A Tour of the New RIU Palace Bavaro

Travel Agent took a tour Wednesday of the new $80 million RIU Palace Bavaro, which officially opened in the Dominican Republic toward the end of 2011.

The hotel is located in the RIU Punta Cana Complex. It represents the fifth hotel in Punta Cana and the third of the luxurious range RIU Palace, as the hotel chain already had the RIU Palace Macao and RIU Palace Punta Cana in this destination.

It features 610 rooms distributed between the main building and luxurious villas. We stayed in room #3047, a Junior Suite with a king bed, flat screen television and a spacious balcony with partial views of the ocean and swimming pool. One of the coolest features here, however, is the open bath tub. Clients can watch television or even enjoy partial ocean views while taking a bath.

The best room, however, was #2119, a Jacuzzi Suite. It comes with a separate living room area, a huge flat screen television and a balcony big enough to fit at least 10 people. The main selling point here, as the name implies, is the Jacuzzi located on the balcony.

The gastronomic offer from the new hotel presents a vast selection of tastes in its main buffet restaurant Montecristo and the choice of four specialty restaurants. There is the modern Krystal, the Japanese restaurant, Geisha, the Italian restaurant, La Bambola, and the grill steakhouse, Taíno. The hotel also offers five bars including the Sports Bar, which is open 24 hours, and the coffee shop, Capuchino.

The hotel offers four swimming pools, two of which have an integrated jacuzzi, a children's pool with a mini-club, night and day entertainment program, spa, gym, casino and a Convention Center of 12,916 square feet, which will be able to accommodate roughly 1,000 people.

The evolution of the hotel chain in the Dominican Republic has been consistent, satisfying customer demand and demonstrating a strong commitment to the country which has been reflected by the last year renovation from the Riu Bambu, the refurbishment of the modern Riu Naiboa, the opening of the Riu Palace Bavaro, the renovation of the Riu Palace Macao and the merge of the ClubHotel Riu Mambo and ClubHotel Riu Merengue in Puerto Plata.

The RIU Punta Cana complex, with the Riu Palace Bavaro, Riu Palace Punta Cana, Riu Palace Macao, Riu Bambu and Riu Naiboa, is located on Playa Arena Gorda.

Visit www.riu.com.