Hyatt Ziva Cap Cana: An Honest Review Of This All-Inclusive With Its Own Water Park

This all-inclusive resort is consistently one of the top-rated resorts in Punta Cana. It features tropical ocean views, a colossal water park (our favorite part of the resort), and plenty of other activities for the whole family.

We spent almost a week here over Thanksgiving, and here are all the things we loved about this resort (almost everything) and a couple of things that could be improved.

Ziva and Zilara

This resort that Ziva sits on is divided into two areas: the family-friendly Hyatt Ziva Cap Cana and the adults-only Hyatt Zilara Cap Cana. The two resorts are connected and share some amenities like restaurants and the theater, which has nightly entertainment.

The Ziva side offers a fantastic water park with giant water slides, a lazy river, and splash pads for smaller kids. As the resorts are connected, these features are also accessible to people staying on the adults-only Zilara side, though it’s a bit of a walk.

Getting there

The Hyatt Ziva is located in the Cap Cana neighborhood of Punta Cana.

A quick 20-minute drive from Punta Cana International Airport and downtown Punta Cana, Cap Cana is a prime high-end location in a gated area with resorts and residential buildings featuring miles of spectacular white sand beaches.

We recommend a private transfer, which starts around $60 for a round trip for 4-6 people. Top transfer booking companies for Punta Cana.

Tip: Book an early arrival to Punta Cana Airport. Then pack your bathing suits in a carry-on and get to the resort early. This way, you can start your amazing stay by enjoying the pools, restaurants, and outdoor activities for an extra day.

While your room most likely won’t be ready until later, you can use the resort amenities as soon as you arrive. Same thing with your departure on the way home, try to pick a later flight. Arriving early and leaving the resort later adds on almost an extra day of vacation for no extra cost!

Our other favorite option is if your flight lands late: book a stay at the Four Points by Sheraton next to the Punta Cana Airport. This hotel is much cheaper than Hyatt Ziva, and has a free airport shuttle. Spend the night here for less than $200, then early the next morning get a shuttle to Hyatt Ziva to start your vacation!

Resort Overview

The resort area is gated, and we were dropped off at the front door where we got great service from the start! We were given a cool towel, a refreshing drink, and our bags were taken by the bell service.

The resort is huge, much bigger than the Hyatt Ziva in Cancun, which has limited space (because of it’s awesome location).

The lobby is bright and modern, and it feels like a five star resort from the time you arrive.

Here’s the view from the resort lobby, overlooking the garden area that leads to the pools and beach.

There’s plenty of seating areas around the resort too, and the resort lobby area feels similar to the Ziva Canun.

Rooms

The 375 spacious junior suites and suites have a private furnished balcony or terrace with ocean views of the Caribbean Sea, lush gardens, or the resort’s pools.

The standard junior suite guest room offers one king bed, two queen beds, and a sofa sleeper. These spacious suites feature 600 square feet of space. We had a standard junior suite and plenty of room for a family of four.

Each air-conditioned room features free Wi-Fi (along with complimentary wireless internet access in public areas), bright colors, and modern bathrooms with top-of-the-line amenities.

The mini bar area features complimentary snacks, soft drinks, and beer. There are also coffee makers in the rooms.

For an additional cost, there are even swim-up suites featuring direct access to a semi-private pool. However, these weren’t available for our stay, as kids must be 13 years or older, even if they’re great swimmers.

Standard junior suite guest rooms start at around $570 per night, all-inclusive double occupancy for new bookings during the slow season, though they can go much higher at peak times like Christmas to New Year’s.

For World of Hyatt members (Hyatt points program), rooms can be reserved for as little as 30,000 points per night for double occupancy, a great value. There is an additional cost for children when booking with points, paid at check-in. For more detailed information, look into a credit card that earns Chase Ultimate Reward points or Hyatt points.

Club-level suites offer even more amenities, such as top-shelf liquor, breakfast, and lunch, a beachfront restaurant, personalized concierge services, upgraded views, and club lounge access. Club access is available for an additional charge. We don’t typically upgrade rooms at resorts like this (unless provided one from hotel elite status, as the base level room is nice enough.

Pools & Beach & Water Park

Pools

We loved the pools at Ziva! Even with the resort full, there was plenty of room everywhere. Compared to the Hyatt Ziva Cancun, this resort has one giant pool that never seemed crowded. Cancun was never crowded either, it’s pools are just divided up into several different areas.

The picture above was a typical day for us! Because the pools are so large, it was never a problem finding somewhere to swim.

The pool above is a shallow beach shallow entry area, perfect for young children who aren’t strong swimmers. But there’s something for everyone, from infinity pools with swim-up bars to a lazy river at the water park.

The above swim-up bar is in the same huge pool as the picture above, just further down the other end, near the beach.

Beach

The stunning white sandy beaches are some of the most picturesque of all the resorts we’ve been to. The tall palm trees give it that tropical look. The sand area is wide, with plenty of beach chairs.

This water also has turquoise water that looks great in person, and in photos.

That said, the water isn’t nearly as clear as the Hyatt Ziva in Cancun. Cancun easily wins if you’re looking for that crystal-clear water. The water here has more waves, and seaweed is sometimes an issue.

When wading out further into the swimming area, I wasnt able to see my feet when the depth got to about 3 feet. But that’s about the only negative to the whole beach, pool, and swimming area.

Water Park

The Hyatt Ziva Cap Cana Water Park is our favorite part of the resort, and the perfect destination for kids. This water park is on the resort property, is included with your stay, and is way bigger than most resort’s water parks. It’s almost a commercial water park size!

It’s located on the opposite side of the resort from the beach, so it’s a bit of a walk if your kids want to constantly go back and forth between the beach and water park, like ours did. We picked part of the day for the water park, and part of the day for the beach.

There’s everything from a lazy river, enclosed slides where two people can ride down on a tube, and a super fast slide!

There’s even a splash park for younger kids, with smaller slides. This smaller water park was never crowded during our stay.

other Activities

The Hyatt Ziva also has one of the nicest hotel gyms in the area, it’s as good as some commercial gyms that I’ve been to.

There’s a large spa too, though we didn’t use it during our stay.

Ziva offers a variety of daily activities also. There is something for everyone, from water sports such as snorkeling and kayaking to yoga classes.

We stayed during Thanksgiving, so there were plenty of Turkey activities. Here’s a sample schedule of things to do for kids throughout the day, from Thanksgiving day.

Nightly Entertainment

There was live entertainment every night to keep the kids entertained after dinner. Although we typically find all-inclusive resort entertainment pretty cheesy compared al cruises, this resort was better than the Ziva in Cancun. That’s mostly because Cap Cana has a dedicated stage area, while Cancun has to set it up on the steps near the lobby every night.

During our stay there was entertainment like a giant street fair with inflatables and live music (lots of fun) and a Michael Jackson show.

While the quality of the shows doesn’t match the level of cruise line entertainment, it was still fun.

Kids Club

The kids club is great way for kids, and ours loved it!. There is something for everyone, from arts and crafts to sports and games. Our kids, especially the younger ones (7), looked forward to returning to the kids club during our stay.

Basketball Court

Compared to the quality of everything else in this resort, the basketball court could use some work. With the paint coming off the concrete, it wasn’t the nicest looking. It’s in a odd area too, an elevated area surrounded by rooms with no shade. With the Punta Cana heat, we didn’t see it getting used much.

Delicious Food

At this resort, we guarantee you won’t go hungry.

For restaurants other than the buffet, reservations are needed when checking in at the front desk or as soon as possible after arriving. For adults, reservations are available for restaurants at the sister property, Zilara.

There’s plenty of restaurants, split between Ziva and the Zilarta adults-only side. Here’s just some of them:

Coffee Republic

This is a combination coffee/sweets shop in the lobby serving items like lattes, ice cream and donuts.

Our kids were often found here, ordeing a popsicle. While most things at this resort are bigger than Cancun, we preferred the separate indoor coffee and candy shops at Ziva Cancun. Most mornings the line was too busy here for coffee, with people ordering from all sides and only one or two people working here.

El Mercado

Resembling a Caribbean market, this buffet serves up a variety of international cuisine, While all-inclusive resorts can have excellent food, typically, the quality isn’t quite as high as you will find on cruise ships.

Journeys

Journeys is a train-themed Indian restaurant, built inside a mock train. Unfortunately for our train-loving son, it is on the adults only Zilara side.

This was our least-favorite restaurant though. We didn’t find the food the best, and we only saw the water a couple times during the 90 minutes we were there.

Tempest Table

This Asian restaurant features a teppanyaki table and sushi bar.

Quick Outdoor Food

Dont feel like drying off to go eat lunch? If you’re relaxing at the pool, there’s a swim-up bas to grab your favorite drink and food nearby for a snack. Friendly waiters are always close to the pool area.

There’s a pizza restaurant by the main pool, where you can eat outside or even get it to go.

If youre at the water park, there’s no bar (closest one is in the lobby) but there’s a great food truck!

Recap

This is a great choice for an all-inclusive stay, and we’ve recommended it to many people since our visit.