Tours, Beaches and All-Inclusive Hotels in Punta Cana
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I searched on TripAdvisor for where the best all-inclusive hotels are, and to my surprise, I discovered that out of the ten best all-inclusive hotels in the Caribbean, seven are located in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean islands. So, as a known island lover and no less of a food lover, I set out (flew) to check!
In this article, I will present the hotels that are most worth staying at in my opinion, but of course, I didn't stop at hotels; I also checked what attractions are in the area and wrote about them as well, including links to reliable booking sites where you can book both the hotels and the recommended tours and trips.
General Information
The Dominican Republic is located in the eastern part of a large Caribbean island called Hispaniola, which it shares with its poor neighbor Haiti. The island is mostly mountainous with forests covering mountains reaching a height of about 3000 meters. Spanish is spoken in the Dominican Republic, but in tourist sites and hotels, you can get by well in English. Also, the tour guides are English speakers, and some are even originally from English-speaking countries (many from Canada).
Arrival
Punta Cana can be reached from Israel by flight with a layover in Europe (excellent options are via Zurich and via Barcelona) or by a direct flight from many destinations in Canada or the US. For example, a flight from Miami takes 2.5 hours to Punta Cana.
Recommended tours in Punta Cana from GetYourGuide.com:
All-Inclusive Hotels
Most of the newer all-inclusive hotels are located at the eastern end of the country in a place called Punta Cana, and the older ones are in the north of the country in the Puerto Plata area. Fortunately, I found that the TripAdvisor recommendations were correct: amazing hotels, spread over huge areas, full of gardens, vegetation, and facilities. In most hotels, the concept is "Ultra All-Inclusive": a large selection of restaurants, including chef and gourmet restaurants from a variety of styles, all of which can be eaten in at no extra charge.
The drinks: soft and alcoholic are also free in all restaurants and bars. Room service - free with a rich and varied food and drink menu, and also a mini-bar full of goodies - free!
Some of the restaurants are located on the beaches, a wonderful opportunity to watch the sunrise. In most large hotels, you will find Asian, French, Italian, Mediterranean, American, Mexican restaurants, and even a Japanese steakhouse where the chef prepares the food with stunts in front of your eyes.
All hotels also have clubs; many have performance halls and a casino. Some hotels are for adults only, and some are family-oriented with facilities for children, game rooms, and a variety of activities and shows for the whole family. Anyone can find a hotel to their liking.
The hotels span a large area with spacious pools and adjacent sandy beaches bustling with water activities, including sun loungers, umbrellas, and private cabanas. In some, rental of various types of boats and marine equipment is free for hotel guests. Many of the ground floor rooms have private access to the pools.
Some hotels have premium rooms, more exclusive, and guests of these rooms have access to lounges, restaurants, and beaches unique only to them.
The service provided to all guests is extraordinary! The local residents, especially those engaged in tourism, are pleasant, welcoming, professional, and try very hard. Most hotel guests come from the US and Canada (locals call the place "Punta Canada" because of the massive amounts of Canadians arriving in the area, especially in winter) and a minority from Europe. It was surprising that we didn't meet any Israelis among the hotel guests because Israelis are known as all-inclusive lovers (for example, Antalya). The reason is probably the distance and flight price and the lack of awareness of this recommended place. There are clear advantages here: the weather is summery even in winter, there are no security warnings here, the residents are friendly, the hotels are new and luxurious with excellent service and interesting activities and trips as I will detail below. Surprisingly, the prices are definitely affordable – you will get full value for your money in Punta Cana and much beyond that.
Recommended hotels in Punta Cana
There are hotels of all types and levels in Punta Cana. Since the "all-inclusive" hotels in the area are amazing and constitute one of the main attractions and reasons to choose the destination, I highly recommend choosing one of the five-star all-inclusive resorts.
The hotels are concentrated in three main areas:
Bavaro Beach Area
This is the main beach with the highest concentration of hotels and the widest variety of resorts and attractions. Particularly suitable for those looking to be in the heart of the action and activity. Recommended hotels in Bavaro:
Hotel Now Larimar
5-star hotel, Ultra All-Inclusive. Located right on the beach at Bavaro Beach, 14 km from Punta Cana airport. The hotel has five swimming pools, seven restaurants, and a casino. Every room has a private furnished patio or balcony.
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Free Wi-Fi throughout the hotel and free parking. A sandy beach with umbrellas, lounge chairs, and cabanas. Full of shows and activities including a large play area for children.
Hotel Luxury Bahia Principe Esmeralda
5-star spa hotel located on the beach with indoor and outdoor pools, playgrounds, and activities for children, 20! restaurants of all types and kinds, including gourmet restaurants, a wide range of bars, boat rentals of all types, sports courts including tennis, free Wi-Fi, free bicycle rental, and 24-hour entertainment activity.
Uvero Alto Area
Located about 20 km north of Bavaro Beach. A quieter and more exclusive area, with construction and development momentum, most of the hotels there are new and built in recent years.
Hotel Breathless Punta Cana Resort & Spa
5-star adults-only hotel, Ultra All-Inclusive. Located right on the beach, 50 minutes drive from Punta Cana airport.
The hotel has six swimming pools, 2 outdoor hot tubs, spa treatments. 9 restaurants, a cafeteria and 8 bars and lounges, an indoor theater, a casino, and water sports activities. Free Wi-Fi throughout the hotel and free parking. Hotel guests can use all the facilities of the neighboring hotel for free and also eat freely in all its restaurants: Now Onyx Punta Cana, a wonderful family hotel full of facilities and activities for all ages.
Cap Cana Area
A quiet and exclusive area located about half an hour (30 km) south of Bavaro, a 15-minute drive (10 km) south of Punta Cana airport.
Hotel Sanctuary Cap Cana by AlSol
5-star all-inclusive adults-only hotel, a high-quality and very impressive hotel located in a castle on a wonderful beach. The hotel has 5 restaurants, bars, a spa, and swimming pools. Free Wi-Fi. All rooms are spacious suites, some with a private swimming pool and some with pool access from the suite.
Hotel Eden Roc At Cap Cana
Highly luxurious and high-quality boutique hotel, including suites of various sizes in French, Italian, and Spanish design. Each suite has a private pool.
Each suite is surrounded by tropical gardens. It spans a huge area between the beach and the golf courses. Each suite receives a golf cart for private use. The hotel has a swimming pool and spa, two gourmet restaurants, free internet, free airport transfers; the hotel organizes various activities for its guests such as cooking classes, horseback riding, and catamaran sailing. This hotel is not on an all-inclusive basis!
Activities and guided tours in Punta Cana
As befits a bustling tourist area, Punta Cana provides tourists with a variety of activities and trips ranging from a host of water activities like parasailing, jet skis, surfboards, sailboats, sailing and snorkeling trips, etc., to land trips including guided safari trips to various destinations in the forests, rum and cigar factories, cocoa, coffee, and sugar cane farms, monkey farms, and even action and adrenaline trips: buggy tours, horseback riding, and a ropes and zipline park.
Trip to Saona Island
The most beautiful beaches in the Punta Cana area are located on Saona Island, which is reached by a day trip combining a drive of about an hour to the port for sailing and from there a fun cruise to the popular island with white beaches. It is also an excellent destination for snorkeling. This is a full-day tour that also includes lunch on the island. Many companies organize sailing tours to Saona.
It is recommended to book the tour online at the reliable Viator site: Saona Island Day Trip From Punta Cana with Lunch and Open Bar Included
Sailing, Swimming and Snorkeling
Those looking for more action and wanting to sail and snorkel are invited to go on a fun boat trip including an open bar and light snacks (booking from the Viator website):
Small Group Snorkeling Cruise with Open Bar and Light Snacks
Action and Extreme Parks
Two action and extreme parks within a short drive from the hotels are:
1. Scape Park Cap Cana
A park full of attractions in Cap Cana, where the main attraction is Hoyo Azul - a natural underground pool with turquoise water. Other attractions are Zip Line Eco Adventure - a zipline park between cliffs, Iguabonita Cave Expedition - a walking tour to the caves.
The best and cheapest way to visit the park is to buy an entry ticket + transport through the Viator website:
Punta Cana Scape Park and Blue Hole Full Day Admission Ticket
2. Bavaro Adventure Park
A park stretching from the sea to the jungle full of activities and attractions including ziplines, Segway, climbing walls, zorbing, paintball, flight simulator and more. A daily unlimited pass or a pass for three or five attractions can be purchased. It is also recommended to purchase this pass at the world's largest attractions site, Viator:
Bavaro Adventure Park Buggy Ride, Zipline Mega Splash, and Waterfall Pool
For all activities and trips, there is pickup from the hotel and return to it, and other entertainments for vacationers center on the hotels themselves, so there is no need at all to rent a car for those arriving here.
Below is a detailed description of several recommended trips and activities that the place has to offer:
Safari Trip
Riding in an open safari truck with a canopy around the area to get to know the lives of the locals and the surrounding nature.
Booking a safari day trip from Viator: Full Day Eco Safari Adventure and Cultural Tour
Below is a description of a similar safari tour (contents may vary, exact itinerary is provided on the site where it was ordered):
Pass through the streets of the nearby local town with poor houses and quite shabby streets. Stop near a local school. Continue towards the mountains and enter the forest, visit a cocoa farm, taste the sweet coating of the cocoa beans as well as ground cocoa bean powder with a little sugar, and receive explanations about the process of growing and producing cocoa beans.
Visit inside a private home of local residents to get an impression of their lifestyle. The locals' houses are very colorful, each a different color—yellow, pink, turquoise—and the combination of the colorful houses between the crops and tropical trees is pleasing to the eye.
From here, drive to the nearby town of Higuey and visit a large church built of exposed concrete: Basilica of Our Lady of Altagracia.
Sailing and meal on the river - available in some tours: leave the city towards a river on which you sail in a sort of boat/raft that is also a restaurant along the river while watching the forested tropical landscape. The meal includes lobsters and of course plenty of wine. The waitresses will also entertain you after the meal with typical local dances and even invite you to join the merry dance.
Along the way, pass sugar cane fields cultivated by workers from the poor neighboring country, Haiti. Sugar cane collection is done using primitive manual methods with carts harnessed to oxen.
Some of the safari tours include a visit to local farms where cocoa, coffee, and tobacco are grown. Other tours visit a cigar factory where you get an explanation of the production stages and see the workers making the cigars in action, from choosing the right tobacco leaves, cutting the wrapping leaves to the rolling and storing the cigars in controlled humidity conditions before they are sent for sale.
The Dominican Republic is currently considered the number one exporter of cigars (more than Cuba!) known for their high quality.
Also visit the place where sugar was previously produced from sugar cane using a large roller press "El Trapiche" that crushes the sugar cane and extracts the juice from which the sugar is produced. The press was previously operated by oxen.
In-depth tour with Mike - Munchies in Macao
Day tour 08:30-15:30. In this trip, you ride in an air-conditioned bus and the guidance on this trip is by a recommended guide named Mike who is originally from Canada and decided years ago that he prefers the Caribbean weather over that of Canada. Mike's explanations of the attractions and destinations in the trip were interesting and clear and also seasoned with stories about his personal life in the Dominican Republic. The visit begins at an elementary school in a poor neighborhood in the nearby town. This is an authentic visit, very uncommercialized, giving an opportunity to see up close the local children who receive support and guidance who without education might have deteriorated into crime. The trip participants are asked to buy stationery and teaching aids which they give as gifts to the teachers who distribute them to the children. Enter one of the classrooms and give the children an opportunity to ask one of the trip participants about their lifestyle, family, and country. Then the children are also asked questions. The children are very cute and it's fun to see them with their uniforms; it's a really recommended and interesting visit.
Cigars, rum, and chocolate (cocoa beans) are the three main products that the Dominican Republic exports. Therefore, the rest of this tour focuses on visiting a chocolate factory,
at a cigar factory which are very much in demand in the world, and at a rum factory where you taste samples of different types, and whoever wants can buy a bottle of rum here in a flavor they like and at a relatively cheap price compared to the shops.
The trip ends at a seafood restaurant on the beach at a place called Macao Beach (Playa Macao). Everyone chooses a fish or another seafood by weight. The price of the meal is not included but the meal is not expensive and the fish are grilled on coals.
While waiting for the food to be prepared, you can meanwhile bathe in the sea water near the restaurant and walk along the beautiful sandy beach.
Trip to Monkey Farm – Monkeyland
This is a half-day tour. A highly recommended tour where you will get to see up close and feed miniature monkeys called squirrel monkeys. You set out on the tour in a safari truck to the nearby mountains. Before entering the monkey enclosure, each visitor receives a metal plate with a selection of cut fruits and vegetables inside it to feed the monkeys. The monkeys in Monkeyland roam free in a large fenced compound. The monkeys have been habituated to being around humans, and when visitors enter, the monkeys approach them and even stand on their hands, shoulders, and even on their heads. Prepare your cameras! This is a special experience, the monkeys are simply charming.
Booking the trip to Monkeyland from the reliable Viator site:
♦ Trip to Monkeyland from Punta Cana - Monkeyland and Plantation Safari Tour from Punta Cana The trip lasts 5 hours. There is a morning trip and an afternoon trip. Includes hotel pickup and return and entrance fees.
In the other part of the trip, you visit a botanical garden, a cocoa farm, and also take a tour inside a typical local house.
Sailing and Snorkeling with a Catamaran
A recommended trip for fans of sailing and snorkeling with the addition of music and soft and alcoholic drinks included in the price. The catamaran boat is equipped with sails and also a motor, has tanning decks and wide nets over the water for sitting and lying down. The boat is designed for 26 passengers maximum, but in this cruise, the number of passengers is limited to 16 at most, to give more space and privacy to the passengers.
Booking the catamaran cruise from the recommended Viator site:
Small group catamaran sailing and snorkeling - Small Group Snorkeling Cruise with Open Bar and Light Snacks Includes unlimited drinks and snacks, snorkeling equipment, hotel pickup and return. Lasts about 3.5 hours.
Description of a similar cruise (check the site for details of the cruise being booked):
The cruise lasts about four hours, during which you first sail leisurely along the coasts while listening to good music and drinking cocktails and beers. On the way, pass by several islets where there are activities of swimming with dolphins or stingrays (not included in this trip; separate trips for swimming and activities with various sea animals can be taken).
After that, stop near a reef and snorkel among the corals and fish (snorkeling equipment provided by the organizers). During a guided snorkel, the guide will show you sea urchins, sea cucumbers, eels, and many other marine animals.
From there, sail to a place near the beach with shallow, calm water and sand at the bottom. Swim there and indulge in the water with a floating bar for the boat's guests. The cruise includes hotel pickup and return.
