Occidental Grand Flamenco Punta Cana: Our 7 Night Stay

As some of you might have read from my previous posts I went on an awesome, fun, relaxing vacation to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. Well I am back now and wishing I was still there on the white beaches of the Dominican playing in the crystal clear blue water under the sun, but I am back in Vancouver where there are overcast skies and chances of rain all day. Sucks huh?

Our 7 night stay was at the Occidental Grand Flamenco resort in Punta Cana. Punta Cana is on the eastern coast of the Dominican Republic and it is not as rural as Puerto Plata which is on the northern coast of the Dominican but the beaches in Punta Cana (to me) are amazing.

We arrived in Punta Cana at roughly 9 PM EST so we did not get to see the surrounding area when we took the 30 minute bus ride to our resort but when we got to the resort check-in was fairly easy going for Robyn and I. The other couple travelling with us though had a rough time checking in as the staff behind the check-in desk could not find their reservation even though I had the resort vouchers printed off and showed it to them. The language barrier was a bit of a problem as well when they were trying to get there reservation found but eventually things were corrected and we moved on to our rooms.

Occidental Grand Flamenco is built up of a bunch of buildings, some which are slowly being renovated and revitalized. Our building was number 12 which is situated in the middle but along the edge of the resort, in fact our room’s balcony looked over at the back of the resort next to us. Though we didn’t stay in the room much, only to change, nap and sleep.

The resort offers 3 lagoon-style pools, 9 restaurants, 7 bars (including a swim up bar), daily activities, water sports (when the weather is decent) and regular nightly shows. There is also a Disco (night club) just outside the main lobby but within the compound of the resort.

The beach at the resort seems to be the reason people go to the Dominican Republic. White sand, turquoise water and spectacular views, well that is the reason we choose to go. You can walk 2 hours up or down the beach and all you’ll see are resorts and white sand and people having a good time in the water. The water activities during our time of stay were only available on the first 2 days, after that high winds and nice sized waves kept the red flags up (red meaning no water activities, yellow means some activities and blue meant all activities). We never did get to go parasailing but we did get to do a decent amount of body surfing.

The food was nothing to write home about. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t spectacular either and I do mean both the buffets and al la carte dining. I do recommend trying Marlin if you ever get a chance, tastes like chicken but better! Their snack bar (Home Rum) was Americanized food (hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, nachos) but again, it was something we tried to stay away from since the quality wasn’t the best.

The al la carte dinners we had were Brazilian, Mexican, and Italian. The Brazilian consisted of being force feed sausage, chicken, pork and beef. It was alright, but we felt as if we were rushed. The Mexican food I thought was pretty good and my enchiladas were quite tasty. The Italian was nothing special, quite salty in-fact and I could have created something better myself. Robyn had salmon, what Italian restaurant servers grilled salmon? Where in the Dominican can you even catch Salmon?

Now being an all-inclusive we did of course get into a bit of drinking. Drinking of course is free! Free booze is always good and our drinks definitely had a lot of alcohol in them. They like to mention the Coco Loco (the Dominican’s natural laxative) which was quite good with white rum. Robyn got into the Sex on the Beaches where as I started drinking Tequila Sunrises because their cerveza (beer) was not to my liking.

Overall we all enjoyed our stay at the Occidental Grand Flamenco Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. The average temperature felt like a good 35 degrees Celsius (95F) with a nice high humidity. The ocean was warmer than the pools; the breeze was cool in during the day and warm in the evening.

Would I recommend the Occidental Grand Flamenco to someone else? Sure, but we would probably try out another resort if we were to go back to the Dominican to do an all-inclusive vacation. We would also look at taking Spanish lessons as well so that communicating with staff and the residents of the Dominican would be easier and more enjoyable, not to mention that we would get better prices for things too!