Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Xmas 2007
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We just returned from our 2007 winter vacation in Punta Cana Domincan Republic.
Airport: Open air, thatched roofs, it's not air-conditioned but the open air design keeps it comfortable, there are large ceiling fans also. There are 2 termninals (1 just added in last 2 years). Its only 20 - 45 minutes to the resorts from the airport. We had a 25 minute ride by air conditioned bus. There are NO jet ways, so planes load via high mobile stair cases. There is also a long walk out to the planes in their parked areas. GOOD NEWS: there's a Wendy's in the departure lounge, so after a week of island food you can get an old fashion burger & fries & drink combo during your 4 hour wait to board the plane.
Resort: We stayed at the Grand Palladium Palace, which adjacent to 2 other Palladium resorts, (Bavaro & Punta Cana) so we had the use of all 3 resorts. Rooms are simple but nice. The toilet and shower are in a small separate room with sliding door. The sink and jacuzzi tub are in the main bedroom, perhaps this was romantic touch, but it didn't work for us. There was a mini-bar with pop, beer & litre's of bottled water.(this was restocked every other day) There were 4 or 5 large buffets, 6 al'a carte restaurants , 6 pools and about a mile of beach. Every lobby & pool & reataurant has a bar. I found the el Presidente beer Ok similar to American beers. Plenty of mixed drinks, coctailes etc available, and bottled water was plenty-full & offered frequently. My wife & were quite fond of a Banana Momma ,a frosty slush, with vanilla, fresh banana & rum in a blender.
Food: I found the foods in general mediocure, very bland & meat is for the most part over cooked. Meats were quite dry and tough. Buffets were the only option for breakfast, plenty of choices though, fresh fruits, cerials, waffles, pancakes (no maple syrup though), bacon, ham sausages, cold meats, buns, sweet rolls juices, eggs, omlette station ,cooked to your specs. The hi-spot for me was the juice bar: fresh fruit juice & fruit in a blender while you wait. I had fresh omlettes most mornings, with side bacon. The flavour of the sausages was not to my liking. For lunch & dinner the choices of la carts or buffets. I can't comment on lunch. We tend to eat a big breakfast and skip lunch when on vacation. Dinners we tended to hit an ala carte if possilbe. There's Italian, Spanish, Asian, Mexican, Steak & Seafood, Domincan to choose from. We had one nice meal at the Italian, the veal parmacean was a little over done, but still tender. The steak & sea food experience was a disaster. 3 steaks ordered medium, 1 was ok , 2 burned beyond recognition. My son-in-law sent his back said medium please, the next one came BLUE (raw & cold in middle). The asian food was ok. The sushi was good, as were spring rolls, shrimp dishes are served with shrimp still in shells, a pain to peal & devain while eating. The sweet and sour pork was good taste, but the pork was dry & tough. On the buffet one night we picked what was marked pork chop, it turned out to be grilled ham steak, and was really good. So you never know. We arrived late 11 pm on our first night, so all buffets/restaurants were closed. There's an all night sports bar at the adjacent resort (Bavaro) so we hopped on the little train. The bar had hot dogs, ham burgers, fries, nachos & cheese & soft drinks & soft ice cream, mixed drinks & El Presidente beer. Burgers were hit & miss, mine was ok, my wife's was raw in the middle. The beer,drinks & food were plentiful & welcome after a long day of traveling.
Diving: The dive operation is run by Dolin dive Centers. They are a SSI center, they are DAN registered & have O2 kit on sight. Tanks are 80 cuft aluminum, I dove with the dive shop location on the Grand Palladium Bavaro resort, adjacent to our resort. I watched a few pool sessions. There were some vacationers taking O/W diver courses. I have been retired from teaching for 2 years but classes looked to be pretty much PADI O/W Diver standard. It was just a five minute walk to the dive center from our room villa. There is some good diving in the area. I had a fabulous dive on Sunday to the "Caves" this is a shallow reef 35-45 feet deep with many grottos & swim thrus in the coral canyons. There is a wreck, about 2 miles off shore, max depth 60-70 feet, it appears to be a freighter that ran aground. Half of it above water half below. There's also some nice shallow reefs for snorkeling (8-15 feet deep) We went on snorkeling excursion about 1 hr south of us to swim with nurse sharks & sting rays. This was a fun 1/2 day, but over priced @ $85 US each. The dives are pretty much "follow-me" type dives lead by an Instructor or DM. However on the cave's dive the Dm lead us back to the anchor line & signaled UP. My buddy (an Austrian girl with 300+ dives) still have plenty of air, we showed our gauges & signaled to circle. The DM signaled Ok , showed 5 fingers (500 psi) + go up, then lead the 4 newbies up the anchor line. We continued our dive.
The winds picked up mid week and the breakers were so high the small dive boats could not get out. We tried on day but the surge was really bad on the reef & the sand was stirred up making visibilty the pits.(10 feet or less). There is a dive to Catalina Island, which has a wall and reef available, but it's an all day trip and the weather was not co-operation, so we spent the rest of the time on the beach.
The weather was warm & humid & sunny for most of the week. There was always an east wind blowing, which made the humidity bearable. Temperature ranged between 75 & 85°F . we had a couple of heavy down pours at night, and a few light showers during the day. These did not last and the sun was back out in minutes.
In general a nice vacation spot, ok for a holiday with a little diving, but not recommended if you want a "diving holiday". If you're fussy on food, DR is not the place for you. In general the food was bland, over cooked, salads are simple cut veggies, but no dressing other than oil & vinegar, pretty boring after a week. The beaches are fantastic, the grounds & facilties were well maintained. There were covered walk-ways zig zagging thru the resort, lots of coconut palm trees, gardens etc The resort was all inclusive, so drinks, snacks, meals etc were all included in one price. The Steak & Seafood reataurant offered lobster at +$30 US which was not included.
Mike D
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We just returned from our 2007 winter vacation in Punta Cana Domincan Republic.
Airport: Open air, thatched roofs, it's not air-conditioned but the open air design keeps it comfortable, there are large ceiling fans also. There are 2 termninals (1 just added in last 2 years). Its only 20 - 45 minutes to the resorts from the airport. We had a 25 minute ride by air conditioned bus. There are NO jet ways, so planes load via high mobile stair cases. There is also a long walk out to the planes in their parked areas. GOOD NEWS: there's a Wendy's in the departure lounge, so after a week of island food you can get an old fashion burger & fries & drink combo during your 4 hour wait to board the plane.
Resort: We stayed at the Grand Palladium Palace, which adjacent to 2 other Palladium resorts, (Bavaro & Punta Cana) so we had the use of all 3 resorts. Rooms are simple but nice. The toilet and shower are in a small separate room with sliding door. The sink and jacuzzi tub are in the main bedroom, perhaps this was romantic touch, but it didn't work for us. There was a mini-bar with pop, beer & litre's of bottled water.(this was restocked every other day) There were 4 or 5 large buffets, 6 al'a carte restaurants , 6 pools and about a mile of beach. Every lobby & pool & reataurant has a bar. I found the el Presidente beer Ok similar to American beers. Plenty of mixed drinks, coctailes etc available, and bottled water was plenty-full & offered frequently. My wife & were quite fond of a Banana Momma ,a frosty slush, with vanilla, fresh banana & rum in a blender.
Food: I found the foods in general mediocure, very bland & meat is for the most part over cooked. Meats were quite dry and tough. Buffets were the only option for breakfast, plenty of choices though, fresh fruits, cerials, waffles, pancakes (no maple syrup though), bacon, ham sausages, cold meats, buns, sweet rolls juices, eggs, omlette station ,cooked to your specs. The hi-spot for me was the juice bar: fresh fruit juice & fruit in a blender while you wait. I had fresh omlettes most mornings, with side bacon. The flavour of the sausages was not to my liking. For lunch & dinner the choices of la carts or buffets. I can't comment on lunch. We tend to eat a big breakfast and skip lunch when on vacation. Dinners we tended to hit an ala carte if possilbe. There's Italian, Spanish, Asian, Mexican, Steak & Seafood, Domincan to choose from. We had one nice meal at the Italian, the veal parmacean was a little over done, but still tender. The steak & sea food experience was a disaster. 3 steaks ordered medium, 1 was ok , 2 burned beyond recognition. My son-in-law sent his back said medium please, the next one came BLUE (raw & cold in middle). The asian food was ok. The sushi was good, as were spring rolls, shrimp dishes are served with shrimp still in shells, a pain to peal & devain while eating. The sweet and sour pork was good taste, but the pork was dry & tough. On the buffet one night we picked what was marked pork chop, it turned out to be grilled ham steak, and was really good. So you never know. We arrived late 11 pm on our first night, so all buffets/restaurants were closed. There's an all night sports bar at the adjacent resort (Bavaro) so we hopped on the little train. The bar had hot dogs, ham burgers, fries, nachos & cheese & soft drinks & soft ice cream, mixed drinks & El Presidente beer. Burgers were hit & miss, mine was ok, my wife's was raw in the middle. The beer,drinks & food were plentiful & welcome after a long day of traveling.
Diving: The dive operation is run by Dolin dive Centers. They are a SSI center, they are DAN registered & have O2 kit on sight. Tanks are 80 cuft aluminum, I dove with the dive shop location on the Grand Palladium Bavaro resort, adjacent to our resort. I watched a few pool sessions. There were some vacationers taking O/W diver courses. I have been retired from teaching for 2 years but classes looked to be pretty much PADI O/W Diver standard. It was just a five minute walk to the dive center from our room villa. There is some good diving in the area. I had a fabulous dive on Sunday to the "Caves" this is a shallow reef 35-45 feet deep with many grottos & swim thrus in the coral canyons. There is a wreck, about 2 miles off shore, max depth 60-70 feet, it appears to be a freighter that ran aground. Half of it above water half below. There's also some nice shallow reefs for snorkeling (8-15 feet deep) We went on snorkeling excursion about 1 hr south of us to swim with nurse sharks & sting rays. This was a fun 1/2 day, but over priced @ $85 US each. The dives are pretty much "follow-me" type dives lead by an Instructor or DM. However on the cave's dive the Dm lead us back to the anchor line & signaled UP. My buddy (an Austrian girl with 300+ dives) still have plenty of air, we showed our gauges & signaled to circle. The DM signaled Ok , showed 5 fingers (500 psi) + go up, then lead the 4 newbies up the anchor line. We continued our dive.
The winds picked up mid week and the breakers were so high the small dive boats could not get out. We tried on day but the surge was really bad on the reef & the sand was stirred up making visibilty the pits.(10 feet or less). There is a dive to Catalina Island, which has a wall and reef available, but it's an all day trip and the weather was not co-operation, so we spent the rest of the time on the beach.
The weather was warm & humid & sunny for most of the week. There was always an east wind blowing, which made the humidity bearable. Temperature ranged between 75 & 85°F . we had a couple of heavy down pours at night, and a few light showers during the day. These did not last and the sun was back out in minutes.
In general a nice vacation spot, ok for a holiday with a little diving, but not recommended if you want a "diving holiday". If you're fussy on food, DR is not the place for you. In general the food was bland, over cooked, salads are simple cut veggies, but no dressing other than oil & vinegar, pretty boring after a week. The beaches are fantastic, the grounds & facilties were well maintained. There were covered walk-ways zig zagging thru the resort, lots of coconut palm trees, gardens etc The resort was all inclusive, so drinks, snacks, meals etc were all included in one price. The Steak & Seafood reataurant offered lobster at +$30 US which was not included.
Mike D
