Dominican Republic

If you like exploring, lying on the beaches day in day out, a family trip or experiencing different cultures the Dominican Republic is for you. It's a beautiful country, a dream, white sandy beaches, palm trees, coral reefs, jungles and waterfalls. The Dominican Republic is spanish speaking and in the heart of the Carribean. It lies in the centreof a hurricane belt and indures severe storms from June to October with occasional flooding and periodic droughts. It was found by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage in 1492. The French conquered half of this Spanish island and called it Haiti. The remaining part of the island was called Santa Domingo, It seaked ...  Read the complete review

As with most of my travel opinions, they don't go into detail about the history, the geographical statistics or the polictical state, you can get that information from any travel related site. I'll also not be spending any time describing the hotel in any depth, having already written a full review on the Riu Merengue, which I will post when I can find a suitable category. I will however detail some of our observations and experiences of a recent trip (January 2004) to the Dominican Republic, once we got outside of the hotel gates. This was a 10 hour plus flight, and still being daylight on landing, we got a glimpse of a fraction of the island from the ...  Read the complete review

Was I in the same place as some of these people?? The Dominican Republic is a wonderful destination!! Yes it is a 3rd world country, and there's poverty, and transportation may be difficult, etc. but you would only be unimpressed if you haven't done your research and are unprepared! I always research before I travel, and find that I take full and better advantage of the place where I am going, and waste no time being shocked or surprised when the place is not what I envisioned from a brochure. Give me a break! So many people here (on this site) complain about 'Hard' water, and crammed flights, 110 electricity, and lack of souvenirs! Are you kidding me?? ...  Read the complete review

Total Holiday Cost £500!!!! All Inclusive North East Coast Resort: Playa Dorada. This was our first visit to the Caribbean island of Dominican Republic and at we loved it! We got a last minute deal through Airtours for only £325 all-inclusive! We took the 8-hour flight from Gatwick to Puerto Plata, which is in the North East of the island. The price included coach transfers and it was only about 15 minutes drive to the resort. The resort itself was massive consisting of many hotels, some beach side and golf courses. Our hotel was the 3* Hotetur Villas Doradas. Initially we were a bit down when we saw our rooms but mainly because we?ve ...  Read the complete review

..because I had just graduated from University and was living in the lap of luxury with my boyfriend on the beautiful Island of Hispanol. On 1st July this year, we flew from Manchester to Puerto Plata, just 4 days after my Graduation Ceremony, for the holiday of a lifetime. From the moment we arrived we fell in love with the Dominican Republic, it's people and it's cultures. Now you may wonder how two students can afford such an apparantly extravagent holiday...well, we got a wonderful deal with Lunn Poly in which we booked our holiday but didn't know which of the three Riu hotels near Puerto Plata we would be staying in, until we landed. ...  Read the complete review