Luxurious Caribbean Vacation at an AFFORDABLE PRICE! in Dominican Republic

Best Family Vacation Ever

punkin82 (Fairburn, Ga, USA)
Review submitted: June 28, 2011   Date of arrival: May 29, 2011

We rented a 4 bedroom Villa from Patti this May 2011. THe villa was wonderful very clean and spacious. We have never planned a family trip like and we could not have been more impressed. Patti was great from start to finish providing all types of helpful tips, maps and suggestions. The beach was beautiful okay the entire place was. We had fresh mangos off the tree by our pool. We went of a couple excursions but if you are very active book them fast and have a plan so you can make the most of your trip. Our hosekeeper cooked breakfast in the villa every morning and she also cleaned each room and made the beds. Everyone was pleasant and helpful. I totally recommend this resort but even more so because of the excellent service Patti provides. Weather you take trips all the time or this is your first trip you can't go wrong. Fun for all ages.

Recommended for: age 55+, families with young children, families with teenagers, girls getaway, romantic getaway

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Helpful votes: 1 / 1

Best in the area

Shannon (Quinlan, Texas, USA)
Review submitted: December 21, 2010   Date of arrival: November 30, 2010

I rented from Patti and I would recommend her because she is very truthful with you.
Everything that she said would happen.. did.
We had a golf cart which some were told was only for owners.
Don't do the sales tour unless you want to spend 4 or 5 hours. We were there for two weeks so we had time and wanted the tour of the grounds but we were told it would take 20 or 30 minutes.... NOT, it was about 2 hours and we cut it short so if we were there for 4 or 5 days we would have been angry. But Patti told us about that too.

There were people that were very pleased with the property and there were people who are very hard to please. Our villa's furniture was a little dated but was satisfactory... the maid was there to cook breakfast every morning if you like... we went to the buffet restaurant because we liked to eat when we get up and don't want to wait around for the maid.
Overall we were pleased with the trip and the accommodations but the prices are not cheap there. We would take a taxi trip into town and would cost $35 and if you wanted one for the whole day that would cost you $100 or more and the beer-even at their grocery store was $18 a six-pack and gas is equivalent to $4 a gallon so don't go expecting third world prices, I don't know how they afford to live there. According to the tour guide they only make $150-$250 a month...yeah right..
If you are adventurous you need to do the waterfall tour at the national park... absolutely fabulous...Try to get Augusto for your guide, he was great.
The ride up the cable car to Mount Isabel Torres was fantastic...
The zip-lining was fun too, but we didn't like the ride over there, we had to stop at several other hotels to pick people up and that took half a day so there was only about an hour of actual zip-lining.
The ATV tour was okay..probably the worst thing we did but it was satisfactory.

Patti got us free Ocean World tickets and that was a blast... be sure to bring your camera. You can snorkel, see the dolphin show and I was picked to participate which was one of the highlights of the whole trip....fabulous.

I would also have to say the Dominican people are some of the nicest people around... they speak Spanish but a lot of them that have something to do with tourists speak English.

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Helpful votes: 3 / 6

Fantastico!

pattyb (east Northport, ny USA)
Review submitted: September 6, 2010   Date of arrival: August 26, 2010

What a fantastic vacation! We rented this beautiful property from Patti for a surprise birthday trip for my best friend. We wanted to have fun, recharge and relax IN STYLE and that is exactly what we got! We were two couples and we couldn't be happier with our decision to stay at the Lifestyle Hacienda Villas. The Villas are magnificent, the manicured property throughout the resort is clean and the friendly staff cannot do enough for you!

Each morning we woke up to our own cook preparing breakfast for us and serving it on the patio overlooking our own luxurious pool! When we finished we would take a dip in the pool and get ready to go to the beach. Patti arranged a golf cart for us to get around the resort and that was really fun! We were able to get to the beach, shopping and all the restaurants in no time. The beach was my personal favorite set up with swaying canopy beds as well as "cool pools" for when you needed to cool off.....just beautiful. Of course we were ordered many delicious drinks and yummy lunches served by the nicest, professional waitstaff. Someone was always nearby to hand us a cold bottle of water or another frosty cocktail!

The late afternoons were just perfect. We swam in our private pool, read a book on the balcony or took a nap under a palm tree. Feeling refreshed we ventured out to dinner and had wonderful meals every night. I especially loved the Blue Lagoon, the scallop and shrimp broquets over jasmine rice were top notch and worthy of a New York City 5 star rating!

We took advantage of the free shuttle to Ocean World more than once and thoroughly enjoyed the "Bellisimo" show on Thursday night! There is a casino there as well and during the day we snorkeled and had fun in the bird sanctuary and watching the dolphin show.

Each night we would come home to our clean, cool villa and each morning awake feeling rejuvenated! This was truly a perfect vacation! Thank you Patti for all your "helpful hints," they were spot on! We couldn't have picked a better place and we really appreciate you coordinating our trip. We would LOVE to come back!

Recommended for: age 55+, families with young children, families with teenagers, girls getaway, sight seeing, tourists without a car, romantic getaway

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Helpful votes: 6 / 8