Sirenis Cocotal Resort, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic - Trip Report

My wife and I (early 30's, no kids) stayed at the Sirenis Cocotal from
August 4-18 2003.  The Cocotal & Suites are the same hotel, just different
types of rooms.  I spent a lot of time carefully researching the hotels in
the DR and chose the Sirenis based on the positive reviews on
tripadvisor.com & Debbie's Dominican website.  We were not disappointed.  In
summary we had a great time and the two weeks went by very fast.  We didn't
want to leave.  Here are the details of our trip:

ROOM.  We arrived at La Romana airport and quickly made our way to the bus
for the 1.5 hour ride to the hotel.  Check-in at the hotel was a breeze
since we were at the front of the line.  Our room was in building F, which
is right next to the main hotel building.  We wanted to be closer to the
beach (actually once we found a shortcut the walk to the beach was only
about 6 minutes) but we liked being close to the dinner buffet and nightly
entertainment, especially with the diarrhea we were having (more on that
later).  The room was beautiful, especially the bathroom which was all
marble tile.  The mini-bar was stocked with coke, sprite, & water, which was
enough for me since the drinks at the bars were much better than straight
liquor in a mini-bar anyway.  I took the key off the key ring and put it on
another key ring I brought so we could leave their key ring in the room to
keep the AC on (you can also use an old credit card).  There was a safe in
the room but you had to pay extra for it.  We just kept our money and
cameras locked in our suitcases (forgot to lock them a few times) and never
had any problems.

BEACH.  The weather was perfect the entire 2 weeks.  It only rained a couple
times and even then it was for less than one hour each time and was always
in the early morning or evening.  It was much hotter than I expected.  The
beach was beautiful.  The sand wasn't white as I had expected, but that
wasn't a big deal.  The Sirenis is very secluded, with only one other hotel
(Secrets) near by.  This gives it a really good atmosphere, unlike the other
areas where the beach is one long string of hotels.  Starting on the third
day I woke up before 6am every day to walk down to the beach and reserve a
palapa (little hut) and catch the sunrise.  Actually I woke up that early to
go to the bathroom (more on that later).  It was nice because there were
very few people there so early.  There weren't many palapas on the beach and
by 7am they were all taken.  There were more by the pool but by 9am they
were all taken too.  So it was worth it to wake up early and catch the
sunrise.  Reserving palapas wasn't a problem, only once did a couple move
our chairs and take our spot.  We just put our chairs back and after arguing
with them for several minutes we settled with sharing the palapa with them
(they left soon afterwards).  It was funny arguing with them in Spanish
(they spoke only Spanish and my Spanish is very limited).  There were lots
of trees so people who didn't get a palapa did manage to find shade,
although they had to keep moving their chairs to stay in the shade.  The
beach does have lots of coral (95% dead), which does get in the way of water
activities a bit.  On the good side the coral did break the waves pretty far
out which made the swimming areas calm.  We went snorkeling a few times.
The equipment they provided was perfectly adequate.  Snorkeling was "ok"
(not great) when the water was calm and during the 2nd week there were more
waves and visibility was really low (about 10 feet or less) so we gave up.
I learned how to windsurf which was a lot of fun.  I did it for an hour
(you're limited to one hour) each day (when the water was calm enough).
This isn't the best spot for windsurfing but I enjoyed it anyway.  If you're
really good at windsurfing then it's fine, because you won't worry about
falling in on the coral.  But for a beginner the area without coral is
pretty limited.  We also did the catamaran every day, that was a blast.  It
took a few days to learn how to navigate the coral during low tide but after
that we were able to really enjoy it by going out past the coral and sailing
up and down the coast.  To avoid the coral you have to sail pretty far out,
and there are waves so if you get sick easily or aren't comfortable in water
then you might not enjoy this so much.  In that case you can stay in closer
as long as it's not low tide. We did see a few catamarans get tipped over
because of the waves so be careful.  The windsurfing and catamaran really
made my vacation!  Usually it's quite expensive to rent these so I was
thrilled to be able to do them "for free".  We also went kayaking which was
fun and a good workout for the arms.  Riding the waves with them was fun.
We also walked about 10 minutes on either side and found we were pretty much
all alone (few people venture away from the hotel property).  We were
rewarded with romantic swimming all by ourselves.  We really liked this.
Women did go topless but we're used to that living in France.  Most of them
were at the beach although a few of them were showing off at the pool.
Overall the beach is very beautiful, and the coral isn't really a problem
except during low tide during a full moon.

POOL.  The pool was awesome.  It was very long, and a good part of it was 2m
deep which made it a real workout.  There are two swim-up bars, which were
very nice.  The hotel was completely full but it never seemed like it.  We
never waited more than a couple minutes for a drink.  Only downside is they
close the pool at 6:30 every night for maintenance, we would have liked to
stay longer but they throw in chlorine to kick you out.  There were lots of
kids but I never really found that to be a problem.  Once I walked over a
bridge over the pool and some kids underneath splashed me.  So I go to the
other side and bent down and splashed them back.  We all laughed pretty
hard.  If you really don't like kids then I suggest the Secrets next door
because it's adults-only.  However I found the kids livened up the place and
gave it a nice atmosphere.

FOOD.  The food was excellent.  We never went hungry the entire trip.
Before just about every meal we'd say we weren't even hungry.  I'm not a
picky eater at all, and I love trying different stuff, so the main dinner
buffet was great.  Things we enjoyed on the buffet were:  Different kinds of
fried rice, really big shrimps, mussels, 2 soups each day, a carving
station, pasta cooked to order, various international dishes we'd never seen
before, and fresh fruits.  The desserts were incredible; there were
different cakes, cookies, and ice cream every day.  We ate at the specialty
restaurants and we agreed with others we met:  The dinner buffet was better.
The lunch buffet at the pool was good, with hamburgers, pizza, pasta, rice,
and of course desserts including fresh French crepes.  Breakfast was a bit
repetitive, eggs, pancakes, bacon, & sausage but still good.  The service
was not great but considering no one left tips I think it was still pretty
good.  That's one thing that amazed me about this hotel:  The staff didn't
expect tips and I only saw people leave tips a couple times.  I guess it's
because the guests are mostly European.  We left $1 when we had good
service.  My advice is to relax and not be in a hurry.  You'll get your
water, drinks, etc. if you're patient.  And if you don't get something
(happened to me several times with wine) just ask again politely and you'll
get it.  A few times we got up and got our own water, no big deal.  The red
wine was totally drinkable, not bad for a cheap table wine.  Regarding the
dress code, they weren't enforced at all.  Every restaurant said no shorts,
including the buffet restaurant, but lots of people wore shorts.  It was
just too hot to wear pants.  At the poolside lunch buffet I always put on a
shirt and shoes, but many people didn't.

BARS.  Bar service was really good.  Especially considering no one tipped.
The bartenders were very fast and worked hard.  The drink menu was extensive
and the quality of the drinks was good.  They usually didn't use a lot of
alcohol, and if you order a pina colada (which comes out of a machine) you
must ask if you want rum since a lot of people don't.  All the alcohols are
a local brand "Normandy".  It's weird to see the same brand for everything
from Tequila to Amaretto.  Most of them were very good.  You could ask for
Bacardi and some other name brand liquors if you wanted to but I never
bothered.  The beer is "El Presidente" which was good.  I really like beer
and I found it totally drinkable.  They also had champage.

MISC ACTIVITIES.  We tried to play tennis twice but it was just too hot.  We
gave up.  We didn't participate in any of the animation activities but it
was fun to watch the people who did.

SHOWS.  The nightly shows were pretty good but they started at 10pm (often
later) and I was always tired from waking up at sunrise to get a palapa.  So
we only went to a few shows.  Plus it was really hot.

SHOPPING.  We walked down the beach to the right about 15 minutes to a
shopping place where everyone is called "chipichipi".  Everyone was drunk
and they would not bargain.  We ended up buying stuff at the place on the
beach just on the edge of the hotel (right side if you're facing the ocean).
We paid $4 for Brugal Extra Viejo & 151 rum, and $8 for a small painting.
Bargain hard!  A guy we met paid a cab driver $50 to take his family on a 3
hour shopping tour which he really enjoyed.  He got great details that way.
We didn't buy much so we just did it on the beach.  The Brugal rum is OK;
I'm not a fan of drinking rum straight.  I'm sure it's good in mixed drinks.

EXCURSIONS.  We did the trip to Saona Island for $80/each.  It was almost 2
hours by bus, then 2 hours by catamaran (which I enjoyed but my wife thought
it was too long).  Then 1.5 hours on the beach including lunch, then about
45 minutes swimming with starfish and a return on a speedboat.  Overall it
was cool but it was a lot of traveling (4 hours on the bus total) and we're
not sure it was worth it for the price.  We didn't know it but the bus
stopped for shopping on the way back and we didn't have any money.  So take
some money!  The prices were cheaper there than on the beach at the hotel.
Other people we met liked the safari jeep tour; I wish we had done that.

CASINO.  We took the shuttle to the casino at the Secrets one night.  You
buy $20 of chips per person and they give you $25.  Warning: you can't cash
these chips in, you must lose them.  I played blackjack and when you win
they pay you in a chip you can cash, so I just played until I used up all
the special chips and then cashed in my winnings.  I came out $22.50 ahead,
including the $10 in bonus chips they gave us.  The minimum for blackjack is
$5/hand.  If you're good at blackjack (or roulette) I strongly recommend
going just to see the Secrets.  The Secrets is a real 5* hotel, it's so
beautiful we were a little depressed to leave and go back to the Sirenis!
We walked around the hotel before going to the casino and it was incredible.
If you want a real 5* hotel then the Secrets is it.  For us it was $500 more
per person so we both agreed it was not worth an extra $1000 to stay there
over Sirenis.  But if you can afford it, it was better than any Hyatt,
Marriot, Sheraton, etc. that I've ever seen.

HEALTH.  This was really the only downside of the trip.  My wife and I had
diarrhea the entire time.  I had it much worse.  It started the second day
and lasted until the day after our return.  We stopped brushing our teeth
with the tap water (started using bottled water) and that didn't help.  I
cut out alcohol and that didn't help.  I'm not sure what caused it but I
suspect it was the food.  I loaded up on Imodium and Lomotil, which kept it
under control during the day.  The doctor at the hotel charged $90 for a
visit plus medicine so I decided to just stick with the Imodium's.  It seems
most people did have diarrhea at least a little bit and we hard of one
couple that stayed in their room for 4 days straight).  So be prepared.
Bring some antibiotics (which I regret not having done although in hindsight
I'm not positive they would have helped) and Imodium.  And take supplemental
insurance if you can (I regret not taking this since the doctor is so
expensive).

SUMMARY.  If you like to do activities, there's a lot to do here.
Snorkeling, windsurfing, catamaran, kayaking, and then the games and dancing
that the animators do will keep you entertained.  You can lay on the beach,
swim, or walk down the beach.  And then go to the pool.  The days went by so
fast and it always seemed like it was time to eat.  I don't think a week is
enough time to fully enjoy everything.  Two weeks was perfect.  Overall I
highly recommend the Sirenis hotel.  After reading some reviews of other
hotels, I really do feel like the Sirenis is one of the best.  I think you
must be really picky to complain about this hotel.  For us whenever
something wasn't perfect, we just laughed about it and didn't let it ruin
our trip.  Even the diarrhea couldn't stop us from having a great time.  I
think if you have a positive mental attitude and are very polite with the
hotel employees, it is impossible not to have a good time!  Try to learn at
least a few words in Spanish so you can talk to the employees, they will
definitely open up to you if you make even a tiny bit of effort to speak
their language!  Many don't speak English but with a little Spanish, a
little English, some hand signals and lots of smiles, you will get along
just fine!

I've put our pictures online at:
http://www.photoaccess.com/share/guest.jsp?ID=A2C4F237D03&cb=PA

Michael