HEADLINE: EVERYTHING YOU NEED AT YOUR FINGERTIPS / OVERALL RATING:🍷🍷🍷🍷.4 (4.4 OUT OF 5 – BUT…)

SUMMARY:

It was the first year I lived abroad, the first time I had been away from my first baby, and one of the first places I stayed on this island. It was also St. Patrick’s Day Weekend and Jose O’Shay’s throws the hugest St. Pat’s celebration on the island. Let’s just say the weekend – and specifically Le Reef: Tiki Room – DID NOT disappoint.

PRICE:

From $100-$270/night (depending on season and room choice)

PET FRIENDLY:

Yes! Which I love about this place. It is really nice without being strict and stuffy – we’re at the beach for Pedro’s sake.

ABOUT GROUNDS: 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷 (5 OUT OF 5)

Le Reef is made up of 7 beachfront condos located in Cabarete Bay. Each condo is 2 bedrooms (except The Coconut Room which is 1BR) and has its own name and charm. Le Reef has a deliciously inviting infinity pool (with pool seats!) and jacuzzi, a restaurant that serves up food and yummy beach cocktails, and a volleyball court where I like to spend most afternoons. Attached to the hotel is Front Loop Club, a place “to get the latest equipment, lessons and advice from top-notch instructors.” The grounds are clean and well-kept. In my opinion, everything you need is at your fingertips at Le Reef so order a cocktail from the restaurant and drink it all in on your beach view terrace. Enjoy!

LAYOUT OF TIKI: 🍷🍷🍷🍷.8 (4.8 OUT OF 5)

2BR / 2Bath / Sleeps 4 / 1st floor I love this place. I. Love. This. Place. I. LOVE. THIS. PLACE. We stayed in The Tiki Room and the only thing you need to know is that the living room and kitchen open to the terrace which continues to the infinity pool that leads to the sand, that hosts the volleyball court, that introduces you to the ocean. It is a straight shot to heaven. The terrace has a lounge bed to relax in and a small table. The living room/kitchen is an open concept. You can eat breakfast at the breakfast bar or take it outside to the terrace. Neither bedroom is out of this world but perfect for what they are – a place to rest and rejuvenate. It should be noted that you might want to reserve the front bedroom for a couple since the shower is in the room and all glass… that or have a shower schedule. Or screw it… go for it – you’re on vacation. This didn’t bother me at all and was a tiny glitch in the grand scheme of things here. Did I mention I love this place?

(Note: I do believe that the rooms on the other side are a bit larger if you’re looking for a bit more room but I can’t be certain as I haven’t stayed in any of the other rooms.)

LOCATION: 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷 (5 OUT OF 5)

Per-fec-tion. Cabarete is a fun, young, active beach town in DR so if you stay right in town it can be noisy, especially during a holiday, like hmmmm… St. Patrick’s Day. Le Reef is right at the start of town making it as close as you could get to town without quite as much hustle and bustle. Most of the places we’ve rented in Cab are a 10 minute beach walk to town (give or take) but this is about a minute.

And the town is awesome. Tons of fun beach bars playing salsa or dance music line the beach. Restaurants? Galore. Try the famous La Casita de Papi and order – duh, what else – Shrimp à la Papi. It’s so good, you’ll use your bread to sop up the extra sauce, or better yet, drink the sauce straight from a glass – all the while dining with your feet in the sand. The pizza at Pomodoro’s is solid. Or check out this review with some of my favorite places to eat in Cabarete: Gordito’s, Cabarete Coffee Company, and Claro.

SERVICE: 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷 (5 OUT OF 5)

Nathalie is lovely to work with and the staff at the restaurant is super smiley, helpful, and friendly. For Thanksgiving, since our large group is renting all of the rooms, she has offered to let us use the restaurant space to host our Thanksgiving Dinner. Amazing.

RESPONSE TIME: 🍷🍷+ 🍷 after update (3 OUT OF 5)

For this particular trip, I did not book the apartment but I have since booked another stay at Le Reef. As I mentioned above, once you get in touch with Natalie she is delightful, really helpful, and low stress; however, the response time is often long. Most emails I’ve sent have not been answered so I would suggest calling over emailing for sure. UPDATE: I have since spoken to Nathalia (and stayed at Le Reef again). She checked into the email situation and found they were having email issues. I’ll reevaluate response time the next time we stay at Le Reef.

OVERALL RATING:🍷🍷🍷🍷.4 (4.6 OUT OF 5 – BUT…)

If you are looking for a large, luxury hotel this is not it. But if you are looking for a clean, comfortable, authentic, boutique-esque stay that provides action and relaxation and is close to town without any of the in-town hustle, this place is it. Overall, the Le Reef experience is everything. Unfortunately, the loss of wine glasses for the response time, killed their rating. Call. Avoid emailing. It’s still among my favorites!

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To contact Nathalia about renting at Le Reef, ~~click here~~ email le.reef.cabarete@gmail.com or call her at +1-809-571-0848. She speaks English, Spanish, and French.