Catalonia Royal in La Romana – Adults Only on the southeastern shore of the Dominican Republic is on what we consider the best beach in the Caribbean. It’s tucked in between two more well-known resorts, so it manages to feel like a secret paradise. While it may be too quiet for vacationers who go to all-inclusive resorts to let loose, we loved this hotel for its small size, updated rooms, and friendly service.

• The resort has an overall relaxed, upscale vibe, with a spacious central area that includes the lobby, buffet, pool, and a couple of bars and restaurants.
  
  
• It’s next to the family-friendly Catalonia Bayahibe, and guests of the adults-only Catalonia Royal have access to all of the pools, restaurants, and beach areas of that resort.
  
  
• The family-friendly resort is situated closer to the beach, so it’s a 5-minute walk to get from the farther back adults-only villas to the water. There’s a straight path at the edge of the resort or a winding path through the resort you can take if you want to walk, or you can hail a golf cart along the straight path.
  
  
• We recommend staying in Villa F if you want to be as close to the beach as possible or Villa A or B if you want to be nearer the pool and bars.
  
  
• You’ll wear a wristband while you’re here with a plastic chip on it that also doubles as your room key. It’s incredibly convenient to never wonder where your room key is!
  
  
• We never had a problem getting as many towels as we needed for the beach and pool. The only drawback is that the towel stand is all of the way at the beach, but sometimes the housekeeping staff will bring fresh beach/pool towels directly to your room.
  
  
• The water here is amazing. In the morning, it’s the calmest, clearest water you’ve ever seen. In the afternoon, some waves will appear from time to time but are usually very light. Because La Romana is on the south side of the Dominican Republic, it doesn’t get any of the big waves of the Atlantic Ocean. It’s also basically in a cove created by the natural curve of the island, so there’s no seaweed here. And no rocks!
  
  
• There’s a man-made reef under the buoy line at the edge of the swimming area for the resort where you can snorkel. Fish have clearly been trained by people bringing bread from the buffet, because they come right up to you if you get close to the reef!
  
  
• While the water is only neck-deep or less all of the way out, there’s a fairly steep drop-off as you step off of the beach (about 6″-8″). It can be a struggle for older people to get out of the water, and we saw some people using the buoy line rope to pull themselves out onto the beach.
  
  
• The beach is on an incline in the middle section, which can make it feel like you’re sliding toward the water when you sit in some of the sun chairs. We still saw many people sit in the center chairs, but your best bets for a flat beach are the chairs with umbrellas right next to the water or the chairs under the palapas (open-sided huts with thatched roofs) a few rows back where the beach levels off again.
  
  
• There’s an adults only side of the beach, a family side of the beach, and a Privileged club members area in between. It’s all one large swimming area for everyone, but it really is very big, so it felt uncrowded and children rarely came close to us.
  
  
• There’s no way to reserve sun chairs (unless you’re a Privileged member sitting in the separate Privileged beach area), and the brochure they give you at check-in says they’ll remove any towels placed before 6:30am. We would usually arrive at the beach at 8am and always got our preferred spot. Even well after 9am, there were plenty of seats with shade available!
  
  
• The sun chairs and palapas are spaced nicely, no overcrowding here.
  
  
• Security watches the beach all day and won’t let vendors approach. They’ll call to you if you’re in the front row of sun chairs, but you won’t be bothered by anyone if you’re a row back.
  
  
• The main pool with the swim-up bar is very small. There’s another small pool between two of the villas, but it doesn’t have a swim-up bar. But we found that there were only a few people in the pools at any given time, sometimes none at all, so the size was never an issue, and we loved how quiet it was. You can also use the much, much larger pool at the family-friendly resort if you crave noise and action.
  
  
• There are private plunge pools available in the top-level rooms of one of the villas that would make for an amazing private sanctuary. There are also two kinds of swim-up rooms available, those that combine with main pool (if you want easy access to the swim-up bar) and those that are separate.
  
  
• The buffet is very small at the time of this review because one section is being rebuilt, but the buffet near the beach has a much bigger selection. It’s shared with the family-friendly resort, but there’s a separate entrance and seating area for the adults-only guests with nicer views and prettier decor.
  
  
• You make dinner reservations via a mobile website for Toscana (Italian), Tao Cat (Asian), Siwichi (Peruvian), and BLoved (seafood/vegetarian). The reservations open up a few days in advance, so you’ll be able to book a Sunday dinner on a Thursday. We found that only the Italian restaurant filled up quickly, but our opinion was that the pizza was the best part of that restaurant, and we could get all the pizza we wanted at the buffet! I saw some older people complain about having to use the website in reviews, but we loved being able to handle it ourselves, and the concierge in the lobby will always help you, if needed.
  
  
• Tao Cat and Siwichi are upstairs from the main pool/central lobby area and are open-air. Toscana also has open sides. You might miss the air-conditioning in June, but it’s so nice not to be locked in the windowless restaurants you’ll find at a lot of resorts. Choose BLoved or the adults-only buffet if you crave A/C!
  
  
• There’s a food truck on the adults-only side of the beach that serves things like hot dogs, burgers, and fries during the day, and the beach bar serves sushi. Back by the adults-only swim-up bar, there’s a snack bar that serves things like tacos, mozzarella sticks, and nachos all afternoon.
  
  
• We found the food in general to be fine/good, very typical of resort food. There was plenty of Dominican food but a lot of things like pasta, meats and cheeses for sandwiches, pizza, and French fries to please most palates. We thought the desserts here were more interesting than usual, with flan and cheesecake and chocolate molds filled with mousse. There was also, of course, self-serve ice cream available at lunch and dinner! Breakfast was our favorite meal thanks to the wide variety of sausages and bacon, the fresh omelet station, and the mangu (mashed savory plantains).
  
  
• The room service menu is pretty small but is therefore delivered quickly! We enjoyed burgers, quesadillas, salads, and sandwiches for lunch and dinner and loved how the breakfast room service came with coffee and milk.
  
  
• Which is good, because there’s no coffee shop at this resort! You can get coffee at the lobby bar starting at 9am and the beach bar at 10am, but unlike other resorts, the buffet is the only place to get coffee before that. We don’t usually eat breakfast but love a 7am coffee, so this was a small miss for us.
  
  
• We’re just going to say it, the cocktails were weak. We’re not sure we ever felt even slightly tipsy here except when drinking beer. We’re not looking to get drunk at an all-inclusive, but in the heat and with how attentive the service is, we’d expect a little buzz. The sparkling wine served at dinner was laughably 2% ABV. I’m sure they don’t want any drunken accidents, but it felt like a cheap way to treat adults.
  
  
• The minifridge in our room was restocked with a few cans of beer and several bottles of soda and water. There weren’t full bottles of liquor in the rooms like at other resorts, and you can’t order drinks with room service, so expect to have to bring drinks back to your room from the bar. 
  
  
• The rooms were updated and higher-end, with a giant shower with two rainfall showerheads and two detachable showerheads. There were full-size bottles of shampoo and bath gel in the shower, and housekeeping left conditioner and lotion for us upon request. There’s a pillow menu on the same website where you make dinner reservations for ordering extra soft, hard, or feather pillows to your room.
  
  
• The staff were all wonderful. Everyone said hello to us as we passed, they were quick to seat us at dinner, they remembered our cocktail orders, and they smiled. The beach service was especially attentive and friendly, and we used it often even though there was never a line at the bar. A concierge was available via WhatsApp for those of us who don’t like to talk on the room phone.
  
  
• We saw reviews complaining that the staff doesn’t speak English, but that wasn’t our experience. Most of the other guests are from Spain with just a few other Europeans and Americans, but the staff almost entirely seem to know English, anyway. We used our high school Spanish as much as we could, but the staff would usually switch over to English immediately. We liked that we felt truly relaxed because we couldn’t even listen in to other people’s conversations if we tried!
  
  
• There are 110V outlets in the rooms, no adapters needed for Americans!
  
  
• Enjoy activities such as dancing and water aerobics at the beach and nightly entertainment in the central lobby area with comfortable, padded seats. You can see the live singers from the restaurants as you eat dinner!
  
  
• The grounds are very beautiful, with tons of lush plant life. We only saw one resort cat, but there were tons of lizards, and the butterflies were out of control! We literally had thousands pass us by one day on the beach.

Ocean Blue and Sand in Punta Cana on the eastern shore of the Dominican Republic is a pastel-hued paradise for the pool-lover in you. While it has some of the more basic rooms we’ve seen at a resort without a lot of added luxury, we loved this all-inclusive for its walkability, just-right size, excellent buffet, and friendly service.

• The resort has an overall homey vibe. There’s a large town square area near the lobby where most of the restaurants are located that gives you a sense of going out to dinner in a small town. Afterward, you can hang out with your neighbors and sip an Irish coffee at the café tables while watching the pink flamingo or the turtles in the pond.
  
  
• There are so many activities at this resort aside from sunbathing and eating! There’s a bowling alley, batting cage, pool tables, ping pong tables, and a rock-climbing wall to enjoy.

• The water at the beach is a beautiful Caribbean turquoise but with some big waves thanks to that Atlantic wind!

• The beach suffered a hit from a hurricane, and the resort is using large sandbags to preserve it. They look like beached whales to us, and other people use them as diving platforms or sunbeds. They make the swimming area feel smaller, but there’s still plenty of room to operate around them.

• The beach area is narrow, so the palapas and sunbeds are placed close together. (Too close for our comfort, actually.) There’s a steep slope in the sand from the palapas to the water in some spots, so anyone with mobility issues will need to enter the water near the dive center, where the beach is flatter.
  
  
• However, because of that sharp drop-off, beach vendors don’t approach you at your palapa. You can gaze out at the water for hours with no disruption!
  
  
• There are restrooms located by either pool, but it can be a bit of a walk from the beach. If those all-inclusive cocktails hit you hard, you may want to sit on the side of the beach away from the dive center for quick access to the beach buffet’s restroom.
  
  
• You’ll be given a towel card that allows you one towel per person. We appreciate the resort’s effort to save water, but we’re two-towel kind of people!
  
  
• There are two large pools, a party pool and a quiet pool. The entertainment, such as fitness classes and games, happens in the party pool, while the quiet pool just has some light local music playing from the bar.
  
  
• There are plenty of umbrellas for shade by the pool, so you can still get one later into the morning, but the beach ones are reserved as early as 7am. Luckily, palm trees and the rock-climbing wall at the beach also provide shade.
  
  
• There’s a kids club, and you’ll mostly see kids in the party pool or the very large spa pool.
  
  
• Both pools have a swim-up bar! But neither the pools nor the spa are heated.

• There’s always some sort of activity happening near the lobby at night even before the official show starts. There’s bingo, painting, dancing, and more, and a lot of people actually go participate!
  
  
• The coffee shop is a standalone café near the lobby, and coffee isn’t served pool- or beach-side, so it can be a trek. However, the array of frozen drinks, handmade espresso, and pastries is impressive!
  
  
• There’s a line of restaurants near the lobby at the front of the resort ranging from steak to Mexican to BBQ to French, a sports bar with late-night snacks, and the buffet. Only the Japanese restaurant requires reservations, and you can eat outdoors at the Italian restaurant.
  
  
• There can be a wait at the restaurants during peak dinner hours, so it’s best to put in your name and hang out in the town square. Those staying at the Privilege Club have the opportunity to make reservations at more than just the Japanese restaurant, too!
  
  
• The buffet is sizeable, and there’s never a wait even at the busiest times. There are stations for grilled meat and seafood, pizza and other Italian treats, sushi and Asian stir frys, salads, charcuterie and cheeses, soups, and all sorts of mains and sides that change every night! There’s also, of course, a huge dessert bar with ice creams, cakes, and cookies.

• For lunch, there’s also a smaller beachside buffet with an amazing view of the water if you don’t want to put on real clothes over your swimsuit! There are burgers, made-to-order sandwiches, salads, grilled meat skewers, build-your-own pasta, fries, and much more. This is also where you’ll find the soft serve machine with ice cream cones!
  
  
• The resort’s rooms don’t have any of the marble and incense you’ll see at other places, but we found that they were clean and got the job done. There are mini cans of local beer, soda, and water in the minibar.

• There are no swim-up rooms at this resort, but some of the Privilege Club rooms have their own hot tubs on the balconies. And even basic rooms have a huge jetted bathtub.

• The rooms have small toiletry bottles, and the shampoo and conditioner is an all-in-one combo. If you’re like us, you’re going to need something stronger to untangle your tresses after a swim.

• There’s just empty beach on the one side of the resort and some local stands for shopping on the other side, so it feels uncrowded and un-touristy.

Excellence Riviera Cancun in Puerto Morelos (a town in the northern part of Riviera Maya) truly feels like an adults-only resort, where they treat you like a grown-up. Little things like being able to take and return your own towels to an unmanned station makes it feel like the resort trusts you. 

The whites and blues of the resort’s decor, the billowing sheer white curtains of the spa—they give you a romantic kind of feeling, as if you’re somewhere like Santorini . . . except with Mexican food! The saxophonist softly playing near your table at breakfast really helps set this mood. Plus, the lazy river is not to be missed.

• The resort has an overall upscale vibe, with marble everything and a true “luxury included” feel. There’s not a lot of upselling going on, and you’ll notice little extras here, like the fact that the hot tubs are actually hot. (Not necessarily true at other resorts.)

• The water at the beach can be wavy and is a dazzling clear green and dark blue with white sand. There are no restrooms close to the beach, though, so plan ahead!

• It’s a fairly small resort in that nothing feels far from anything, but there’s also a large town square area in the center that gives it a wide-open airiness. The piers at one end of the resort give you plenty of room to walk.

• No kids allowed! This is an adults-only resort but with a very youthful feel. There are activities for the fun-loving guest all afternoon, and the pool bar playlist changes throughout the day to speed up or slow down the mood. 

• A lazy river makes a massive circle at one one of the resort, and we spent all of our time in it. Rafts are provided, but we highly recommend bringing your own to show off! What’s vacation without your very own unicorn float?

•  There are amazing dinners and parties in the plaza at the center of the resort every night. One night, the entire resort had an authentic Mexican dinner while a mariachi band played for us, and the next night, there was a silent disco where we all danced to different music from headphones while the resort stayed completely quiet. There are always live singers and bands from about 6pm on.

• There’s an open-air pizza oven by the pool, so you don’t have to leave your sunbed for lunch. Plus, the staff sometimes randomly bring around personal pizzas to the pool palapas without you even asking!

• The coffee shop is located at the top of the lobby, and coffee isn’t served pool- or beach-side, so it can be a trek. However, the coffee shop offerings are a notch above the rest, with a selection of professional cakes and even an assortment of French macarons.

• The beachside restaurant is more than just simple takeaway. Not only does it have a selection of quality casual food (burgers, salads, frozen fruit bars), but there’s plenty of shaded seating to watch the soft waves from. It’s a great option for when you don’t want to completely dry off for lunch but also want to sit at a table.

• There are plenty of palapas on the beach for shade, but they can be harder to come by near the pool. (This gives the resort a more open, less crowded feel.) However, the pool has soft beds to lounge on that are free for the taking, complete with pillows. Other resorts charge to reserve these!

• Little huts are available by the pool and at the beach for you to take towels from and return them to, no towel card nor room number needed. Getting fresh towels at your leisure is a delight!

• The rooms at the resort are all upscale suites. Every one has at least a view of one of the pools, so your balcony is always overlooking something interesting. There are also swim-up rooms on the first level and rooms with their own dip pool on the rooftop. 

• There are full-sized bottles of liquor in the rooms (Captain Morgan, Jose Cuervo, etc.), and the minibar has beer, wine, water, soda, and even some snacks. (We ate Oreos every day we were here.) Plus, the toiletries are full-size, and there’s incense in the room to burn by your whirlpool tub.

• A little door near the entrance to each suite hides your dirty room service dishes for the staff to retrieve later. It’s a nice little touch, not seeing used dishes in the hallways.

• The resort is only 20 minutes from the Cancun airport but has the feeling of being miles away from civilization when you need it.

Jewel Dunn’s River Adult Beach Resort & Spa is tucked in a little cove at the end of a group of resorts, giving it a secluded, edge-of-the-world feel. And listen, we don’t want to be those Americans, but part of the joy of going to Jamaica is that everyone speaks English.

We found this to be a cut above budget resorts, with decor that just felt a little classier and food more geared toward American palates. The adults-only aspect meant the atmosphere was quieter and more relaxed, with many couples and girlfriend trips.

• The water is very calm and clear green-blue with white sand and no seaweed, although there is sea grass at the back of the swimming area for good snorkeling.

• Giant tricycles, water bikes, catamarans (with a skipper or self-guided), and kayaks are available for free rental.

• The swimming area is small, so if you’re a person who likes to swim far out to snorkel, the roped-off water area might seem constraining to you.

• There’s an outdoor pizza restaurant with daytime hours, so you can sit at one of the cafe tables in your swimsuit or grab a pizza to go on your way to the beach.

• The coffee shop is outside near the beach and pool, so no need to dry off to get your frozen latte!

• The resort is located between two airports, so you can fly into Sangster in Montego Bay or Kingston-Norman Manley Airport in the capital city. It’s a bit of a drive, though, so expect to give yourself 1.5 hours to get there.

• No kids allowed!

• It’s a small resort that you can walk the entirety of very quickly, so you’re never far from anything. The pier at one end of the resort provides a quiet getaway with space to stretch your legs if needed.

• There are no vendors on the beach, but they do hang out on the fishing beach next door and will sell you items through the fence separating the resort if you walk near it.

• There are a few individual palapas on the beach to provide shade to a couple and a few larger ones to provide shade to larger groups. We placed our towels on chairs in the morning on our way to breakfast (not too early) and never had a problem getting the spots we wanted.

• The rooms at the resort have a plantation vibe, with huge heavy carved wooden doors and beds.

• There can be a few mosquitoes in the breakfast palapa in the mornings near the back; ask to sit near the edges so the breeze will keep them away from you.

• We were able to get an a la carte restaurant reservation every night we wanted one.

• There’s a private gazebo high above the pool for a beautiful view during romantic dinners.

•  Dunn’s River Falls is just a short drive away, making for an easy excursion to climb an incredible waterfall.

When we visited the Iberostar Selection Paraiso Maya, it was because we had been moved there at the last minute from another resort that suffered hurricane damage before we arrived. We got pretty excited when we read the reviews, though: a wave pool, a lazy river, and four connected resorts with a huge amount of walking paths?!

It’s a little farther from the Cancun airport, but that extra 10 miles really puts you in another world! This is one of the only times we felt like the resort really showcased the part of the world we were in. It wasn’t just a Caribbean resort but a Mexican resort with Mayan-themed decor.

• The guests are mostly Mexican with many Texans and a smattering of Russians.

• The staff speak perfect English, from the buffet to the pool bar.

• No one seems to tip, but we found the staff to be extremely appreciative of a small show of gratitude. (We would tip $1 for a drink at the beach and a few dollars for service at dinner and everyone was very thankful.)

• Service is excellent everywhere, and the staff are super friendly. Almost everyone you pass on the sidewalks will greet you (in Spanish and then English when they realize you’re a gringo who can barely pronounce “hola” correctly).

• The water has some rocky areas that surprised us on the first day and caused us some stubbed toes and bruised shins. They’re very evident on days when the sun is shining, but they can make getting in and out of the water feel like a minefield. We found that water shoes really helped for protection!

• The water is a beautiful green-blue, clear with soft light tan sand and big waves that are fun for jumping.

• There was some floating seaweed from a hurricane when we arrived that cleared out after a few days, and there’s no sea grass nor seaweed on the sea floor, just sand.

• The water is very shallow very far out, chest-deep at the very most.

• Vendors on the beach walk by selling everything from photography sessions to jewelry to hair-braiding services but are very polite and will just pass by if you ignore them or say “no, thanks”.

• Check out towels on first day at the hut by the pool with your room number (there seemed to be no limit per person) and then exchange them every day without needing to give your room number again.

• Peacocks, iguanas, and coatis (like a cuter raccoon with a big, fluffy tail) roam the resort freely and were a constant topic of conversation for us. The coatis are used to humans and will try to steal your food at the beach, which is either cute or a menace depending on how many free piña coladas you’ve had!

• There’s a bit of jungle between the pool and the beach, so if you’re the type of person who likes to go back to your room often for the beach, expect it to take a few extra minutes.

• Because the resort has some swampy areas scattered around, it does have mosquitoes; the resort provides repellent in the rooms, but we still ended up with bites!

• We were able to get an a la carte restaurant reservation every night we wanted one.

• The buffet is just as good as the a la carte restaurants and has similar kinds of food nightly (a pizza station, pasta station, taco station, seafood station, etc.) but the actual selections change daily.

• There are activities throughout the day at the pool and on the beach, from crazy relay races to exercise classes. The entertainment staff also visits palapas to chat with guests and give the place a really fun atmosphere. There’s often a live band at the pool in the late afternoon, too.

• For kids, there’s the Star Camp with different group activities for different age groups. They focus on learning while playing and want to help your kids make friends from different parts of the world.

• The lazy river was one of the things we looked forward to most (we spent most of our time there at the Excellence Riviera Cancun), but it was so lazy we didn’t bother getting in once. It’s probably great for kids, though!

• There are 4 Iberostar resorts side by side here, making it a massive resort with many unused pathways perfect for long walks. Guests who don’t want to walk get picked up by golf carts, and everywhere we went, drivers stopped and offered to pick us up. (Another example of the excellent friendly service!)