Bahia Principe Grand El Portillo – All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

8538 reviews

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  Best resort I've been to

  This is the best resort I've been to, everything from the staff to the beach was excellent. Beach was clean with plenty of chairs to accommodate everything. Lots of owl trees if you want shade and lots of areas if you want to sunbathe. Plenty of activities to do during the day and night. Rooms are beautiful cleaned everyday if you wish it you can skip housekeeping. Fridge is stocked with beer and pop everyday. Buffet has ample choices if did to cover everyone's diet. Highly recommend the Brazilian restaurant it was delicious. Definitely planning our next trip back. Only thing I can recommend is that they get bigger pillows.

  Apr 20, 2025
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  Hotel is good

  Marco Polo entertainment was the best!!! Five stars !!! Room is clean. Very fun place. Restaurant was amazing , food was excellent. Place was very clean and organized, Entertainment at night was very fun and disco was the best even in the rain

  Apr 14, 2025
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  Some very good, some bad... and very over-booked

  Some highlights, some lowlights. On the bright side, the beach is truly excellent and very spacious, the food is surprisingly good, the resort is very clean with well-kept grounds and great housekeeping, and most individual staff were great, albeit with weak communication skills for non-Spanish guests in comparison to other hotels. We didn't have too much trouble in spite of that, and did try to practice our rudimentary Spanish. The front desk was also very responsive -- the air conditioning didn't work when we arrived, but they sent a maintenance person and fixed it right away. The television and mini-fridge also didn't work, but a similar request to the front desk saw those repaired too (it was just a tripped circuit breaker). We were also accosted exactly zero times by timeshare salespeople, so we're very appreciative of that. :) On the negative side, the rooms are very dated and frankly uncomfortable -- we've returned from our trip absolutely exhausted. The resort is also overbooked with respect to its true capacity -- as others have noted, it's impossible to get chairs on the beach without getting up at 7 AM and breaking the rules against reserving loungers. It's a huge and beautiful beach and there is no shortage of space, so the solution is very simple -- buy more loungers so you can serve your guests what they paid thousands of dollars to obtain. We bribed a beach attendant the first time this happened, and he was able to find one lounger for our family of three. Other days there was literally nothing. Similar issues happen at the buffet at busy times; insufficient seats, can't get clean cutlery, can't get served. We're habitual tippers and yet half our buffet trips resulted in no tip because no one did anything for us; have never had that experience at any all-inclusive before, including in peak season. Seems they were nearly 100% booked but resourced at a level appropriate for perhaps(?) 70%; that's not good. Whether they didn't have enough staff, enough quality staff who make a contribution, enough key resources like beach loungers or cutlery, or all three is hard to say -- you just couldn't always get the basics, and that's disappointing. There were also frustrating quirks with their online app; seems like the app was made by corporate HQ but no one briefed the staff or bothered to link up their processes. It's minor in the grand scheme of things, but also frustrating to be told (by the app) you've successfully done something and receive a confirmation email to that effect, only to be told by staff they have no idea what you're referring to, even when shown the confirmation email. Don't use the app, basically -- we learned the hard way. Would rate higher if they either booked to their true current capacity (probably 70-80% of occupancy), or added more resources so they could support maximum occupancy.

  Apr 11, 2025
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  Overbooked

  Overboooked and overpriced Too many people Not enough beach chairs People sit on restaurant stools! Had to wake at 7 to get some spot-not a good one, just any! Last time at this property, this was my fourth and last visit Reality is unable to accommodate any requests even for a high price point repeat guests

  Apr 06, 2025
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  Good, but not a 4.5 because of the rooms

  The beach, pools & entertainment is all good. The buffet is good, never ran out of options. The Restaurant’s are very good but places are limited so its best to reserve ahead of time on the website or app. The problem with this resort is the rooms are very outdated. The first room we got had only one outlet close to the bed and it was broken so my husband could not plug his CPAP. We tried to call reception but the phone wasn’t working either. No jack just 2 wires hanging from the wall. We went to the reception desk where they offered to upgrade our room for $100 US which we did. This room had an outlet and a working phone. The room is outdated but OK the bathroom really needs repair leaky sink mouldy shower, hardware is rusted and leaks. On one day we had no hot water. After speaking with a few guests they too had upgraded for similar reasons. Although I hear some rooms have been renovated ours were not. The resort itself is clean and the grounds are well kept.

  Apr 02, 2025