Melia Caribe Tropical is currently building a huge new wing, which causes a lot of noise in all the CARIBE part, beach and pool included. And works start at 7:00AM and end at 10:00PM !
Room advisor : as a result, during check-in, do make sure you are not given a room in bungalow 41 to 45 or 31 to 36. Rather ask for one in bungalows 7 to 16 or 24 to 30.
Enjoy your stay

Family with 2 teenage boys. We spent 1 week Aug 21 to Aug 28 at Melia Caribe Tropical. I had a really wonderful time, it was our third stay at this resort - happy to see improvements such as more rooms being added, no limit on A LA CARTE restaurant reservations during your stay and 24 hr reservation policy is fair. The quality of food at the A LA CARTEs have definitely improved and they were already quite good. Buffet breakfasts and buffet lunches were quite good as well. There is always quite a variety to choose from - salads, stews, pasta dishes, rice dishes, chicken, turkey, beef, pork chops, lamb, fish, shrimps, calamari done in different ways fried, stewed, grilled or baked/roasted, fast food fare such as fries, pizza, hamburgers, hotdogs, sausages. Water sports equipment - hobie cats, sailboats, and kayaks, pedal boats well-maintained and available for use. Beach always kept clean seaweed is picked up early each morning, bins for used plastic cups, napkins etc. The staff rearrange the beach chairs in neat lines during the late afternoon. Entertainment at night is good - there is live music in the Tropical lobby while there are theme shows in the Caribe lobby. The staff work long hours but they are generally quite friendly - a smile and a "Hola" breaks the ice and the communication barriers as they try to understand your requests. Keep in mind that the literacy rate in the DR is not very high and many of the staff are not fluent in English, German or Italian although the majority of the guests are from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Argentina. Unless you are part of a large English speaking group you may be a minority here. If your hear English it is spoken usually with an accent. We have not done any sightseeing or tours off-resort there's just so much to do within the resort if you feel like it. I golfed every day at 7:00am and was back in time for lunch at 11:45am - the Cocotal golf course is very well-manicured, the greens are true, there are challenging holes as well as easy holes - just what I want when I'm on vacation. It is very picturesque and the villas are starting to popup here and there providing more glimpses of luxury life in the Caribbean. We are all looking forward to our next visit and hope to encourage some friends to make the trip with us - the more the merrier!

Punta Cana, Melia Caribe Tropical - Eleven of us went to the Melia on a family holiday in January. It was the best vacation any of us has ever had. The grounds and rooms were beautiful and immaculate. The staff was helpful and friendly, the beach was terrific, the pools were outstanding (but a little cool). There are more restaurants than I care to remember and you had to try a few to find the really good food (The french and japanese restaurants were both terrific). My kids really enjoyed the kids club. There was entertainment for kids and adults every single night. One of the people we went with even made out like a bandit in the casino.

I have been to places that cost twice as much and were not half as nice, but it's like any other place in that if you go looking for insignificant problems you will likely find them and ruin your trip. If you can relax for a week, then you will have a great time.

If you are considering staying at Melia Caribe Tropical, you would be wise to choose another. The numerous problems that we discovered while travelling with a group of friends were pathetic. We stayed 2 weeks and spent at least an entire day in total on the phone asking for the basics; a clean room, a working fridge, a working toilet etc. We even met with the hotel manager to discuss our concerns but were dismissed. We were told the hotel was full and therefore our concerns were not valid.

I had read several bad reviews before traveling so I was a bit nervous. We returned from the
Melia on October 6th, and I've been dreaming about returning ever since. What a fabulous vacation! I'm a travel agent, and I've done quite a bit of the Caribbean, and had never given the Dominican Republic a thought. We had requested a nice
room to celebrate our anniversary in, and were given a villa in section 36. Perfect location, facing the large pool and a short walk to the Turey Grill and the beach.
The pools were fabulous, and the beach incredible. We enjoyed La Gondola (incredible buffet lunch, but disappointing food and atmosphere for dinner) the Capri (good food, uneven service), Ma Maison (good food and service, but suffers by not having enough tables for 2, so the wait can be long), Le Gourmet (my favorite), the international buffet breakfast (perfect!), the Mexican buffet (really good), the
Spanish buffet (somewhat disappointing) and the Turrey Grill for lunch (good variety). It was just too much trouble to get up and go to the lobby to try to reserve for Japanese. October is one of the slower months at the resort, and I did get the impression that if it had been really crowded, service would suffer.
My husband did get very ill on the last day and had a tough plane ride home. But, we ate carefully and are chalking it up to his often weak stomach. We did notice that the bottled water was "bottled directly at the spring in the Dominican Republic, so that made us a little leery of the bottled water they pass out so freely at the hotel. All in all, we had a truly wonderful time, and can't wait to return in the spring with our teenagers.

28th August 2003.

Just arrived back in England, having had a great time overall at the Melia Caribe Tropicale. Must admit that finding your way around the somewhat identical layout of the two hotels in the vast, beautiful grounds is a little daunting at first, but this property is really something to behold with its lakes, fountains, manicured lawns etc..
We were there 14 days and encountered friendly, professional staff who were only too happy to help. The food was better than we had been told, (but the cocktails were rather disappointing!)
The reservation system has been scrapped for all but the Japanese restaurant (don't miss). The "Le Gourmet" restaurant was particularly excellent, whilst we found the French and Chinese restaurants a little disappointing. Now if you're like me, your going to be struggling to find a No Smoking section in most restaurants - and unlike most UK & USA guests, the Spaniards have smoke permanently emmitting from every orifice All Day (can't stand that!)
The pools are FABULOUS - the beach is great although suffers a bit from seaweed. If you got kids, you will want to book a room in blocks 1, 2, 9, 35 or 36. We were in 36 and this meant the pool and beach were just minutes from our room - also handy for the beach grills (breakfast). If you don't like a walk - dont go here, but otherwise don't miss this resort!

We would go to Melia Tropical and Caribe again. My 11 year old son went none stop all day with activities and thoroughly enjoyed himeself. Golf is not free as they charge enough for the carts to nulify any benifits there but it wasn't busy. Some units are far away from the pools but closer to restaurants so you need to be sure where you want to be close to. We wanted pool and ocean with kids as there were plenty of trips back and forth.