Ok, I realize this is not one of the luxury hotels of the Dominican Republic but I loved this hotel. The staff was really friendly and attentive. The rooms were large and clean. We had access to all the amenities of the big hotel (Barcelo Capella) across the street but the feeling was much more intimate, less institutional and a little cheaper. We had breakfast at our hotel and the other two meals at the larger place across the street (the Capella).

The Capella was nice too. They had a small kids club that had a very nice staff and alot of fun toys and games and a kids pool and a playground. There were alot of palm trees around so the kids didn't get too much sun. They had a kids show at the stage at 8pm every night. My kids liked that too.

The beach was nice with plenty of palm trees to keep you from getting too fried. There are alot of vendors selling souvenirs but they are not too aggressive. Again, this is not one of the famous beaches of the Dominican Republic but it looked pretty good.

The food at the capella was ok. I thought all the Dominican dishes were excellent. Some of the other ones weren't bad but seemed to be prepared in a way more familiar to Europeans rather than Americans.

The other guests during the week were from all over - Russia, Poland, France, USA, Spain, England, Germany, and even Puerto Rico. The guests on the weekend were primarily locals -- mostly young singles on day trips from Santo Domingo -- and it was more crowded. There was a USA little league team staying at the Capella but they were mostly playing baseball all day in San Pedro de Macoris. There was a Dominican little league team staying at one point also.

As for the language skills of the staff, some spoke English very well, but most did not. It is a foreign country after all and their national language is Spanish. My Spanish is pretty poor but I had no trouble communcating. The staff was very patient and spoke slowly for me. It was a great experience.

I would recommend the Barcelo Colonial Tropical for everyone except those who want a very elite,, americanized experience.

Stayed at the Barcelo Colonia tropical over Xmas and new Year 05/06. Weatherwise it's agood time to go for us brits as the weather is hot, but not unpleasantly so and the humidity is low. It's also low season, and the hotel is fairly quiet, so there's no fights for the sunbeds or the sunshades. Great!
We were not overly impressed with the Colonia Tropical or the Cappella, its' sister over the road. Our plan was to stay at the Tropical, rather than at the Cappella, as it was secluded, and, if we didn't want to be with the crowds, we would have our own little swimming pool.
This didn't work out, however, as the bar at the Tropical is not included in the (supposed, and more of that later) all-inclusive package. This means you either have to pay for your drinks, or do a 500 yard round trips to one of the bars at the Capella.
As the Capella was quiet(low season) we stayed over there to be near the bars, and didn't use the Tropical's pool once.
Also, although the Tropical provided brakfast, it wasn't worth having so you ended up at the Capella for that too. In two weeks we didn't see anyone using the tropical's restaurant day or night. The job of chef at that place must be the most boring and demoralising in the world.
Our room was very spacious and well appointed, but we had to change rooms, as the original was damp and not clean, with mould growing on the bathroom ceiling.
In the 2 weeks we met a number of people who had had to reject rooms sometimes two times or more before finding something satisfactory.The grounds of the Capella are beautiful, but some of the maintenance is poor. In common with most of these places they have background lighting at floor level along the paths at night. There was one long of walkway stretch where the lights were out for the entire two weeks and no-one did anything to repair them. Any older people with poorer sight would have had problems with this.
The food was good with a varied selection, but, as they don't believe in hot plates, anything you got from the hot trays was stone cold by the time you got back to your table. Never got an actual hot (or even warm) meal in the entire two weeks, so we gave up and went on to salads. At least they are supposed to be cold.
We thought we would try one of the bookable restaurants, of which there are three. There is a French restaurant, for which there is an additional charge of about $20USD per head, but you can have anything you want from the menu.
Then there are two other restaurants, a Dominican one at the top of the resort, and the Las Olas grill on the beach which are billed as being part of the all inclusive package. Except that they aren't.
When you get there you find that most items carry a surcharge of 50% of the menu price.
On the meat menu there was only one dish (grilled chicken breast)that was "free", for all the others you paid 50%. On the fish menu there were two "free" dishes, the rest were charged at 50%.
A number of people were not happy with this, not so much because they had to pay, but because they had been advised it was part of the all inclusive deal, and therefore "free" which it isn't.
Also, despite the dishes being cooked to order, our meals still arrived cold!
Also, unusually in our experience, the hotel didn't have a lounge with a bar. This meant, if for any reason one didn't want to go to one of the evening shows, there was nowhere to "chill out" or socialise in the evening. true, the Flamingo reataurant had a bar, but this had about 6 bar stools, and, er, that's it. hardly enough for a large hotel. There were some sofas in the (small) lobby, but no bar.
Although there were plentl of sunbeds, there were very few umbrellas. This meant finding shade was a serious problem. OK in the low season when it was qiuet and the sun not too hot, but in the high season you're going to fry big time with no choice but to go indoors if you want some shade. The staff were very friendly, (as are the Dominicans in general) but of variable quality in terms of training and customer service.
Luckily, we were adopted by Eddie de la Santos, who is an absolute star, and should be made a manager as soon as possible. Nothing was too much trouble for Eddie, and we gave him a big fat tip before we left.
On the plus side, for the active, ther are plenty of things to do at the resort with watersports, tennis, golf etc., and a great Scuba diving centre catering for beginneres and expereinced divers. For $195 you could get your full PADI licence. Very good. Most importantly, the noisy keep fit guys with their 90db boomboxes have their own area away from the swimming pools in the activity and games area, so those of us relaxing by the pool don't have to suffer "techno" at ear splitting volume for an hour or so, as is usually the case in these resorts. Hooray!
I don't mind noisy and lively activites,so long as i can get away from them if I want to, and here that was a definite plus point.
If the hotel had a lounge with a bar, was abl to serve hot food that was actually hot, had more sun unbrellas, and better room maintence (i.e. not dirty and damp) this would be a good place.
As it is, however it is only average. Incidentally, as it was Xmas, we paid a premium. I would advise you to go either before or after Xmas or new year as it's much cheaper and therefore much better value for money.
Even better go in January and you can go whale watching. Apparently you are guaranteed to see whales leaping right out of the water

Staff....excellent 5/5
Rooms....average 3/5
Beach....Good (buy water shoes) mostly sand 4/5
Food.....Good 4/5
Drinks...average (you better like rum) 3/5
pool.....3 pools (nice but kinda small) 4/5
Value....Nice hotel you should have fun

Very nice hotel! The pool and the garden are beautiful as well. Cleaning stuff, receptionists, security and the other guys which maintained the area outside were always friendly. If you needed help not a problem at all! We never experienced somebody unfriendly!

Rooms were simple and nicely decorated. Missed a Mini Bar in the room! Bathroom equipment older and used but was always clean and worked very well.

Souvenir shop and restaurant are attached to the hotel. Little supermarket, bank, bar/ restaurant are not far away from hotel. More restaurants or bars, even a pharmacy are appr. 5-10 min walk from hotel away.

Our hotel was almost complete full and we had still a very friendly and helpfull stuff! I loved to use the pool after a half day at the beach and had never a problem to find a bench!