Playa Dorada, Golden Beach Holiday Village Review

Overall Rating

Food, Drink, Location, Accommodation, Service.

Late Night adult entertainment on-site.

Having read some bad reviews of Golden Beach Holiday Village on other sites before we went we were all gob-smacked as to the standard of service we received during our stay.
This resort is absolutely beautiful!
We have done several of the Holiday Villages - all were disappointing to various degrees.
I can honestly say we really had to struggle to find anything to complain about - and we do complain when needed.
The resort is beautiful, well maintained and immaculately clean. Staff are constantly cleaning the grounds and facilities.
All the Dominican staff are very friendly. I would say though that if you just wander past staff without returning the pleasantry "Hola!" then don't expect a smile everyday.
The same with the bar staff. I know you're on holiday but manners and politeness is like currency to the Dominican people. Say "Hola!", smile, please and thankyou, take your glasses back to the bar and they will treat you like kings. You may even find yourself getting served before others.
There are three pools - one for the upgraded clients (adult only) - the activities pool - and the Wave pool. They are well spaced out. The activities pool is situated 10 ft from the main restaurant, pizza restaurant and the pool bar. The Wave pool whilst having slides and the wave generator only had a pool bar (that I saw - we didn't go there due to getting a sunbed - and there was little shade) The Activities pool had lots of brollies a HUGE tree and the sunbeds were nearly all still vacant at 8am even as late as 9am there was always shady spaces available.
Lifeguards are constantly on duty.
The main restaurant is excellent. Very few flies - in fact there were hardly any anywhere.
Choice of food is varied and of excellent quality. Note: Dominican meat is usually cooked on the rare side (except chicken) - if you want it cooked longer just ask, the chefs are always in attendance to serve up the carvery and are very happy to cook a slab longer.
Main restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and evening meals on a buffet style. There was always somewhere to sit.
The pizza restaurant served pizza at lunch time - which is a sit down and order style. The pizzas are cooked fresh and to your taste. If it's wrong, say so, they will jump through hoops to get it right. Whilst you wait there is a buffet bar of salads and pasta.
The beach bar serves burgers, baguettes etc at lunch time too - again a sit down and order style - waiter service. The food is very high quality cooked fresh.
There are 4 a la carte restaurants, Italian, Oriental, Mexican and Caribbean. Again excellent quality and service - 5 courses which you need because the portions are a bit small.
The pool bar is well stocked with some very strong (local) alcoholic drinks - there are some premium brands but not many. They will make you a cocktail from the menu or if you know how to make a different one then tell them and they will do their best. Queuing was very rare during the day (2,3 people) and at night it wasn't a problem.
Accommodation:
We had a standard room and family room (with kids den).
The standard room had a very comfy double bed, wardrobe and chest of drawers. Cable TV. Minibar stocked daily with 2 beers, 2 water, 2 cokes and 2 7-up. Coffee percolator (mmmmm). Bathroom with shower. The shower was not very powerful but more than adequate and there was always hot water. Hair-dryer. All the toiletries you need are provided. Air con worked very well - you need it! The lighting was a bit subdued though. Patio had table and chairs and the locks all worked perfectly. Safety deposit box is free but you need to order your key from reception. Free inter-room phones. The roof didn't leak at all even when hurricane Dean glanced past us bringing with it 2 hours of the heaviest rain I ever saw.
Family rooms are not much bigger. The double bed is HUGE. The kids den was not totally enclosed and private - so families with older children wanting privacy might not get it! We used it for our two teenage children who needed separate rooms. All facilities here are as per the standard room. Note: you get a free playstation - but you must collect this from reception on arrival - do it soon or you may have to wait. ps. it's a region 1 (US) version - don't bother bringing your own games - they wont work. Rental of games works out at about £3 per day!!
We asked for our two rooms to be close together and they were in the same block of about 8 rooms all on one floor and about 10 meters to each others doors. Perfect.
Entertainment:
Many pool games and beach games for families and adults only during the day.
Evening entertainment has the usual First Choice kids stuff up to about 9pm. I would have liked to see the stage switch over to adults only after this cos the entertainment was pretty naff. But we have had young children and understand that parents want to stay out with their kids. There should have been a disco or somewhere else that adults and older children could go to that was inclusive.
Unfortunately the disco and casino were for over 18's and not inclusive.
There is an adults bar that is fully air conned above the pool bar that has karaoke and bands on. This bar doesn't close!!! However it's the only place in the Dominican that is no smoking!!
So our only real complaint is that older teens have nothing really to do on an evening.
Excursions:
We got a price list for First Choice and quickly realised we had not brought enough money to do the trips we really wanted. But we had seen people who recommended to book with the locals on the beach. We got a price list from Franklin on the beach that saved us almost £200!!!
The trips are IDENTICAL to First Choice - in some cases better.
We highly recommend the Safari and the Catamaran.
The Catamaran especially. The Banana Republic is a fun packed boat (bright yellow) with a great (completely mad) crew. It has a water slide and diving board. The First Choice boats, whilst newer, don't have the slides and dive boards and we were told by people who had been on these boats that the entertainment and food was poor.
What else?
Check in and check out was fast and efficient with bags and yourselves being ferried to you rooms and back again.
Even the flights inbound and out were great! The 9 hours seemed to fly by faster than a flight to Europe!
Oh - the only bad point. Mosquitos. They were voracious. Most of our repellents seemed to attract the things. You can buy patches from your reps, $15 for a pack of 24. THEY WORK! I found though that I was getting bit at night in the restaurants. So I took to wearing long trousers and socks at night. The patches can be placed on clothing or your skin. If you put them on your shoes or sandals they tend to keep the blighters off your legs at night. Sort the mossies out early and you'll have a ball.
Just go there and enjoy it!

Members' Comments onCK1's Review

• NiciJ on 14th Feb 2008

  I found this review helpful because it covered everything I needed to know, especially the mosquitto info!! Many thanks!

• blazeiboy1 on 14th Feb 2008

  I found this review helpful because...it tells me alot of things that i wanted to know as i am going there in august this year with my family. There is only one thing that it does,nt tell me and that is if they have a dress code that you have to wear for dinner in the evening. many thanks amanda.

• CK1 on 17th Feb 2008

  Dress code:
  The a la carte restaurants have a dress code of long trousers for men.
  Thats about it. Smart and casual I guess you would say.
  Swim wear is not permitted in any restaurants, but this is due to them not wanting everywhere dripping wet (understandable) so as long as your shorts are dry and both male and female put a top on then it's OK.

• Neese56 on 8th Jun 2008

  Hi.
  I found this review very helpful. After reading many bad reviews about this hotel, it was refreshing to read this as I am due to go there for 2 weeks in August with my family and have worked very hard for this holiday!!

• joannefen on 11th Nov 2008

  Very helpful review, it gives comments on everything. thanks