Barcelo Talanquera - Juan Dolio, Dominican Republic 

First hotel room :- aircon broken Second room :- water running down walls third room :- Aircon broke within 1 day, when asked if anyone could fix the problem it took them 2 days, when it was fixed it took 15mins max. Food gave me and partner diorrehea and sickness for 3 weeks after we got back. The ''LOCALS '' are allowed in at the weekend and everything changes, food wise they dont serve hardly anything because the locals are greedy and take it home. Drink wise bars close. Pool wise : PACKED. cant move. The beach. Wow. beautiful place. Lovely........But you get people asking every 2 minutes if you wnt to buy crap like.... the worst paintings you will ever see. Braclets/Neckless coconuts (dont buy) aunamnets which will take up half of yor suitcase. Braded hair and massages. And what ever you do DO NOT BUY ANY SNORKELLING EQUIPMENT FORM THE YARD. THEY DONT WORK. THEY DONT REFUND. IF YOU DO, SELL IT ON EBAY.

Me and my girlfriend went for a 2 week all inclusive holiday to he barchelo talanquea in june 2008 we are from the UK . ill quickly go through how we found the hotel, staff, room's,pool, food, beach, local invasion HOTEL Very well presented with lots of trees and plants also lots of lizards in the gardens and just next to the buffet restaurant there are 3 flamingo's next to a waterfall which looks very nice STAFF There is definetly a language barrier out hear with only a selected number off staff understanding english however saying this they will not just ignore you they will try to get someone else who speaks your language to help, during dinner times you can be waiting up to 10 - 15 mins for a drink (they dont let you get your own diet coke, fanta, coke) althogh there is orange which is self serve ROOMS what people say on this site is true the 500 block facing the beach is the most modern and there fore the cleanest it seems the further away from reception you go the worse the rooms are, we was given room 422 to begin but with a strange moisty smell and damp on the celing we asked to move to the 500 block (they wanted an extra $25 per person per night) as we was there for 14 nights this was out of our budget so they gave us room in the 400 block (much better than the 200 block) finaly we could get by the pool... POOL's there is 3 main pools and a couple of smaller pools it seems the big main pool is the only one that gets properly cleaned on a morning however the others are still fairly clean depending on what you do on holiday depends on what pool you sit by, on a weekend with the 'local invasion' i would not recomend the big main pool if you are after some peace as they fill it literatly one of the smaller pools or the beach are much better FOOD Food is very americanised with breakfast being pancakes bacon etc etc however there is fruit other hot food and also a smoothie maker which i used alot, lunch is the same 'chips rice a hot meat some salad and desert same with tea nothing special BEACH the beach is fairly nice the staff do try to keep it clean getting rid of seaweed and rubbish everyday the sea is very warm and sandy the first meter of sea is seaweed but after that you have about 10 - 15 meters of sand + even a bit of coral for you snorkelers the water is clear and you can see fish swimming round you so it does remind you your in the caribeaan LOCAL INVASION (FRIDAY TO SUNDAY) well we had read about this onthis site before going and we was worried - we was right to be worried to sum it up too many locals get let in the hotel is crowded same with the pool and at dinner times they push in front of you with no manners all they do is drink eat and are quiet noisey so if you are going you should already be looking forward to your first monday there as it is so much better