Our shuttle bus arrived at the Iberostar Bavaro and we stepped out onto the property. We stopped to breathe in the Dominican air and peer into the Bavaro’s beautiful, wide open lobby.
After our luggage was unloaded, we walked over to the “Recepcion” desk where we were immediately greeted with a big, friendly “Hola!” from a man behind the desk, otherwise known as, “Super Whagner”. He gave a brief but cheery run-down of the hotel amenities while we were all handed fruity, Caribbean drinks as a welcome gesture.
We arrived before our “official” check-in, so we headed over to the lobby bar and grabbed some cervezas and margaritas.
It was still raining but that didn’t matter, because we were finally in paradise. We decompressed from the flight and bus ride and finally the time had come to check in to our junior suite.
Our suite was pretty much what I had expected. It was a little warm and muggy when we got inside but after running the air conditioner and ceiling for a little while, the humidity cleared up. The floor of the entire room was tile. There were two double beds and a couple of steps down, just past a wall divider, were two couches and coffee table. There was a long desk against the wall with a mini bar, coffee maker, ice bucket, tv and cable modem. Oh, and our room had a crib, for obvious reasons.
On our coffee table were freshly picked flowers, chocolates and swans, made from hand towels. A very nice touch, I might add.
At first, I was a little confused. I thought maybe they gave us the wrong room and this room was meant for a honeymoon couple. But hey…why couldn’t we be that honeymoon couple?! Ok, ok…the honeymoon couple with the two kids.
The bathroom had a free-standing shower (marble?) and bathtub, as well as a sink, toilet and phone. I love it when hotels have phones next to the toilet. Hailey also found it quite amusing. Things like this are precisely why without a doubt, she is our daughter. There were a couple more swan towels in the bathroom and at one point, I was scolded for destroying them. They were pretty, however, I was more concerned with slipping on the wet floor and cracking my head open.
The view from our patio:
The girls were getting antsy (and so was I), so after a quick tour, I grabbed the phone and ordered room service (all-inclusive, people). Chicken, french fries, pizza and tacos. You’d think we were in America or something! The food was just “ok”. It was good enough to satisfy our hunger after five hours of traveling and to tide us over until dinner that evening.
I decided to rest with Teagan, so, Eric and Hailey met up with the others to check out the property. The baby fought her nap for a little while and then finally gave in and we both drifted off to the sound of the tropical rain tapping at our windows. I woke up to the sound of laughter outside of the door. When it opened, Eric and Hailey were standing there, drenched from head to toe. We were right in the middle of a pretty big downpour. No matter. It was warm and everyone was happy.
We cleaned ourselves up and walked through the lobby to La Dorada for dinner. This is one of the IB Bavaro’s a la carte restaurants, serving Mediterranean-style food.
I had the “Robalo a la parrilla con brillante de mantequilla molinera“, which is grilled bass in brilliant butter sauce. I can’t say it was my favorite. It was most definitely swimming in butter sauce. For dessert, I had “Torta de chocolate e avelas” or Chocolate and Hazelnut cake.
No complaints here. It was pretty darn tasty. Eric had grouper, Hailey had…spaghetti and Teagan ate anything we gave her. Overall, La Dorada wasn’t tops on our dining list. However, the service was impeccable.
After dinner, we walked through the IB Bavaro’s beautiful lobby and then the four of us retired to our room for the night (early to bed, early to rise is our motto). We could hear the muffled sounds of the live entertainment coming from the lobby, as our suite was very close (1081). We really didn’t mind. It just reminded us that we were on vacation!
(…to be continued)
(Read the first part of day 1 HERE)
