Punta Cana / Dominican Republic?

[shilala]

Anyone ever been on that end of the island?
Lisa and I are picking a honeymoon spot, and we're leaning heavily towards one of the all-inclusives. The prices are fabulous and it appears to be absolutely gorgeous. It looks like we'll be going early March, somewhere during the first couple weeks.
Questions I have are on the quality of snorkeling, diving, should we try to get as close to town as possible, do we want/need to rent a car, how's the shopping, are there any particular resorts we should look at, and are there any you've visited? Anything we should avoid? Any "absolutely must while we're there"s?
I know that's a lot of questions, but I'm apprehensive, bordering on scared. This will be the first passport for both of us.
Oh, lastly, neither of us know any Spanish whatsoever. Is that going to be an issue? Should we Rosetta Stone or at least get translators on our phones? There's another question, will our phones even work?
Okay, sorry. I'll shut up. I'm excited about it.

[Ogre]

Some I can answer. Most islands speak English, and your phones will be charged an international rates (vary HIGH). The all inclusives are a good way to go. I dont know about the DR in specific, but hope you have a good time.

[shilala]

This place is a "for instance", Larry. It's just one that was still on my iPad, it's not among our narrowed down selection.
That page has a map and some general info on what we're thinking about and where, exactly.

[loki]

things i looked for when booking a place to spend my honeymoon:
didn't have to pay for drinks/food/ect outside of the fee that was charged in advance...which leaves cruises out
any place not in mexico
no kids
no kids
did i mention no kids?

I'm not sure what your tolerance for kids is or how they impact you enjoyment of activities but for me knowing that the resort had a no one under 18 policy was exactly what i wanted. Most all inclusives include buses that will take you to local attractions, check their web pages to see if that's the case. generally tourist areas will speak english, and trip adviser will be a crap shoot as for usefulness. the wife and i went to Jamaica for our honeymoon and loved it

[mosesbotbol]

I would not rent a car in DR without being Hispanic or fluent in Spanish. Private driver is much better in your instance. If you have GSM phone, it should work and make sure that your phone is not pulling down data while there. Talk to your cell provider to make sure you are on the right plan while there and your phone is configured correct to save money.

From what I understand of DR, it's a resort only kind of place unless you are visiting someone. I doubt you'll end seeing much of the island outside of "to - from" travel.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by loki

things i looked for when booking a place to spend my honeymoon:
didn't have to pay for drinks/food/ect outside of the fee that was charged in advance...which leaves cruises out
any place not in mexico
no kids
no kids
did i mention no kids?

I'm not sure what your tolerance for kids is or how they impact you enjoyment of activities but for me knowing that the resort had a no one under 18 policy was exactly what i wanted. Most all inclusives include buses that will take you to local attractions, check their web pages to see if that's the case. generally tourist areas will speak english, and trip adviser will be a crap shoot as for usefulness. the wife and i went to Jamaica for our honeymoon and loved it

Yup. No kids. I forgot that one.
I think I'd totally love Jamaica, and so would Weeze. We'll definitely go there one day, but we really want to explore this DR thing right now.
I'm very much concerned about the language barrier. I suppose it won't be any worse than Disney World, right?

[KidRock]

PM my good friend Fissure he has alot of experience in the D.R.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by mosesbotbol

I would not rent a car in DR without being Hispanic or fluent in Spanish. Private driver is much better in your instance. If you have GSM phone, it should work and make sure that your phone is not pulling down data while there. Talk to your cell provider to make sure you are on the right plan while there and your phone is configured correct to save money.

From what I understand of DR, it's a resort only kind of place unless you are visiting someone. I doubt you'll end seeing much of the island outside of "to - from" travel.

Thanks about the car, Moses. I kinda guessed that was out. I wasn't even sure if it was possible, not being licensed there, and all.
We do have GSM phones, iPhones. I'll make note to see if I need to change anything. I'm sure I can do a quick search and get a lot more accurate info than calling AT&T.

On the "seeing" part, I understand all of Punta Cana(or nearly all of) is new since 90-91. It's a brand new county. I think "walking distance to town" is part of the beauty of this place. A bit of shopping and junk buying would be fun if it's local craft rather than Chinese junk.

Once I mine all the info I can out of the brothers here, I'll check some vacation message boards and see more about what to expect.

[mosesbotbol]

Originally Posted by shilala

Thanks about the car, Moses. I kinda guessed that was out. I wasn't even sure if it was possible, not being licensed there, and all.

You can drive and rent a car with a US license.

Dominican Republic is awesome!

[Giants85]

When I visited Punta Cana we stayed at Majestic Elegance http://www.majestic-resorts.com/en/H...unta-Cana.aspx beautiful resort but food was so-so. The dinner restaurants were good (on the resort) but lunch/breakfast was always a bit of a dissapointment. All-inclusive was awesome and there were a ton of bars to get drinks. There is also a really nice golf course fairly close to the resort, can't remember the name. Was a bit pricey but the course was amazing.

We only ventured off the resort one other time besides golf, which was actually for a cigar tour for Don Lucas Cigars. Nothing extravagant but was pretty cool, cigars were good and they had a bunch of different rums as well.

If you do happen to chose majestic elegance I would definatly recommend an ocean front room at the elegance club. Wasn't much more money and was definately worth it, IMO. You get a few other perks with the elegance club, private beach/pool, free internet access and I think access to a few different restaurants for breakfast/lunch.

[fissure]

Scott,

Stayed here http://www.applevacations.com/hotels...es-resort.html, last march. Sugar sand beach with no rocks or anything in the area you'd swim. Absolutely beautiful. On the way from the airport the bus dropped off at lots of other resorts and there were only a couple that looked like they compared to the one we stayed at. Some looked down right knarly and we were glad we weren't staying there.

We stayed on the resort except for a few excursions. Just like any other tourist trap country it was hard walking in any store. They pestered you to buy stuff and watched you like a hawk. A few stores the owner was sitting at the front step with a shotgun/assault rifle. Kind of turned us away from going shopping on our own.

Snorkeling/diving is pretty non-existent on the north side of the island. We did a snorkleing tour on the south side of the island one day that was pretty good, but the reefs are pretty algae covered and was more softies and fish, but it was cool. We did do a tour to the local zoo, and to the Don Lucas cigar spot. (http://donlucascigarsoriginal.com/) Cigars are pretty good if you like dominican sticks. I usually don't and I think they were good. They have a small factory and a big store you can buy cigars, rum, local knick knacks in.

Phone wise we just used a calling card that you can pick up just about everywhere down there.

All in all it was a great trip, and I'd go back, but there are a lot of other places I'd like to see. Any questions just ask.

[jkim05]

If you stay at an all inclusive resort, which is my recommendation and pretty much the only option on that part of the island, English is fine. To use your phones, which are ATT I presume, you'll need to activate international calling by calling customer service, but as stated above it is very expensive. Just don't use phones while you're there or use skype if your resort has WiFi. As for specific resort recommendations, it really depends on your expectations, but shoot a star above what you would look for in the US. Their ratings are a bit inflated, IMO.

There are plenty of activities and things to do and your resort or travel agency will have suggestions and schedules. As for the city, Punta Cana is kinda in the middle of nowhere and you'll pretty much be stuck on your resort unless you visit another resort. There's not much shopping in Punta Cana beyond the usual caribbean tourist junk, but it's still fun to look around. I can expound more later if you have any other questions.

[jledou]

Scott,

As far as calling goes if you have a laptop and internet access, skype is the easiest and by far the cheapest. People won't necessarily be able to call you unless you pay for a skype number but you will be able to call out land lines and cell phones at less than 10 cents a min.
Example I talked to home today from Taiwan for about 30 minutes and it was less than a dollar.

Something to think about and look into. Hope you guys have a good time.

J

Wife and I got married at the Paridisus Punta Cana in Nov 2006. We loved it and want to go back again some time. We were looking for somewhere to just go and chill on the beach. It was definitely great for that.

As for the beach, it's a nice stretch to walk up and down and people watch (and SMOKE). We walked up and down quite a bit. There is a small patch of shacks/shops at one end of it that you can get some cheap touristy stuff at. There was a cigar shop in them that was selling glass tops, as well as the guys walking up and down the beach. A decent novelty item if you can get them for ~$50, IMO. I wouldn't walk to town. I'd recommend staying on the beach and just go up and down there. Plenty of exercise and enough to see. There's plenty of European tourists there, as well, and they do "go European" on the beach. Which is both and

Food was decent at the resort, and if you want to eat off the resort, there are some decent seafood places to find. One of which I recall walking by had a barbeque where they were grilling some big lobsters (split down the middle), and they looked oh so good!

As for the excursions...the ones we did were meh. Went deep sea fishing on a boat that just SPEWED diesel fumes...enough to make me sick. In the time we were out, we only had 1 bite (for the WHOLE BOAT). Another time, we were supposed to go snorkeling, but the bus never showed up to pick us up at the resort. Some sort of snafu with the booking agency. We got a full refund, at least. At the resort, there was some parasailing. We DID do that, and got some awesome pics from up there. Plenty of beach sports to play, too, and there were actually waves there, since that side of the island faces the open ocean.

I've got pics to share if you'd like, Scott (just none here at work). Have fun!!!

[jesseboston81]

Thanks for posting this thread Scott. My fiancee and I are also considering Punta Cana as a honeymoon spot, so all of this information is very useful.

[Commander Quan]

I stayed at the Iberostar Grand Hotel Bavaro in September and it was awesome. The Grand Hotel property it's self isn't that big but you have access to the 2 other Iberostar properties right beside them, we walked through them once but other than that there was no reason to leave our property. The staff is top notch, speaks English, and will go out of their way to cater to you. We had zero issues with anything that week and if I were going back to the DR I wouldn't look anywhere else.

[shilala]

We were looking at Iberostar, Derrick. It was right up in the top of hotels we were considering.

I'm really glad I asked all you guys about this stuff. The biggest problem we have is that we have to have good phone/Internet service. We have five kids, and Lisa has to remain available for work. Not having constant contact with, or the ability to have constant contact with home is not an option, and everything I've read leaves that a problem. Funny the things we take for granted, the fact that could be a problem never occurred to me.

We haven't ruled out Punta Cana, but now we're back to looking at Cozumel a little harder. If that doesn't pan out, we may need to end up in the Keys or Sarasota or something and save Punta Cana for a little later in life.

[mosesbotbol]

What about Cancun? It's about as un-Mexico like as it gets, but it offers good value and I know they internet. There's great resorts at all price points.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by mosesbotbol

What about Cancun? It's about as un-Mexico like as it gets, but it offers good value and I know they internet. There's great resorts at all price points.

Mose, I just have Cozumel stuck in my head because I understand the diving is way above par. I will definitely take a look at Cancun, though. Thanks for the suggestion.
All along, Cozumel was our choice. We just really got excited about DR after hearing so much. I still hope I can make Punta work out, but it doesn't look good.