Hotel Riu Mambo - Bahia Maimon - Dominican Republic

Our second Honeymoon after our Cancun disaster.

Booked through - First Choice
Flights with - First Choice
Stay - 2 weeks all inclusive
Month - July

I loved this holiday so much, the weather, the hotel, the people everything I think back on it with such fond memories that I would never want to go back in case it doesn't live up to my initial estimations.

We arrived in the Dominican Republic after a 10 hours flight in which my husband had managed to spill a can of coke all over my nice new white tracksuit (eww a white tracksuit I know). I looked like I didn't manage to get to the toilet on time and had lost control of my diarrhoea filled bladder not a good start. Additional to this trauma we expected to get onto an air conditioned coach to take us to the hotel we were wrong we got a tiny bus that looked like it had seen better days and our luggage was put on a rack on the back. I wouldn't have thought that much of it had I not been sitting behind a couple who had heard of a friend being stopped on the road out of the airport for her luggage and there was ours ready to just be picked up like on an airport carousel at the next set of traffic lights we stopped at. I have learnt not to listen to others because we arrived safe and well with our luggage at our very grand hotel. The lobby of this hotel is really impressive and the staff where so friendly. We checked in problem free and was led through the beautiful gardens to our colonial like building. The rooms are huge with beautiful bathrooms a good size balcony and best of all a fully stocked mini bar with optics result. I quickly scanned the tv and thankfully no 24 hr porn channels.

We dropped our bags and went to explore the resort which is huge and includes two sister hotels the Merengue and Bachata. The beach was amazing and hosted many a beach party and BBQ during our stay. The food here was amazing we would have our breakfast at the Mambo because we preferred the layout and knew where everything was. There was a huge range of food for breakfast and it was more like a train station in size than a restaurant. We would have lunch at one of the other hotels for a change but our evening meal we had to have in our own hotel which wasn't a problem because we loved it and the theme nights were great. We ate at the speciality restaurants a couple of times which we really enjoyed. During the day they also served snack at the snack bar if you didn't feel like a huge lunch you could just grab a burger or a hotdog.

The pool at the Mambo was always full of fun games although walking across two canoes and nearly losing my tie side bikini bottoms wasn't. There was plenty of beds around the pool plus you could use the pools at the sister hotels if you felt like a change. The evening entertainment options where:

1. Stay at the bar and drink cocktails
2. Watch the nightly stage show or take part like us Mr and Mrs Mambo don't you know ?
3. Go to the resort disco

We did and enjoyed all three over the 14 nights the shows aren't West End quality but fun non the less. We also used to take a walk down the Caribbean street where there was a range of shops and some games and pool rooms.

The only trip we decided to do was the Outback Safari which took us into the villages to see the living condition and to a local school to see the children which was amazing. The Dominican Republic is such a beautiful country so green and scenic so riding up to the mountain ranch was just full of spectacular views. It really is a good opportunity to see the real Dominican Republic and you wont be disappointed.

I have stayed in many a Riu hotels over the years but this one has been my favourite by far.

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g147290-d150850-Reviews-or30-ClubHotel_Riu_Mambo-Puerto_Plata_Dominican_Republic.html#REVIEWS