EUROSTARS GRAND CAYACOA

The Eurostars Grand Cayacoa sits on a cliff above Samaná Bay, a ten minute walk from the village of Santa Bárbara. The building has a history. It carried the Bahía Príncipe name for decades, it closed for more than a year, and the Spanish group Hotusa reopened it in late October 2025 under the Eurostars banner after renovations. Two hundred and eighty-four rooms, two pools, a spa, and a small beach at the foot of the cliff reached by a private elevator.

What brings most travellers here comes down to one word. Whales. From mid-January to the end of March, two to three thousand humpbacks come into Samaná Bay to mate and to give birth, after a five thousand kilometre migration. The boats leave from the village pier, ten minutes on foot from your room. Few addresses in the Caribbean can say that.

Is the hotel actually open, and why did the name change?

Yes, it is open, and the question deserves an answer. This building carried the Bahía Príncipe name for decades, then it closed, and it stayed closed for more than a year. The Spanish hotel group Hotusa took it on lease in spring 2025, renovated it, and reopened it at the end of October 2025 as the Eurostars Grand Cayacoa. It is the group's first property in the Dominican Republic.

Worth knowing before you go, because photos still circulating online sometimes show the old version. The renovation covered the rooms, the facilities and the common areas. It refreshed a structure that already has a few decades behind it, and 2026 guests say so plainly: it is clean, it is well kept, and it is not a new hotel. If you want brand new concrete, look at the Wyndham Alltra Samana instead. If you want a view over the bay that no recent hotel has, you are at the right address.

How do you get down to the beach?

By a private elevator cut into the cliff. It runs from seven in the morning to seven at night. Outside those hours there is the staircase, and it is steep. Keep that in mind if you travel with a bad knee or a stroller.

The beach itself, Playa Cayacoa, is small. Guests in 2026 agree on one point: there are always enough chairs. They agree less about the water. Some describe a clear warm sea over sand, others cloudy water with debris depending on the day and the swell. This is a bay beach, not a Bávaro postcard, and it meets the public beach where locals come too. For many travellers that is exactly what gives the place its charm. For others it is a disappointment. Better to know it than to discover it.

What does the all-inclusive cover?

Three meals a day plus snacks, daytime and evening drinks, local beer, cocktails and house wine with meals, daytime activities and evening shows. The spa is extra, as everywhere.

Two points need checking before departure, and your advisor will do it for you: the exact contents of the package vary with the tour operator you book through, and some activities listed in brochures, such as kayaking or paddleboarding, have been reported as unavailable by guests. We would rather tell you now than let you find out on the spot.

Which room should you ask for to sleep well?

The ones facing the ocean. Rooms opening onto the lobby or the entertainment terrace hear everything, and the village has a nightclub that does not close early. Bay-facing rooms are better insulated from noise and they give you the view you came for.

Categories run from the twenty-two square metre Deluxe Double to the forty square metre Premium Junior Suite with a separate living area, by way of Premium bungalows of thirty to thirty-three square metres and connecting rooms for families. Sea view sells as its own category: that is this hotel's argument, and that is where your money belongs rather than in floor space. Air conditioning and internet in every room.

Where do you eat in the evening?

The Los Cayos buffet handles everyday meals. Two à la carte restaurants open from six thirty to nine thirty in the evening: Vista Bárbara and Xamaná Panoramic, the latter with the view. At midday the Ocean Beach Bar grills from noon to three. The lobby bar, Alisios, runs from ten in the morning to two the next morning, and the Azúcar pool bar from ten to six.

Honestly, the food divides people. Guests name the chef in their praise for freshness and local cooking. Others find the buffet repetitive and the service uneven when staffing is short. Reservations at the à la carte restaurants and the number of evenings you are entitled to vary with the package: that is the kind of detail an advisor confirms before you leave, not after.

What are the pools, the spa and the entertainment like?

Two pools in a tropical garden, one of them for children. The spa has massage cabins, a beauty salon, a hot tub, a sauna and a steam room. There is a gym and a gazebo hanging over the ocean, used mostly for weddings and worth walking to even if you are not invited.

Evening entertainment starts around nine thirty and ends around ten thirty. The animation team is one of the strengths of the house, and guests name them in their reviews. Daytime activity, on the other hand, is thin. If you are the sort who wants beach volleyball and water aerobics all day long, you will find them in short supply here.

Can you walk to the village of Santa Bárbara?

Yes, and that is rare. Ten minutes on foot separate the hotel from the centre of the village. You will find the pier, restaurants, shops and a local life that exists independently of tourism. Travellers find the village safe. They do point out that the sidewalks along the way could use better upkeep, and the walk back is uphill.

This proximity changes the nature of the stay. In most all-inclusive resorts in the Dominican Republic, leaving the property means a shuttle and half a day. Here you go out after dinner because you feel like it.

When can you see the humpback whales?

From mid-January to the end of March. The peak falls between mid-February and mid-March, and at that point sightings are close to guaranteed. Two to three thousand humpbacks come into Samaná Bay every year after a five thousand kilometre migration, to mate and to calve. Mothers stay with their calf until it has gained strength.

An outing lasts three to four hours, of which one to two are spent among the animals. The environment ministry regulates this seriously: thirty minutes maximum with any one whale, a minimum approach distance, and one boat at a time per animal. Departures are from the main village pier, ten minutes on foot from the hotel, which spares you the hour-long coach ride that travellers staying elsewhere have to take.

The outings are sold separately from the package. Your advisor books them with you before departure, because in peak season the good boats fill up.

What else is there to see around the bay?

Cayo Levantado, which everyone calls Bacardi Island, lies about seven kilometres offshore. You reach it by catamaran from the Santa Bárbara pier, and it has a white sand beach open to visitors. Anyone who wants to sleep there looks at the Cayo Levantado Resort, which occupies the island.

Los Haitises National Park is visited by boat, across the bay. Mangroves, limestone mogotes rising out of the water like sugarloaves, and caves marked with pre-Columbian petroglyphs. It is the excursion that stays with people long after the beach photos.

El Limón waterfall, the highest on the peninsula, is reached by road and then on foot or on horseback. Bring shoes that can take mud.

How long is the drive from the airport?

Samaná El Catey airport is forty-seven kilometres from the hotel, Santo Domingo is one hundred and sixty-two, and Punta Cana is three hundred and twenty-four. The difference matters: landing at El Catey means a quiet late afternoon, landing at Punta Cana means half a day on the road before you see the sea.

From Montreal there is a nonstop service to Samaná of about four and a half hours, stronger in the winter season. That is the first thing to confirm when building the trip, because it determines everything else.

When is the best time to go?

December to April, the dry season. Twenty-six to twenty-nine degrees, less than a hundred millimetres of rain a month, a calm sea. It is also whale season, which makes February and March the ideal window for this particular destination.

June to October is hotter, twenty-eight to thirty-two degrees, and wetter, in afternoon showers rather than grey days. The waterfalls are at their most spectacular then. Hurricane season runs August to October, and the geography of the peninsula gives Samaná relative shelter from direct hits, which are rare here. Rare does not mean impossible, which is why cancellation insurance is a conversation you have when you book, not afterwards.

May and November are the shoulder months: fewer people, balanced weather, softer rates. For a flexible traveller who is not coming for the whales, those are often the best weeks of the year.

Who is this hotel for, and who is it less suited to?

It suits the traveller who comes for the bay, for the whales and for the village. Someone who accepts that a building has an age and who would rather have a commanding view than new plumbing. Guests in 2026 rate it highly and place it first among the hotels of Santa Bárbara de Samaná. They talk about the staff, the view, the cleanliness and the value for what you get.

It suits less the traveller who wants a long white sand beach, a brand new resort with ten restaurants, and continuous entertainment from morning to night. That traveller will be happier around Punta Cana. The complaints here are always the same and they are honest: unreliable water pressure, the occasional plumbing failure, housekeeping that varies from one day to the next, a buffet that goes in circles, and noise if you are badly placed. None of it is hidden, and none of it stops people from coming back.

Why go through an advisor rather than booking alone?

Because a hotel like this one is decided in the details. The room category, the floor, the side of the building, the date relative to the whale migration, the boat you book and the one you avoid. Those choices are the difference between a decent week and a week people talk about for ten years.

Call 1 866 628-6241. You will reach someone who knows this address and who has time for you. We look together at what is actually free on your dates, we pick the right room, and we stay a phone call away while you are there. That is the difference between booking alone in front of a screen and leaving with someone behind you.