Bahia Principe Grand El Portillo - All Inclusive

This resort was a nice one for families and individuals looking for a beach vacation on the ocean. However, the hotel is advertised as a 4.5/5 star. This is not a 5 star resort.

Food & restaurants
There are a total of 7 eateries on the resort, 5 are a-la-carte restaurants that require a reservation. If you plan dining at any of these restaurants, I would encourage you to reserve immediately upon arrival as it’s incredibly difficult to make a reservation especially if you’re a larger party.
There’s one main buffet with a poor layout when trying to plate your food. There’s an alternative smaller buffet option for breakfast and lunch that’s a better layout but it’s only outdoor seating. The food itself is also repetitive and hit and miss with quality.

Service & staff
I’ve noticed that many reviews call this out but there seemed to be no urgency or empathy with many of the staff members. My family was respectful with adopting common Spanish words when asking for items and were often served when we initially spoke Spanish but felt like as soon as we said something in English, we were overlooked. If Spanish is your first language or you have a intermediate level of Spanish, you’ll have a great time as the staff hardly spoke other languages and if they did, their patience was thin and wouldn’t try to understand what you’re saying. The bars are understaffed (especially the beach and pool bar), there were times where there would be 10+ guests and only one staff member. Jorge at the beach bar was amazing and deserves a raise.

Beach & pool
There are a couple of pools at the resort but the primary pool in the heart of the resort was where they held a lot of activities. If you are looking for a pool that’s quiet go to the one near the family villas (10-12) in the north side of the resort. The central pool had a swim up bar and plenty of lounge chairs most in the sun but there was a good amount of umbrellas (pro). Con to this is that the swim up bar was understaffed per the amount of people in the water and the kids and adult guests would swim up and shout what they want at the bartenders (even if you were there first - this goes back to how if you are Spanish speaking the staff often served you first). Considering it was a swim up bar the water seemed pretty clean with all the chlorine pumping.

The beach was great, we went during the start of hurricane season (end of June) and the tide was pretty low. It got even lower in the afternoon as well. However, there are also coral reefs near the shore (a pro for on-resort snorkelling, but a con for swimming as you need to be mindful where you swim/stand in the water). There were many beach lounge chairs but the umbrellas at the front of the beach were always a hot commodity. Some reviews said their stuff was brought to the main lobby if you stepped away to eat or use the washroom but my family didn’t experience that. Something I wish I knew about the beach before coming - it is a public beach. This means that there are going to be locals trying to sell you stuff (anything from jewelry, to coconuts, to braiding your hair and massages). We were constantly harassed and they are very persistent. I know that there is not a lot the resort can do as it is a public space but the amount of solicitors was ridiculous.

Overall hotel remarks
Many reviews mention that the hotel is old - this is true and you can tell. Our shower/tub and hair dryer had hair in it and evidence of a past guest (wasn’t cleaned properly) when we arrived. Many of the rooms had water damage patches on the ceilings and the number outlets in the room is practically non existent - there was 2 sockets that worked for us (one which we had to unplug the coffee machine, and the other in the bathroom). The other “outlets” either had nothing behind them and the other didn’t provide any electricity.
The water from the tap is not safe to drink or even remotely consume (we were advised by our travel agent rep that we shouldn’t even brush our teeth with the tap water). The wifi was terrible as well. Hardly reached the hotel rooms.