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What is the Coral Level at Iberostar Selection Bavaro?

The Coral Level at Iberostar Selection Bavaro is an upgraded all-inclusive experience within the larger Iberostar Selection Bavaro Resort in Playa Bavaro, Punta Cana, about a 30-minute drive from the Punta Cana International Airport (PUJ).

Iberostar Selection Bavaro is a huge resort itself that sits in an interconnected series of other large resorts, including the adults-only Iberostar Grand Bavaro, the family-friendly Iberostar Punta Cana and Iberostar Dominicana.

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All that to say, it’s a mind-blowingly large complex — and the Coral Level has just 162 rooms out of the larger 2,000 Iberostar accommodations across all the properties surrounding it.

Guests who book in the Coral Level can access certain exclusive areas, including a pool with lounge chairs and a small bar, a beach area, a buffet and an a la carte restaurant called Salt & Soul. They have full rein of everything on offer at the other resorts (myriad restaurants and bars, several pools and the shared gym and spa), too, except for the more upscale, adults-only Iberostar Grand Bavaro. Coral Level has suitelike rooms and upgraded amenities, including “aromatherapy” (via a reed diffuser).

The all-inclusive experience also comes with several other inclusions that I discovered after going back and reading the resort’s website (the information was not presented at check-in) as well as through a helpful but glitchy app I could access via a QR code placed in my room. Those items included an hour per day of nonmotorized aquatic activities (think: kayaks and snorkeling) and one free trip to the spa hydrotherapy area, which I would have used had it been made known to me when I checked in.

How to book the Coral Level at Iberostar Selection Bavaro

My colorful and charming suite

When I arrived at the hotel, I was dropped off at the main (and massive) lobby of the Iberostar Selection Bavaro, from which I was then whisked away on a roughly three-minute golf cart ride to the private reception area of the Coral Level.

Iberostar Selection Bavaro (including the Coral Level) is basically a giant complex of rows and rows of double-level, brightly colored buildings — with the Coral Level suites gathered around their own private reception (which includes a small lobby bar) and other exclusive amenities. I was assigned a junior suite with a little terrace facing out to the Coral Level pool.

I found the room to be charmingly beachy and loved the simple but chic design, which included a turquoise-striped pullout couch, pops of bright pink in accent pillows and a side chair contrasting against otherwise earthy tones that reflected the beach not far away. It’s worth noting this room had a sunken living room, though accessible rooms are advertised online for people who need a single-level room.

A decent variety of restaurants

Having spent enough time at all-inclusive resorts to know that the larger ones like this all essentially offer the same options (think: teppanyaki with a show or some standard Italian eateries), I mostly tried to keep my dining experiences to the Coral Level-exclusive restaurants, though I did venture out to one of the other buffets.

For my first meal, I visited El Faro for the lunch buffet and was impressed by its small but mighty offerings, which included a large variety of sushi and grilled options (like lobster), tons of cheeses and meats, sandwiches and a host of other random things you might not ever eat at home but will gladly add to your plate on vacation. The food was all decent, but the real winner of this lunch buffet was the fact that it was exclusive to Coral Level guests and it wasn’t overly crowded, so you could take a minute to actually look at everything around you without feeling the need to grab quickly and decide later.

The breakfast buffet was a similar experience, offering everything you could want from a morning buffet: various types of made-to-order eggs, the typical breakfast meats, breads and pastries and more.

That night I returned for an 8 p.m. reservation at El Faro, which hosts a Spanish festival every Tuesday night. I was seated outside on the deck by the beach, a dreamy spot, and was shown the menu for the night: Spanish tapas that consisted of a delicious shot of tomato gazpacho, patatas bravas, Iberian ham croquettes, Iberian sausage and pork loin, Manchego cheese and pan con tomate. It was a great little starter for a single person, and halfway through my meal, a man and woman started performing Spanish music and dancing. For the main course, I had paella, which seemed to have little more than tiny shrimp, but it was still filling and tasty enough to keep me happy. So was the free-flowing white wine.

On my second day, I ended up at the La Palapita buffet by the pool at the Iberostar Dominicana, about a 10- to 15-minute walk from my room. Before I got into the buffet, I noticed a grill area serving up burgers and hot dogs, which honestly always hit the spot on a lazy pool day but decided to venture into the buffet to see how it compared. I was impressed with the selection, which wasn’t too different from the exclusive Coral Level option but did feature a beautiful assortment of pastries and cakes, as well as a made-to-order salad station. That said, it was very crowded and people waited (not long) for nearly any hot food station.

At my table, I was offered wine and went with rosé, which turned out to be rather sweet. All in all, the whole experience would have been excellent for a family or group looking to grab a quick meal by the pool and desired options for everyone.

For my last dinner, I went to the Coral Level restaurant, Salt & Soul, where the cuisine is described as “avant-garde seafood gastronomy with a Caribbean touch.” Located above El Faro, the open-air restaurant was beautiful, and I enjoyed looking out at the ocean and the glowing pool down below. I savored fish tacos with pineapple sauce (though the salsa was clearly missing pineapple) and a big bowl of watermelon gazpacho. For my main dish, I ordered the cioppino casserole, or seafood stew with a piece of sustainably caught blue lobster (more on that below), shrimp, calamari and fish in spicy tomato sauce. Frankly, it was a lot of food, but as a seafood lover, the shrimp and lobster went down easy.

At the restaurants, I found all of the service to be quick, deliberate and not much more — and that was fine. I always got what I needed, usually with a smile or nod.

The bars

At the Coral Level check-in area, there’s a small bar area that serves coffee, alcoholic drinks (with more premium liquors than you’ll find at the other resort components on the property) and light bites and snacks throughout the day and into the night. It also has some outdoor seating, but it really felt more like a quaint club lounge than a lobby bar.

I never found a stand-alone bar (like a sports bar or piano bar) to enjoy across the entire resort. Rather, every bar tended to be serving another area, like the large lobby bar at the Selection Bavaro doubling as the bar for the nightly entertainment or the “Beach Club” bar for Coral Level guests doubling as the bar for the buffet and everyone coming up from the beach. I did love having the little pop-up bar set up daily by the exclusive pool, though.

Unlike many all-inclusive resorts, where you find yourself waiting and waiting for a drink, the service was fast and the bartenders did a great job of making rounds when things were busy. As for the drinks themselves, I’ve found it best to stick with what I know I like and can’t be too hard to mess up, typically Malibu and Coke Light. A few bartenders even held up the (reusable) plastic, beach-safe cups to show me the liquor pour before adding in the soda — a nice touch, in my opinion. I also saw lots of people enjoying resort classics like pina coladas and daiquiris, but those sugary drinks just aren’t for me.

The resort is very big

In theory, the Coral Level could be a great little place to stay put for a vacation, but the reality is that there’s simply not enough to do or eat there without venturing out into the larger resort. So, if you’re looking for something more compact and with fewer people, Iberostar might not be the best place, but if you want plenty of options spread out over a large footprint, this resort is a good option for you.

In fact, the complex is so large that the Iberostar app actually has a GPS map feature that will help guide you to where you’re going — and I used it frequently. I used the map to help me get to the live circus-themed show on my first night, and it was very helpful. On my return, I attempted to retrace my steps by memory and got lost. Thankfully, another couple attempted to do the same thing and saw me going down a dead end they’d just come from and warned me to turn back.

One option to get around is calling for or flagging down a golf cart. Helpful for people on the golf carts? Yes. Great for the people on the pathways? Not so much. In certain areas, the resort felt like a golf cart highway and the drivers veered around people milling about. At night, the resort felt underlit, so much so that on multiple occasions I jumped into the grass when I saw a golf cart coming quickly around a curve to avoid being hit.

But the layout did allow for one piece of comfort: never having to fight for beach or pool chairs (more below).

The beach is absolutely gorgeous

My favorite part of my stay at this seemingly never-ending Iberostar property was the fact that the beach never seemed to end — and I’ve never seen so many options for lounge chairs, ranging from your standard chairs to daybeds with umbrellas to bird’s nest-like couches and even chic geometric beds that looked like tiny houses. Not to mention, rows and rows of thatched umbrellas.

And, best of all, I never had to fight for a spot — even in the fancier covered seats. There were clearly sectioned-off areas for certain guests (i.e., Coral Level and what appeared to be a vacation club), but nobody I noticed was checking wristbands, and I spent an entire day moving between sections and chairs without ever being questioned.

The (very) long stretch of beach was magical, the water was warm in early February and people were having a great time — even when an afternoon rain shower came in. Yes, like every beach in the Dominican Republic, there were some people trying to sell tours, trinkets or cigars, but they weren’t bothersome and would leave you alone with a simple shake of the head. I truly loved my time on the beach — and when the sun started to set each day, I was bummed to have to give it up to go navigate my way around what I started calling “Iberostar City” in my head.

If you’re more of a pool person, you could stay put at the small but efficient Coral Level pool or explore the many other pools across the resort. I was impressed with the pool at Iberostar Dominicana (near the buffet I visited), with its views of the sea, swim-up bar and ample lounge chairs.

There was also a fun water park and splash pad area for kids, too.

Visible sustainability

These days, every resort says they’re focusing on sustainability, but I have never been to one that shows it, like Iberostar — and you can feel good about your stay. While I could easily get into the nitty gritty about what the company is doing across the board, I’m going to focus on what I actually saw and experienced.

First, as mentioned above, the resort has eliminated single-use plastic. Instead of going through dozens of plastic water bottles over the course of a vacation, guests are constantly given refillable glass bottles in the room and there are refill stations throughout the resort, all with safe, filtered water. Additionally, snacks wrapped in plastic were removed from the rooms, and there were clearly marked recycle bins in the room and around the property. Even at the bars, sodas were poured from glass bottles and beer was poured from a tap.

Guests are also given beach towels to use in the room and are encouraged to carry them around. In fact, I never saw a towel station where people who only need one towel might go and grab five.

The resort also makes mention of its efforts to only serve sustainable seafood, and I noticed many times that lobster is only served in certain months (I was there on the tail end) to avoid overconsumption and allow time for that particular lobster population to regenerate before offering it again.

Other ways the resort is working on sustainability include a mangrove restoration project, having a resort-wide composting plant and a special bee rescue initiative that currently includes 92 beehives.

That might not seem like a lot, but compared to other resorts I visited on the very same trip, it was great to see basically zero plastic and be forced, without even really knowing, to make sustainable choices.

The Coral Laboratory

The most exciting part of Iberostar’s sustainability efforts, in my opinion, takes place at the Coral Laboratory, where a group of coral experts are doing research on corals and actively regenerating corals (including some rare types, I learned). Guests are invited to come learn about them and see the corals up close, get a lesson on how significant coral is to essentially everything and learn ways to help — starting with that simple lesson.

At the lab, you can meet a rare pillar coral named Fluffy and, if you visit various times throughout the day, see how healthy coral changes and “wakes up” and “shows off” all while learning how these experts are working to protect the corals from disease (a huge issue in the Caribbean), bleaching events, climate change and more. I left feeling more knowledgeable than before and hope to see more resorts around the world take on these challenges, too.

Entertainment for all

Like most all-inclusive resorts, this Iberostar property had a heavy events calendar that lasted throughout the day and into the evening. For example, guests could join a game of beach volleyball or water polo in the pool, take bachata or merengue dance lessons, join a number of fitness classes, hear Dominican folklore or even learn how to shoot arrows in archery.

During one of the quick afternoon rainstorms, I noticed a group of employees gathering people for a game of bingo in a covered area near the beach — and the crowd really seemed to be enjoying it (or, at least, the crew who had someone shout “bingo!” when I passed by certainly did).

And both nights of my stay, I ventured to the main lobby area where a small stage was set up, surrounded by tables, for one of the multiple 45-minute shows that happen each night. On my first night, I caught a circus-themed live show that was kitschy and comical but something I was glad I didn’t pay extra for. The other two shows I saw included a really fun show highlighting popular musical groups like ABBA and Queen and a rather strange show that I think was a riff on the TV show “Lip Sync Battle” but didn’t quite land because the performers were all strangers rather than celebrities.

Even though the shows weren’t exactly awe-inspiring, the performers really were committed and everyone seemed to be having a great time. And, since the shows I saw were on the shorter side and started later, it didn’t feel like you were giving up a whole night.

Checking out

All in all, I had a short but decent stay at the Coral Level at Iberostar Selection Bavaro. For me, the size of the resort felt like too much at times, and I feel like I spent more time wondering what I could do and trying to find it than actually doing it. That was fine, though, because my best tropical vacations are the ones where I just sit in the sun and the sand and relax. Since Iberostar is also a Spanish company, the place had a fun, Euro-centric feeling that was less rowdy than some of the more American-dominated resorts I’ve visited.

While all-inclusive resorts have been working hard to reinvent themselves in terms of culinary innovation, service and entertainment, this one feels firmly stuck in the past — but in terms of sustainability, Iberostar is making real strides to do its part.

I wouldn’t say I would never return to this property, but if I did, It would be to experience the (allegedly) more upscale, adults-only Iberostar Grand.