Dominican Discovery (Dominican Republic)

Member Name: melliemel

Product:	Dominican Republic
Date:	11/08/01 (550 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: All-inclusive- you don't have to worry about food or drink, Everything is in one place

Disadvantages: Long crammed flight, Not a lot to do outside the complex that isn't expensive

The Dominican Republic

When I saw the photos for the Dominican Republic, in the brochure, I thought ‘I want to go there!’ Where better than to spend two weeks in the glorious sunshine in the middle of December!

So we (Michael and I) splashed out £700 for an all-inclusive deal of unlimited food and drink (both of which appeals to us) to the destination of Sousa.

The flight was a very long 9 ½ hours and I would recommend getting first class if you can stretch your money that far. We were crammed in like sardines with elbows and sweaty arm pits everywhere. I definitely envied those sat at the front in their big armchairs.

My first impressions of the Dominican Republic were of disappointment. As we travelled on the coach dropping off other holidaymakers, the place was baron and run down but it is a third world country.

The Hotel
Eventually, the ‘Sol de la Plata’ hotel. Set back off the road and a world of its own. I was taken completely by surprise because away from the dry and dusty road this place had huge green trees and lush grass. The hotel had an impressive entrance and it amazed me at the cleanliness, the rooms were big and the beds even bigger (no more sweaty man slobbering in my ear)!
We also had Sky TV (with free movie channels), a fridge and most importantly a free bottle of local rum (a speciality on the island). The bathroom was spacious but the bath and shower were in need of decoration but other than that everything fully working.
One thing that the holiday brochure didn’t tell us was that the power supply has a lower voltage than ours in the UK, so our CD player was deemed useless. However, they provided a hairdryer and the radio worked but endless songs in Spanish can get a little tedious.

Food
The food was excellent and plenty to chose from. A mouth-watering selection of Goat (believe me I didn’t realise what it was until I had eaten it!), Fis
h (Calamari, Shark etc.), fruit, salad, soup, pasta dishes, the list is endless. Also included in our deal were four other restaurants to choose from: Chinese, Mexican, A La Carte & Italian, the only problem to these is that you had to book in advance the day before. The meals offered in these restaurants, all-inclusive, were quite basic but you could choose to order lobster if you wanted to pay £15 extra.
Out of the four I would recommend the Italian as being the best.

Drinks
When I told Michael our holiday included free drinks he was elated! All drinks were free until 11pm at our hotel. That included: all soft drinks, cocktails (alcoholic and non-alcoholic), beer and sprits. I think this part of the deal was definitely worth it, not because I’m an alcoholic but because when we have been to other hot destinations we’ve spent a fortune on soft drinks trying to cool down! At least here you don’t feel guilty about leaving some in the bottom of the glass or leaving it by your sunlounger!

Activities
Now I quite enjoyed the range of activities, especially mini golf (that’s because I thrashed Michael)! The hotel did provide: mini golf, quad bikes, horse riding, scuba diving, gym facilities, table tennis and pool games. Some of these were taster sessions (e.g. the scuba and quad bikes). I tried my hand at Scuba diving (which I would never have paid for) and successfully failed. Never again

Entertainment
Evening entertainment consisted of either a show or Kareoke. Every evening in the Show bar, holidaymakers were presented with prizes for winning the pool games during the day. The rendition of Cats was particularly eventful for me as I found the resident dancers couldn’t sing, it was all mimed to the backing! Pretty cheesy entertainment but they were cracking dancers.

The other entertainment I found most satisfying was lounging in the other bar area. This was a good place to meet a mixture of
people although there weren’t many young couple (20-30’s) we still managed to find a loony couple from Leamington Spa to hang around with. By 11pm we were ready…… the sounds of the beat….music pumping…..the local disco! Oh dear me bring me the sick bag. Oh how I wished they would play some decent music from the last three years! To help this sad and sorry tale along Michael persuaded the DJ to play the ‘Blade’ tune, which to my surprise went down so well he borrowed the Clubbers Bible CD and played it every night, wicked! A good time had by all! My advice is get very drunk and it doesn’t seem that bad.

Out and About
Our first visit out of the hotel grounds was quite an eye-opener and one we didn’t want to do too often. Ever second we were stopped by traders trying to get us into their shops and small children trying to polish our trainers!?!
We found this a bit too much to handle in Cabareta but in the main city of Sosua was much better.
We took a couple of paid for trips and one that we can never forget…’The Dominican Discovery’, where Jurassic Park was filmed! We were taken to some far away natural waterfalls where you could slide down the natural slides carved into the rock. The guides were excellent and I felt very safe. A recommendation to wear your bathing costume underneath your clothes, take a sweater and towel! Oh and smile….. you’ll be on camera!

Summary
Overall a very good deal. Good Beaches but rough water at our hotel. I would have considered this for our honeymoon but having been I think there are much better places to go for a honeymoon.

Summary: