My biggest passion is to travel. Whenever I have the chance I pack my bag and hit the road or the skies. Most recently exploring Toronto, the beautiful towns and countryside that surround it.

This past Christmas my family and I had an amazing opportunity to revisit one of my favourite carribean countries – Dominican. I left the cold of Toronto on December 18^th and after just a 4 hour flight with Air Transat we landed in Punta Cana.

After a rough flight of strong turbulence I was really tired. Luckily my hotel was located only a 20 minute drive away from the airport. I stayed at the Hotel Palladium Punta Cana for the second time (first time was in 2010). After being upgraded, my family and I were checked-in at The Royal Suites by Palladium (exclusive part of the hotel for adults only). After they gave us our gold bracelets I started to read what the privileges were for “Royal” guests. We had access to private restaurants reserved only for Royal Suites guests (Le Chanterelle and The Royal Gourmet), reserved golf carts, which were driving us around this huge resort (320 000 m2), separated bars, free entrance to the spa area (massages were extra cost), separated swimming pool, reserved beach area and of course as mentioned our part of the hotel was only for 18+ guests which made our stay really relaxing and quiet.

ROOMS:

My sister and I were cheked-in to the double queen size bedrooms, with a large balcony, washroom, toilet and huge shower. My parents got the same room but with a huge King size bed. We really loved all the amenities such as a jaccuzi bath tub, tv with many international channels, mini bar with free alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages, air conditioner and comfortable beds. During the night our ceiling fan was really comfortable as I prefer it over the a/c. The only problem I had was the lack of electrical sockets and lighting. During the evening, after switching on all the lamps it was still too dark in my room.

RESTAURANTS:

Coming back to Palladium Punta Cana I was really excited to try all the amazing dishes I remembered from my first stay. Unfortunately the Food & Beverages department had changed. The quality of the food was much worse and the service was very unprofessional. Sometimes I was waiting for a glass of water for more than 15 minutes, which is not supposed to happen in a 5 star hotel. Luckily this time we had access (Royal Suites) to La Chanterelle and Les Torres restaurants which in my opinion had the best food. I really enjoyed their lobsters, shrimps and lamb chops. The restaurants were very small but comfortable and dedicated only to Royal Suites guests. Service was much better, but we still had to deal with wrong orders or a long wait for food.

In Palladium guests can also use 6 thematic restaurants such as:

Sumptuori (Japanese)

La Adelita (Mexican)

Tapeo (Spanish)

Rodizio (Brazilian)

La Parrilla (Steakhouse)

Chef Raffaele (Italian)

Mare Nostrum (Mediterraean)

Bamboo (Asian)

Plus reserved only for Royal guests restaurants:

The Royal Gourmet (international dishes)

Le Chanterelle (French cuisine)

The Hotel offers also 5 buffet style restaurants where guests can enjoy their breakfast, lunch or dinner. In the Hotel there is 14 bars with my favourite Hemingway where they serve the best Hot Chocolate. Another good side of being a Royal guest was an opportunity to make a reservation to those restaurants by concierge (located in every Royal building in our resort) in other case we would need to wait in a queue cause those diners were taking only reservations or first come, first serve.

FACTS:

This 5 star All Inclusive hotel offers 1,823 rooms located in 4 different Resorts (Grand Palladium Bavaro Suites Resort & Spa, Grand Palladium Palace Resort Spa & Casino, Grand Palladium Punta Cana Resort & Spa, The Royal Suites Turquesa by Palladium).

Photo above shows map of the resort.

It is hard to get lost while walking around, but there is a little help at every corner

While asking Front Desk Agents about the number of staff they told me its around 2,000 people. I was really shocked how many people work there, but they explained this is a high season so they hire that many people. During low season there is much less staff working.

As I visited the hotel in December there was a lot of Christmas decorations around the resort such as Christmas trees, but my favourite were those Santa Clauses hidden in different places around the resort

The Hotel has customers from all over the world. What I have seen most of them were from Canada, USA or Russia. Sometimes I’ve heard my mother tongue of Polish too.

The best attraction in the hotel was definitely this little train that was taking hotel guests all around the resort. It has its own itinerary around all 4 lobby areas and restaurants. The train was running from 10am until 2 am every 15-20 minutes. During evening hours was really busy so sometimes it was hard to get in (it was small) but I loved to take it during the day to admire beautiful gardens and the views.

Garden

For those who love nature and are passionate in botanicals spending holidays will be an amazing opportunity to learn and discover new kinds of trees and other greens. In the hotel there is hundreds of different kinds of botanicals from all over the world. While walking around you can see flowers from Puerto Rico, Trees from Europe, China, Madagascar or many different places – and of course everything has a little plate with English and latin name of plant and the origin place, like on the examples below.

They really care about every single tree

The same with all animals and bird living in resort. This is a good opportunity to learn something new while being on holidays.

Hotel really cares about nature and ecology

And recycling bins at every corner of the resort