Today on the blog I am sharing my resort review of the CHIC by Royalton Luxury in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. But first, a few outfit photos as requested from our trip!
Floral Off The Shoulder Dress: Express / Sandals: ASOS (Similar)
Crossbody Purse: Tory Burch / Sunglasses: Sperry (Similar)
Dress: Tularosa (One of my favorite dresses!) / Sandals: Steve Madden
Crossbody Purse: Tory Burch
Now onto the review of the CHIC by Royalton Luxury in Punta Cana in Dominican Republic.
My husband and I have been to Punta Cana several times and this time we decided to switch it up and stay at the CHIC by Royalton Luxury. One of the reasons we love visiting Punta Cana is because it’s only a 4 hour direct flight from Philadelphia so if you leave early enough in the day you will still have a full day ahead to enjoy yourself!
TRANSPORTATION + TRAVEL
Once we arrived in Punta Cana, our travel agent had booked us a private car so we were able to get through the airport quickly and were off to the resort in no time. I highly recommend a private car in Punta Cana because if you book a shuttle service there will be other people on the shuttle with you. The shuttle will make stops at other resorts.. so what may seem like a short trip will end up taking anywhere from thirty minutes to two hours. From the airport to the resort it was about 45 minutes in our private car.
CHECK-IN PROCESS
Once we arrived at the resort we were greeted with hand towels and a tropical drink. We were escorted over to the Diamond Club to check in (which we paid extra for and highly recommend – more on that below). Check-in was a breeze. I liked that instead of a room key you have a bracelet which you swipe to get in and out of your room – makes life so much easier than having to remember to carry around a room key! The Diamond Club definitely made the trip. I think without this amenity our stay would have fallen flat. In the Diamond Club you get your own butler (shoutout to Omar and Samuel who went out of their way to take care of us), top shelf alcohol, and access to Diamond Club lounge – drinks and snacks always stocked from the morning to 11PM, your own beach and bar area, access to the Mermaid pool and a few other amenities which we didn’t use (i.e. unpacking and packing luggage service, ironing, etc.).
ROOMS
The resort has 320 rooms which all have modern touches and are very spacious. I did wish that the dresser was larger since it only had three small drawers. I did like the bathroom vanity area – there were two sinks and also a magnified mirror. There was also a large tub next to the shower in the middle of the room. We would have to remember to close the blinds if you were showering since we had a swim up room next to the beach area so people can definitely see into your room. There were also a lot of bugs outside. I didn’t notice them on the first or second day but by the third day we made sure to keep the swim up pool side doors shut at all times. The cleaning service also came by twice daily – once in the morning and once at night. Another feature which I really liked is that you could order room service straight from your television! Another added bonus, an in-room, ready pour drink dispenser! WiFi was also great through-out the entire resort!
BEACH + POOL AREAS
The beach was extremely clean and I didn’t see any seaweed that was on the shore. The waves were high though so there was either a yellow or red flag out each day. There were plenty of chairs and huts to sit under at the beach. The Diamond Club also has their own beach area complete with their own bar. So you could essentially sit in a cabana on the beach without having to pay extra which is an amenity I really liked.
There was one big pool, a smaller pool next to it with a swim up pool bar, and the Mermaid pool (for Diamond Club members). The activities near the pool area were fun. I participated in Zumba and Spin aerobics. There was a foam party during the day on Saturday (I believe these parties happen twice a week). We did have to play the pool chair game so if you were at the pool after 11AM you won't be able to find a chair. So one of the days we did end up purchasing a bottle and a cabana since there were no available lounge chairs but it was worth it to have your own area especially if you are with a group.
FOOD + DRINKS
One of my favorite things about the resort was that they had a specialty coffee shop. Every morning we would try a new drink – from lattes, to cappuccinos, to frappuccinos - they had it all. I thought that the food was very good at the resort! We tried the Middle Eastern restaurant the first night. The tabbouleh, wings, lamb with couscous, chicken with rice were amazing. The next night we tried the Italian restaurant, Vespa, which was also great. Our favorites were the Diablo pizza and Lasagna. The last night we had dinner at the Steakhouse, Hunter. We had the tuna carpaccio, Cesar salad, French onion soup, and filets. We were able to arrange our dinners seamlessly through the Diamond Club. During the day we primarily ate around the pool. We had the most amazing chicken burgers everyday and fries (just thinking about this is making me hungry.. it was THAT good!).
RESORT ACTIVITIES
We participated In a few of the activities. As I said before I did the Zumba in the pool and also the Spin class in the pool. There were nightly parities set up each night. My favorite was the circus themed party on the first night (Wednesday) which was in the lobby area. There was also weekly foam parties. To our disappointment, the Casino was also closed randomly on Wednesday and Thursday and then randomly opened Friday and Saturday night. Lastly, we also got massages at the spa. The Spa was really nice, however, the sauna/steam room weren't working also to my disappointment.
All in all we had a good time. There were a few things that should have been told to us when we checked in about certain amenities not being available instead of us having to find out ourselves later on (i.e. Casino + Spa) but other than that we had a great vacation! It's always nice to get away someplace warm during the winter!
