La Palapa: Contemporary villa w/ pool, backyard, basketball, staff, 2 golf carts

Our extended family just returned from a week in Villa La Palapa. Overall we had a great time. Airport pickup and check in were a breeze. The property was awesome. We used the pool everyday, it was clean and perfect temperature. The basketball court was underwhelming, with palms overgrowing the area. My 12 year old didn't complain. There were some small things, like an odd smell in one of the bathrooms, that were handled immediately. Like others have said, the staff were friendly, hard working, and just nice people. We opted for the breakfast/dinner partial plan, with Carlos as our chef. This ended up being a ridiculous amount of food and was a perfect choice for us. Note that there is a separate chef rental fee in additional to the per person fe, which was not clear in initial emails. After reading back through the contract, it is in there in small print. We generally either skipped lunch or ate on the run. The boys in our group played golf at La Cana 3 times and at Punta Espada once. La Cana is definitely not worth what they charge. I got times on the GolfNow app for a third of the price. They make you take a caddy, which for the first time we played seemed reasonable. The third time we played, they tried to send 2 caddies with our group of 4 to play 9 holes (we were in carts!) This theme of squeezing money out of you seemed common in the DR. The caddy master is a total jerk, he made us feel like outsiders because we were not "owners". Punta Espada is legit.

Our stay was everything we hoped for and more! The house is within a safe, gated community that has absolutely beautiful scenery. The house is better than the pictures and we had plenty of room for 10 adults and 1 three year old. The house is well worth the price. There are several beach options but our favorite, that was a 5 minute golf cart ride, was Playa Serena. Gladys was so sweet and nice, she spoiled us taking care of the dishes and making sure our rooms were nice and clean. The rooms were a bit cold so if you run on the cooler side bring a sweatshirt for sleeping.