Now that the summer is coming to an end people will most likely start making plans for next winter’s holiday in the sun. I have the Caribbean very much at heart and one of my best sun and beach trips was in the Dominican Republic.
“Holiday feeling”
The island of Hispaniola is located between Cuba and Puerto Rico. Haiti forms the western part of the island, and the eastern part is the Dominican Republic with approximately 10 million inhabitants. It is a very beautiful country, mountainous with tropical forests, lots of palm trees, banana plants and sugar cane plantations. There are also some drier areas with cactuses. Apart from sugar and rice they grow fruit, vegetables and coffee. The average temperature is 28 °C (82.4 °F). In the 15th century Columbus landed on the island. The Spaniards made the whole island a Spanish colony and in just a couple of decades the original Taino Indian population had been exterminated. In the early 18th century the island had been divided between France (western part, now Haiti) and Spain (eastern part). In 1865 the former Santo Domingo colony was finally liberated and formed a republic of its own.
The Dominican Republic attracts travellers of all kinds. Paradise beaches and lots of adventure to experience. Columbus depicted the island of Hispaniola by crumpling up a piece of paper, tropical mountains, spectacular rivers and miles of beautiful beaches. If you are deep sea fishing off the “Silver Harbour”, Puerto Plata at sunset you fully understand Columbus’s enthusiasm with the glittering water and the mountains of the island in the background. You could easily spend the whole of your vacation on the wonderful beaches holding a Pina Colada but I advise you to explore the country, for there are many adventures to experience, at sea as well as in the “jungle” where scenes for the Jurassic Park movie were shot.
Fresh fruit taste best on the beach.
The small village of Caberete is world-famous for its fine windsurfing. In the afternoons the sea is filled with windsurfers and kitesurfers whose sails make up a magnificent colour palette combined with the turquoise water and the dark blue sky. At night the beach bars and the discos are crammed with visitors from all over the world and there is a laid-back atmosphere. I spent many hours on the long beach and the memory card of my camera was filled with pictures of surfers, palm trees and colourful umbrella drinks.
There were a lot of kite surfers in Cabarete.
The Sosúa beach is in a bay and the palm trees lean over the sandy beach, paradise pictures are guaranteed. There you can enjoy your holiday while at the same time watching aircraft with home-bound tourists taking off from the airport. Along the promenade there is a great number of small restaurants and souvenir stalls selling colourful paintings, T-shirts and other traditional keepsakes. There is also the possibility of diving, and I took the chance of adding some entries in my dive log book recording a couple of underwater visits. The sensation was not as great as in Thailand or Mexico, but still it was worth the money, diving is always fun.
During my two weeks in the country I joined several excursions. A truck safari in the countryside gave us a glimpse of everyday life, and I learnt that if a resident’s house is painted red or pink this shows that the woman in the house is in command, but if it is painted blue it’s for the man of the family to decide … The tour took us trough jungle and high mountains with marvellous views, the country offers many visual impressions. A tour that made impressions of another kind was an action-packed day riding beach buggies. We kept up high speed through plantations along muddy roads. We had a really nice stop on a paradise beach where we could wash off all mud from the ride.
Excursion with beach buggies.
In the harbour of Puerto Plata I found a boat offering deep sea fishing which gave me a fine opportunity of improving my tan and at the same time getting activated. Sad to say we caught no fish but we experienced a magical sunset as the last rays of sunshine were glittering upon the water.
Deep sea fishing outside Puerto Plata.
In the middle of the country, in the “Dominican Alps”, is Jarabacoa, a veritable adventure center. In the area you can for example ride mountain bikes, ride on horseback, climb mountains, practise various river sports or explore fine waterfalls. In one place you can climb up seven small waterfalls and then get down again, at times jumping and at times sliding down on your back. At the last waterfall you jump seven metres (23 ft) down into the frothy water, a wonderful sensation. Take a running jump at yourself, Indiana Jones! River rafting makes you feel giddy when going through roaring rapids with the guide screaming: – Right forward, left backwards, down, up, down, listen up!! The muscles of your arms cry out with exhaustion after a few hours of paddling. I’ll never forget one of the guides taking a blade of grass and passing it along my girlfriend’s arm while yelling: Spider! Then he pulled her down into the river with her shouting for dear life, hahaha, well it was actually great fun ;) The river rafting was recorded by the guides who took photos and filmed, and afterwards you could buy a DVD, an entertaining memory to watch at home after the trip.
River rafting in Jarabacoa.
I like snorkelling and one day we joined an excursion to Paradise Island. The bus ride took a long time and the road was miserable so we were immensely relieved as we finally reached the small village of Punta Rusia. From there we went by speedboat to the small sandbank in the Atlantic Ocean called Paradise Island. The sandbank is surrounded by a coral reef and the water was crystal clear so we just put on fins, diving masks, snorkels and brought the underwater camera. I also brought some biscuits and shredded coconut for the fish, and it worked well! There were heaps of fish of every colour and shape and I got some good pictures feeding the fish in front of the camera. We went on snorkelling for two hours including a few short breaks to drink and eat all the fruit that the guides provided. When we returned in the boats the waves were high and a number of people really looked scared, they felt relief as we we reached the mangrove swamp. The great roots of the plants formed a cool scenery where we glided on our way back to the harbour.
Paradise Island.
The best excursion we made was to Samaná. The Samaná Peninsula is a mountain ridge with many palm trees extending out into the Atlantic Ocean. Where pirates used to hide in the olden days you can now find magical beaches, as if taken directly from the type of picture postcards you think are made up, too good to be true. Due to the fact that houses are not allowed to be built taller than the nearest palm tree they are naturally integrated in the landscape. From Samaná we went by boat to the island of Cayo, also known as “Bacardi Island”. There we sat sifting sands between our toes at lunch while the local band was entertaining us with Merengue. The food in this country consists mostly of hot seasoned stews or meat with rice and beans, and I had quite a lot of chicken during my visit ….
Bacardi Island.
After lunch we went by boat on a Whale Safari. If you are on site at the right time of the year you can watch a great number of humpback whales performing mating rituals. We followed a few whales and it was an imposing experience to watch the big animals. After the whale safari we relaxed on the beach of the “Bacardi Island” in the afternoon. I had really entered Paradise with the sugar white sand, beautiful palm trees and turquoise water.
Whale watching in Samaná.
We also had time for a visit in the city of Santo Domingo, and something that struck us was the fact that all car drivers kept hooting unceasingly, in the end it was quite comical. Bring earplugs ;)
Some beach suggestions: Playa Rincón, La Playita, Cabarete, Sosúa, Cayo Leventado and Dominicus. I will also take the opportunity of busting the myth that if you stay at a hotel with All Inclusive you will see nothing of the country’s culture or sights ….. The trip will be what you make it and there are no guards in the hotel reception stopping you from leaving the hotel … We had All Inclusive, but joined many excursions and indeed experienced what the island could offer. Then we fully enjoyed the choices of All Inclusive the days we spent on the beach ;)
If you haven’t booked next winter’s holiday yet, I really recommend the Dominican Republic, sun, beach and adventures :)
You’ll hear from me,
Lengan
Our most popular hotels in Dominican Republic:
Area of Playa Dorada/Puerto Plata:
Gran Ventana Beach Resort****
BlueBay Villas Doradas****
In Punta Cana:
Catalonia Bavaro Beach Golf & Casino*****
Ocean Blue and Sand Beach Resort*****
Occidental Grand Punta Cana****
In Santo Domingo:
Hilton Santo Domingo*****
In La Romana:
Catalonia Gran Dominicus****
In Sosua:
Casa Marina Reef***