Rating: 
"First time travelling out of the United States or Canada. Called Escapes a few times to get more information. Persons I spoke with at Escapes was very informative and was not mislead. Our trip was more than expected for the price we paid. Flight, Hotel, Staff, Food, and Entertainment was expectional. I have nothing to complain about. Will definitly use Escapes again." [...]
Reviewer: reviewer4311
Date: Feb. 15, 2013
Rating: 
"We just arrived back after a weeks stay at Riu Merengue that we had booked through escapes .ca. Let me first say I would not hesitate to use this online travel service again everything was exactly as stated in our contract and all was in order.Our hotel was one of three , Riu Mambo, Riu Merengue, Riu Bachata, we were allowed full access to all three amenities, pools, entertainment, beaches, drinks, and food (except for supper time when you were expected to eat at your own hotel). Our hotel appeared to be the older of the three, the pool was in need of a little repair, the room needed better beds as they were very hard,and the air conditioning was not what we are used to. That being said we had a GREAT TIME:) I would not recommend it to the younger crowd that is looking for wild nights but for us it was perfect. The hotel staff were very eager to please and if you tipped them they went that little bit farther,
I myself have Celiac and am VERY sensitive to wheat, rye, etc glutens and have been afraid to travel due to this but I was introduced to Alberto (the head of the food services) the first day there and he made it clear to all his staff of my food sensitivities and also had me ask for him before my meals where he would then walk around the whole buffet and tell me what I could have and would question the cooks if not sure. I did not have one reaction to food while there and ate a variety of different foods it was GREAT!My thanks to Alberto for making this holiday a reaction free one.
If you are looking for a reasonable priced holiday with good food, nice people, and lots of sun this is the place for you." [...]
Reviewer: reviewer3220
Date: Mar. 11, 2011
Rating: 
"We stayed at the Riu Merengue from January 9-16. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with us and it rained almost all week. Because of this, we spent a fair bit of time in our room and noticed things that we would not have normally noticed had the weather been nice.
Resort: The resort was very nice and the grounds were immaculate. There was always grounds crew around the resort picking up leaves or sweeping to ensure that everything was in perfect order. The pool looked very nice, we didn't swim in it as we have a pool at home and prefer the ocean when away.
Check-in was a breeze! The envelopes containing the room keys, map, and towel cards were waiting on a table in the lobby upon our arrival. The only thing we didn't like was that we were pressured to have our bags delivered to our room by the bellman. As we didn't have a lot of luggage with us and we were exhausted from our early flight and just wanted to get to our room, we decided to just bring our luggage to our room ourselves. It wasn't a problem at all which we were glad about. We are not stingy with tips by any means but we do not appreciate being pressured to tip. Thankfully, that was the only time it happened.
A few nights in a row we went over to the Riu Bachata to the casino and won a bit of money The first night though, the cashier tried to rip us off by pretending not to be able to figure out how much we should have been getting back (we played a nickel slot so it was a little bit trickier than the quarter slots for us). She had a calculator behind the desk but wouldn't let us use it. We didn't bring one as we trusted that we wouldn't need it. When we cashed out, the machine had run out of coins so we had to go tell her about it. She pretended not to understand what we were saying and tried to send us away with cash for the coins we turned in ($40). We stood our ground and waited for the manager to come in so that he could help us. He put more coins in the machine and it continued to spit coins out until it finally said to hand pay us and the exact amount owed. We were glad we were insistent because the cashier would have made off with over $240 of our winnings! We also heard from other guests that if you win at the tables they make you bet it all again, you can't leave if you win big. We don't know how true that is since we only played the slots.
Room: The room blocks consist of 2-storey buildings with 8 rooms per block. We were given a room on the ground floor, room 1283, at the back of the resort (despite my request for a higher floor). They don't seem to honour requests at check-in; they just pull room numbers from a list and assign them to you.
Bring an extension cord if you have adapters or chargers that need to be plugged in. The outlets will accommodate a regular 2 (same-size) prong plug but they are not flat against the wall. We were relieved to find out that if you don't have an extension cord you can borrow an extender from the front desk with a $1 or more deposit on file. It definitely saved the day! The front desk didn't really want to give us our deposit back though when we brought it back but eventually did.
We liked having the minibar in the room. We are not big drinkers but having pop in the fridge was handy. On our second to last morning, my boyfriend woke up to a giant spider on the wall (it was about 4 inches around including the legs)! A tour guide told us that they are not poisonous but upon return home we discovered that the spider was from the tarantula family (but hairless) and poisonous! The creepiest part was that we didn't know where it came from or if it had crawled all over us while we were sleeping and where it went as we didn't see it again before we left. My boyfriend didn't kill it as it most likely would have hit him back if he swatted it.
Beach: It wasn't the best beach we have been on by far. There are a lot of trees on the beach making it a little difficult to find a good spot to lay for a little while without having to move with the sun. Understandably, the areas of the beach that have no trees around are the first spots to fill up and are packed even before 8 am. Bring water shoes as the bottom of the ocean has a lot of coral and foliage making it uncomfortable to touch the bottom without the shoes. The water, of course, was very refreshing.
Restaurants: We are very familiar with all inclusive and decided to skip the a-la-carte restaurants as we find that they usually aren't worth going to and have ended up at the buffet anyway in the past. Reservations for those restaurants must be made at 7 am at the buffet restaurant. We looked at the menus for both restaurants and didn't find anything all that appealing so we stuck with the buffet restaurant and the snack bar for our meals. In hindsight, we probably should have gone to one of the restaurants for at least one dinner to break up the monotony of the buffet food; the selection was very similar for lunch and dinner each day. We did like that there was something different every night at the carving station and we really enjoyed the turkey that was served one night. On the first night we were at the resort, the buffet restaurant had a noticeable theme- tacos, but the rest of the nights were all the same. Breakfast was delicious and the possibilities were endless! They had pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs made the way you want them, an omelette station, many different kinds of cereal, fresh fruit and juices, yogurt, several different kinds of cereal, etc. The coffee was very good and it was served in carafes with hot milk. Most of the time the staff clearing tables won't bring it to you so you have to go up and get it- not a big deal.
Entertainment: Was alright. We usually don't bother with the shows but had no choice since it was constantly raining- we didn't want to stay in our room the whole time we were there. The first night or two were decent and pretty funny but started to get repetitive after that. Bingo was fun, I won a game! They only play 3 or 4 games and that's it so it only kills about 20 minutes. We found it a bit tricky to understand the 'caller' because he was repeating everything in several different languages and the games were not the usual bingo patterns (one time we had to get 8 numbers, another time the last person to get a number called won). The prizes are a bottle of rum, package of coffee, or a Riu scarf. It was good to be either the first or second winner because you had a choice of prize (they only brought one of each prize).
Excursions: We went on the Puerto Plata half day and the Jarabacoa Waterfall tour. The Puerto Plata half day tour was boring for us, the stops weren't as exciting as we thought they would be. As we were there when the earthquake in Haiti happened (we actually felt it from the Riu!) the cable car was shut down, understandable considering but a bit of a bummer too as that would have been the best part of the tour and the part we looked forward to the most. We had to ask to do extra shopping to make up for the fact that we couldn't go on the cable car and the guide didn't seem to want to do that. He told us to tell our tour operators at the resort that we didn't get to go on the cable car and we would get some money back. It wasn't the point for us, we just wanted to stay out longer. The waterfall tour was better. The waterfall was beautiful and not that hard to get to. We do recommend crossing to the other side of the water to get pictures, you can't see much from where you get to at the bottom of the steps. The water level was really low the day we went so we walked over to the other side to actually look at the waterfall, no one else did and we wondered how they could see it at all.
All in all it was a decent trip minus the weather. We would definitely stay in a Riu again and if we were to go back to the DR we would go to Punta Cana where it is more exciting. I hope you enjoy your trip and that you have good weather!
" [...]
Reviewer: reviewer4732
Date: Jun. 25, 2010
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