Hodelpa Garden Suites Golf & Convention Center

“Eddie T”

April 11-25, 2026 My wife and I spent 2 weeks at Hodelpa Garden golf convention center. It was a small resort, and it was in the slow part of the season so there were not many guests, so it was quiet. The golf course was adjacent to the resort not part of the package if you want to play you need to… more

April 11-25, 2026 My wife and I spent 2 weeks at Hodelpa Garden golf convention center. It was a small resort, and it was in the slow part of the season so there were not many guests, so it was quiet. The golf course was adjacent to the resort not part of the package if you want to play you need to pay extra. This resort does not have a spa, but the sister resort Emotions has one and my wife had an amazing massage that we paid for (which is the case at many other resorts we have stayed at before). The staff did try to have activates during the day that the animation staff would help guests have access to such as, Archry, batting cage, volleyball, bocce ball, cornhole, rock climbing wall, bicycles (a few bikes were in for repair) and board games etc. (bottle of wine for the winner of the games with other guests). At night while there was not a big theater for performances, they did have Karaoke, board game, dance competitions with guests (bottles of wine as a gift to the winner) etc. On the weekends the locals would stay which made the resort a bit livelier. This resort is not for guests who want to party 24/7 as there is no 24hour bar, the bar closes at 11pm. The rooms were a bit dated, but they were big, clean and the hotel was upgrading furniture and painting. The food variety was good. The deserts were amazing as well as the fresh bread and soups daily. They did not have a snack bar 24hours a day, but they had breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, and supper with a self serve coffee and cake station through the day and evening. There was a different featured drink made up for guest to self serve on a daily basis. There was a pool bar as well as a bar in the buffet area. There was a bar in the artium that had premium drinks that you had the option to pay for but the other bars the drinks were free. When there were evening activities like Karaoke the staff would have a portable bar where the actives were being held. When we arrived the music at the pool was very loud to the point that we could not hear each other in conversation but after the hotel manager heard our complaints, he addressed them right away. The hotel manager tried to accommodate us when my wife was sick with a cold/flu by offering to have food brought to our room. The staff were friendly and always tried to make us feel welcome. My wife has diabetes and the hotel manager made sure the pool bar had sugar free soda like Coke zero as well as giving her a 2liter bottle for our room. There was no beach at this resort, but we were able to use the hotel shuttle everyday to visit the sister resort Emotions (that was bigger and geared more for partying and had a lot more kids at this resort). We were able to use the Emotions amenities until 4pm for free with the exclusion of some extra services that you needed to pay for such as, spa/Baber, buying bottles of wine, cigars or premium beer in the stores. The manager of our hotel had informed us that if we were to stay at Emotions after 4pm there would be a charge so that we could be aware and make an informed decision whether we wanted to stay later but pay for the access. This resort is a great place if you have mobility issues there is not a lot walking to get the buffet or pool. If you are looking for a relaxing vacation this is a good resort for that.

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“2 week stay”

We booked by mistake due to incorrect link on travel website. It's okay for a week (not 2 like we did), but realistically a semi-run down/tired conference centre that isn't aimed at tourists. Rooms are tatty, old wood, it looks like something out of the 70s, chipped paint/surfaces everywhere. Ab… more

We booked by mistake due to incorrect link on travel website. It's okay for a week (not 2 like we did), but realistically a semi-run down/tired conference centre that isn't aimed at tourists. Rooms are tatty, old wood, it looks like something out of the 70s, chipped paint/surfaces everywhere. About the standard of a 2* hotel in europe. We were the only english there in 2 weeks, few canadians, few americans, but it predomiantly just caters for locals. Cons -Huge language barrier, many staff dont speak English, even very basics. Some are quite ?disappointed if we dont ask for our drink requests in spanish and wait for us to do so (especially talking to each other about us, we used translation apps to hear what was being said about us). Others are more positive and helpful. But generally staff vibes towards us felt pretty negative -Pool drinks bar closed more often than not, so have to keep putting clothes on then walking to restaurant for drinks (I stopped dressing out of irritation after a day and didnt get stopped). It doesnt make sense to inconvience guests, particularly when they have so many staff sat around all day -No evening 'entertainment' at all - only disco/karaoke..the one evening listed as variety show (i was optimistic) isnt actually a show... just random audience members being interviewed in spanish and deafening music. (I left as couldnt understand any of it). It would be nice if they offered a bus to the sister hotel to watch theirs, so aren't very bored - poolside music is very random sometimes peaceful and quiet but more often than not blaring loud and ruins chilled atmosphere - Shower initially awful dribbles out, was replaced to marginally better, but still jumps from freezing to scalding hot, no neutral temps and drowns the entire bathroom floor so its a slip hazard. 2nd to last day replacement shower head fell to bits pouring boiling water all over my partner - shower drain doesnt drain and shower floods most of the bathroom floor despite towels. Sink plug is broken. Aircon got blocked and poured water everywhere. Light switch is dodgily pushed in, some light switches dont work. Smoke alarms look very old. -Tv doesnt work - one doesnt turn on at all, 2nd is just static fuzz. Despite reception trying to fix it - about 6x power cuts. Often whilst in shower so then in the dark and the water also stops, so stood there freezing with shampoo in my hair waiting for it to return. At least <10 mins - No kettle in room - room keycards regularly deactivate so have to keep walking to reception to get in - Can't get water bottles during the day. (Only the 2-3x bottles of water provided a day by cleaners) - Food often tepid-cold (small bunsen burners below but they dont heat adequately). Not for fussy eaters, my partner struggled. Often local food lots of banana based dishes etc. Themed nights like spanish isnt what we'd define it as eg spanish has no paella, Italy has no pizza. Food is repetative/ identical and appears frequently reheated on multiple days so meat can be dried out and inedible. Jug of milk at breakfast was mouldy - On the occassion there were evening chips they were burnt to the point of inedible (similarly on the rare occasions there is bacon at breakfast). But generally breakfast is fine. Barely any vegetables and fruit is just melon/papaya (and pineapple every few days). Would have appreciated variety eg bananas A lot of the bread rolls/donuts/cakes are totally stale and inedible. The pasta is nice and made to order - We would have choosen to eat out but it didn't look the safest area locally to walk out -not standard AI where they come to offering you drinks (they do for dinner and sometimes lunch). - bowels dont like either the food or water as always v loose x3-9/day fron day 4-14 for both of us. It doesn't make you feel ill, just intermittent abdo cramps. However waking up at 3am and 5am with diarrhoea and needing to take immodium to leave the hotel ruins your stay a bit - the toilet design is not fit for purpose and needs at least 2x flushes to clear, which wakes people in your room if flush over night due to dodgey gut - no plugs by bed so phone battery always dying during day - balcony door doesn't lock at all - beach is more dirty than a uk beach - tons of litter. Pros - deserted hotel so no issue with sun bed availability, more staff than guests -Wifi good in hotel/rooms and half of the pool area -Good blackout curtains - Good aircon - Very peaceful first thing in the morning or late afternoon, (until they turn the loud music on and ruin it) -The beach is ok nothing special, quite dirty (shuttle bus 4x a day about 10min away) but windy and nowhere to get food or drink. (Barstaff will kindly fill your bottle with coke before you leave if you ask) -Free shampoo/showergel so dont need to bring. Can get beach towels from hotel so dont need to bring - bed is comfortable (proper double unlike a lot of europe hotels), but pillows are far too squishy so dont sleep well Tips - if you want to book trips go to the guy at the little desk opposite reception called Freddie who will get his friend to come over from the other hotel to arrange it (was £102/130 dollars per person for the sauona island trip* and the half day city tour**...otherwise 85 dollars per trip if buying just one) - if you want to do excursions do them on a weekend as the hotel gets v crowded with locals and the music and loudspeakers much louder - bring factor 50 suncream as we were still getting burnt despite regular 30. Bring bug spray - if you want to try their sister hotel with a beach/ 5 pools and more restaurants Freddie will take you there, theres a 2h sales talk to listen to, in exchange for a day pass. The package sounds a nice idea (membership to get cheaper hotel rates at all their worldwide chains but its 15-20 year contract terms and costs 15-20k usd, so as nice as the concept was, way out of our price range -Would recommend finding another hotel if you want a traditional holiday, as i feel that we wasted a lot of money on what was meant to be a holiday of a lifetime (their partner resort emotions is a much more 'normal' holiday resort, but was v busy/noisy/cramped and long queues to get drinks, so not sure that would be a big improvement either Maybe its better in a different bit of dominican republic, but we felt somewhat a nuisance by being there Excursion reviews * we were told we would get 3h on the island, byt actually got 1h20min which was a shame. Left at 8am transfer was fine, tiny bit of history explained on route. 95% of the boat announcements were in spanish, even the few in english were not possible to understand. Really really noisy party music and getting people to dance. Stopped half way in shallow water to paddle/swim for 30min. Once at the island had some food (fine, bit dried up but edible) then 1h20 free time before transferred back via large speedboat. V v v rocky wouldnt advise if seasick (someone was vomiting). At end of the trip man held out a pot for tips and would just stand shaking it and not move on until people gave money. We tipped directly to our guide as he did make a bit of effort translating some things into English. Beware on price you agree to photos as someone on our transfer was quoted one price but then hugely increased after and was hassled the whole way walking back to coach for more money. The island is beautiful but somewhat spoiled by them rounding groups up with air horns/whistles and blaring music from the boats. (I dont think they understand that people want tranquility on a desert island) **santo dominico tour Picked up 8.15, 930 arrived at caves, 40min there. Bus to a working presidential building where guide takes your pic outside the building fence then you leave. You then get driven to a small gift shop (this is what they mean by taking you to the "market" it's not), it's just a place to buy cigars, drink or keyrings. Get a little bit of local drink to try. Get v bored waiting to leave then given 20min free time (but theres nothing to do there at all except watch pigeons, so did that.) Taken to a cathedral for 30min ish to look round thrn dropped home. Most of the tour explanations are in spanish. Wouldnt recommend it.

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