Why Punta Cana:
I was visiting my grandfather Milton in Florida and discovered I did not need to be back in LA until Sunday. After scouring the internet, I discovered that the cheapest Caribbean destination was Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. I could fly there direct from Fort Lauderdale on Spirit for $160 and back using 21,000 Delta points. Considering this was so last minute and the cheapest roundtrip flights from LA to Punta Cana in the next six months are $350, I would say this was a great deal.
While I have been to the DR before, I did not visit Punta Cana, instead opting to see Santo Domingo and the interior of the country: Jarabacoa, Puerto Plata and Santiago de los Caballeros.
February 15, 2024: Bavaro
The flight from Fort Lauderdale to Punta Cana was less than two hours. The plane parked 100 meters from the terminal building but we were forced to take a bus. The thatched roof terminal building was beautiful and full of smiling people waiting to rip you off. The currency exchange was selling/buying USD at 40% off the real rate. Friendly bag handlers were offering to carry your bags through the airport (a very short distance) and then expecting $10-20 tips.
Part of the reason for the large number of government-sanctioned “soft scams” are because this is tourist airport. Punta Cana was uninhabited land when Dominican entrepreneur Frank Rainieri and American lawyer Theodoor Kheel purchased 58-million square meters of land. The land was very remote – a five-hour drive from the nearest town of significant size. Their plan was to develop all-inclusive resorts.
Grupo Puntacana’s first project, a collection of ten beach cottages and a clubhouse, opened in 1971. At that time, the hotel could only be accessed by air on a makeshift dirt airstrip. The first major resort opened in 1978.
To cater to the growing tourism demand, Grupo Puntacana opened Punta Cana International Airport as the first-ever private international airport. Since then, the region has continued to grow.
Today, Punta Cana has more than 100 resorts, the majority all-inclusive. Punta Cana International Airport is the second-busiest airport in the entire Caribbean (after San Juan), accounting for 60% of arrivals to the Dominican Republic. The airport has direct flights to 27 countries on three continents.
While the area is best known for resorts, there is a single backpacker hostel. The nightly rate was $25/night, which while very expensive by Latin America standards is a relative steal compared to the prices of the resorts. The hostel is located in Bavaro, a town built to house the resort workers but has since become the main commercial district for the region.
Taxis, shuttles and Ubers to Bavaro were all between $25-40 for a ride into town but if you walk 3 minutes off the property of the airport, an Uber is just $9 (thank you online research!). I later learned that Uber’s airport price-setting is due to an agreement with the local taxi drivers. It seems that the local taxi unions are the most aggressive in tourist areas.
Bavaro is a strange place. There is commercial life, but large stretches of the roads are lined with intimidating walls of the gigantic resorts.
I checked into the hostel and immediately headed to the beach, just a five-minute walk away. Bavaro’s town beach, known as Los Corales, had beautiful white sand. The beach was busy with both tourists and hustling locals selling tours and cigars and hauling in boats. The beach is officially public so each resort had security ensuring that only people with the correct color wristband could cross the property line and sit in the loungers. The water was 26 C (78F) – not quite pool temperature but still warm.
After an hour-long stroll on the beach, the sun was starting to set so I headed back into town. Since I did not have Dominican pesos, I struggled to find a restaurant that would accept either credit cards or my USD. Eventually I found a pizzeria that was recommended by my friend Carson. It was operated by a couple from Napoli…and it was delicious. The pricing was also very reasonable – my medium pizza and drink was $8.
After, I headed to the roof of the hostel to hang out with my fellow travelers. There were people from Brazil, France, Germany, Dominican Republic and the first ever traveler I’ve met from Czechia (Czech Republic). I was the only American. The vibes were immaculate.
February 16, 2024: Isla Saona
The most popular tourist attraction in the entire Dominican Republic is Isla Saona. Located in the extreme southeast corner of the country, this island is accessible for day trippers from both Punta Cana and Santo Domingo.
The island is part of a national park and is only accessible by boat tour. While offered by multiple vendors, the boat tours are a pretty standardized operation. The 12-hour day includes ground transportation to the dock, boat rides to/from the island, lunch, and an open bar. The price varies widely depending on where you purchase it. The hostel sold the tour for $50. Online retailers were in the $75-90 range. Men on the beach were selling the tour for about $100 and resort tour desks were selling the tour for $105-150.
Because I landed in the late afternoon on the 15th, I booked my tour online for $77.
The bus picked me up at the hostel at 6:40 am. We then spent the next 40 minutes picking up other guests along the way before hitting the road. During the drive, the guide explained the day and a little bit about the region in English, Spanish and French. There were about 50 people in the group. I befriended a group of four from Joplin, Missouri who were on their first-ever international trip but there were people from all over the US, Canada, Costa Rica, Italy, Puerto Rico and more.
One hour into the drive, we took a “bathroom break” at an overpriced souvenir shop. It appears every bus goes there because we were one of four buses at the shop. Everything was priced in dollars and very expensive. Upbeat tropical dance music played as the smiling attendants gave out wooden baskets for shopping. We stayed here for 20 minutes.
At 9:00, we finally made it to the town of Bayahibe. The beachfront want swarming with tourists boarding boats. Unfortunately, our speedboat was busy loading other tourists onto catamarans sitting in the water, so we had to wait about 45 minutes.
The speedboat zipped us 45 minutes southeast until we reached a sandbar in the azure water. The water was waist-deep. We all got into the water, the music started bumping and the bartender started handing out drinks from his floating bar.
The only drinks available were Cuba Libre (rum & knockoff coke) and Santa Libre (rum & knockoff Sprite). I downed four and suddenly all my frustrations from earlier in the day were gone.
We stayed at the sandbar for about 30 minutes before continuing south for 10 minutes. The music playlist was strange – for half the ride we listened to the Cha Cha Slide, but couldn’t dance because we were on the speedboat.
Eventually we made it to the west side of Isla Saona. The island is paradise with perfect white sand beaches fringed with palm trees.
Once on the island, we walked five minutes to reach the private beach. We were given two hours to enjoy the area.
It appeared that each tour company had its own setup of lounge chairs, food buffet, and bathroom. The food buffet was not great, but luckily the open bar also included beer and wine.
The island is home to a village of 500 residents that predated the creation of the national park. The villagers staff the beaches.
Even though the tour was advertised as all-inclusive, there were several upsells. For $35 extra, you could get freshly caught lobster and for $10 extra, you can get a piña colada served inside a pineapple. The staff gives free one-minute massages, but after that it is $40 for a 20-minute massage.
Despite the distractions, the beach, open bar combo really was incredible.
For the trip back, we swapped the speedboat for a catamaran. On this boat, we could dance while in motion and could continue to drink at the open bar.
The catamaran was a bit slower, but by 4:30, we had arrived back in Bayahibe. We were back in Punta Cana at 18:00. I don’t know exactly how many drinks I had but it was more than 12.
I met up with the hostel-mates who went to the island with a different company. We decided to get dinner in town and found a seafood restaurant. As predicted, the waiter recommended an off-menu $80 seafood plate – by far the most expensive item offered. Instead, we opted for the $10 paella.
Exhausted from the crazy day, I went to sleep.
February 17, 2024: The Pool Lounge
I woke up early to take a final stroll along the beach. At 10:00, I took an Uber to the same spot across the street from the airport to save $15. I then walked into the newer Terminal B for my Delta flight back to LA via Atlanta.
Terminal B opened in 2014, but the newest expansion (where my flight happened to take off from) opened in late 2023. Terminal B contains two PriorityPass lounges that are among the best in the world. The food, drinks and interior areas are beautiful but what sets this lounge apart is the swimming pool overlooking the runway.
Thankfully, I went carry-on only for this trip and had my swimsuit handy. I went for a dip in the empty pool.
After 90 minutes in the lounge, it was time to board the flight, so I headed downstairs and hopped on the plane.
Final Thoughts:
Punta Cana was fun, but it could not be more different than the rest of the country. It was built for foreign tourists and has very little Dominican culture. In fact, there are no Dominican restaurants in the main commercial area. Everything, including the airport, was privately developed.
I would even go so far to say that if you only visit a resort here, you cannot claim to have visited the Dominican Republic.
All that said, if your goal is to sit on beautiful beach and drink or you found a cheap flight, then Punta Cana is a fine place to be. But if you have any inkling of adventure, then I would recommend visiting other parts of the country instead.
If you do find yourself in Punta Cana, I would highly recommend visiting Isla Saona. The beach there was considerably more beautiful than in Bavaro. There are a few other lesser attractions in the area including Montaña Redonda and the church in Higuey that could take up another day or two.
The other bright spot was the hostel. I really enjoyed meeting everybody and it seems to be a good place to meet travelers if you are going to be spending some time in the country.
I would also recommend going to the airport early to visit the lounge. While I paid with PriorityPass, I believe it is open to the public for $50. Normally, I think lounges are overrated, but this one lives up to the hype. Make sure you are flying out of an airline that departs from Terminal B because the Terminal A lounge does not have a pool.
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