GOOD:
Beautiful resort, great value for the money, great beach, good night shows, buffet alot of food choices, nice people, good nightlife (club coco bongo ), and beautiful rooms.
BAD:
Dirty main pool (workers spend most of the days trying to cleaning it up), crowded with people, drinks not good (juices too sweet), problems in the our rooms (water in the floor of the bathroom, hair in the bathroom, food at the beach restaurant not good (salted).
I haven been to riu bachata, riu merengue, marien oasis, iberostar, and I'm sorry to say that Gran Ventana was my least favorite resort. Is like a 2 or 3 hotel star.
*Viewers just be careful if you decide to go to the coco bongo club at night, because is a public club, anyone from the outside are allow to go, don't get drunk by yourself and careful with wallet.

I stayed at this hotel 19th April - 4th May. Travelling with First Choice.
I Travelled to this hotel in March 07' and had such a great time that i booked up for 2008 with some friends.
Flight was very long as the 'in-flight entertainment' didn't work.
But once we arrived at the hotel, everything went smoothly. We weren't greeted with drinks at check-in as we were the previous year. But during our stay we saw that most people did. I believe that because there were so many of us checking in there wasn't enough glasses.

Rooms:
I had emailed the hotel in advance to request a room in the Saona building, on either the bottom or first floor. And we got this, we got a ground floor room, with a partial sea view that overlooked the wedding 'chapel.' The rooms had been refurbished since I came, and were much more up to date. All rooms have ceiling fan and air conditioning. I have read reviews with people saying that they had problems with their bathroom and their air con leaking. But we had no such problems for the duration of our stay.
Maids come everyday, changing towels for you. & Mopping floors. If they do not need to be changed then they shouldn't be. I mean we dont have a clean towel at home everyday, do we?! Sheets are changes 3 times a week.

Towels/Pool/Beach:
On check-in you get your towel cards which you take to the towel centre/hut and exchange for a towel. When the towels ae dirty you take them back and exchange them over. You can do this as many times a day as you like. But if you loose your towel there is a $20 charge.
We stayed by the pool most of our holiday purely becasue one of the people that I travelled with was prone to getting biten by sand flies. But the beach is lovely. With golden sands and clear blue waters. There is no breeze round by the pool so you find that you get hot quicker. Where as if you on the beach there is a breeze so you tend not to feel the sun as much.
The plus to the pool is that you have the swim up bar which is shaded, as is a plus. It does say adults only but children go up to the bar to get drinks, and they don't mind this.
When on the beach you will get asked by men to look at their things. But a 'No Thankyou' will send them on their way. If you are looking for souvenirs to take home. Then this maybe worth your while. Never agree on the price they give you. Becasue you can barter up to 75% of the price that they gave you. Sometimes more.

Plaza:
Playa Dorada plaza is around a 3 minute walk from reception. Its directly in front of you as soon as you leave the front entrance. Here you have gift shops, food stores, jewellery shops even a pizza hut! You also have 3 night clubs: Coco bongo, Roadway & Hemmingways. Hemmingways is the one that the hotel push most. But the best one for good music and atmosphere is Coco Bongo - the newwst of the 3.
If you are staying in the quiet block you may hear music from Roadway as it is just next door, and this can contine till the early hours of the morning.

Dining/Bars:
We ate in all 3 al a carte restaurants - Octopus, Italian & the Ocean Grill. My favourite was the Ocean Grill although they all serve excellent food. You can eat in each one once a week. So if you are staying for 2 weeks you can eat in each one twice.
The main restaurant was buffet style. And although they had pretty much the same for breakfast every morning there was plenty of choice for lunch & dinner.
For breakfast you have bacon, eggs, sausage the usual and then cereal, yoghurts, waffles & muffins etc.
Lunch & Dinner you will always get the usual like pizza, chips, burgers pasta etc. But each night there is something different.
Staff here are so friendly, and always have a smile & Hola for you. If you see the same barman/lady for the duration of your holiday they will get to know your drink. I evn had people remember what I had from last year & that was more than a year ago!!

Entertainment:
I loved the entertainment at the hotel, they work so hard sometimes working 9am-11pm! The nightly shows are mostly audience participation. And then you have the dance shows which are on most nights a week. This can get repetitive. But dont miss the Playback Show, Micheal Jackson show & the Magic show. Definatly the best 3!
Also it rained a couple of days while we were there. But we were not bored, the entertainment team carried on with their daily activites but on stage. They also got out board games such as connect 4, jenga, monopoly, battleships etc.

Trips:
While here we done 2 trips. The outback safari & a new one exclusive to first choice/signature: Zipline.
I done the outback safari last year & just had 2 do it again this year. This is a trip where they put back into the community.
You vist a fruit plantation, school, typical dominican house, river - which you can swim in. Then you have lunch at base - bread, rice, hot dogs, salad etc. Then get the chance to hold a crocodile. Then you go on a small river tour, then to cabarete beach to do boggey boarding. I would 100% recomment this trip.
The zipline was out 30-35 mins away from the hotel & 6 people do it at a time. It consists for 8 platforms and is scary to begin with but once you've done the second one you'll love it.
I done Ocean world the previous year so didnt do it this time, but if you want to swim with the dolphins or stingray/sharks then this is the best. But i did find that we done the whole park by around 1/2pm. And were just waiting the rest of the day. I told this to a family we met there and they said that this was true. Also the food is very expensive here.

Refurbishment:
During our last week major refurbishment had begun. There are 3 blocks to the hotel - the Saona, Catalina & Quiet block. Saona is the only one that has been refurbished. & as they are now going into their quiet season they are now doing the Catalina block. This will not ruin your holiday as there is no sound as all they are doing to the room is giving them a fresh lick of paint and putting in new curtains/bedding etc.
The day after we left the Ocean Grill was due to close, as they are extending this to make it bigger. This means that it will not be available to use as an Al a carte option. But you will still get the 3 to choose from They are replacing this with a Mexican which isn't actually on the hotel sight, but in the playa dorada complex - down the road.
They will also eventually be refurbishing the kids club, pool bar, childrens pool & stage where the nightly entertainment takes place. Giving the whole hotel a re-vamp.

But I will be booking to go back to the hotel again for the 3rd time, same time next year. Some people we met out there are also booking to go back.
And my friend that i travelled with is planning her 6th trip back to this hotel for November!! So it really is a great hotel. I can't say one bad thing about it. And it was by first time going back to the same hotel so i was worried, but I needn't have been!!
It was different to my first time, but just as good!!! Loved it!!

If you have any questions don't hesitate to message me.
Danielle

Booked our honeymoon through Thomas Cook and a beach blessing direct with the hotel When we got to the hotel they had no record we were on there on our honeymoon and put us in twin rom with two single beds. They refused to change our room to the honeymoon suite, which Thomas Cook were suposed to organise and they promised us. We then found out the next day that the hotel had forgotten to book our blessing and could not fit us in. I got food poisoning on the third day. My wife got ear infection from the swimming pool. Thomas Cook could not have been more unhelpful if they tried. The hotel were not prepared to acknowledge we were on honeymoon until the day before we left, which is when we finally recieved our fruit and rum. Between Thomas Cook and the hotel, they COMPLETELY ruined our honeymoon and holiday. The rooms stank of damp, the mini bars were almost empty and the food was worst we have ever had at any hotel we have stayed. Avoid BOTH Thomas Cook and the hotel like the plague!!!!!!! You have been warned!

We have just returned from a 2 week holiday in the dominican republic, staying in the gand ventana beach resort, playa dorada.
The hotel as 3 different buildings all the rooms are air conditioned and have ceiling fans, the rooms are cleaned daily with fresh towels each day.
Each room as a mini bar and is stocked up daily and at the end of each floor is a large bin of ice for you to fill the ice bucket for your room.
The maid service was excellent, if we needed anything all we had to do was ask and it was there the next time we went back to are rooms.
The ala carte restaurants are a must theirs 3 (italian, octopus and the ocean bar) although the food in the main restaurant was lovely with food to suit all tastes.
The pool was a good size with a nice swim up bar in the shade, and there was always some activity or other going on around the pool.
Just outside the complex there's a little plaza with shops and bars, try phil's bar its british pub were you can go and watch all the sports that you would normally watch at home. the owners and staff were very friendly.
The dominican people are very friendly people and always ready to help.
The beach had lovely white sands and the sea was lovely and clear, you still get the lucky lucky men trying to sell you thing but if you just say no thank you they go away and don't bother you
again.
Anyway we had a great holiday and are planning to go again in 2009.