Slow Travel Punta Cana — Two Traveling Penguins

My son (12) and I spent 7 weeks in Cabarete and of our 3 stops in the Dominican Republic, this was our favorite.

If I were to spend one month in this country, I would park myself in Cabarete and explore from there.

Heads up: if you spend more than 30 days you’ll have to pay an overstay fee on departure. U.S. Citizens must have an e-ticket before entry and exit (do this online here before you head to the airport!.) If you stay longer than 30 days, be ready with cash at the airport when you depart to cover your overstay.

Here is what the perfect month for me would be in Cabarete:

MY DREAM TRIP TO CABARETE

First of all, if I had 30 days to come back here to Cabarete, I would not plan on getting a lot of work done.

In fact, I would be on a full on resting trip OR a trip where I spend a few hours a day working on a creative project and the rest of the time refilling my creative juices.

This place is relaxing. It just made me feel calm, almost sedated. I didn’t wake up ready to tackle a list of work projects (which I normally am happy to get going on each morning.) I woke up ready to drink some coffee and read fiction on the patio overlooking the waves.

So my dream trip back would not involve a lot of work and it would involve A LOT of do-nothing days, walking along the beach to a restaurant for lunch and reading good books with the crashing waves as background noise.

Where I would stay:

I loved Kite Beach and I’d head right back there. The beach is busy while the Kiters are out there, but I actually loved watching them play. And when the wind isn’t right for kitesurfing, the beach was nearly abandoned.

We were there late-September through mid-November, so not quite the high season, though I did not get the impression that this is ever a beach with loads of people lounging around in the sun.

We stayed at Hotel Agualina and the view is incredible, they have a great pool, and a wonderful staff — I would 100% return here as part of my dream return.

Every room at Hotel Agualina has an ocean view and there are two delicious restaurants within a minute’s walk of the place. A person could eat just fine between those two places (El Coco Tazo and La Mesa Taina,) but there are plenty of other options 15-25 minutes walk down the beach.

What I would do:

KITE SURF (5 days)

If I could scrounge up the money, I would spring for kitesurfing lessons and that would be my focus the first week. If you stay at hotel Agualina, there is a kite school right there If one week of kitesurfing hit the spot - great. If I wanted to do some more while visiting one of the best kitesurfing beaches in the world? Well then I’d have three more weeks to enjoy it!

MONKEY JUNGLE (1 day)

We went to Monkeyland while we were in Punta Cana, but if you’re in Cabarete, Monkey Jungle is closer and seems to be almost the same experience. Definitely the same monkeys, which are not native to DR but are rescued from South America.

I would not necessarily return here for the monkeys although that was a really fun experience (which I wrote about in our travel story about Punta Cana). I would go here to try the zip lines. And if you haven’t hung out with the monkeys yet, you might love to do both!

JOURNEY TO HOPE SABANETA (2-3 days)

By luck, or providence perhaps, I found out about Journey into Hope. It is a school, with Dominican and Haitian students, and a soup kitchen open for a noon-ish meal every day and feeds 1-200 people.

I had a short visit to this amazing place with Richard as a guide. I didn’t feel comfortable taking pictures of the students and teachers to share, but in the photos above you can see a bit of the school and the red Haitian sauce I’m a little obsessed with.

If I returned I would want to make a little more time to spend here. Maybe just another day, but maybe more. I’ve pledged one day per month of ad revenue from Stevie Doodles this coming year, but I’d like to do more.

If you have any medical or dental expertise, please contact Richard to see if you might be able to lend a hand while you are visiting Cabarete.

As for me, I just didn’t feel like I had any useful skills to offer.

If I returned, my purpose in visiting again would be to pray and hope I had a revelation of something I can offer to this place. Maybe with another visit, I might find where some of my skills match a need.

SANTO DOMINGO (3-4 days)

We visited Santo Domingo twice on this trip (we spent 3 total months in the Dominican Republic). The first visit was great and the second was not so great. The difference was staying in Zona Colonial (Colonial Zone) in a nice hotel vs. staying outside Zona Colonial in a budget hotel.

It didn’t help that my phone was stolen out of my hand on day 1 of our second stop there!

On our first stop to Santo Domingo, we stayed in a hotel in Zona Colonial called El Beaterio. [affiliate link] It was the cutest little restored historic building and was just full of delightful things for anyone who love history.

`interior of hotel at El Beaterio Casa Museo`

And Zona Colonial is like that too! It’s full of little bits of history. I’d love a couple of days to wander the zone, get an official tour of the most prominent historical spaces, and overall feel like I actually experienced the area.

I think I need just 3 days to do this — a half day to get there, a half day to get back to Cabarete, and the rest to spend in Zona Colonial.

It’s a 4 hour drive from Cabarete to Santo Domingo and the trip can be accomplished on the cheap by bus on the Caribe line. We used Caribe to get from Santo Domingo to Puerto Plata then took a cab to Cabarete from there. You can find more ways to make this trip at Rome2Rio.

If nothing else I’d like to go take a ton of pictures in Zona Colonial. B made fun of me because I must have taken 50 pictures of doors. There are just so many cool doors!

I might also consider flying in or out of Santo Domingo and tacking on this few days in Zona Colonial at the beginning or end of the trip — that eliminates one of those 4 hour road trips!

This was my plan for our return trip. We traveled back to Santo Domingo from Cabarete and flew back to the States from Santo Domingo.

Either way, if I make it back to this country I’d love a few days in Santo Domingo and if possible I would stay at El Beatario Casa Museo.

PUERTO PLATA CITY TOUR (1 day)

My Aunt came down and spent a week with us and worked on a scuba certification in Sosua, just about 10 minutes from Cabarete.

`B and I spent a morning in Sosua wandering and taking some pictures`

`The bay is pretty and there are a lot of murals to enjoy`

I can’t speak to scuba, but my Aunt got her open water diver certification from Dive Cabarete and she highly recommends the school.

It was a young couple fluent in both Spanish and English. She said the price was fair and it was really nice to be able to complete some of the course online before arrival.

After she finished at the dive school but before she left, the three of us went on a city tour of Puerto Plata.

I would like to go to Puerto Plata, or any city, with someone who knows a lot about the city and its history and is happy to answer 100+ questions from me. That’s a big ask and I didn’t find it on this tour, but maybe you will! If you do and have a recommendation I’d love to add it here.

Patient and knowledgeable tour guide notwithstanding, I think Puerto Plata is worth a day trip. Even if all you do is hit the tourist spots, I say include it because even though they are unapologetically aimed at squeezing as much money out of tourists as possible, they is something interesting at each spot.

We learned a lot about the chocolate making process and the value of cacao to the Dominican Republic before we bought bars of rum-infused Dominican chocolate bars

We learned a whole bunch about the cigar making process before we bought some Dominican cigars.

We saw some pretty incredible, and incredibly old, insects trapped in amber at the amber museum before we bought some pretty amber rings.

The Dominican Republic is known for two main gemstones: Amber and Larimar. You can find and buy lots of both in the Amber Museum in Puerto Plata.

We enjoyed an amazing view riding the cable car up to the top of Isobel de Torres before saying "no, gracias” to the many vendors at the top. There is a nice sit down restaurant up there which is a relaxing little stop before heading back down on the cable car.

We toured Fort San Felipe and learned about some of the real Carribean pirates before breaking down and buying some conch shell jewelry from the vendors waiting outside the fort.

I’m including this on my dream trip because I think it’s worth a day if it’s your first time, but I don’t know if I would go for a second tour. I might go explore the city on my own though!

SEAL KISSES (1 day)

I was deciding between going for seal kisses and the Puerto Plata city tour. Obviously I landed on the city tour. Seal kisses and overall a day at Ocean World sounded like a lot of fun but also some work - managing swim suits and towels and sunscreen and all of that sounds like a lot to a woman who sticks her credit cards and drivers license in her pocket in lieu of a purse.

But if I went back and had a less limited budget (as I’m pretending for this dream 30 days), then I’d definitely visit Ocean World for some seal smooshes.

You can also swim with dolphins!

FISHING CHARTER (1 day)

This is a pricey one, but since this write-up is my dream trip I can put whatever I want. This charter company has 4, 6, and 8 hour tours. They catch some huge fish, but to be honest, what sounds great to me is just being out there on the boat. Reeling in a big catch would be a welcome bonus ;)

KAYAK (1 day)

I wanted to do this Kayak River Adventures tour during our trip but I just couldn’t talk the B into it. It looks like so much fun, it’s reasonably priced, it includes lunch — I’d love to spend half a day on this little adventure.

STAND UP PADDLE BOARD (1 day)

I was a little jealous of the paddle boarders I saw heading out to catch the sunrise from 100 meters out. It looked pretty dreamy. I think on a return trip I would rent a paddle board so I could start at least a few mornings like that.

I’d also love to do this little stand up paddle board excursion, also from Kayak River Adventures

RELAX (Other days)

This is a place where I want to leave so much room to just be. Sit on the patio and look out over the Atlantic, or read

Booking.com

INTERNET

This was B’s main complaint about being here - my ping! the lag! grrrrrrr - lack of great connection can be frustrating.

The internet we had at Hotel Agualina was fine for me, but not the greatest for B.

If you’re just on vacation this probably isn’t as big of a deal, but I rely on good internet for working and B requires it for all of his childing.

So if high quality, reliable internet is important to you for your stay in Cabarete, check with your hotel or host to ask them to send along a picture of a speed test.

FOOD

`mini waffles from Vagamundo in Cabarete - also a great place to pic up gifts!`

I’ll write a bit more on a personal level about food when I reflect on what we’ve learned from our first slow travel trip in my travel stories, but here I’ll share a few general things about food in Cabarete.

It was slightly cheaper to eat out here than in Punta Cana, though it was still more than I budgeted for.

Someone who is better than I am at getting right to business figuring out food will be able to do this on a better budget, but I had a hard time spending less than $30 a day feeding the two of us.

This was A LOT more than I budgeted for and a source of some stress. The overall relaxing atmosphere here made up for it, though the gaping hole in my savings will probably sting more once we’re back in the states!

The place I booked had a fridge. Just a fridge. I was able to borrow a microwave as well, but this definitely hurt out ability to eat on the cheap.

If I came here again I’d make sure to have a stove top, pot, and frying pan at the least.

If a diet of rice and lentils and vegetables works for you, you can definitely eat here on the cheap.

Eating on a small budget can be done, but I would recommend budgeting on the high side for food.

There are a lot of places that deliver too! I planned to share a lot of details about what we got for delivery with pictures etc. but the truth is that restaurants can come and go a lot here - they also might be available during one season and not the next.

`View from El Coco Tazo. This restaurant is in the backyard of Hotel Agualina - if I turned my head to the left, I could see my room`

`View from La Mesa Taina. This restaurant is also on Kite beach and just a 30 second walk from Hotel Agualina. B loved the Hamburgers here!`

The closer you get to town, the more walkable options you’ll have. As I mentioned above, we stayed on Kite beach and there were two close restaurants but the rest were about 15 minutes walk away.

It’s a 15 minute walk along the beach, so this may be great news if you’re not traveling with someone who hates long walks on the beach!

The thing to know is - you’ll be able to get food delivered, including groceries if you want. If you plan well, you can keep your food budget low but I recommend leaving some room.

Will I Go Back?

With all the places in the world waiting, I don’t know if I’ll find my way back here. If family or a friend is there and wants some company, then I might make the trip. Or I might go back to check in on Richard at Journey into Hope - who knows?

B and I both enjoyed our time here and I appreciate the Dominican Republic for all it taught us on our first international slow-travel trip!

We definitely enjoyed our time here. Thank you Cabarete!

Slow Travel Cabarete, Dominican Republic