Review by John and Paula, 2/25/20

Dave,

Thank you so much for your recommendation for the Sanctuary Resort. It was absolutely beautiful.  Our balcony opened due east so that we were awakened by spectacular sunrises each morning. The resort was immaculately maintained and the staff were so friendly and accommodating.  he restaurants were very good with the Wok restaurant being our favorite dinner location and the Casa Bella being the absolute favorite go to spot.  We look forward to returning in the future. 

I have attached a couple of pictures and can furnish more if you need them.

John and Paula

Review by Greta, 2/10/20

Sorry for the delayed response, my family loved Sanctuary.  The rooms were beautiful and the thing that most impressed us was the staff- they could not have been nicer or more attentive.  We enjoyed being there so much that we didn't take any outside excursions- we would have gone deep sea fishing but the seas were rough and the boats weren't going out.  We really enjoyed the guided bike tour and the many restaurants- our favorite was Fusion  the Italian restaurant and the hibachi.  We never had a bad meal and the boys really enjoyed getting pizzas and tacos later at night.  We also really enjoyed eating breakfast outside, the fresh smoothie bar and the daily drink specials.
I did go to the spa for a massage and it may have been the nicest spa I have ever been to.

Thanks for your recommendation, we are so glad we listened to you.

Have a great day.

Best,
Greta

Review by Jill, 11/12/19 

Hi Dave,

We had a wonderful trip!! The Sanctuary was perfect, beautiful grounds, beautiful room, welcoming and so eager to please staff. We loved it. Since the occupancy was low, not all the restaurants were open each night, but we just worked around that easily. They even let us go inside the beer bar one night that it was closed, to choose different beers to sample.  It was pretty funny.

Transfers and flights were all just fine. No problems at all. The transfer company was great.

We would definitely go back!Thanks so much for our great vacation in DR!

Stay warm!
Jill

Review by Allie and Jordan, 7/3/19 

Hi Betsy and the Love to Travel Team!
 
Thank you so very much for checking in on Jordan and I during our honeymoon! We absolutely LOVED Sanctuary Cap Cana in the Dominican and we can’t thank you enough for helping us plan our dream honeymoon! (: The resort and beach were breathtakingly beautiful!!!

We just wanted to drop you a note to tell you how pleased we were with your kindness, professionalism, and guidance throughout the entire honeymoon planning process. You truly made everything so effortless and easy, and for that we are forever grateful because planning trips at times can be very daunting and overwhelming at times, especially while wedding planning. We couldn’t have imagined planning it all without you, and we will definitely be using you to help plan our future trips as well as pass you along as a reference!
Thank you so very much again.

Best of wishes to you and the Love to Travel Team!
 
Sincerely, 
Allie and Jordan 

Review by Nadia, 6/27/2019

Dear Dave,

Our experience at the Sanctuary Cap Cana exceeded our expectations! I believe the people there are the kindest on the planet. They took such good care of my Mom. She had a wonderful birthday. So much so, she plans to return in December. 

I felt completely safe despite the media reports of people getting sick, etc.

The food was great at ALL of the restaurants. My particular favorites were the Italian restaurant, the Blue Marlin and the Japanese restaurant. When I shared with the wait staff I was vegan, they didn't hesitate to accomodate my dietary needs. The breakfast and lunch buffet surprisingly had vegan options!! I was so pleased to see this at the resort.

Special thanks to Yaris, Sunyenka, Moses, Francis and especially Hector for taking such good care of us!

Dave, this was awesome. Too bad Roger and Chandler missed out! 

All the best,
Nadia

Review by Gordon, 6/12/2019

Hi Dave,

We loved Santuary Cap Cana! The food was delicious! The transfers went very smoothly and had no issues in the airport. The Castle Suite was also great!

We thought about leaving the resort, but Paige was still recovering from an upper respiratory infection, so we decided to lay low at the resort. We still had plenty of fun on the resort. It was a great balance between relaxing and fun daytime entertainment. The Fusion restaurant was probably the best restaurant we went to. The food was good, but the atmosphere and dinner entertainment was something we had never experienced before.

We really appreciate your help in planning our honeymoon! Don't think it could have gone any better. We are moving to Atlanta next week, so nice to relax before the crazy picked back up. Hope you guys have a great summer!

Thank you,

Review by Jeree, 3/16/2019

Hola Dave!

First want to say everyone agrees you nailed it!!  Everything is perfect!  Place and set up...perfection!  Eric....perfection!!! You couldn’t have done better....thank you!

Jeree

Review by Morgan, 1/22/2019

Brooke -

​Thank you so much for everything on this trip! I think this was the best resort we have been to so far and I think everyone else loved it too!

Our butler, Jorge, was amazing and along with all the others too! It was just a great experience all the way around!

See you for the next trip! Thanks again!

Morgan

Review by Barbara & Pierce, 2/20/2017

We had a terrific time at Sanctuary Cap Cana.  We enjoyed the food, pools, and the staff.
We did not go on any excursions.

Attached are a few pictures.

​Review by Jeff, 8/5/2016

​Overall Sanctuary and our vacation was awesome, the only thing we didn't like is twice a week they allow local vendors in to hawk their wares - and they are very pushy. It's the street market atmosphere that we prefer to avoid but couldn't as they were literally blocking the walkway between our room and breakfast and/or the pool.  Other than that the staff is absolutely wonderful and they all take seriously their job of making sure everyone has a great time and are well-served.  The evening entertainment was pretty good too.


We did like our room, "Beach Front" is a bit of a stretch - when I picture "beachfront" I picture looking out the door/window and seeing sand and water and nothing else.  In reality there are pools, beach volleyball, etc. between us and the ocean.  But the villas etc that truly are "beachfront" are more "oceanfront" and you can't walk out your door and get to the beach.  So I liked what we had better, it was very close to the main pool which is where we spent most of our time anyway.  We were technically "beachfront" in that the beach volleyball court was near our room, and the sand of it in continuous all the way through the rest of the resort to the ocean.

We did do a couple of excursions - Dr. Fish Ocean Spa (Bavaro beach area), and "Juanillo VIP All Day Tour" at Scape Park (in Cap Cana).  Dr. Fish was pretty good/interesting, we wanted massages and this excursion included that and other things as well for the less $$ than the resort's spa, and it got us out to see a little more of Punta Cana.  The VIP tour got snorkeling and visiting "the blue hole", the rest of it kind of felt like the same stuff we would do at the resort anyway, only on a boat for part of it and and a slightly different beach (turned out literally right next door to Sanctuary).

And of course, Punta Espada.  You were absolutely right.  Bucket-list type course that nobody really seems to have heard about around here.  Absolutely gorgeous (and really difficult especially being a little bit rusty!)

So specifically to your questions:

Yes, it was a great recommendation - I don't know if it's better/worse than other resorts in DR, but the whole being in Cap Cana seemed like a nice little bit of extra peace / security.  Plus it did save some $$ on Punta Espada, which I don't know that I would have made it to if we stayed somewhere further away / at another resort that has it's own course.  If someone wants to do motorized water sports (jet ski, parasailing, etc) this probably isn't the resort for them as those activities are not allowed in any part of Cap Cana.

What we liked best was the staff, their awesome attitudes and personalities, and being waited on hand-and-foot.  We were truly treated like a king and queen for a week.

I'm not entirely sure the "Beach Front" was much better than "Ocean View", other than we were much closer (i.e. didn't have to go down stairs), to get to the pool/bar/real beach/etc.  But we did like the room.

Bottom line, I would definitely recommend the resort!  On a side note, the people who stayed in "the castle" seem to swear by it, but from what I could see and tell I was really glad we were NOT in it.  It's kind of far away from everything else.

​​Review by Brian & Carrie, 9/23/2015

Hi Dave!
We really loved Punta Cana and the resort!  The resort was very unique and beautiful.  We thought the service was excellent, great variety of food and drinks as well.  The restaurants were very nice.  We would highly recommend it and would definitely go back!  Brian LOVED the golf!  We ended up at Teeth of the Dog and there were so many beautiful holes on the ocean.  We thought it was well worth the distance from the resort and the cost.  Brian was very appreciative of the surprise.  I can’t believe we actually pulled it off.  He didn’t realize we were going to Punta Cana until we arrived in Atlanta.  He thought we were going to Mexico because one of the kids teachers mentioned Mexico to him a day before we left.  I’m actually glad he mentioned that because it threw Brian off track!  Thanks again for all of your help.  It was truly an amazing trip!
Carrie

Yes I would definitely recommend it.  It was not crowded at all while we were there but there was a group of 3 couples that we ran into regularly.  They seemed to be having an amazing time.  Two nights the entertainment was great.  The Dominican night had excellent dancing and music and they also had live music another night that was great.  There is a ‘disco’ club there that could be fun but we never went there.  The main pool is pretty lively and there is sand volleyball nearby that they try to do if there are enough people.  Brian played once and would’ve played more if there were players.  One staff member said the resort was only at 40% occupancy.  We went to the spa for massages one morning that that was fabulous.  You can hang out a the spa pool and hot tubs as long as you like.  It’s expensive…$145 for a 50 min massage but I guess that is probably normal for resorts.  They give you a $50 off coupon in your room which helps.  It was one of the best massages I’ve ever had, so well worth it for me!  Our room was nice.  It was on the bottom floor of the Castle with a big wooden deck balcony and a grassy area in front overlooking the ocean.  It’s very hot so you really can’t be out there until evening.  The rooms above us had their own little plunge pools and great views of the ocean.  I liked that area of the resort.  It had a bar on the top level and a nice pool that we hung out at.  It’s much more relaxing and not as lively.  We went back and forth between the two pools.  We even ordered room service and the brought it to the pool for us one day.  That pool in “the castle” has a great view of the ocean.  We walked the whole resort on our last day and all the rooms seem great.  There are even great little villas right on the ocean.  Most are under construction, but very cute.  We loved how all the rooms appeared different instead of giant high-rise buildings with bunches of rooms all lined up and the same.  each little building here was unique.  A very appealing feature we thought.  It has a beautiful Mediterranean feel to it.  we never left the resort other than for golf but many couples were doing excursions and having a great time.  One couple did swim with dolphins and love it. The group I mentioned earlier even took a shuttle over to a sister Alsol resort to eat for dinner.  we didn’t know you could do that but we were already booked with eating at the restaurants offered on the property which were great.  They truly did seem like stand alone restaurants and very quaint and nice.  Unlike some all inclusives that all the restaurants share the same kitchen, food tastes the same and they just change up the decor each night.  This was not that way.  Maybe they do all share the same kitchen but they do an excellent job of masking that if they do. Anyway, hope this is helpful.