Viva Wyndham Reviews

just back from this hotel, we lasted a week here as did nine other couples, hotel is being refurbished in oct, we were all moved to other hotels thank goodness, as this saved our hols , all the rooms smell of damp, food is the worst weve ever had. only time things improve is at weekend when hotel is full of locals, more choice to eat extra entertainment, i would put this hotel at 2stars at the most, were not fussy and have never complained before, about any hotel, please beaware before you go.

This hotel was gorgeous, I loved it, the staff was great and made our stay so much fun. The hotel was clean and tidy and the maid was fantastic she cleaned our room great ha! we had to leave her a good tip! xx

Well...I staying in the Viva Wyndham for 2wks in august 2007 and really enjoyed it...the entertainment staff were amazing!! (Kids club aswell)

When we arrived and got to our room we were so suprised it was huge!! With to double beds a living/kitchen area and bathroom! Which was always clean...but we did'nt realise that if you wanted your bed changing than you had a card that you had to put on you bed for the maid (Very little english) (Safety deposit box)DEFO TAKE BUG SPRAY!!!

Breakfast very basic!! But always nice! Dinner at the beach is great for kids (Hotdogs Burgers, chips that sort of thing) The main restraunt served salads ect...but both were nice!! Tea-Time 3 places to eat...but you have to book to of them at reception the Oriental and Beach and you can only book them once a week!! But the Oriental was lovely!! i really enjoyed that! The beach 1 was nice serving steak!! All in all the food was lovely!!! Themed food nights somtimes...would advise you not to go the dominican night i didnt think it was all that nice

Entertainment was great!! All through the day and shows at night Mini disco!! (everynight) the shows were really great! Night Club opened a short time after show...but they always have a drinking game while your waiting....they just cant do enough for you!!

Trips - Outback Safari = AMAZING!! it was really great!! but even though the people on the beach try and sell you day trips...i would defo book through you rep as things may go wrong (not turning up No insurance) Paradise Island = Great if you arnt sea and coach sick and like to be bored!! it sounded amazing and it is amazing to see a tiny island in the sea but its was so boring i would advise you not to take children...but if your intersed in lying about on a small island and goin snorkeling than go!! Ocean World = Fantasic! I would advise you to swim with the dolphins it was sooooo good!! *Reception staff friendly *shopping centre and restraunts about 3min walk. (Turns into Bars & Clubs at night)

All in all i had a really great time and would go back!!

Upon arrival found the hotel appeared to be very appealing if you could ignore the noise from the esso garage directly across the road.

The room was very clean and comfortable but had to keep chasing for bathroom towels and pillowcases!

Could not fault the grounds - they were kept beautifully and the kids found plenty to occupy themselves in the hotel ground ( the terrapin pool kept them all amused for hours!)

The beach - not what we had been expecting, very rough seas and we had picked a dodgy time to try and get on the beach and they were holding the world kite surfing championships on the beach and it was extremely dangerous to be on the beach in the afternoons!!!! We took cabs to Sosua beach ( about $25 return) this beach was my idea of the carribean. You had to pay for the sunloungers but it was minimal charge and the vendor looked after you all day - fetching drinks finding eateries etc, a beautiful place. Don't forget to haggle in the market!!

The food at the hotel was pretty abissmal, there were a lot of complaints about choice, quality and repetative menus and they had a captive audience as there was no where else to eat as tyhe road into caberete was very dangerous to walk along. We tried walking along the beach one night which impossible as you could not see a thing!!! Having been to the dominican before was surprised at the poor quality of the food on offer.

Steve the Thomson rep was very good - had been there alon time but was more interested in going kite surfing. Afraid it our last itme in the carribean put us off a bit!!!

Check in was quick and we were fortunate to be given a suite, so the room was really quite large.
As per most of the other reviews the bathroom lacked shelf space, but had a really nice big shower cubicle.

The gardens in the hotel grounds are perfect and a lot of time and effort is spent in keeping them this way, the gardeners must work really hard, but this all adds to the setting.

The pool is nice free form with various depths, with the left hand side when looking out to sea being the deepest at approx 5foot 6inch to the right hand side being knee hight. the various depths enabled kids to play in water which suited there ability.

Sun beds, you always managed to find one, but the pool side ones do go quick, if you are late then then you are relegated to the side near the beach wall which has a sandy floor, so you may as well be on the beach.

Entertainment...was very good, the grease show is excellent and I enjoyed all the shows.

Food, the buffet restaruant offered a good selection. I can say there is something for everyone. The only problem with food is getting a table which didn't wobble, this seemed to be the biggest problem. It would be nice if drinks where served to you whilst you were eating, I know some people managed to get drinks but we always struggled and in the end we just got our own. Apart from when they set out the food for a pool barbeque one night when we had an excellent drinks waiter, who we tipped for all his nice work.

Al a carte- the italian served good food, I really enjoyed, however even though we had left a message on the telephone answering service of guest services as per the instructions on the TV in room, that we wanted to eat at the italian on the 19th june to celebrate a birthday when we arrived we found our reservation had not been made, this really spoiled the night, as they said that they could not accomodate us. This I can appreaciate from the restaurant but guest services who we left the request with to me did not try and resolve the situation, all I can say is make sure you get a reservation ticket when you make the booking otherwise you risk missing out, we had to eat there the following night. The food and service was then excellent.

The beach.....this is where the hotel went wrong. We had on the first day a stroll on the beach and we thought it was good, but my wife mentioned some concerns on seeing some diggers and cranes on the far left on the sand, I said they are a long way off and they should not spoil the beach....how wrong I was. On the 19th when we returned from a trip out there was a lot of mutterings and complaints about building work on the beach, we had not seen it as we returned late, the following morning we understood why as huge pipe was being laid across the sand from one side of the bay to the other, apparently the five foot diameter pipe was being welded together and then dragged into the sea to act as some water break....at first we thought this would not spoil the holiday, but the noise of the diggers going up and down the beach, and the welding and work noise did become annoying.

The final straw came when a day later we went for a walk on the beach and you now could only get to the sea by walking over speacially built sand bridges at various points, and meant that you could no longer watch your children in the sea whilst on a bed. The worst part was you had to run and avoid a huge digger to get back from the beach to the hotel. Whilst I can appreacite that it was bad timing on our part to be there whilst the work was taking place, I am led to believe that 3 sets of these pipes are being made and the work is expected to take 4 weeks. So there is probably 2 weeks work left. Please remember that this is a current comment and I expect it will all be back to normal in August.

The work will benifit the bay in the long run, but when you have paid to go on holiday at a beach hotel, this is not what you want, in the end we had to check out after 6 nights as the holiday was being spoiled, so we went to a different resort.

Would I go back? Yes even though we switched resorts this was due to something outside of the hotels control, and Portland did the best to salvage our holiday. The work needed to be done and we were unfortunate with our timing. So please do not let the beach aspect put you off unless you are going in July 2006

A lovey holiday. The hotel was very good. The rooms were spacious and very clean. There was a safe and the air conditioning was very effective but a little noisy. We found the Holiday club touts a real pain, They spoke very poor English and pestered us every time we went for our meals. We gave in to them eventually and ended up sitting through a 2 hour presentation. Basically they are trying to sell type of time share. Have nothing to do with them, you may even have to be rude to shake them off.

The food was good although some strange combinations were often preasented, the desserts lookes gorgeous, but they all seemed to taste the same and were loaded with vanilla.

The hotel had its own beach area with sunbeds and beach towels are supplied. It was a clean beach and was raked daily. A cafe and bar were close by with a lovely selection of salads, fruits etc.

I thoroughly recommend the Viva Wyndham it was a well maintained and organised hotel.

After winning this holiday in a competition at my workplace we were quite pleased overall with the holiday (after-all it's always better if you don't have to pay!!).
We've never been to The Dominican before but had heard good reports.

The resort of cabarete bay has a lot going for it if you enjoy sports such as windsurfing, kite-boarding or sailing (it was quite windy for 7 out of 10 days). If you fancy a go at kite-boarding make sure you have enough time to fit in 1 hour per day over about 8 days as this is how long it will take you to learn enough to go solo (there are a couple of boarding schools on the beach). The hotel includes free use of their sailing catarmarans and canoes and in introduction to kite-boarding and windsurfing. If you want to venture into nearby Cabarete make sure you go via the beach and not the road (road is dusty and the way they drive makes it rather dangerous! - it's one of the only holidays we didn't dare hire a car). The shops in any of the towns all seem to sell the same stuff and they all want you to come in and have a look, so you have to be a bit thick-skinned and keep saying ";No";. There are some nice things like wood and stone carvings and nik-nak jewelery. The best place and cheapest by far to buy all this 'Liquidation-Liquidation', to find it from the beach go thru the Irish bar to the main road and it is almost opposite you up a small set of stairs. It's the same place all the locals buy the stuff and then try to flogg it to you at silly prices. If you buy anywhere else be prepared to haggle!!

The Viva Tangerine hotel a good hotel. The food is fantastic especially the Mexican restaurant. The fruit is like nothing we get in Britain, so ripe and juicy. Although you do have to fight off the touts employed by the hotel for the first couple of days on the way to the restaurant/bar. They leave you alone when they realise you're not having none of it. The rooms are clean and spacious (we had a family room), although the sofa bed did have urine stains on it which they did try to do something about when we complained (even if it was just spraying it). The drinks at the bar were good but all local beer and spirits. The staff were quite good although had difficulty understanding us sometimes, some could speak better English than others so be patient. Our main disappointment with the hotel was the lack of entertainment and most people said the same. The staff did put on shows and tried very hard but there was nothing at night until about 9pm and most people were going to bed by then as the heat takes it out of you. they also did a few activities during the day based in the pool or on the beach.

The excursions are good and a lot cheaper if you book them thru 'Tony' on the beach rather than the Thomson Rep or Hotel Touts(ask any of the guys who are selling stuff on the beach where he is). We went on the Party Catamaran into Sosua bay to do snorkelling which is great when they give you bread to feed the fish around you (make sure you buy a disposable waterproof camera - available on the boat). Ocean World is great but make sure you book well in advance with the Thomson Rep for swimming with dolphins. My daughter and I enjoyed the jeep safari most of all especially climbing the waterfalls in the jungle and then jumping down them all.

Overall we had a good time but I think we would go to the south of the island if we went again (I've heard there is more to do!)

we have just returned from this hotel having had a wonderful holiday.the hotel is spotless and the food good pool area is cleaned every day and there are pleny of sunbeds for everyone.

the staff are brilliant and mix with all ages (unlike other places we have been)there is plenty to do through the day if you want to,both at the pool area and the beach darts cookery demonstrations volleyball bocca etc.entertainment at night was good (some nights better than others but the animation staff and the hotel staff put on some good shows.the trip you must do is to ocean world it was great you can swim with dolphins or if you are a poor swimmer like me you can do a dolphin encounter,which was wonderful.we also done the city tour booked through the hotels guest services desk and it was very good it lasts about 31/2 hours and took you to the places of interest.

all in all we had a great holiday and i would go back to this hotel again.

This hotel is very good in most ways the rooms are large, plenty of wardrobe space nice and clean, the staff are very polite and friendly, the gardens are very pleasant. The place is ideal for sail or kite boarding.The trips we went on were paradise island which turned out to be a sand spit,although lovely there is not much shade and you're there at the hottest time of the day also it's rather a long day{13 hours],the catamaran was quite good but the best trip was Saona island very expensive but worth it.

On the whole we had a very good except that at the end of our stay after a day and night of rain the domestic water supply in our room became like a thin mud, while the hotel staff and the Thomson rep were sympathetic nothing was done to make the thing right,we had to make do with a wash in what bottled water we could get.Another bad point about this hotel is touts of variuos trips and vacation clubs that stand between you and the restaurant every day.Just a word of warning if you walk into Cabereti beware of a couple of women who bead your hair against your will and only stop when you get really stroppy. On the whole a lot of good things about this hotel but the one really bad thing would put me off ever returning