At last somewhere, where being opinionated is encouraged. Wend:)
At last somewhere, where being opinionated is encouraged. Wend:)
Member since:16.05.2004
Reviews:23
Members who trust:5
We have just spent two fabulous weeks in Cabarete on the North coast of Dominican Republic, and I want to tell you all about it. We flew with Thomson and it cost us approx £600 each. Spending money, we probably spent around £400, not including our diving course.
First off a bit of geography, DomRep occupies one half of the island of Hispaniola. One of the larger islands in the Caribean. The other half of it being Haiti. It is approximately 8 1/2 hrs away from the UK, but is well worth the time taken to get there.
Remember hurricane Jeanne, of September 2004 hitting and devastating Haiti and Dom Rep, well we got there about 7 days after she did expecting to find devestation and in fact had wanted to cancel our holiday, but didn't as we would have lost all our money. So with trepidation, and fearing the worst we went. We need not have worried. Although Cabarete was hit, Jeanne had been downgraded to a tropical storm before she got there and apart from a few fallen trees, you would not have known there had been a problem.
Airport info - we arrived in the middleof the afternoon and flew into Peurto Plata airport.
Having been told that no visa is required by our travel agent, you arrive to be told you need to pay $10US per person to enter the country. Also it helps to have some low denomination dollars or Dom Pesos for the porters who will come and carry your bags for you. You can say No, but to be honest they only want a dollar (poverty is very apparent here) so I cant see the point of refusing. The heat hits you as you leave the airport and someone carrying your heavy bags for you is a relief. Also you will need more small notes for the porters on the coach and at the hotel. On your way home, you also need to pay $20US for departure tax, so remember to have that handy.
Transfer time to Cabarete is about 1/2 hr, but with drop offs it can go on for about 1 hr.
Hotel - We stayed at the Casa Laguna Beach Resort. It is only on an all inclusive basis and is split into two sites, one right on the beach, one just across the road. You can use both sites freely regardless of which side your room is on. Our room was across the road, which I thought was the nicer side. There are two big pools on this side, and a jacuzzi. All the entertainment staff are based on this side as well and work really hard to have things available for you to do, but at the same time if you dont want to get involved, they are not pushy. The beach side, has, well, the beach. It also has the main restaraunt, where you can eat three times a day, There are also two al a cart restaraunts, one mexican, one italian where you can eat as well, although these need booking the day before.
There are bars on both sides of the hotel, both serving drinks from 10am till 11 pm.
All the staff at the hotel are exceptionally friendly, and nothing is too much trouble. From the manager down to the cleaners. They always say hello, and ask how you are doing. Even when I asked them to move a dead cockroach from my room. I had killed it, but then couldnt touch it, it was no trouble. By the way, that was the only cockroach that I saw all holiday, but it was big. The hotel is excetionally clean, one of the cleanest I have stayed in, and the housekeepers put sprigs of fresh flowers on your bed everyday when they make it.
The quality of the food at the hotel was variable, sometimes (mostly) absolutely delicious, sometimes just ok. But there was always lots of choice, hot, cold, salads, vegetables. You would not go hungry at all. We have no children but some of the guests that had children did complain that it wasnt a child friendly menu, and that the only thing their kids would eat was the chips.
Cabarete - is a smallish town. It has one main street and this hotel is at one end of it. Wherever you go there are people trying to sell you things, braid your hair, go into their shop, or go see their timeshare, but you do get that in most tourist places. Usually a quick 'No gracias', will work and they will leave you alone. In Cabarete there are loads of bars and restaraunts, our first few nights there we thought it was really quiet, but then we found out that on the road side the bars are nearly empty, but walk through any of them to the beach side and you will see where it all happens. Any sun loungers that are out during the day are put away and tables/chairs/candles are put out. Everyone just chills out and you can walk along the beach from one bar to the other. Each has their own identity and plays their own type of music, but you can walk along and sample them all. There are loads of shops selling trinket and souveniers. There is also an ice cream parlour across the road from the beach, selling about 20 different flavours of ice cream, check it out and see how many you can sample.
The cheapest is one called Liquidation, it is near the photographers, apparently all the local vendors buy their stuff there as well and then charge you twice as much, so you may as well go there first.
Please, if you do go here, get out and about and meet and talk to people. They are so friendly, and even the ones who are hassling you are only trying to make a living. Poverty as I said earlier is to apparent here, that I can't blame anyone for trying to make a living. And try your hand at a bit of spanish, they really appreciate you trying, even if you are really bad at it.
Trips - We dont usually do many trips not being ones for pub crawls and sitting in coaches all day, but one I would recomend is a trip to Ocean World. The cost was about $80US (£45.00) for us, which included a dolphin swim. The cost is different depending what you want to do when you get there, eg swim with dolphins, dolphin encounter, sealion encounter etc. Our admission cost included a 40 min dolphin swim, entrance to the park, coach transfer to the park and home, and lunch (excluding drinks). Well worth it, in my opinion. You get all day at the park, where you can snorkel, sunbathe, watch sharks and sealions, watch two tiger cubs playing, wander through the aviaries, and shop. The dolphin swim was awesome. You are in small groups (8) and are given a time to be there. You are issued with life jackets and a trainer and other staff are with you and tell you what to do, where to swim to etc. You get to interact with the dolphins, swim with them, feed them, dance with them, get kissed by them and then they will pull you along in the water. Better than any theme park ride for exhileration. You can also buy videos, and photos. The photos were not too expensive. We paid $100US (about £50.00)for 1 video, 1 large photo in a frame, one fridge magnet (photo) and four smaller (6x8) photos.
All in all, we had a fabulous time, and I would reccomend Dom Rep as a place to visit. If you go you will have a great time, and meet loads of interesting people.
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Cabarete beach
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Advantages: Entertainment, The Brits, Excellent food, Amazing location and great Excursions Disadvantages: Mosquitoes eat you alive, Sambuka after a Japanese meal, Staffs lack of English and being hassled off the resort while shopping
SouthernComfort 19.05.2003 (19.05.2003)
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Review of General: Dominican Republic
Nov 9th, 2004
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