A week immersed in the UNIQUE by Lopesan experience at Lopesan Costa Bávaro Resort, Spa & Casino, Punta Cana
By Teresa Greco
There are trips you take for yourself, and then there are trips that belong to everyone. The kind where the young adults and the grandparents are equally, genuinely content — where different generations scatter into their own adventures by day and somehow, without any orchestration, find their way back to the same table every evening. These trips are rarer than they should be. They require a destination that doesn’t ask anyone to compromise. We found ours at the all-inclusive Lopesan Costa Bávaro Resort, Spa & Casino on the white-sand shores of Bávaro Beach — and specifically, within the world of UNIQUE by Lopesan.
We travelled as fourteen: my husband and I, my in-laws, my two brothers-in-law and their families — spanning from fourteen to eighty years of age, with a cluster of young adults in between. All of us were entirely new to Lopesan Hotel Group, a Spanish hospitality brand long celebrated in Europe and the Canary Islands, making Lopesan Costa Bávaro its first foray into the Caribbean. It is a five-star statement in the Caribbean, and it shows.
A Private Welcome
In a resort of 1,042 rooms — an impressive scale — the UNIQUE experience begins with a telling distinction: an exclusive check-in area, separate from the main lobby, and wonderfully serene. Welcome drinks in hand, we toasted to the week ahead, and within moments we were introduced to our dedicated butler, Andrés, who would become the invisible architecture of our entire week — coordinating our appointments and attending to our in-suite needs.
What he made possible, above all else, was the table. A group of fourteen, a different à la carte restaurant each night, all of us seated together without a reservation made or chased — he handled it all, invisibly and without fail. Showing up together, night after night, turned out to be one of the great unexpected pleasures of the trip.
Our UNIQUE One Bedroom Suite was a generous and beautifully appointed retreat: 90 square metres of thoughtfully designed space, with a 25-square-metre balcony that framed the Caribbean in a way that made every morning feel like an occasion.
The suite had been dressed for our arrival — champagne on ice, a bottle of specialty Dominican rum, a tray of fresh fruit, and chocolates arranged with care. Nespresso, plush robes and slippers, a pillow of your choosing: the details were considered throughout, and the overall atmosphere was one of warm, contemporary elegance that wore its luxury without effort.
Our young adult children settled into their own UNIQUE Queen Swim-Up Junior Suite: 43 square metres of considered comfort, the decor echoing the island itself in warm wood, stone, and teal — opening directly onto a private terrace and into the pool. They had their independence. We had ours. And the UNIQUE experience wrapped the whole extended family in the same quality of care, regardless of which room you returned to at the end of the day.
The UNIQUE Club: Calm by Design
What defines the UNIQUE experience is a combination of atmosphere and efficient service — and nowhere was that more felt than in the easy, gentle rhythm of our mornings. The UNIQUE buffet kept longer hours than the main buffet, so that whoever surfaced first was never waiting, and whoever slept in never missed a thing. Cappuccinos and omelettes made to order, fresh coconuts were a small and welcome Caribbean touch, and breakfast at whatever pace suited you.
Each day unfolded differently for everyone. Some claimed a lounger on Bávaro Beach — one of the top 25 beaches in the world, with 350 metres of white sand that somehow never felt crowded. Others preferred the calm of the UNIQUE pool, protected from the volume of the wider resort. Those who wanted more energy found it at the main infinity pool, a bi-level 30,000 square feet that felt like an extension of the sea, while beach volleyball drew the more competitive among us. And as the day wound down, and it was time to head back, the juice bar was the last stop — nine varieties daily, and the carrot, the beet, and the green juices were my favourites — the kind of detail you find yourself missing once you’re home.
The Boulevard: A Place for Every Hour
If there is one space that captured the spirit of our week, it was The Boulevard — Lopesan’s open-air promenade threading through the resort with shops, restaurants, a well-equipped fitness centre, entertainment, and the particular energy of a place designed for lingering. One afternoon, four of us slipped away to Baco Wine Cellar while a few of the younger members of the group made their way back to Iceberg for Italian gelato. What followed was one of those unplanned hours that becomes a favourite memory: three wines, each paired with precision to a cheese tray that drew out their best qualities, guided by sommeliers Juan Feliz and Jean Carlo. The Caribbean light softened around us as the afternoon stretched on, relaxed and entirely our own.
Each evening after dinner, we fell into a natural ritual: a stroll along The Boulevard, ending at Bávaro Coffee for specialty coffees and teas. It became the punctuation mark of each night — unhurried, sociable, the day winding down over something warm and good. From there, the group scattered according to age and inclination. Some went back to their rooms. Others found their way to the sports bar, the club, the casino, or the 820-seat theatre, which delivered nightly production-quality shows that drew even the most reluctant among us. Nobody ran out of options. This is what a great resort does for a group with range: it offers enough that no one is ever asked to settle.
What made The Boulevard feel even more significant was the sense of what is still to come. In spring 2026, three new Lopesan properties will open — all connected by The Boulevard as their shared promenade. Lopesan Caoba Lagoon Resort, Spa & Casino will bring cenote-inspired pools and be adjacent to the Lopesan Convention Center; Lopesan Serenity Bay will offer an intimate adults-only retreat of 239 suites; and Lopesan Splash Cove will anchor the family offering with five pools and a waterpark. As José Alba, Managing Director of Lopesan Hotel Group, describes it: four distinct resort experiences within one location, united by a shared promenade. What is already exceptional is about to become something far larger.
At the Table: A Week of Shared Meals
Night after night, Andrés had the table ready. On our first night — the cold of Toronto not yet forgotten — we dined at the UNIQUE Beach Club, the resort’s only outdoor dining restaurant, its tables set directly at the water’s edge. Lobster arrived — included for UNIQUE guests as a matter of course, with no upcharge — paired with mashed potato and grilled vegetables. It was the right meal for the right night, and it set a tone the week never abandoned.
Over the days that followed, Andrés guided us through many of the resort’s seven à la carte restaurants — a few of which stood out as personal highlights worth sharing. At Góndola, the Italian kitchen opened with arancini — golden and properly crisp — before a confident grilled fish with olives, capers, and tomato, closing with a mascarpone panna cotta in raspberry coulis that brought everyone to a contented pause.
My own standout was at El Asador, the resort’s steakhouse, where a brochette de filet mignon arrived with sautéed mushrooms, roasted red pepper, and mashed potato — the kind of straightforward, beautifully executed plate that reminds you why a great cut needs nothing more.
The dinner that generated the most conversation was the evening at Inari, the resort’s Japanese restaurant. For my in-laws, it was their first experience of tableside teppanyaki — the theatre of the chef, the heat and the flame, the precision of the performance. They were transfixed, and so was everyone else around the teppan. There are not many meals that hold a group so completely. This one did.
The OM Spa: Restoration on Your Own Terms
For those who sought a more restorative escape, the OM Spa delivered it with care. UNIQUE guests receive a complimentary 45-minute hydrotherapy session — sauna, steam room, and the spa’s outdoor pools — before treatments begin, and it sets exactly the right tone. The 80-minute aromatherapy massage that followed is the treatment I would recommend without hesitation: it moves through accumulated tension with quiet authority, leaving you wholly present as the day fades beyond the window.
