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Stay and Play at Occidental Flamenco BavaroLots of fun for little moneyBy Phyllis and Arvin Steinberg
And the part we enjoyed best were the low, low all-inclusive prices! We stayed at the one-year old, Hotel Occidental Flamenco Bavaro, with rates from $91 per person a day. This magnificent 4-Star resort is in the center of the well-known beach “Playa Bavaro”. The beach itself is worth the visit. The unusually wide beach with its white soft silky sand touches the clear turquoise Caribbean water and is backed up by hundreds of tall palm trees.
The resort has nine restaurants, seven bars, and a private restaurant and bar at Club Miguel Angel. The largest swimming pool has a swim-up bar. And what a choice you have in selecting where you will dine! The restaurants include a Buffet restaurant “The Giralda”; a Steak-house Grill restaurant “Las Reses”; an Italian restaurant “Via Veneto”; a Mexican restaurant “La Hacienda”; a Barbecue restaurant “The Beach Club”; a Pizzeria “The Fontana”; a Taco restaurant “Antojitos”; and a Fast Food restaurant “Home Rum”. The Gourmet restaurant “El Cortijo” offers a 30% discount on the price of the dinner. The Gourmet Restaurant is not included in all-inclusive package.
Among the other amenities and services offered at Hotel Occidental Flamenco Bavaro are: snorkeling, diving clinics, aerobics, volleyball in the pool, rifle and target shooting, fitness room, jogging track, tennis, windsurfing, kayaking, horseback riding, Merengue lessons, baby-sitting service, and golf at a nearby course. After dinner each evening, we enjoyed a highly entertaining live stage show featuring talented singers and dancers with a great Latin beat. In order not to bore any guests who are staying at the hotel for two weeks and seeing the same show twice, the hotel has 14 different shows. Before and after each show, all guests are invited to dance to live music by the hotel’s orchestra, “Occidental Fun Club Band”. Guests can also dance the Merengue with the talented and sexy dancers who appeared in the show that night.
There is a disco located near the front entrance of the resort where we also enjoyed dancing into the wee hours of the night. There was no admission charge but drinks were an additional charge at the disco. We also treated ourselves to some heavenly spa treatments at a lovely spa on the premises. Spa treatments are also additional charges, but they are very reasonable, much cheaper than at spas in American cities. We also enjoyed watching some weddings on the beach and thought what a perfectly romantic place to get married and spend a honeymoon. We asked the hotel manager how many weddings are performed a week at the resort and he said there were an average of three weddings a week, most people preferring to have a gazebo set up on the beach under a starry sky for the ceremony. We found the Hotel Occidental Flamenco Bavaro to be a good value vacation. This is a family resort with many children as well as honeymooners and seniors. There is no casino at the resort, but there are hotels a short drive away that have casinos, if you would like to try your luck at the gaming tables. For the traveler who likes to unpack and enjoy a wealth of activities in one beautiful spot, all included in one price, the Hotel Occidental Flamenco Bavaro is a good choice. Photos by Phyllis Steinberg For further information:Hotel Occidental Flamenco Bavaro |
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TM
The two seaside resort areas of Bavaro and Punta Cana
in the Dominican Republic are growing rapidly with new, all-inclusive
resorts offering a myriad of diversions including beautiful, wide, white
sandy beaches, restaurants offering cuisine from around the world,
Vegas-style casinos, oceanfront golf courses, nightclubs, shows and more.
The hotel consists of 877 spacious rooms with
terraces. All of the rooms are within a two or three minute walk to the
beach. For those who prefer a pool rather than the beach, there are three
large lake-shaped pools. For those who prefer a restricted area with more
personalized services, there is the Club Miguel Angel consisting of 51 rooms
designed to be a small hotel inside the Flamenco Bavaro Resort.
What do you get at this all-inclusive resort? This
all-inclusive vacation includes well-appointed accommodations; unlimited
meals, snacks, alcoholic beverages & non-alcoholic beverages; nightly
entertainment; non-motorized watersports; landsports; beginner’s scuba
clinics; a supervised Kid’s Fun Club; and taxes and gratuities.
We found the food to be excellent with a variety of
cuisines. The Dominican Republic grows, farms and catches almost everything
that is served in the country at dinner tables everywhere from resorts to
sidewalk cafes. The food at the resort was hearty and based on Spanish,
African and Taino cultures. However, the resort managed to serve food from
many countries. One night was American night. All the tables were decorated
with American patriotic colors and the servers dressed in red, white and
blue. That evening the menu was ribs, chicken, pizza, hot dogs, salads,
spaghetti and wonderful desserts, including iced cakes, adorned with
American flags. 
There were so many activities at the resort than we
never left the property. We enjoyed a pig roast on the beach one sunny
afternoon and on Saturday evening there was a festive beach party with music
following the live stage show.