Active Advisories
The hotel will be undergoing renovation and refurbishment work starting in June 2024. This work will be done in stages with the first stage expected to be completed in October 2024.
This stage will include a full remodeling of two hotel room blocks, including block five (ocean front) that will be upgraded to create a VIP section in the hotel with its own separate swimming pool. The plans for the remaining 3 blocks will be to refurbish them in summer 2025.
The reception area and adjacent common areas will be fully refurbished this summer.
With respect to the food & beverage areas, the lobby project includes a full new bar and in this phase the specialty restaurant (Estrella del Mar) will be refurbished. The other restaurant will be refurbished at later stages in 2025.
Although some noise may be heard, all efforts will be made to minimize impact to guests during this time.
Overview
VIK hotel Arena Blanca and VIK hotel Cayena Beach are two distinctive resorts in one, perfectly situated on white-sand Bavaro Beach. Stroll in the tropical gardens, head to the beach, relax by the pool or join in one of the daily activity programs.
Check in
3 p.m.
Check out
12 p.m.
Rooms
447
Inclusions
- Daily activities
- Round-trip airport transfers
- Non-motorized water sports
- All gratuities
- Nightly entertainment
- All taxes
Rooms
- 1 king bed, or 2 double beds
- Garden view
- No more than 4 guests in the room
- 1 king bed, or 2 double beds
- Garden view
- Minimum 1 adult, maximum 3 adults
- Maximum 2 children
- No more than 4 guests in the room
- Balcony
- Ceiling fan
- Mini fridge
- A/C
- Hair dryer
- Housekeeping
- Phone
- Safe ($)
- TV
- 1 king bed, or 2 double beds
- Ocean view
- No more than 4 guests in the room
- 1 king bed, or 2 double beds
- Ocean view
- Minimum 1 adult, maximum 3 adults
- Maximum 2 children
- No more than 4 guests in the room
- Ceiling fan
- Mini fridge
- A/C
- Hair dryer
- Housekeeping
- Phone
- Safe ($)
- TV
- 1 king bed, and 1 sofa bed, or 2 double beds, and 1 sofa bed
- Oceanfront
- No more than 4 guests in the room
- 1 king bed, and 1 sofa bed, or 2 double beds, and 1 sofa bed
- Oceanfront
- Minimum 2 adults, maximum 2 adults
- Maximum 2 children
- No more than 4 guests in the room
- Ceiling fan
- Mini fridge
- Smoke-free
- Balcony or terrace
- A/C
- Hair dryer
- Housekeeping
- Phone
- Safe ($)
- TV
- 2 double beds, and 1 sofa bed, or 2 single beds, and 1 sofa bed
- No more than 5 guests in the room
- 2 double beds, and 1 sofa bed, or 2 single beds, and 1 sofa bed
- Minimum 2 adults, maximum 3 adults
- Minimum 2 children, maximum 3 children
- No more than 5 guests in the room
- Balcony
- Mini fridge
- A/C
- Hair dryer
- Housekeeping
- Phone
- Safe ($)
- TV
Amenities
Pool area
Pool
Pool and Cayena pool terrace
Pool views
Beach
Pool aerial view
Resort aerial view
Beach lounge
Aerial View
Beach
El Bucanero
Estrella del Mar
Gardens
Gardens
La Trattoria
Lobby Bar
Pool
Spa
Sunrise
Location
Reviews
TripAdvisor Traveler Rating
terrible
Monica C on Jul 01, 2024
hotel is super old. needs a much needed face lift. rooms were super old hard bed hot AC didn't work well. first night we arrived didn't have towels. there was no shows at night.. when you say all inclusive I would expect room service option . food was not the great had no flavor no taste. pool water was warm no swim up bar. all inclusive in the past I been to have concierges who brink drinks to you. just not good experience .. I will NEVER return there.
Some good...Some Not So Good - A potential diamond
Mike C on Jun 24, 2024
My wife and I just returned from our first trip to the VIK Hotel Arena Blanca and our third trip to the Dominican Republic. We booked the VIK resort because it had decent recent reviews and the price was very good. The resort was very "basic" in what it offered and the overall facilities. I will break it down for the good and the not so good. The good: - The buffet - The food was tasty. While the buffet did not have a large variety of food, the food that was there was very good. The gentleman that did the omelet station was awesome and would always give a smile and a fist bump every morning. - The specialty restaurant - They had three different theme nights and had a variety of options for each theme. Our favorite was the Mexican night and the ribs were delicious. - The spa - My wife got sunburned and instead of getting a massage at the spa, she got the sunburn treatment and it helped with the pain and reduced the redness. I got the regular massage and it was a very basic massage and was relaxing. The could be better: - The bars - While it is unlimited drinks, they only have the basic "hotel brand" alcohol, no named brands of alcohol were available. In all of our trips to the Mexico and the Dominican Republic, this was the first that we have traveled to to be like this. That being said, they were able to make a wide variety of drinks. The sports bar by the theatre is open until 5am, but this was not disruptive to the rest of the resort. - The pools - The pool that is closest to the either a pool bar or any type of bar was green our entire stay. With not having a swim up bar, this made it a bit of a hassle to get a drink if you were in or around the pool that was not green. The pools were salt water, so it was nice to not smell of chlorine and as the resort was not busy, there were always plenty of seats. The pools do close kind of early, around 7pm every night. Additionally, the cement areas around the pool desperately need to be resurfaced. It is stamped concrete and the surfaces have eroded away and is many areas it is painful to walk on. Also, be VERY careful when getting your towels. The stairs to the stand are very uneven, and extremely unsafe. - The beach - The first two days of our trip, we were amazed at how the beaches looked. I had made the comment to my wife about how this was one of the best beaches we had encountered on any of our trips to Mexico and the DR. However, by the third night, it was covered with the seaweed that is all to common in the DR. When I asked when it would be cleaned up, I was told "maybe tomorrow", and in fact it was not until three days later that they made any attempts to clean it up, so for three days, the beach was unusable. In addition, the first night I went to the beach to just relax and enjoy the view. I ended up covered with bites all over my legs and arms from some "sand fleas" and ended up with welts that itched like crazy for the rest of the trip. There were many people that also had the same types of bites. When I went for some bug spray, Benadryl, and Hydrocortisone cream it cost me over $60 US for the three items. - The entertainment - There are nightly entertainment events that are okay. Nothing spectacular, but fun to watch. The pool-side entertainment and activities were either extremely unentertaining, or did not happen. The rooms - The rooms are very spartan and while clean, were not much to look at. The bed are a mattress on a slat of boards, no box-spring. That being said, the bed was comfortable. But they did not change the sheets daily, which when you are in a tropical location and very sweaty and with suntan lotion on, it would be nice to have them changed. There is little storage other than a closet and a two shelves. There are no dressers or drawers to put clothing in. I would not trust the "safe" in the room with anything as it looked very unsecure. We could not find a way to lock the balcony doors. Also, if you are above the age of 10, the toilets are way too small and you feel like you are sitting on the floor when you use it. If you have bad knees like I do, it was difficult getting up and down from the toilet because of how low they were. The Bad - The beach - Between the resort leaving the beach completely covered with seaweed to a depth of at least 6 inches for over three days, we could not make use of the beach at all for those days. Additionally, like myself, there were many guests walking around with a large number of red welts on the arms and legs from the mosquitoes and sand fleas. Final overview - The overall feel of the resort is very laid back and calm, but there is little to do on the actual resort. For the price it was a decent resort, it was the people that we met that truly made the trip amazing for us, as we made some lifelong friends from around the world. The resort does have a "VIP" area that is very well maintained, but while we were there, saw limited occupancy by guests. This area shows what the resort could be like as it was beautiful and very well maintained. With some very inexpensive cosmetic changes, this resort could be a true diamond. A fresh coat of paint on the buildings, properly painting the woodwork in the guest rooms, fixing the dangerous stairs, fixing the green pool, and recoating the pool deck area all would cost little capital and cold maximize the visual appeal of the resort. Would we go back, not with the current state of the resort, but it does bear watching for the future to see if the changes are made to make it truly into what it could be.
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