Sosua Bay Club

Victorian House rooms in Sosua Bay Hotel

by TripAdvisor Member Doggies2

My wife and I just arrived on Sunday, stayed in the Victorian House rooms from Feb. 14/04 to Feb21/04. We booked with Gotravel Direct which we did pay extra from this room but let me tell you it is wought the money; the ocean view balcony and the king size bed was awsome,the room included big t.v., microwave, coffee maker of which we brought our Tim Horton to have every morning but they did supply us with their coffee, the stock fridge was full everyday and in the evening the maid come back to clean our bathroom, fresh towels and put our blankets ready for bed. Every morning we want to Sabatini for a full breakfast which included a plate of fresh fruits with croissant and muffins and this was not even our breakfast than after eating all that, they gave us a menu for ordering the proper breakfast, the best waiter was Santos and he want out of his way to pleased us. You should book all of the restaurant a la carte as soon as you arrive, they get booked very fast and let me tell you they are all great. If you want a tour of Puerto Plata town get the bell boy to call a taxi driver by the name of Ceasar, it will cost $35.00 US and will take you everywhere. He brought us to a shoe store called Cheapy Cheapy they have beautifull sandals for $5.00 US each with bought 7 pairs. If you exchanging your money to pesos do not go to the hotel, go down to the market at the beach their is a boot, bargain with him on Mondays and Tuesdays you will get 48 pesos for each US dollars. At the beach market if they sell merchandise of $10.00 you can get down to half the price, trust me it works. Also go to the boot bar #65 and ask for Mauricio this is a 15 year old kid and he will help you with everything you want to bargain on the merchandise. This bar belongs to his grandparents and they serve the best pineapple drink. For scuba driving go near the parking lot their is a boot (registered by PADI) and they have the best price. The hotel staff is the best we have every seen this should rated as a 5 star not a 4. We plan on going bad next year but this time for 2 weeks. Also you should pack an umbrella, sometime it rains in the evening. The entertainment was really bad at the hotel their need to improve it. If you want to have fun in the evening walk in the street and you will find lot of entertainment there,lot of bars and the beer is cheap. Go to the dollars and bargain litle bottle of hand cream, bars and shampoo and leave some to the maid, they love it. If you have any question you can e-mail me and I will be glad to help you.

two unhappy sisters

by A TripAdvisor Member

My sister and I spent one week at the Sosua Bay Hotel the last week of Jan.2004. We had a terrible problem getting a room with a balcony, and we paid extra to have that particular room. The people at the front desk stuck us up in a tower room 5 flights up with no elevator and a small window. Anyway, we wasted 4 days sitting in the lobby waiting for the room we paid for. Aside from that, the weather was excellent and the hotel was really nice. We met wonderful people there,everyone mostly Canadians, and two lovely ladies from Boston. There isn't much exciting night life I found, if you are looking for a quiet place to relax, this hotel is for you. Most of the guests were married and were in bed by midnight.

Beware!!!!

by A TripAdvisor Member

BEWARE! TRIP FROM HELL We booked our annual winter vacation back in Sept/03 to stay a 14nights at the Sosua Bay Hotel. This all based on the great reviews and research. Well upon our arrival in DR we where driven straight to the Resort only to be told they where overbooked and we could not stay. They would not listen and kept avoiding us. The Hotel manager Oscar Lorta called us in his office not to disturb the other clients. He would not have any compation for us and just completly ignor our plea. We know for a fact that some "Apple Tour" clients had booked their holiday 3wks prior to their arrival and had rooms. The Sosua Bay Hotel shipped us to their sister hotel Azuro Club which was under construction no rooms available, unfinished pool, bar, disco. No furniture in the rooms, no locks on the door, floods in the rooms. We had to sleep on the floor. We arrived in DR at 11:00am and finaly got what I call a cubicle of a room at 10:00pm at night. There was mud everywhere. No representative from SUNQUEST to great us anywhere and did not help the clients. They said that no one was to move from that dump. SUNQUEST was aware of the overbooking prior to our arrival on Feb 19/04 as they had been bumping people for over 2 weeks prior to our arrival. I would not recommend this so called Resort or Chain it is not a 4* nor is the Azuro Club which maybe a 1* TRIP OF HELLL. This kind of service is unacceptable and we are getting ripped off by these type of Resort and the Tour Operators as they don't seem to give a hoot.

Overbooking a Problem!

by TripAdvisor Member bunnie

Arrived at Sosua Bay Hotel Feb 28, 2004 at 11 pm. 14 Family members booked this trip in Oct 03 through Go Travel Direct. When we arrived they had my brother-in-law and his wife booked in the same room. We told them this was not acceptable, we had all booked our rooms, and expected our own. They said there were no more rooms available, take that for the night & maybe tomorrow there would be something they could do. We wouldn't take that for an answer & when our rep arrived confronted her with the problem. After about an hour they put the 4 of us in a suite in the Victorian House, said if we liked it over there we could stay there for the week. On Sunday we told our rep that was fine, unpacked and settled in, only to find out on Monday morning we had to move back to Sosua Bay Hotel. Wasted much of Monday waiting for rooms to become available. Talking with other people, found out we weren't the only ones that got the run around with rooms. Guess this is common with this hotel. From Monday on we had a great week. Food was great.
Rooms well looked after, had no problems with water pressure or towels, as suggested by other reviews. Were some stairs, but a little exercise never hurt anyone. All staff, except the reception desk, were very friendly and service was great in the buffet restaurant and at the bars. We went to the Italian and Mexican a-la-carte restaurants - excellent food and service, definitely a must! Not much of a beac h in front of the hotel, so we went to the public one right next to it - for 60 pesos you could get a chair for the day, beautiful beach and water.
Pool was really nice, but you could never get chairs near it as people would put their towels on them early in the morning, then take off somewhere, very inconsiderate! The nightly entertainment was not that great, much better in Cuba. The only reason I would not go back to this hotel is the overbooking problem. When you pay this much money and book well in advance, you definitely expect accomodations when you arrive.
My husband and I have been to Cuba twice and didn't encounter this problem. There is definitely a management problem at this resort and I would not recommend it!!

Wonderful, relaxing vacation!!

by TripAdvisor Member lovetotravel093

My boyfriend and I just returned from Sosua Bay Hotel and had a great vacation. When we first arrived it was raining and the upon seeing the lobby thought this looked like a beautiful place. Check-in was quick, the room was bigger than I expected (if you've travelled to Europe you'll know why), we had a gorgeous ocean view and the maids turned down our beds at night and came by and asked us if we needed more towels. We both thought the food was great (lots of seafood), one can't possibly eat as much as they offer and there was a good combination of common foods and those with a dominican twist. You can't expect to go to another country and have Canadian food! The restaurants were all situated over the ocean and the food was great. The champagne breakfast at Sabatini's is a must try. And the drinks, well... you didn't have to go back that often because they definitely gave enough alcohol to keep you going. If I had any complaints it would be about the water activities centre. The people there were not very timely and getting equipment could be hard, but if you were persistant then you got service. The snorkeling could be done right in the bay and that was very convienient. Some people had legitimate complaints about rooms, but any vacation is what you make of it and if you complain all week about one thing after another you'll never have a good time. I went with no expectations and after talking with quite a few colleagues who returned from different resorts feel I was at a great one. We sat in the sun, walked on the beach, visited the quaint town, shopped and had some wine with a great meal as the sun went down. I couldn't have asked for more. I would recommend this resort to anyone.

4 star?, Try a 2 star

by A TripAdvisor Member

We recently returned from Sosua Bay Hotel and I am not sure what rock others that gave this resort rave reviews have been living under, but living under a rock would have been preferable. There were pros, but they had very little to do with the resort. Pros: 1.The food was adequate and there was some variety. Specialty restaurants were all rather good, food wise, except for Sabatini. 2. The resort had DISH network for TV, so there were enough English speaking channels to watch. 3. Sosua, the town itself, is located right outside the hotel, and it was full of life. It was like a small European village. The people in town were very friendly and the restaurants and supermarket were great for getting snacks and buying items to bring back at very cheap prices (cigarettes and Rum) VERY cheap prices.Cons: The resort, which I will refer to as the motel, was nowhere near a 4 or 5 star as described. It was a 2 star at most. The motel, although represented itself, as being only 1-2 years old, is actually over 10, after many bankruptcies in building it, it was sold to a US company. The rooms and buildings are badly worn, cracking ceilings and walls and mildew; it shows its 10 years plus with no upkeep. Each building has like 1 hot water heater, so unless you took a hot shower at 6am or at 9pm, there was literally NO Hot water, I don?t just mean it was cold, I mean when you turned on the hot water, nothing came out! And if you were lucky, it would dribble out at the best of times (when no one in your building was using hot water). Cold water came out fine. The room we had, had no carpets, no alarm clock and the ?stocked? mini-fridge was stocked with 2 Pepsi?s, 2 7-ups, 2 beers, and 2 bottles of water ? when they decided to restock it that is. The maids would come into your room with a quick knock only, we had to lock the deadbolt to keep them from just coming in. They would come into your room about 4 times a day because they could not do your room one time. Once to make the bed, again to give you towels, again to give you hand towels, again to give you water and again, just to come in?and that happened everyday. The service was the worst I have ever seen, anywhere!! Thank God you have to serve yourself at the buffet or we would have starved. You have to ask for water, ask to have your plates taken, ask for a drink, and ask for coffee, IF you can locate someone to assist you. And forget about the so-called service at the pools. The bars they say they have, they don?t. There was only 2 working bars, the swim up bar was never manned. One bar in the lobby that had cappuccino, which we had to always wait in line for and the other by the pool. The pool, very small, even with 3 levels, only 2 of which were usable. To find a place to lay out was near impossible, you have to get up at 7am to put your towels on a chair in order to keep it, which seemed to be the practice there. Towels on chairs all day even if they never came back to lay in them. Considering that they had limited spaces for them anyway. Overbooking ? although we did not feel the effect, they were putting overbooks into 2 other properties that were under construction. We heard from those poor souls that it was horrible living conditions. Beware of Sunquest travel, they have loose policies with this motel and so they were the ones being bumped down to the other properties.This was a horrendous vacation and I would not recommend this hotel or its chain at all?Stay away, I?m serious. We go to resorts twice a year, Iberostar, Riu, Secrets, Breezes and have been to many islands. This was the worst we have been at. Although we made the best of it.

Sosua Bay

by Hermanater

"Lazy Day on the Beach"

Before we went to the Dom. Republic, I did a little research on the internet. I met Colleen (Sosuagal) and she filled me in on many tips about the area. This was the main reason to go to Sosua, so I could meet her. She told me about the bay being the stopping place for most of the snorkeling excursions. Since my son has never snorkeled before, I thought that I would save money and snorkel as much as I wanted. We went to Sosua.