Iberostar Punta Cana

Hi there, my husband and I decided to spend our Honeymoon at the Iberostar Punta Cana. We went from April 19 - 26th 1999 and after using Debbie's Dominican Travel Page to research this resort we decided that this would be the paradise to visit. This was our first vacation together and for my husband the first ever out of Canada! Well let me tell you that it is breathtaking! Beautiful resort with pink sand and blue, blue ocean stretching forever. The hotel is quite nice but being first time travellers we were not prepared with small bills to tip the cleaning lady. We had arrived Monday the 19th at about 9:30pm and used our smallest bill $5 to tip the bell boy, so the bank was closed. After speaking to our Signature rep the next morning we found that it is our choice if we want to tip at all. We learned that first day that they are used to receiving tips as the cleaning lady left a note to remind us and did not make up our room. I was a little surprised as we did plan to leave a tip each day anyway but missed this first day. My husband left $1.50US every morning after that and our room was done each day after. Everyday was absolutely beautiful very sunny and hot so you really should make sure to get an umbrella for shade. It was quite busy the week that we stayed and it was neccessary to save a spot we learned that the first day! The first morning we woke at about 6am and could not wait to see everything, when we went for a walk on the beach every single chair was saved with towels, books etc.. no kidding! The next morning before we went for breakfast at about 7:30am we found a nice umbrella right in front of our hotel and left our towels and a few magazines just like other people had done. About half an hour later we came back to the same spot and our things were gone I noticed that a group of upset people had gathered by the pool also looking for missing items. The man there explained that everything is picked up before 9;00am every morning because people should not save their spots! I also noticed quite a few chairs around the pool still had towels and stuff saving spots but had not been removed. I later learned that these people paid a little extra. So anyway we got our stuff back found another spot and every morning after one of us stayed in our spot until after 9am it sounds kind of crazy but what can you do! We met some really nice people from Ohio and also from Richmondhill HELLO Pam, John, Cindy & Roger! The people were friendly and there was a mix of different nationalities and age groups. The food was plentiful and we had learned not to over indulge they use alot of oil when cooking so beware. I was surprised that even down at the beach open BBQ grills were not used for cooking instead of flat grills. I did get quite sick with severe gastroenteritis on the Thursday night during our stay and had to be treated with I.V. and lots of antibiotics TAKE OUT THE MEDICAL INSURANCE! you have to pay at point of treatment. I am not quite sure what made me sick I only drank bottled water I did not drink any booze throughout the day (quite frankly we are not big drinkers and altogether we probably had about 6 drinks in total the whole stay), and we sat in the sun in moderation who knows? While we were there alot of people got sick maybe not quite as sick as I got but most did have some stomach distress of some sort. By Saturday I felt alot better mainly because of the cramp medication I was on but we were able to jump right back into our vacation mode thank God! The rest of our trip was great we did not go out on any excursions but did regret that either. We will definately tell our friends to try Punta Cana because it is PARADISE! Tanya & Bill - Toronto, Ontario Canada