Melia Caribe Beach Resort - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

7013 reviews

• 

  This is an air bnb without a a manager

  This is the worst place on earth. The staff doesn’t want you to come- they refuse to smile and won’t help you. Broken tables. Broken chairs. Fridges don’t work. Ac didn’t work. Couldn’t get in my room. They blamed me for having my phone by the key card. Was locked out for 2 hours. Switched to dreams which is hands down way better . Should’ve never come here - stay far far away.

  Mar 10, 2025
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  Don't stay here, much better places and much cheaper elsewhere on the island

  This was a very disheartening trip. I traveled with 5 other people (family/significant others) to discover what the east side of the island had to offer. We live in the states, but my parents were born and grew up in Santiago, DR so we know the island well and usually go to Puerto Plata. Since Punta Cana is the tourist hub and Melia Caribe had great reviews, we were excited to see what all the hype was about and planned to use 2 of those nights to stay at this resort. CHECK IN Trouble started prior to arrival, as google maps sent us to the back side of the hotel. When we saw the lobby, it was beautiful and expansive. The front desk ladies were nice and helped as best they could with the check in process. We were asked to produce passports and did not have the physical copies on us but did have driver's licenses. Over some time, were able to send the digital copies and have that accepted. The original credit card used for the booking had also been lost during a prior excursion but the charges were processed the week prior. We tried to give another card for incidentals, but they would only release the rooms if the entirety of the stay was charged *again* to a different card. We were verbally told we would be reimbursed in 1-3 months which is horrendous when talking about thousands of dollars. No written statement was given for this. After that frustration, we continued on and were able to get room keys after a harrowing 40 minutes. ROOMS We booked 3 rooms during a Black Friday special which included reservation in the exclusive Levels portion of the resort. It was at the far part of the resort next to the beach, so we had to catch a trolley there. The rest of the Levels amenities were not included as part of our reservation but the rooms alone were amazing - except for one of them. The room was already occupied by another vacationer and we found ourselves face to face with a half naked man at the entry. This vacation keeps getting better, right? The trolley drivers thankfully hadn't driven away but we had to go back to the lobby to correct the room situation. More valuable minutes of vacation lost but it was fixed. Like I said the rooms were incredibly nice. They were spacious, had double shower heads which was super convenient, a "yard" with personal bali type bed, jacuzzi tub, extra twin bed with a trundle, restocked minibar, and useful shower amenities. FOOD/BEVERAGE We ate at the buffet restaurant since we had checked in pretty much by dinnertime. The food was varied and tasted excellent and staff service was great too. The following day we tried to make a reservation at the specialty restaurants around 9AM. They were all already booked out 2 days, after which time we would already have checked out. We've never experienced that at other resorts; openings usually refresh daily to allow allcomers to enjoy the restaurants. This was annoying but the food was good so we shrugged it off. Throughout the daytime and late at night, we tried to find snack places which were not available even though our map said there was. The only place that had snacks was the water park which was limited in menu options and limited in number available. We waited over 1 hour for three sandwiches and it wasn't until we asked the waitress that she told us they ran out and we had to order something else. More time wasted, all while getting torn up by mosquitoes. Otherwise, there were easily accessible bars through the resort. It would have been nice to have specialty cocktail menus but alcohol is alcohol so it wasn't a big deal. The drinks definitely felt watered down, except for the margaritas at the bar next to the buffet restaurant ENTERTAINMENT There was an app that was supposed to show the entertainment schedule, but it never worked so we had to ask around as the shows were not very advertised. Our first night, "entertainment" was a DJ with dance music playing in the lobby area and a dance class earlier in the night. There was no real entertainment venue which we found weird, and only a handful of seating areas. Otherwise the floor was fair game for those who didn't want to dance. The DJ packed up at 11PM although we were told he would be there until 12:30 AM......far too early with no other adult entertainment options except for a casino. Any resort we've been to always has a dance club or game room available at least until 2AM. This one seems to place little import on entertaining their guests besides pool and beach. The following night was karaoke and Latin night which was a little bit more entertaining with a very talented singer, but again ended too early. We looked for a game room to fill the time which ended up being the kids center. This too closes early....at 5PM, and the 2 pool tables they have in there, you need to pay for. Lame. POOL/BEACH Now on to what Punta Cana is known for - beaches with crystal clear water and white sandy shores. Now Melia did deliver on this! Some resorts usually have some free beach side amenities like snorkeling, paddleboats, or volleyball. This one didn't but did have several people selling those excursions. Our real gripe was with the lack of beach chairs. This resort is incredibly large (the largest I've ever been to....and The Fives in Playa del Carmen has its own rainforest...this ones bigger), with occupancy for over 1500 people. Why in the hell if you have room for all those guests, there is only about 50-70 beach chairs and no areas of shade? Obviously, we had nowhere to sit and no chairs became available until several hours later. The pool area was no different. Further frustration came about when the resort had run out of beach towels by 11AM. Again, how can you claim to service so many people when the administration of amenities are beyond poor? We had to trudge back to our hotel rooms to grab white towels, and were initially told no by the cleaning personnel who easily relented once we told them the situation. They thankfully provided more clean towels for the room thereafter. OVERALL We wanted this to be a good experience and tried to keep positive with every issue we faced. We don't usually complain but this was a horrible experience and makes me so sad that this is what we are offering of our beautiful country. Even though the natural beauty of Punta Cana is marvelous, I am completely turned off by this resort experience and will seek friendlier and knowingly better places back in Puerto Plata. The only redeeming factor was the room and the buffet food was good. Otherwise, 1 star experience. Do not recommend.

  Mar 10, 2025
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  Best spring break ever

  Wilfredo was so nice and friendly and was accommodating and very nice he got us any drink we wanted and made sure we had all the good reservations for the night. He was super respectful and made sure we had a great experience at this resort. The resort is beautiful and I recommend 10 out of 10.

  Mar 10, 2025
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  Very Enjoyable and Relaxing

  Everything was beautiful and well kept. We enjoyed our vacation here. Our waiter Ramon Guerrero and Celia Pequero at the Riveria Restaurant was a pleasure to see every morning at breakfast they made it fun and enjoyable. I recommend anyone staying to find them for their breakfast wait staff, they work hard to take care of you.

  Mar 10, 2025
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  AWFUL VISIT

  DO NOT STAY AT THIS RESORT. Food made 3/5 of my group deathly ill, resort staff lies to get you to stop complaining, ie: we tried to make dinner reservations and were told to check later and that we should have no problem making a reservation, we then returned at 4pm to get told that the reservation system is closed and that we can only eat at each of the three restaurants once per stay. This is bull, and not what we were previously told (nor told during checkin, this is an all inclusive resort….. there should be no maximum on how often. You can eat at each restaurant. Staff is rude and extremely unaccommodating. Vendors flood the beach trying to sell you excursions and hair braiding, security staff does nothing about it. This resort is an absolute scam full of lies. We are considering leaving our stay early because of how unhappy we are here. Melia needs to get its act together and fix this soon.

  Mar 09, 2025