Excellence El Carmen Review: The Absolute Best Excellence Resort {Dominican Republic}

If you’re looking for a luxurious adults only, all-inclusive resort that won’t break the bank, look no further than Excellence El Carmen in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

We stayed at Excellence El Carmen in the Excellence Club Two-Story Rooftop Terrace Suite With Plunge Pool Ocean View in June 2021 for five nights and had an amazing experience at an extremely reasonable price.

Whether you are looking for a new resort to stay at or are comparing all of the Excellence Collection resorts, keep reading to learn about our amazing stay at Excellence El Carmen in the Dominican Republic!

Disclosure: My blog can earn small commissions at no cost to you when you click through affiliate links. 

Location & How to Get There

Excellence El Carmen is located on the east coast of the Dominican Republic, just north of Punta Cana. It is about a forty minute drive to the resort from the airport.

To get to Excellence El Carmen, you will fly into Punta Cana at the Punta Cana International Airport (Airport code PUJ). There are about fifteen different airlines that fly from the United States into Punta Cana, including American, Delta, JetBlue, Frontier, and Spirit. Click here to check flights to Punta Cana!

Once you land, you will need to have ground transportation arranged prior to arriving. I highly recommend booking your transportation in advance to get the best rate. And if you book direct with Excellence El Carmen, keep an eye out for free round trip transfer promotion they regularly run.

It was easy to find the transportation representative upon exiting the airport and they were very friendly. We were transported both ways in a private, air-conditioned black SUV at no cost as part of our stay (other than tipping the driver).

Checking In at Excellence El Carmen

We were welcomed to Excellence El Carmen’s stunning lobby with glasses of champagne while we checked in. As we were staying in an Excellence Club suite, we had a private check in inside of the Excellence Club lounge. Guests staying in standard class rooms check in at the front desk.

The concierge assisted us in downloading the resort’s app, which has everything you need to know about the resort in one place. We also were asked to place a credit or debit card on file for a security deposit.

Depending on the location of your room, you will either be escorted on foot to your room or driven on the “Rolls Royce of golf carts”. On our way, the bellhop pointed out locations in the resort and showed us around our room.

Rooms & Suites at Excellence El Carmen

Excellence El Carmen features 492 rooms and suites, ranging from the standard junior suites all the way to their top end Imperial Suite. Rooms are classified as either standard rooms, or upgraded Excellence Club class rooms. There are a whopping 19 different room types to choose from!

Pictured above is the Suite with Private Pool and Deck. These are located at the rear of the property near the quiet pool. Note at the time of the photo, these buildings were out of use due to COVID, which is why there is no patio furniture.

The standard room types offered at Excellence El Carmen are as follows:

• Junior Suite Pool View
• Suite Pool View
• Honeymoon Suite
• Terrace Suite with Plunge Pool
• Junior Suite Ocean View
• Junior Swim-Up Suite
• Suite with Private Pool and Deck
• Junior Suite with Private Pool
• Two Story Rooftop Terrace Suite With Plunge Pool

The upgraded Excellence Club room types offered at Excellence El Carmen are as follows:

• Excellence Club Junior Suite Ocean View
• Excellence Club Junior Suite with Private Pool
• Excellence Club Junior Swim-Up Suite
• Excellence Club Honeymoon Swim-Up Suite
• Excellence Club Two Story Rooftop Terrace Suite with Plunge Pool Ocean View
• Excellence Club Honeymoon Two-Story Rooftop Terrace Suite with Plunge Pool Ocean View
• Excellence Club Beachfront Honeymoon Swim-Up Suite
• Excellence Club Beachfront Honeymoon Two-Story Rooftop Terrace Suite with Plunge Pool
• Excellence Club Imperial Suite with Private Pool
• Excellence Club Imperial Suite Two-Story Rooftop Terrace with Plunge Pool

We stayed in the Excellence Club Two Story Rooftop Terrace with Plunge Pool. Keep reading for a tour of our room!

Check Rates for Excellence El Carmen: Direct | Expedia | Hotwire | Orbitz | TripAdvisor

Staying in a Two Story Rooftop Terrace Suite

We stayed in the Excellence Club Two Story Rooftop Terrace Suite with Plunge Pool and Ocean View in room #5252. Our room’s location had a direct view of the main grounds and pool, as well as a partial ocean view.

The Two-Story Rooftop Suites offer two levels of living: the main suite with a balcony and outdoor jacuzzi tub and the massive rooftop with plunge pool and outdoor shower.

The main suite includes a massive walk-in closet; open concept bathroom with double sinks, walk-in rainfall shower, and separate water closer; open concept room with king bed, large couch, TV, and mini bar; outdoor balcony with table and chairs; indoor/outdoor jacuzzi tub.

The rooftop terrace is the same size as the entire suite below. It has a L-shape couch seating area, plunge pool (think cold hot tub), double daybed lounger, and outdoor shower.

All of the two story suites are located on the third floors due to the rooftop being the top (fourth) floor. The standard versions have garden views at the back of the property, while the Excellence Club versions will be closer to the beach with a partial ocean view.

There is also a two story suite that offers an oceanfront view, but I felt the room we chose offered more privacy from your next door neighbors than the oceanfront ones.

For a full review and tour of our room, make sure you check out Room Tour: Two Story Rooftop Suite with Ocean View as well as check out our room walkthrough video above.

Beaches at Excellence El Carmen

The beaches at Excellence El Carmen are relatively flat and made up of thick tan colored sand. It’s only a few steps to the ocean from the beach loungers.

Excellence El Carmen has two beach areas side by side: the regular beach area and the Excellence Club beach area. I really didn’t see much difference between the two other than the Excellence Club area being roped off and having a slightly different style lounger.

It is important to note all beaches in the Dominican Republic are technically open to the public. This means you will be approached by beach vendors trying to sell you trinkets and such. They were not too annoying and were respectful of a simple no thanks.

We only spent one day on the beach due to the Sargassum seaweed (more on this below).

Pools at Excellence El Carmen

Excellence El Carmen has three main pools as well as a number of long, skinny pools fronting a majority of the buildings.

The main pool is located near the beach by the X-Lounge, and it’s definitely where the majority of the action is at. At this pool, you have the swim-up bar, easy beach access, and activities such as water aerobics.

If you are more interested in quiet and relaxation, I suggest utilizing the two back pools past the wildlife pond. We ran into maybe three or four other couples the entire time while back there. It felt like we had these huge private pool to ourselves.

It is important to note that while Excellence El Carmen is advertising twenty three total pools, this is a bit deceptive. This count is including the long, skinny pools that are attached to the buildings and are direct entry from approximately six or so rooms each. Anyone can use them, but it did feel kind of weird doing so.

I will note that while the pools are lit up beautifully at night, you cannot swim in any of the pools during the dark hours. This is unfortunate for the folks who paid for swim-up rooms to not have access in the evening hours.

Drinks & Bars at Excellence El Carmen

Excellence El Carmen has eleven bars located throughout the resort property, so it’s easy to keep the cocktails flowing.

Located inside the lobby is the Martini Bar, and near the entertainment theater is the Art Deco Piano Bar, chic late night lounge Alegria, as well as the Stars bar.

At the main pool you will find X-Lounge, a chic rooftop bar with views of the ocean, as well as swim-up bar Blue. There is also a bar located at the back pool, Aire, and an additional bar in the resort gardens, Sol.

There are also a number of bars that are reserved for Excellence Club guests only: the Excellence Club Lounge at the main lobby, beach bar Cielo, and small bar Palms.

For those looking for a refreshing non-alcoholic beverage, fresh-squeezed juices are available at Revive, and coffee and ice cream is served at Aroma.

By far the best part of Excellence El Carmen is the complimentary in-suite mini bar and liquor selection. Each room has a mini bar stocked to the brim with beer, as well as a selection of full-size liquor bottles. In addition, room service will happily bring full-size bottles of champagne and wine, as well as more beer if you run out. I’ve truly never seen any other all-inclusive come close to having this much alcohol readily available to its guests.

Make sure you ask for a drink in a fresh pineapple. I have no idea what this drink was, but it was so good!

Food & Restaurants at Excellence El Carmen

Overall, we found the food to be very good at Excellence El Carmen. It’s definitely on par with the other all inclusive resorts we have been to, and in some cases, better.

The room service breakfast was outstanding and they had some really good snack/appetizer type foods as well. However, I did not care for the room service dinners at all and would skip that next time.

On our final day, we ate at the breakfast buffet at The Kitchen Table, which was amazing. I wish we had visited the buffet more during our stay!

The best option for an easy lunch was grabbing some buffet food from Los Olas, located on the beach. Since we were in our swimwear, we took our plates to our pool or beach loungers to eat.

Our favorite dinner restaurant was The Lobster House, an open air seafood restaurant facing the main pool and beach.

If you are in the Excellence Club class, make sure you dine at the Excellence Club restaurant Magna. It was very upscale and the steak was amazing.

Other restaurants at the resort include Agave (Mexican), The Grill (steak), Chez Isabelle (French), Basmati (Indian), Oregano (Italian lunch and dinner), Flavor Market (Spanish), Spice (Asian), and Sports Bar (American).

Note that there is a strict dress code at the restaurants. Luckily, Excellence’s website does detail out the dress code very specifically for each of their resturants and bars.

The breakfast and lunch restaurants usually allowed shorts and flip flops but no swimwear. For dinner service at most of the restaurants, men must wear a button up/collared shirt and closed toe shoes. (Note: David removed his hat when entering restaurants)

Activities & Entertainment at Excellence El Carmen

In general, Excellence El Carmen is resort that is geared more for relaxation and romance, rather than partying or adventure activities.

The resort has all of the typical offerings that I tend to ignore on vacation: fitness center, fitness classes, water aerobics, billiards, etc.

For an extra cost, you can book scuba diving, deep sea fishing, or a romantic private dinner on the beach. While we didn’t do any extras, we did see the private dinners set up on the beach and it looked really cool.

Excellence El Carmen also has an on-site spa, the Miile Spa. I did not visit it personally, as I find resort spa prices to be incredibly overpriced. However, if you book before your trip, you are offered a discount.

Nightly entertainment is offered at the Stars Theater, Alegria Disco Bar, and the center of the property by the wedding gazebo. This typically takes the form of live music, tribute band performances, and dancing. The nightlife is very tame.

Make sure you don’t miss the fire show and fireworks – it was really cool to watch this from my rooftop!

Weddings & Honeymoons at Excellence El Carmen

Excellence El Carmen is a great destination for a honeymoon. The resort is very romantic and geared toward couples or small groups. The main demographic during our stay with either couples or small groups of couples, mostly in the 30s to 50s age bracket.

With that being said, I do not think Excellence El Carmen is particularly great for wedding ceremonies.

As you can see in the picture above, the ceremony area is an archway with a fountain where a good number of chairs can be set up. It is located in the dead center of the resort and most of the buildings have a direct view of it. The entire resort would be able to spectate your ceremony. Additionally, this area is used for multiple purposes as well, such as nightly live music and entertainment.

Of course, the other option would be to have a beach wedding, but depending on the time of year that may not be terribly appealing due to the Sargassum.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend this resort for an a romantic trip, an anniversary, or a honeymoon but I personally would not have a ceremony here.

Sargassum Seaweed in the Dominican Republic

Sargassum seaweed is a major plague to the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean in general.

Seaweed season runs from May to October and brings massive amounts of seaweed to the shore. During our visit in June, we were in the heart of seaweed season.

Unfortunately this is an environmental issue for this part of the world and there is nothing the resort or the Dominican Republic can do to prevent it.

We witnessed the Excellence El Carmen staff putting forth great effort to clean up the beaches daily. Workers were both bulldozing mounds of seaweed into piles as well as hand shoveling it.

While it was enjoyable to lay in the beach chairs and look at the ocean, your views and photographs will be impacted by the seaweed if you visit during this season.

It was difficult to walk down to the water because of the seaweed, and the ocean was not enjoyable due to it either. It is also important to stay out of the seaweed because it is a breeding ground for bacteria as well as ocean life.

We spent one day laying out at the beach and then spent the remainder of our trip at the pool.

Excellence Club Upgrades at Excellence El Carmen

Excellence El Carmen offers rooms in both the standard class and the upgraded Excellence Club class. While I selected the Excellence Club room simply because of the room type I wanted, the Excellence Club does come with a number of perks.

Perks of the Excellence Club upgrade include:

• Private check-in and out, with late check out subject to availability
• Access to the Excellence Lounge, Magna restaurants, and exclusive bars
• Access to private pools and jacuzzis
• Access to private beach area with upgraded loungers
• Upgraded toiletries, minibar, and room service menu
• Daily fresh fruit and petit fours in-suite
• Fresh flowers and sparkling wine in suite upon arrival
• Complimentary beach bag
• One Aqua hydrotherapy treatment per person per stay

While access to the Excellence Club restaurants and bars is nice, I don’t feel the Excellence Club is required to enjoy your stay here. Opt for the Excellence Club if there is a particular class of room you want, but otherwise don’t spend the extra money just for the service or experience.

Cost of A Trip to Excellence El Carmen

On average, the rates at Excellence El Carmen run around $300 – $600 a night depending on time of year, specials offered, and room type.

This rate is all-inclusive, so the rate covers your selected room as well as all the food, drink, and alcohol (including room service).

We booked our five night stay in our Excellence Club Two-Story Rooftop Suite directly from resort. This rate included the free transfer, and I also opted to pay a little more to make the trip refundable should we need to cancel (as June is the start of hurricane season).

The grand total was $2200 or $1100 per person. This comes down to $440/night or $220 per person per night.

Our airfare total was $1200, and we also spent $100 in cash on tips. This put the total cost of our trip with airfare at $3500.

Overall, I felt that we got a really good deal on one of the nicest resorts I have ever stayed at! I highly recommend staying at Excellence El Carmen, or any other Excellence resort, on your next beach vacation!

Book: Direct | Expedia | Hotwire | Orbitz | TripAdvisor

Excellence El Carmen Walkthrough Video

Check out our resort walkthrough video of Excellence El Carmen on YouTube!

Don’t miss our review of the Excellence El Carmen Two Story Rooftop Suite!