Casa Marina Beach Reef

We loved Casa Marina Resort. The room was very clean and well maintained by the housekeeper. Our fridge was well stocked with bottled water and soda. We left a tip for housekeeping every day and a note if we needed anything. The staff was very responsive. The food was great in the buffet and the a la carte restaurants. Plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, variety of meats and seafood. Although drink service at the buffet was hit and miss. We quite often just had to get our own glasses of water and were seldom offered drinks with dinner because the servers were MIA. Tipping didn’t seem to make a difference to service at the buffet. The grounds, pools and public restrooms were kept extremely clean. Recommend getting your towels on lounge chairs in the morning before breakfast if you want a chair around the pool. The area near the oceanfront jacuzzis was nice and shady, we spent a lot of time there. Service at the bars was always good, no shortage of whatever you wanted to drink. The beach was okay, strong undertow in the water which can be scary. We never made it to any of the night time entertainment so can’t comment on that. We booked the deluxe garden view room and free wifi is included for a limited time, which they tried to deny at first at the front desk but eventually gave us the passcodes. The wifi was pretty good, sometimes slow at certain times of the day. We rented the safe for our room and highly recommend getting the key for that when checking in. $18 US for the week. We did one excursion, Puerta Plata city tour and cable car. The city tour was mostly about being taken to specific stores in hopes of us purchasing something. The lunch was good, but again, service at the restaurant was lacking, we didn’t get a glass of water until we were almost finished our meals. The botanical gardens at the top of the mountain was beautiful, my favourite part of the excursion. We walked into town (Sosua) after dinner a few times, very safe, never felt uncomfortable. All in all, a very good experience at Casa Marina Resort, would return.