Posts by » Naomi
Dom Rep Fam Trip June 2011
I travelled down to London the day before my AM Resorts Fam Trip to the Dominican Republic and decided to stay overnight at the Sofitel at Gatwick airport. In the morning I literally just had to walk down a corridor and I was in the North Terminal and ready to go.
We flew with BA to Punta Cana International and our flight had a touch down in Antigua, which I was not looking forward to. Surprisingly it did not bother me at all, we were on the ground for less than an hour, passengers who were staying in Antigua got off, they switched the flight crew and we were off again.
Now Larimar
Our first stay was at Now Larimar, a property that is new to the AM resorts chain. The transfer took around 35 minutes and when we arrived we were taken to the Preferred Club lounge which is just to the right of the main entrance. We checked in whilst in the lounge and were shown to our Deluxe Tropical View rooms. I was very impressed; they were extremely specious and the décor was quite modern.
We met before dinner in the Moments Lobby Bar. All of the bars and restaurants are set around a square courtyard which makes everything easily accessible and if there is a wait in one of the restaurant you can simply cross over to one of the bars and wait.
The evening meal was a hosted dinner at Mercure, the French Restaurant. After dinner we went up to the resorts night club, Eclipse, which is open from 10:30 to 1:30 every evening.
The next day we had a buffet breakfast in International Café followed by a site inspection of Now Larimar and Secrets Royal Beach.
We started off with Now Larimar and had a look at all of the restaurants and a few room categories. We had a look in Scores, which is the resorts sports bar complete with a bowling alley. We saw the kids club, which has two sections, one for children aged 4 to 7 and one for children aged 8 to 12. They do not yet have a teen area, but we were told that this is something that they are looking to put into place.
My favourite feature of the resort was the long water fountain which could be used as a Wedding location. I though it was fantastic, there is a path on either side and couples can get married at the head of the fountain. We were told that one couple had actually had the water turn on just as they had their first kiss, I though that this was an amazing idea.
Secrets Royal Beach
We walked across to Secrets Royal Beach which is literally next door to Now Larimar; there is just a little path and raised grass section separating them. They share the same stretch of beach and guests staying at Secrets are able to use the facilities at Now, but not the other way around as Secrets is the Adults Only property. The resort is relatively small and has just five bars and three restaurants: a buffet, a grill and a sea food restaurant. However, guests are not short of choice as they can dine in all of the restaurants at Now Larimar.


