Punta Cana Grand Palladium Review
Written by Carla Lett
15th November 2023
You may have read my Grand Palladium Rivera Maya review a few years back when my son George was a toddler. We loved it so much that here I am, 5 years later, writing my Punta Cana Grand Palladium review.
As you know, I love helping families choose hotels based on my personal experiences. I pride myself on being totally honest with my reviews so families know as much as possible about hotels before hitting the “book it now” button.
Initially, we had booked the Hardrock Hotel in Punta Cana, but after reading the reviews, we decided that we would stick with what we knew, and as we loved Grand Palladium Riviera Maya so much, we thought it was the perfect opportunity to go and review the Dominican Republic resort as a family of 4 (with an under two).
About Grand Palladium Properties
We love the freedom with the Grand Palladium resorts; there always seems to be a group of Grand Palladium properties within one resort which means you have plenty of things to do each day.
There are 3 resorts within the Grand Palladium Punta Cana Resort & Spa, Grand Palladium Bávaro Suites Resort & Spa and Grand Palladium Palace Resort Spa & Casino, and as a guest; you can use any facilities within this resort.
How Long Does it Take to Get to Punta Cana?
It took around 9 hours to get to the Dominican Republic, I had Olivia-Grace on my knee the whole time, read my tips on flying with a toddler, I also wrote a blog on flying with a baby for those of you with younger babies.
Taxi from airport
We decided to get a taxi instead of the transfer, the taxi took around 30 minutes, and our transfer arrived around 5 minutes before the transfer arrived so in hindsight, I would have saved the 35$ and got the TUI transfer. Of course, I cannot guarantee how long the transfer will take it all depends on luggage etc.
Grand Palladium Check-in
We were greeted with a lovely welcome drink by the desk staff, and our bags were taken to our room for us. We had already downloaded the app (excitement crept in the week before), so once we were in our room, we decided to explore the hotel a little bit. It was around 6 pm, so we just grabbed some food, had a wander around with a couple of drinks then went to bed ready for day 1.
The hotel had free wi-fi, I recommend turning your mobile data off and connecting the the wifi to avoid any charges.
Our Room
Our room was located in the Grand Palladium Punta Cana Resort. We opted for the Junior Suite, and we were on the ground floor. I do recommend opting for the ground floor if you have a buggy, there are no lifts near the hotel rooms, and you don’t want to carry a pram upstairs if you can help it.
We noticed an issue with the hot water and called reception; they sent people up to fix the issue right away, but unfortunately, that didn’t work, and after a few attempts, we moved rooms.
Our room was in a good location; we were a stone’s throw away from the beach and seconds away from the pool, and the kids club was a 3-minute walk.
Our room had a cot, a super king bed (very comfy) and a pull-out double sofa bed for George, the room was cleaned to a great level each day.
The mini bar is stocked up daily and includes beer, water and soft drinks, too, you occasionally get a bag of crisps, but if you are a crisp lover, you may want to bring your own as pringles in the shop were $18.00.
You will need 2 pin US plugs, and there are plug sockets on both sides of the bed. https://amzn.to/3MJ8hXw
There is a large flat-screen TV on the wall, but it can be quite difficult to work; when I did try and log in to Netflix, it took a while. Another family we met said they always bring their fire stick, and in hindsight, we would have done this.
The bathroom had two sinks, a shower and a Jacuzzi bath which the kids loved. The floor can get quite slippery, so I recommend always putting plenty of towels down.
In the bathroom, you have flannels, a shower cap, shower gel, body lotion, shampoo and conditioner, so you don’t have to pack your own.
Room Service
On our last all-inclusive break, when we wrote the Titanic Marden Palace Review, room service was an additional cost, but it was great to see that this was a free service in the hotel.
When you are living your best life in the day, often the odd night, you just don’t fancy leaving the room, so the fact you can order room service is just great. On occasion, when the kids were hungry before dinner, we got them fed first with room service and then we went out.
The Restaurants
Years ago, when we wrote our Grand Palladium Riviera Maya review, the restaurants worked slightly differently, this time you can go on the app and pre-book meals up to 3 days in advance,
The buffet in the evening was lovely, but we really enjoyed the meal setting.
We tried the following restaurants;
The Steak House
The Asian Cuisine
The Italian
The Japanese
The Indian
The Spanish
I will share a short summary of how we found each restaurant as a family of 4.
The Steak House
The steak house was okay, I ordered the Rib Eye and struggled to cut it, and we did keep asking for Steak knives, but the language barrier was a bit frustrating (most staff struggled to speak English) ,I ended up leaving most of the steak as it was a bit chewy. I have been told the Chicken is fantastic from there, so if I had time to go back again, I would have ordered the chicken instead.
The Asian Cuisine
This was a lovely little restaurant; we enjoyed the starters and mains here.
The Italian
We are huge Italian fans, and we especially loved the salad starter buffet here, bread, cheeses and lovely salads.
The starters were lovely, as were the mains; the kids loved this restaurant.
The Japanese
The Japanese were really entertaining, you all sit around the chef, and they cook in front of you. The food was lovely, and the atmosphere was fab, I would have done this one more if we had more time.
The Indian restaurant
We really enjoyed the Indian, the dishes were lovely, and we all shared them. Our son George who is fussy, really enjoyed this restaurant.
The A la Carte restaurants
The main buffet restaurants were amazing; we loved it. We loved the breakfast, too, I was nervous about not bringing enough food for Olivia-Grace but she was fine. There was so much to choose from.
The Kids Club
The kids club is open from 9 – 1 pm then 2-6 pm
The kids club caters for all ages, and the staff are extremely professional.
You can leave your children unsupervised from the age of 1, we didn’t leave Olivia-Grace as she is very clingy at the moment, and I would have felt bad, but George wanted to go to the club most days.
When you join, you share your phone number, and you also advise whether your child can leave the kids club on their own, The complex is huge, so I wouldn’t suggest this as I even get lost /trying to find my way around.
There was lots to do for the kids, including cocktail making, balloon making, movie nights, and so much more. This was amazing service, and it was great seeing my son make so many friends.
Evening Entertainment Team
With kids, I do feel like it’s a struggle to do both the day and evening entertainment. We did when we could, and we did enjoy it, but each time we went to the mini disco, there weren’t many kids there, which was a shame.
The different lobbies had singers on, but it was difficult to figure out what was on and where. The app is supposed to have everything on, but not everything was on it. We found some things on by chance, and we really enjoyed the live music.
The advertised entertainment was on quite late for families, 9:30 pm feels like 12:30 am when you have been out all day, and we didn’t make it very often.
To get around at night, you can either walk or there are golf-type buggies running into the night you can get on.
Swimming Pools
There are plenty of swimming pools; we mainly stayed at the one at the Punta Cana resort as George met friends there. After a few days, we did notice that the pool at the Barvado has a lot more going on in terms of music and entertainment; this wasn’t detailed on the app. They have swim-up bars at each of the resorts, and there are waiters and waitresses taking drink orders around the pool area.
There are plenty of chairs around the pool, and you can get towels from a hut near the pool.
Beautiful Beach
The Punta Cana Grand Palladium beach is absolutely incredible, with a beautiful turquoise sea and white sand. The sea is clear of rocks and lovely to swim in; we did notice there are quite a few strong waves. This beach is a public beach, but it doesn’t feel that way as it was fairly quiet most days.
There are beach chairs that are free to sit on; the beach is just stunning morning to night.
The beach does have water sports like boats and Parasailing. These are to be paid for separately. The parasailing is around $40 per person with a maximum of 3 people.
Enjoyable stay
We would absolutely book this hotel again if we decided to go back to the Dominican Republic; the price is definitely worth it and all around, we had a great service from start to finish.
Weather in Dominican Republic in October?
We had absolutely beautiful weather, it was 30 degrees every day, the last couple of days we saw some rain but it was fine and you could still swim and make the most of the holiday. The downpours don’t last long before the sun shines again.
Grand Palladium Rivera Maya vs Grand Palladium Punta Cana
I loved both resorts for different reasons, the beach at Punta Cana was incredible, but I felt like the entertainment at Rivera Maya was better, I felt like the mini disco was really good for the kids and at Dominican because you have to walk out from the hotel lobby many families didn’t bother.
My Top Tips for Grand palladium properties
The shops were expensive so make sure you bring your suncream and inflatables before arriving.
We ordered our inflatables from Amazon https://amzn.to/469PwTS don’t forget the pump https://amzn.to/47xqZcn
Don’t forget your Travel wash https://amzn.to/3SHMmUe
Grab large travel cups for the all inclusive https://amzn.to/3G6n4HH
There is doctors on site but I do recommend bringing a First Aid kit for your bag https://amzn.to/3QAUALj
I would give this hotel 8 out of 10; although it was good, I do feel the evening entertainment could be a little more accommodating for young families.
Carla is the founder of MyBump2Baby. Carla has a huge passion for linking together small businesses and growing families. Carla’s humorous, non-filtered honesty has won the hearts of thousands of parents throughout the UK.
She has previously written for the Metro and made appearances on BBC News, BBC 5 live, LBC etc. Carla is a finalist for Blogger of the Year award with Simply Ladies inc. Carla is also the host of the popular Fifty Shades of Motherhood podcast and The MyBump2Baby Expert podcast.
