had a bite. Most of them ended up with sun stroke.  The marinarium was great for all ages, and included swimming with the dolphins.

Now back to the resort.  Remember to always bring your sunscreen and aloe or bandaids as you will pay a hefty price at their store here.  There is an atm around the corner from the dr's office, store and hair salon. If you are facing the resort it is to the far right.  The casino is located in the very front by the road, and before I proceed, I must tell you, the security here is amazing. A few of our friends did win a couple hundred at the casino. As for the lancelot bar, we found it a little repulsive as locals were there and spitting all over the red carpeted floor.  If you want to go clubbing, try Disco Mangu at the Grand Flamenco hotel next door which is modern, has mainstream music downstairs and house music upstairs, or even aireto if you like latin music, which is located after the golf course. 

If you were to leave off the resort to shop or view the local culture, there is a market to your left upon exiting the resort which you can bargain if you go later near closing, and many other stores. When we were there they were building a mall with a Hard Rock Cafe nearby.  Local vendors also come to the resort one night a week where you can bargain for beautiful wooden art or paintings, jewelry, pashminas and so much more. Beware of time share people trying to suck you in for free drink, they are located on side of lounge, just say no thank you and walk away.  The vendors on the beach do ask you if you would like to buy things, however a simple no thank you they are on their way.  Keep in mind you may encounter better deals getting to know the guys on the beach for excursions and what not, then you will from the excursion guys at the front desks.

I could go on and on about our experience at this resort, however I know that all of you are anticipating knowing about the wedding part. :)  Although I was not at this resort in a wedding, I was there for a friends wedding.  The prices have not changed much, the wedding co ordinator is still Francelia which is amazing, but so busy that it takes her weeks to return emails, but do not fret, as all details are handled once there.   Do read trip advisor reviews, take them with a grain of salt as there are always negative reviews and to each their own and expectations.  Our friends were married at the gazebo which was more private, the gazebo is located a little higher then the guest, however we heard everything clearly, the pictures were absolutely beautiful, the bride arrived on a horse drawn carriage, however I would rather just walk from my room, as it is the only day you get to be beautiful and feel beautiful in a wedding dress so I do want to be seen LOL.  The wedding took about 15 -20 min, we all had flutes of champagne afterwards.  The bride and groom went off to take pictures with their wedding party, we all then proceeded to meet at the beach as they had paid for the beach party.  The reception took place under these little huts on the beach ( I will see if I can attach some pics after) they had a beautiful cake, huge buffet with shell fish, chicken, steak ect, a med sized stone dancefloor and dj.  It did not rain so the nights cool breeze was fantastik. People did stop to look on their way by, but nothing extraordinary.  The dj did play our cd's and was more then willing to accomodate (make sure to bring your own cd unless you want to hear a brian adams rendition of everything I do about 6 different times and it doesn't hurt to bring the dj a plate of food from your buffet, ours was so happy.  Always remember that your guest are what make this evening memorable, and the funner and entertaining and outgoing the guest are, the more memorable your evening will be, at the end of the day people won't remember if you had a certain flower or color at your wedding, they will remember the events that took place and things that were said.

Our bride and groom gave us all thermal insulated mugs for our drinks which were greatly used to keep sand out of the tiny cups that are given at the resort, and it stopped drinks from melting so fast in the heat.  Do apply a lot of sunscreen as you will burn within a couple of hours even if you are dark and tanned already, be sure to visit the mangrove at the center of the resort which lets you take pictures of flamingos and so much more and yes there are swampy smells here and there but we never even encountered one mosquito despite others negative reviews.  The evening does cool down with a breeze, a light sweater can be tolerated, and when it does rain here it is refreshing as it only lasts a half hour at most, just be careful of the slippery tiles.  Dress codes for men are always enforced, women can wear anything in terms of dress, tanks, shorts or pants, heels or flip flops :) when going to eat at the restaurants.  Remember that the culture here is very sexual, you will often find the men in small skimpy shorts, trying to hug the women and tall beautiful dark women with feather bikinis hugging the men when you are entering the restaurants at night.  They do this so you can get pictures taken with them also, if you don't like it of feel uncomfortable just walk around, they are not forceful.  You will find all kinds of entertainers walking around the resort with spider monkeys (watch as they rip off your earings to eat them) or snakes on the beach with Tarzan....lol  The entertainment at night at the time was michael jackson theme show, and although it was a little cheesy it did prove funny and a good time for us.  They also had a show where they involved couples which was entertaining.  Everyday you can head to photocaribe to see the weeks photos that were taken (yourself with monkeys, parrots, with spouse, on the beach ect)  You can also do a photo shoot with them.  Pictures sell 1 for 10 or 3 for 15 at the time and are photoshopped and beautiful, you can also get them put on your digital card if you bring one. 

I am trying to round up this review and feel I am forgetting a million things, from watching what you eat, drink ect, but most of that is common sense when travelling to a third world country. Out of 35 people with us, only one person had an upset stomach for one day, could of been from too much sun.  Do bring immodium or pepto from home you will need it more then likely and do take in reviews with a grain of salt, be your own judge and review for yourself this amazing hotel, which by my standards, has not received proper judgement from many travellers.  Even if you decide to get married somewhere else in Punta Cana, take a walk along the beach and go take a walk around the resort and see for yourself what I am saying. 

I will be sure to post another review in March upon return of my wedding.  Feel free to ask me any questions, I am happy to be of any help, as I of all people know how hard it is to plan a wedding, and not know anything about where you are going. Most of all whereever it is you chose or decide, make sure to enjoy yourself and not stress out about details, it will all fall into place....

Ive attached a link below for Bavaro princess suites and casino which has all of the resort info and contact personel if you plan on being married here.

http://www.princess-hotels.com/hotels-punta-cana-hotel-bavaro-princess-all-suites-resort-spa-casino-5-stars.htm