Eden Real Review

Edenh Real Arena, Punta Cana Review

Here is my review of the Edenh Real Resort in Punta Cana Domican Republic. I stayed at the resort for 7 days in the end of January 2008. Below you will find the good, the bad and the ugly. Click on the photos for larger versions of them!

First, I think anyone who is considering staying at this resort should know a few things.

1) The bathrooms in the hotel rooms offer basically no privacy. There is no wall separating the sleeping area from the hot tub and the shower/toilet. The shower and toilet are echo chambers with frosted glass doors. So you don't want to be staying in a room with someone you don't know well or don't want to get to know (alot) better. Even if you never use the bathroom or take a shower, there is no place to just change your clothes except in one of those two "rooms". Europeans probably won't think anything of this, but Americans, for example, probably will! The frosting on the glass works alright overall, but you can still see shapes and colors of things, making it uncomfortable to shower or use the toilet. Also, in one of the rooms I was in, there was a large enough gap between the wall and the door to see right into the toilet area if you were standing anywhere near it. I hope they will fix that and other problems that have cropped up as a result of the hotel being newly constructed. (Leaky pipes, broken stairs, etc)

Here is a photo showing the room with the bathroom and shower. I am not sure why there is a door for this area at all. (This photo was taken by someone else and it is linked via photobucket.com)

2) The resort has beautiful tile work everywhere. Some of it unpolished travertine marble and in other areas such as the hallways and inside your room or polished marble. The problem is that the polished tile can be quite slippery. You'll want to wear slip proof shoes. While I was at the resort a woman fell and broke her wrist, she had to be flown home for surgery. When it rains the hotel staff will come around with brooms to push away water from the hallway areas (they aren't enclosed completely) to try to help dry up the water, but inside your room, the floors can be rather slippery too. I am not sure why they don't use squeegees to push away the water--it would be much faster and easier.

3) The hotel fumigates for mosquitos every day in the outside areas at 5:30pm. This is great, I believe I was never bitten once while I was outside of my room. However, I went home with no less than 20 mosquito bites, in spite of wearing repellent (maybe they should call it attractant) and in spite of spending time every night knocking off whichever mosquitos I could suss out. I am not sure if January is just mosquito season in Dominican Republic or what, but they are voracious and nasty tiger mosquitos there. I did notice that the hotel staff gave one woman who was complaining about this some sort of small electronic zapper, but it was only after she wanted a room on a higher floor that they gave that to her. Unfortunately, she was misguided because my room was on the 4th floor (the highest) and there were plenty of mosquitos to go around. The fact that the maid will prop open your door while he/she cleans your room guarantees you a daily, fresh supply.

4) The hotel can be rather noisy because of all the marble floors. If you are a light sleeper, you might want to bring ear plugs. I have been to a few resorts in Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Mexico, and this seems to be relatively common. Hopefully your room will not be near an elevator though. Because unfortunately, if one of your fellow guests decides to hold the doors to the elevator open for too long, you will be treated to a very loud peircing beeping noise, guaranteed to wake up even a sound sleeper.

Here is a video with that sound, just so you know I am not exaggerating, but be forewarned that there is a loud noise in it. It is almost as loud outside the elevator. Our room was 3 rooms away from the elevator. This sound will wake most people up. Hopefully the hotel will get the message and tone it down. I surreptitiously recorded this in the elevator.





In one of the rooms we were staying in (we changed rooms on the first night and second night), the pipes were also very noisy. When someone above flushed the toilet you'd hear the water coming down. And sometimes there was a vibrating noise coming from the pipes, giving off a kind of a squeal. Our third room did not have this problem.

5) If you are traveling with a baby that sleeps in a crib, the hotel has cribs. The problem with them is that they are very shallow and cannot be adjusted. We have a one year old who can stand up and she would certainly have fallen out of the crib if we didn't rig something up (we put the crib between a wall and a bed, and then blocked off the remaining side with a chair.) The hotel desk staff didn't seem to see the shallow cribs as a problem so I don't imagine that they will be getting different cribs anytime soon.

Panoramic View of pool area taken from our balcony (click to enlarge!)

Now that those items are out of the way, I will try to give you some idea of a few areas of the hotel.

MAP
Here is a link to a map of the resort (click to enlarge)

THE LOBBY
The lobby is beautiful. Its creative and fresh in appearance. Hopefully you won't spend much time there! My only comment about the check-in was that they really need to use ropes like in the airport rather than just let lines develop free-form. I was always in the wrong line--and I unfortunately had to stand in the lines twice when I arrived because check-in wasn't until 3pm and I had arrived at 1pm. (Actually I didn't get a room until about 3:45, but it wasn't the room I had made a reservation for, so we had to move to another room, and were finally settled by 5:30pm) They had about 10 different lines going at the same time and some of them moved really slowly (whichever one I was in, to be exact!) There continue to be reports from people about not being able to get rooms immediately when they get to the hotel, so just in case, you might want to pack changes of clothes/bathing suits in your carry on.



ROOMS
When complete, there will be about 600 rooms at Edenh Real Arena. 200 of those will be club rooms and 400 will be regular "deluxe" rooms. The rooms are nicely appointed and are rather chique. Again, if you can get past my warning about the bathroom area above, you will like your room. Every room has a hot tub, and some of them are actually on the balcony instead of in the bathroom area. This makes for some enjoyable late night, semi-private hot tubbing. The hotel provides bubble bath and bath salts to add enjoyment. If you're lucky enough to get a room that doesn't overlook the hotel laundry area or a barbed wire fence, this can be really good. Unfortunately, only the rooms that are facing the "inside" of the hotel have good views and the bad views are REALLY bad. [Note: Many of you have written to ask me how the odds are of upgrading to a room with a better view if they initially receive a bad one. Unfortunately, I don't really know, but I will bet they're not good based on the fact that I'll bet there are many folks who will also want to upgrade and given the fact that week after week I read reports of the hotel being overbooked and folks who have paid for upgraded views aren't getting them. There are two main buildings of rooms in rooms that start with a 1, you'll want an even numbered room for a decent view. In building 2, you'll want an odd numbered room for a good view.]

There is a safe in the room for your valuables and laundry service and rooms service is available. The room service is 24 hours. Our room had have an iron, a nice flat screen TV with 100 different channels including US Networks, CNN, Fox News, Discovery Channel, etc., iron, a hairdryer and two telephones. (I only placed one phone call to Europe for $1/minute). One thing noticeably absent from the rooms and elsewhere were clocks. So if you want to know when to show up for your dinner reservation, bring a watch or bring a friend with a watch. (Note that Dominican Republic is an hour later than USA Eastern Standard Time)

The maid service was okay but inconsistent, and sometimes strange. For instance, we had a box of tissue in our bathroom approximately every other day. I guess the room that adjoined ours got it on the other days. The amenities were shampoo, conditioner, soap, bath salts, bubble bath, tooth brush/tooth paste, shower cap, mouth wash and shower gel. Don't make the mistake I made once: the mouth wash and shower gel are about the same size and color. Yes, in fact, I did wash my mouth out with shower gel, and I think I still haven't quite gotten that taste out of my mouth.

FOOD
The restaurants were all very nice, and the food very good. Service in all the restaurants was inconsistent but that was mainly because they seemed to be understaffed. There are 5 main choices: Buffet, American Food, Italian Food, French Food or Asian Food. There is also a pool-side restaurant with a small selection of hamburgers, chicken, pizza, and desserts such as soft-ice cream cones.

The Buffet
The buffet was definitely the nicest resort selection I have ever seen (outside of Las Vegas). The food was delicious and there was a reasonable variety of foods. Fish, lamb, beef, salads and deserts were amoung the many choices there. In the morning they had a smoothie station and omlete station. In the afternoons, they had a carving station (with beef, pork or lamb) and a grilling station with pasta and meats. I am pretty sure that I consumed my weight in smoked salmon (which always seemed to be on hand for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner).

Here is a video of the buffet at breakfast.





There is an outdoor seating area too. When the weather is cool this is a great place to come sit and relax. A picture of the area is to the right.

Specialty Restaurants
Of the four main restaurants, the Asian restaurant was our best experience. You have two choices there--you can sit at the Hibachi and they cook for you there in a showman style or sit at individual tables. In both cases the food was great. At the Hibachi they will cook fried rice, shrimp, beef and chicken before your eyes. At the regular tables, they offer appetizers and soups such as Spicy Shrimp Soup, Spring Rolls, Seaweed Salad, Beef Skewers and Suno Mono (Octupus, Conch, Rice Vinegar, and sesame seeds) and sushi. For dessert they offered fruits, cakes and Mango Soup with lentils. It is all served in an artistic culinary manner.


The American Restaurant has beef and fish, and is decorated kind of like TGI Fridays or the like. The service in this restaurant was very slow relative to the other 3 restaurants...which means it was VERY slow. The food was quite good and worth the wait. I had a Greek salad there and beef and lobster for the entree.

The Italian restaurant was also a nice experience. The linguine with seafood was delicious and so were some of the other entrees I tried bites of such as Chicken Catcitori and Beef Scalopini. The mixed salad with Gorgonzola cheese dressing was small and tasted so-so, but the presentation was very nice.

The romantic French restaurant was okay. I was disappointed with the bitter taste of the lobster bisque with squid ink. The rest of the food I had there was forgettable to the point that I can't remember what I had. Kids aren't allowed in this restaurant, but I didn't know that, and I brought mine. Nobody said a word about it...which is surprising because they definitely enforce other rules such as needing reservations and men not wearing shorts in any of the restaurants.

The hotel has not decided whether to use reservations for the restaurants or not. While we were there, they implimented a reservation system which has since been changed or revoked. If you are a VIP customer, you will not need reservations. This system is very iffy and can mean long waits or no access to a given restaurant on a given night.

TIP: If someone in your group is having a birthday, let the hotel staff know in the morning and they will literally bake you a cake and write a message on it. They did it for us and I was impressed!

TIP: The hotel does provide Dasani Bottled water (and some other brands). You can ask the bar tenders for it or you can get the waiters in the restaurants to get it for you. We drank the water that waiters poured for us without problems. I belive the hotel filters it automatically.

THE STAFF
The rank and file staff of the hotel were mostly very helpful and friendly. With the exception of the front desk staff, everyone was quite helpful. The front desk staff were overwhelmed and sometimes rude. Other than that, the only problem I ever had with a staff member was when I called the bell desk to have someone pickup my bags, they transfered me to someone who I asked "Can you send someone down to come pick up my bags?" The reply a simple "NO." I repeated the question and got the same answer. I am sure it was some kind of misunderstanding, or language barrier issue. On that note, try to speak Spanish if you know any. Its not required, not all the staff members speak much English, but everyone tries.

While you're there, definitely consider tipping even though it isn't required. I can't say I ever got any better service level because I did tip, but I know the money was needed and appreciated. The hotel has a medical doctor on staff. I didn't use the service while I was there, so I have no idea about the quality of the care or if there are any costs associated.

THE BEACH
We had a great time at the beach. YES there is alot of seaweed in the water and on the beach. If you can overlook that, it won't be long before you don't notice it. They use a beach raking vehicle at night to clean up any trash and debris that was left during the day. The water is warm and blue and the whole area is really quite beautiful.

There are plenty of tanning beds, but the ones by the beach get reserved pretty early, so I would recommend that you get to the beach early before breakfast to get one. If they run out you will probably be able to get one by the pool instead.

There are waiters/waitresses who will take you order and bring drinks to you at the beach and pool. Our experience with them wasn't very good. They are first of all few and far between and second it takes a long time to get your drink. If you're really thirsty, you're better off getting up and walking over to one of the bars yourself.

Here are a couple of panoramas of the beach (click to enlarge!)

Towels are given out at the pool area. They are good quality, big towels. There aren't any rules about how many towels can be borrowed at a time. This is probably why they did run out of them a few times while we were there, but I am sure they will rectify this problem.


You can take out a catamaran--there is a beach front office for this. You can also check out balls and rafts from the "adventure office" which is also where you pick up your towels. They also are offering scuba lessons in the pool.

Near the water there are two spa cabanas where you can get a message. At this time, a 50 minute Swedish message will set you back about 77 dollars. A 50 minute deep tissue message about 85. They offer braiding and other spa services as well. I recommend a message here.




THE GROUNDS
The grounds are beautiful. The design of the landscaping and the fountains is really nice. They did a good job with this! Here is a video with some of the hotel grounds.

THE POOLS



There were a few pools to choose from...all of them very nice. Three of them had swim-up bars with some very entertaining bartenders who can balance beverages on their heads! If you get to the pool early, you may be able to get shelter from the sun under a cabana or pergola...there seems to be alot more demand for these than there is supply. Note that some of the pools/swim up bars are for VIP guests only. To be honest I am not sure which ones because they weren't marked in any way that I could discern.

ENTERTAINMENT
Whoever is in charge of entertainment at the hotel was doing a very good job. They had lots of things going on all the time. There were meringue lessons, painting classes, aerobics and volleyball (water and sand varieties). And at night there was always a show of some sort--from a cirque de soleil style acrobatics show to las Vegas lounge singer Cris Blizzard. Pictured to the right is an area they sometimes use for entertainment. There is a stage slightly out of the picture to the right. They also just opened the "Crystal Theater" for an indoor venue. One day while we were on the beach, some local kids came by with musical instruments. For the price of a small tip, the serenaded us with a rendition of Feliz Navidad.

There is a sports bar with a large screen television. In the evening you can go to the rooftop Tanhtra bar. The bar is very nice and romantic. My only reservation about the place is that its a long flight of stairs to get to it...and to get back down, so those who may have overimbibed there should be very careful.

There are two grades of liquor at the resort. The folks who pay for upgraded rooms, etc, will be able to have the premium drinks and access to additional swimming pools.

There is also a temporary gym room available if you'd like to work out. The resort has not finished their permanent gym as of this writing.

The resort has an internet center right near the main lobby. They have a few computers in there, and they charge a minimum of $4 for 15 minutes use. I was disappointed that the one machine they had with a memory card reader wouldn't work--I was hoping to download some of the photos I took and email them to friends. I was somewhat surprised that there were many people hanging around the lobby with laptops accessing the internet (instead of on the beach, for instance). I never found out how to access the internet that way because I didn't have a laptop along anyway. For some it may be worthwhile to carry a computer to place calls home over the internet through skype or Vonage (see this Vonage review if you're curious about it)

If you want to get out of the resort to check out other attractions on the island, there are lots of excursions available. You can check with your vacation representative for ideas such as tours of Santa Domingo or swimming with the dolphins. You can get an idea of some of the available tours by visiting: http://www.amstardmc.com/excursionslistpc.asp

KID FRIENDLINESS
The hotel seems to be pretty good for kids. They have a kids club that looked like fun. One night they even had a special activity in the evening hours--a special show for kids with an artist spray painting. Of the 4 restaurants, all but one allows kids. High chairs are available in all the restaurants (including the French restaurant where kids aren't allowed, go figure). This also seems like a good place to mention that the local people who work at Edenh Real really seem to LOVE babies. I've never had so many men and women come up to our baby and look, play, touch and even walk away holding her (jokingly). Normally she would get upset being held by strangers but for some reason she didn't mind at all.

I did not notice any special play equipment for children, but there is a baby pool.

HANDICAPPED ACCESS
Overall, it looked like the resort was accessible. I noticed a couple of people who were using wheel chairs and they seemed to be able to get around the resort okay. I am not sure about the buffet and restaurants though.

OVERALL COMMENTS
Unfortunately, I do not think I would return to Edenh Real. Although the place is beautiful, I would look for another resort the next time I go to Punta Cana. If I were asked who would have the best time here, I would say it would be someone who is there with people they know well, and who doesn't plan to spend alot of time in their room.

We went to Edenh with Apple Vacations. Our Apple Vacation representative at the hotel (Evelyn) was very helpful in getting some of the issues we had addressed. If you haven't tried Apple Vacations before, I recommend you do. They are organized and have staff to help you all along the way (at the airports and hotels of the destination city).

Also, by the way, in case you're wondering, the H in the EdenH Real name is because the hotel is part of the European NH Hotels chain. So their gimmick is to add h's to n's...for example, there is a bar at the resort called the tanHtra too.

If you have questions or comments about this review, please click below. I will try to answer quickly, if I know the answer. I am impressed at the number of people who have been reading this blog and emailing me. At the moment there are about 100 people per day reading this review. If any of you go to the Edenh Real Arena resort and notice improvements on things I have written about or think I've left something important out, please let me know.

Edenh Real Arena is the trademark of NH Hotels. I am not affiliated with them in any way.

UPDATES

2/9/2008 - Added the fact that some of the pools are for VIPs.

2/10/2008 - You can now make reservations for the restaurants for the duration of your stay.

2/16/2008 - Added additional photos and room information.

Additional Photos:







Possible view from your room if you get a room on back (outside) of building 1.

The line to make restaurant reservations.

Carving station at the Buffet for evening meals at Edenh Real Arena Punta Cana.


Outside seating area of the buffet.

Door to toilet has a large gap.