8 Days in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
I’ll start off with saying when we booked this trip, it was primarily because we had Southwest points and a Companion Pass. We are always looking for a new place to go, especially internationally, with Southwest and we hadn’t been to Punta Cana yet. We also hadn’t done an all-inclusive resort yet either and that appeared to be what Punta Cana was all about. However, since we don’t go anywhere and just do one thing, we did this trip a little differently. We started off with four nights in an AirBnB in the Los Corales area and then four nights at the Royalton Punta Cana all-inclusive resort.
Los Corales Beach
At the AirBnB
We rented a small apartment at the Flor Del Mar complex. It was very secure and clean. Across the parking lot is the Villa One Beach Club, which has a decent restaurant and bars on the beach. The unit was two-bedroom and two-bath with a small kitchenette and a dining room table. Unfortunately, the listing didn’t match the pictures. The pictures showed a living room with a couch, but upon arrival, we discovered they had replaced that with a kitchen table. Saying that, there wasn’t a TV in there either, but it would have been nice to have a place to sit other than lying in bed.
The main issue we had was that the bedroom air conditioner was having an error. It was easy to work around if you left the doors open to the bedroom and ran the other two units in the apartment. The bathrooms were large, but would get a bit of a septic smell and there was no hot water - which isn’t uncommon in tropical places. Typically, the water is warmed by a tank on the roof, so it’s usually warmer to shower in the afternoons than in the mornings. The beach was literally right outside the unit, which is great if you’re a beach person.
If you’re on any of the Punta Cana Facebook groups, then you know most people don’t really “get off the resort” but it’s actually quite safe to do so. We even rode around in one of those little scooter carts to get to the San Juan Shopping Center. There’s not a lot for tourists at the shopping center, but there is a huge grocery store, which is great if you’re staying in an AirBnB for a few days. There were a few stores, but they are more targeted to people who live in the area. We also went to the BlueMall. It’s overpriced and more tourist-targeted, but the best part of it was actually the restaurant options. We ate at SBG and would highly recommend it. The carbonara was amazing. The shrimp taco appetizer was also very good. Saying that, seafood in general in Punta Cana is not great, especially at the resorts, as they overcooked it immensely - more on that in a bit. Down the street from the apartment was Enjoy Restaurant. We actually ate there twice in one day. Once for lunch, which was great, and once for dinner.
If you’re not staying at a resort, however, you’ll find that there’s really not much to do other than take a tour. The activities in the area are highly targeted to the resort crowd. In fact, some of them you can’t even really do if you’re not at a resort. They also weren’t that attractive to us. Monkeyland sounded cool, but couldn’t really justify paying $80 a person for a tour to see some monkeys. The same was true for the Marineland and other tours you could book. The Coco Bongo sounded interesting, but it didn’t start until very late at night and the reviews were very mixed. Generally speaking, most of the “excursions” sounded rather expensive.
The one thing we did find to do was the Hard Rock Resort’s Casino. This was a real casino with free drinks while you played, just like Vegas. They also had live music in the evenings. We spent two days at the casino, because, well, there wasn’t anything else to do! The casino also had a great Asian restaurant.
Hard Rock Resort & Casino
Queen Tribute Band
At the Resort
After the AirBnB, we went to the Royalton Punta Cana resort. We had upgraded to the Diamond Club, which gets you a room in one of the two Diamond Club buildings, access to the Diamond Club pool, bar, and roped-off beach area. It also gets you a butler to help with reserving restaurants and other activities at the resort.
We had mixed feelings on the resort in general. It was great to have access to the Diamond Club areas because they were a bit quieter, and the service was great. However, we didn’t really find that the butler provided much of an added value. He wasn’t able to get us reservations outside of what we could book ourselves on the app. This, unfortunately, meant that we couldn’t get a reservation at the Hibachi restaurant, which was the one we really wanted.
We did get a reservation at the Under the Sea restaurant, however, the food was extremely overcooked and just not that great. We got a reservation at the Jade restaurant, but unfortunately, the night of that reservation it rained so hard that the restaurant flooded. Because of that, we were redirected to a “special buffet” at the neighboring restaurant for Hideaway guests only. They had all you can eat steak and lobster - all of which was so overcooked you could barely eat it. I’ve never spit out lobster until that night. The best food really was the buffet and we ate most meals there. Even the room service was underwhelming.
The pools and the beach were nice, but we found we can only spend so much time doing that. We tried hard to be beach people, but we’re just not the sit around and tan type. We spent a day at the bar, but again, one can only drink so much. The room was nice and had a balcony. I would definitely upgrade to a swim out room though on the pool floor if I were to go to a resort again, but not sure that we’re going to do that.
Also, important to note, is that the public part of the beach is not immune to vendors and scammers. They will put a bird on your or a lizard and then use your phone to take photos only to try and charge you for those photos afterwards. It’s worth not even talking to them. All in all, eight days was just too long in Punta Cana.