Punta Cana / Dominican Republic?

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!!!

[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.

[smitdavi]

Originally Posted by Wanger

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!!!

This is where we went for our honeymoon in November. We loved it and would highly recommend it. We did not leave the resort, to be honest we were a little afraid to do so. Some things I will mention to keep in mind: DO NOT GIVE IN to their time share/condo presentation. It will take all morning/afternoon and they can be very rude and will guilt you into it. Take lots of small bills for tips and such. Seems like all we had were 20's and we had to keep getting them broken down. I know at the Paradisus if you just gave the bar tender a dollar here and there he will take care of you. You can smoke anywhere.....and I mean ANYWHERE. Hell I lit up during dinner one night. When I asked the concierge where I could smoke a cigar he literally laughed at me and said "you can smoke wherever you like!" Take plenty of cigars! I took about 20 with me and I was there for a full week.