The Marlin at Taino Beach Resort♡

So Beautiful!!

8.0

Many wonderful things about this resort: excellent location, breathtaking beach, great pools, fun wet/dry pool bar, excellent food, peaceful vibe, comfortable rooms, etc.!

DO NOT stay here

2.0

The exterior of this resort looks good in the photos that are posted online but the rooms leave a lot to be desired. The room is a time warp back to the 70’s. The furniture has not been updated and is in bad shape. The air conditioning stopped working mid-way through our stay. The non-stick frying pan provided was unusable due to deep scratches. There was hardly any Teflon left in the pan. There were some sort of critters in the room that ate the mangoes we were given. The pull out couch was stained and the mattress was missing. Some of the lights needed bulbs were not working. They replaced one of the bulbs. Also, one of the ceiling fans didn’t work. Staff were somewhat responsive to the concerns brought forward. I would not recommend this resort.

Wonderful Wedding with Friends

8.0

A large group of us from Steamboat Springs, Colorado stayed here for a week while participating in our friend's wedding. We reserved a studio and at first, weren't sure what to expect based on conflicting reviews on Tripadvisor, but I do have to say that it was a lot better than we expected. The rooms are dated but extremely functional. The studio had a kitchenette stocked with dishes, pots and pans, utensils, coffee maker, toaster, blender and electric can opener. Enough dishware for two. A small refrigerator allowed us to bring home leftovers and reheat them in the microwave. A trip to the grocery store allowed us to make eggs, toast, sausage and other items in the morning. This allowed us to save $$ at the onsite restaurant. Just for comparison, we spent $50 at the grocery store for breakfast for the whole week, while a breakfast for 3 at the restaurant ran $81.00!!! There is NO daily housekeeping, so keep that in mind. Towels can be left outside your door for replenshing. A $10 per pool towel deposit is required and refunded when you return them at the end of the trip. Overall, I'd give our trip 4/5 stars. We enjoyed the trip.

Tired resort, needs some TLC

4.0

Booked this through RCI and stayed in the Marlin building. There are 3 buildings in the resort, all lined up. The Ocean building is closest to the ocean but never reopened after hurricane Dorian in 2019 and you can still see the damage on the balconies. The Coral is in the middle and I'm told most of the rooms are open but we didn't see much activity there. The Marlin is closest to the welcome center and had the most guests. We stayed in a 1BR suite which was large with nice balcony. All the one BR's face the pool and Studios face the back of building. We rented a car and are so glad we did as there's not much to do here, plus we needed it for grocery and liquor store runs. (Look at KSR Car Rental - cheaper than the big names and great service). PROS: Beach is amazing. Has about 8-10 palapas for shade and plenty of chairs. We rarely had an issue getting seating as the resort seemed fairly empty for March. Pool is very nice too, large, fun water slide, grotto bar, again plenty of seating though could use more side tables for your bag etc. Resort overall was clean, both our room and the grounds. One Bedroom suite was large with kitchenette and nice balcony with full table overlooking pool. Beautiful sunrise each morning. Servers at restaurant were very nice and the lunches we had there were pretty good. Bartender Alfie was great. Hourly ferry to Port Lucaya Marketplace CONS: Resort is tired and needs a lot of work. Furniture is dated and worn, one of the 2 couches couldn't be sat on because it was broken underneath and you sank. Minor maintenance requests (lightbulb, batteries for safe etc) were never fulfilled. Not all stove burners worked, light on stove (under microwave was broken) They recommended not to drink the water ever since the hurricane which required us to buy jugs at the store. The gym is more like a very small exercise room with mismatched dumbbells and an ancient rusted, Precor machine and 2 treadmills, plus it was dirty. No activities other than renting waverunners from beach. No entertainment. Only one restaurant and it closes at 430pm each day so forces you to take ferry to marketplace for dinner unless you cook in each night. Also can't charge the meal to your room, must pay by card or cash. No shelf in shower so all toiletries must go on floor. Lounge chairs on beach are super hard and are made to have cushions. They probably had these pre-hurricane. Behind the pool to the left by the street is some sort of junkyard visible from balconies. Given all of this, we did enjoy our visit but it would be a "one and done" for us. There just wasn't enough going on, the Port Lucaya Marketplace had many of the stores and restaurants closed, and we were grateful to have a rental car to go to other restaurants and explore the island. If you're looking for a relaxing, very quiet stay with a great beach and pool, and don't care about luxe amenities, then give it a try but if you're used to resorts with more going on, more than one restaurant option, and updated rooms, then look elsewhere.

Beware!!

4.0

The beach is great and the pool area is good but the rooms are a 2 out of 10. Best thing about the room was a nice hot shower. We were there for six weeks and I didn’t have a working dishwasher, the fridge that was so cold it froze my vegetables so I had to throw groceries out. The cost of groceries is steep so that was annoying! The fridge door was filthy and covered in rust. No working safe for valuables, two of the burners on the stove didn’t work, the air-conditioning leaked, we were on the third floor and the elevator was broken for three of those six weeks, the ferry boat that takes you into Lacaya market was broken for two weeks and to top it off, we had $250 stolen out of our room. The door was locked all the time so I can only assume an employee with a master key took advantage of being in our room when we were out. The on-site restaurant closes at 4:00 pm. The owners do not put any money into the property and everyone was complaining about not having sharp knives or potato peelers or any of the basic items. They were in the drawer perhaps but totally unusable. I contacted management several times with no response or acknowledgment. The front desk staff try to help but honestly how can they fix things if there’s no budget or management incentive to do so. Too bad the owners don’t want to enhance the experience as it could be a good place if they invested some money to fix and upgrade things. Honestly I could write more but this should certainly give enough warning. Oh and also listed in the amenities is a barbecue… not!! Unless you call a dirty abandoned structure a BBQ. Beware! If you book at Taino beach Resort there are three buildings… The Ocean which we booked but interesting enough has been closed since 2019, The Coral which is the building we we were put in which is the building I am referencing. The Marlin has been updated but it appears to be limited for certain owner/guests. With all of our issues we had asked if we could be moved into that building but we’re told that we couldn’t go there.

Adequate But That's It

6.0

I stayed at the Marlin at Taino Beach in late February 2026. Overall, the stay was pleasant but there was room for improvement. Pros: (sort of) - The grounds, beach, and pool areas were attractive and well maintained. They were uncrowded. Many of the beach chairs were uncomfortably hard and probably meant to be used with a cushion. - The living room area was large. Furniture showed some signs of wear but the upholstery was comfortable and in good condition. - The bathroom shower was nice and large. Water temperature and pressure were good. However, the drain was full of hair. There was no shelf in the shower for toiletries. We had no hand towels until we asked for them. The exhaust fan did not work. - The staff were generally friendly and hard-working. Special thanks to the excellent bar and restaurant staff, especially Tammy at the bar. - Wifi was good. Although it is advertised as being only available in common areas, our room had a strong enough signal for streaming. YMMV. Cons: - The kitchen was problematic. There was no oven, just a stovetop. The built-in microwave was broken and had been replaced by a little countertop one which still occupied a large portion of the tiny counter. All but one of the dinner plates were too large to fit in the dishwasher. There were many coffee cups, large and small, but exactly one teaspoon. There were no measuring cups or spoons. - The restaurant and bar were only open until 5pm, with the kitchen closing at 4:30. On at least one day, they actually closed earlier. The bill cannot be charged to your room. - The room safe was already locked and the batteries were close to dead. We called twice asking for it to be fixed, but no one ever showed up. - The TV was poorly located and could only be watched comfortably by 2-3 people. It did not have a working HDMI port for people to use with their own devices. Some of the cable channels were too fuzzy to be watchable. - No other eating/drinking places are within walking distance. - Neither this resort or the surrounding ones has a gift shop. There are no stores nearby either. The resort operates a supermarket shuttle a few days a week. There is an hourly ferry to Port Lucaya which contains a variety of restaurants, bars and shops. We rented a car and were glad we did. Overall, if we returned we would probably choose a different resort. Although there were certainly bright spots, particularly the setting and restaurant/bar staff, they did not cancel out the shortcomings.