Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic)

September 1997 – My first long haul holiday! My first real holiday abroad really. I’d been to France, Germany and Holland with school a few times, and I’d been grape picking in France after my A-Levels, but that was hard work not a holiday!

So I was looking forward to the tropical temperatures and warm seas that, school-day friends, who were fortunate enough to be taken abroad for their holidays, always used to talk ...
...my husband. A proper couples type holiday that I’d always wanted to do.

We chose the Dominican Republic mainly due to the price. We wanted to go somewhere in the Caribbean but couldn’t really afford a holiday at all, so we booked a year in advance and tried to save up. We discovered that Caribbean holidays are pretty expensive but compared to most Caribbean islands, the Dominican Republic was just about do-able!
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September 1997 – My first long haul holiday! My first real holiday abroad really. I’d been to France, Germany and Holland with school a few times, and I’d been grape picking in France after my A-Levels, but that was hard work not a holiday!

So I was looking forward to the tropical temperatures and warm seas that, school-day friends, who were fortunate enough to be taken abroad for their holidays, always used to talk about. I went with my boyfriend, who is now my husband. A proper couples type holiday that I’d always wanted to do.

We chose the Dominican Republic mainly due to the price. We wanted to go somewhere in the Caribbean but couldn’t really afford a holiday at all, so we booked a year in advance and tried to save up. We discovered that Caribbean holidays are pretty expensive but compared to most Caribbean islands, the Dominican Republic was just about do-able!

We flew from Gatwick airport at about 9-10 am, and settled into rather cramped seating space for roughly eleven hours. I’d only flown fairly short distances before and hadn’t realised quite how cramped aeroplanes really are! I think I would definitely cough-up the extra for a first class seat next time I do a long-haul flight. Other than that, it was a pleasant enough journey. I didn’t mind the food, although I know lots of people don’t like it. I thought it was quite good really if you stop to think about what sort of work goes into preparing hundreds of meals, keeping them all warm and serving them.

I can’t remember what film we watched, but hey all long haul flights show a film so it’s down to luck whether you enjoy it or not! You can’t please all the passengers all of the time, but whatever film they end up showing, you can guarantee at least one person on board should like it!

So, flight over, touchdown safely negotiated, finally it was time to put our feet on solid, foreign ground. First though we were issued with visas to complete so that we’d be allowed into the country! The first difference was the heat. Yes it was hot, and yes I’d heard all the various descriptions of tropical weather over the years, but it’s still amazing how strange it is that first time. A funny moist kind of heat that sort of gets into your nostrils. It reminded me a little of how it feels in a steam room.

Surprise, number two. You didn’t step straight into a tunnel like at Gatwick or Heathrow, no, you climb down the steps, onto the hot tarmac and have to carry your hand luggage what seemed like miles at the time, to the arrivals lounge. Then we had to do some more standing around, feeling hot and bothered and finally we were through passport control.

We had booked an all-inclusive package with Thomsons, and the reps were waiting for us. The first thing they told us was not to bother with the numerous people wanting to carry your suitcases for you. They would be expecting to get paid and due to just arriving, we’d be unlikely to have small change. They explained that it’s not good to hand over what may appear to be a small amount of money to us, but can amount to a weeks wages to people in this country. We only needed to get outside the doors anyway and there would be buses waiting to take us to our hotels.

Our adventure had started. The bus broke down on the way to the hotel. Three times! Not for long though. The third time, it turned out we were only a hundred yards down the road from our hotel!!! At least the bus was air-conditioned. We were also told that road rules are practically non-existent there. In fact, no driving licences, no tax, no mot's. Quite a scary thought when you think about on a broken down bus!

We finally arrived. On with the plastic wrist bands for a fortnight! I thought the hotel was lovely. It was a complex of three storey buildings with a room on each floor. We were on the first floor. Our room was fairly basic but comfortable. It had a tile floor, which was pretty cold when you were bare-footed! The room comprised of a double bed, satellite TV, phone, air-conditioning (quite often broke down during the night!), a walk in wardrobe area, which also contained the safe and a large mirror above a sink unit. Opposite this was the door to the bathroom, which had a toilet, and bath combined with a shower. Simple, basic, but comfortable. To me, it was quite luxurious after spending most of my childhood holidays camping in a tent!

The all-inclusive packages include all your food, drinks and entertainment and it's nice not to have to worry about running out of money half way through the holiday. Or rather, if you do you won't go hungry or thirsty or get bored, but you just might just have a few disappointed relatives who don't get a present or a postcard!

The food was great, and an excellent variety was available every day. Breakfast was 6am-ish until around 10.30am. They had cereals, fruit toast, full cooked breakfast, make your own omelettes, pretty much anything you could want for your am grub! The hotel was situation almost directly on the beach. A rough road ran horizontally with the beach along the hotel boundaries. There was a lovely shaded patch of trees and then the beach. There were four food huts in the trees and seating areas. It was nice to have lunch so near to the beach. There was a BBQ hut, a pizza hut (not Pizza Hut though!), a sandwich hut and a juice bar. They all served food from about 11am until 5pm. So if you missed breakfast, there was only half an hour wait in the middle before being able to eat.

Dinner started in the main hall, which was air-conditioned and partially open?! (but it kept you cool somehow!) Like breakfast it would be a buffet style help yourself, and again, there was pretty much anything you could possibly want for dinner. Hot foods, cold foods, more fruit, desserts. There were special chefs cooking on a griddle to order. This tended to be different every day and ranged from fish to meat to Chinese noodles!

If you wanted somewhere different to eat though, there were also three speciality restaurants on site. You had to book these early in the morning and you were only allowed to eat at each restaurant once a week. But with so much choice in the main hall, this was certainly not a problem. There was an Italian restaurant, which as you'd expect offered pasta dishes and pizzas etc. It was very nice food. Another was the Brazilian restaurant. Here you were served a plate, and 12 different meats and fish were brought to your table separately and carved directly onto your plate from the skewer. There was a salad bar also. Again, the food was delicious, couldn't fault it. The third was a Mexican restaurant. They served typical Mexican dishes here like tacos etc. And as I'd come to expect by now, the food was wonderful.

Anyone guess I like food yet!? I love sampling different foods. This was a brilliant place to sample lots of different and diverse recipes. There was also a midnight snack bar open in the woods by the beach from about 11pm. There was a disco-type event in an open building near the food huts most nights, although this wasn't the main entertainment. Back in the hotel complex by the pool and bar, there was an open air stage. They put on entertainment here every night, and it was pretty good. There was a play/dance show, which actually depicted some Dominican Republic folklore. It was very well done and most of the cast were children from a local school. Some shows could be quite spectacular where a ring of fire would be produced while the actors danced in the flames.

The beaches were lovely. Clean, white sand. Clean, warm, crystal clear water. Heaven. We went in September and the weather is not as hot as a month earlier. It's the end of the summer, start of monsoon season. We got a few wet spells towards the end of the fortnight but although it was torrential it didn't last long. Also it was so warm, even at night, that it didn't really matter if you got wet! On the beach was a range of water-sports included in the holiday cost. Windsurfing, canoeing, pedal boats, snorkelling. There was plenty to keep you occupied if you're not the lying around in the sun all day sort of person. Volley ball and football was also organised on the beach at points during the day, by the entertainment staff. Fun events and competitions were also arranged in and around the pool.

One downfall to the holiday was the ear-infection I got during the second week. I think this is a common problem in pools abroad. Some say it has something to do with all the different sun-tan lotions ending up in the pool. Sounds reasonable to me. However there was a surgery on site which had 24-hour cover. I went at about 1am as the pain was so bad as I couldn't wait until a sociable time of the day. I was given ear-drops and antibiotics. I didn't let it spoil the rest of my holiday though!

One drawback to the beach was the number of locals parading up and down the beach with baseball caps, watches, you name it they sold it. They would not take no for an answer. The answer to this problem I found was to sunbathe topless believe it or not. They kind of steered clear and picked on the nearest 'covered' person. I felt a little sorry for them in a way though as at the end of the day, it is their livelihoods. They probably all had families to feed etc. They also had hairdressers of sorts on the beach. They plaited your hair into tiny plats and put beads in the ends. I decided to give it a go. (It also meant there'd be a few people less to hassle you if they could see you'd already had your hair done!) After agreeing the price, the woman set about to work. She'd underestimated how long it would take her by an hour and a half! Not really her fault though. She didn't realise how thick my hair was. It was also quite long! It was great once done though. It kept my hair out of my face and it was lovely and cool. It started looking scruffy after a week due to constant swimming etc. I was going to get it done again before coming home but I never got round to it the second time. Probably as I knew how long it would take!!!

We did venture out of the complex once. We hired a motorbike and drove down the coast. We looked around a town and that was an eye-opener. There was a market in the town, which was very smelly! We took a look around though and bought a few herbs and spices as I like cooking curries etc. We didn't understand Spanish however and we didn't know what half the spices we bought were!!! There was a lovely church in the town too and we took a few photos etc. Quite an experience!

When it came to spending some money, we decided we wanted to buy some local craftwork. There were artists and wood carvers on the beaches further down from the part directly outside the hotel. We brought back two amazing wooden statues of men playing solo drums. Also a lovely carved mask and two gorgeous oil paintings of boats in the sunset by an island. We tried out our haggling skills here. It was a bit strange but we all appeared happy with the agreed price when the deals were done!

But all good things must come to an end, and soon enough it was time to go home. The flight back was awful. The return journey in a night flight and there is no way I could sleep in that cramped space. Other passengers had stolen our blankets and pillows and there weren't any more spares. It was freezing cold. The air-conditioning on a plane is always cold (especially to me as I don't like air-conditioning anyway), but it's worse on a night flight. Or maybe it's because we've come from a hot fortnight into the cold air. I guess the outward journey would seem as bad as lets face it, Britain isn't too much different from the cold air anyway!

I would recommend the Dominican Republic to couples, particularly those in their 20's - 40's. It's a lovely place to relax and to have fun, but is not hectic like the popular Ibiza type holidays. The country is one of the poorest in the Caribbean and is therefore cheaper. This tends to mean more persistent beach sellers though. If you want Caribbean but can't afford somewhere like Jamaica then this is perfect. There weren't many children in our hotel, but the place wasn't really geared up for them anyway. It was actually nice and peaceful without them! Make the most of it before I have a family I guess. I doubt we'll be doing this kind of holiday with children. If adults have trouble dealing with 11 hours on a plane, then imagine a toddler. Doesn't bear thinking about! I would go again, but probably won't as there are hundreds of other countries I'd like to go to first! Don't forget to check with your doctor what jabs you need before going on holiday though. Better be safe than sorry!
 

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