Casa Colonial Beach and Spa, is the only real five star hotel in the Dominican Republic. Unlike many five star hotels it is in many ways closer to being one of the best small inns & hotels in the Dominican Republic, with only 40 rooms but also in the whole Caribbean.

We decided to have Christmas in the Dominican Republic, and as we will only stay in five stars, and we don’t like all inclusive, we were very restricted. So after reading up a lot of reviews we selected the Casa Colonial for our vacation, and we really had no regrets.

The Casa Colonial Beach is a very attractive small hotel, which has a beautiful kind of open airy feel to it.

The bedrooms are a very good size, large marble bathroom, huge tub, and separate shower, and importantly double wash hand basins!! We had a first floor garden view room, which was very secluded, and it had a very large patio.

We both used the spa and gym facility, and found them very good, and not over the top.

The first thing that struck us was the service, always with a smile, always very attentive, from the moment we arrived , when we were served with a well needed drink whilst we checked in, to the moment we left. Everything from wanting to carry our plates at breakfast to helping adjust sun beds.

We enjoyed the pool which never seemed too busy, no fight for beds, with a very reasonable restaurant for lunch, where the food was good, not too expensive, and even the drinks were not over the top. The same could be said for the food in the restaurant, but this does bring me to what we felt was the biggest drawback to the hotel.

The Casa Colonial Beach is situated on a beach, in a gated secure area, and is surrounded by the all-inclusive hotels I hate. The beach therefore was crowded, and not with the type of people I necessarily wanted to be close to on a vacation. . Although in fairness not on our bit of private beach, which was well served with loungers, and bar service, but you just didn’t want to go for a walk along the beach.

As all-inclusives mean guest eat in, there was no alternative but our restaurant for food. In other words we couldn’t just go out and eat in a local restaurant, because there really wasn’t much to choose from, and any taxi drivers we used all said the food at the Casa Colonial was the best, and the hotel was the best on the island.

Having said all that we had an extremely pleasant stay at the Casa Colonial Beach and Spa, and a very nice Christmas, if a little expensive a day, and would recommend it with the provisos we described