Planning a Trip

Visitor Information

Amazingly, with the largest concentration of visitors in the entire Caribbean Basin, and with visitors numbering at least 750,000 a year (no one knows for sure), the Dominican Republic government, in their infinite wisdom, has yet to open a tourist office. However, you can search http://dr1.com/travel/puntacana.

Getting There

In small planes, American Eagle (tel. 800/433-7300 in the U.S.; www.aa.com) offers two to six daily nonstop flights to Punta Cana from San Juan, Puerto Rico; flying time is about an hour. You can also opt for one of American Eagle's two or three (depending on the season) daily flights from San Juan to La Romana and then make the 90-minute drive to Punta Cana.

In addition, Takeoff Destination Service S.A., Plaza Brisas de Bávaro 8 (tel. 809/552-1333; www.takeoffweb.com), also flies in from Santo Domingo in 55 minutes; frequency of flights depends on demand, with more in the busier winter months. A typical fare -- say, from Santo Domingo to Punta Cana's airport -- costs RD$3,465 to RD$5,215 one-way with no discount for flying round-trip. You can also fly from San Juan's airport to Punta Cana.

Lying adjacent to the Punta Cana Resort and Club, the International Airport of Punta Cana (tel. 809/959-2376) may be the world's first privately owned international airport. Flights, mainly from North America and Europe, wing into this airport at the rate of 100 per week in summer. In winter, the volume of flights increases to approximately 250 per week. Private buses from the all-inclusives wait to shuttle arriving passengers to their respective resorts. When your vacation is over, you're placed in a private van and hauled back to the airport. The location of the airport is about 5km (3 miles) from where the Higüey-Punta Cana main highway reaches the coast.

Motorists driving across the southern tier of the Dominican Republic along Hwy. 104 reach the rural city of Higüey before continuing to the northeast to the Coconut Coast. Hwy. 104 runs along the entire length of the Punta Cana/Bávaro resorts before coming to an end at the port city of Miches on the Bahía de Samaná.

The Lay of the Land

One of the most remarkable real-estate developments in the Caribbean, Punta Cana grew out of the perceived need for a mass-market vacation destination, capable of receiving visitors from Europe and North America, that was near a worthy set of beaches, on land that was cheap, plentiful, and undeveloped. The result is Punta Cana and Bávaro, two resorts completely dependent upon an international airport (which they have), a string of sandy beaches (which they have), and a maze of tarmac-covered roads that wind in a labyrinth through land that used to be (and which to some degree still is) covered with sugar cane.

Don't expect a burgeoning downtown settlement, because until recently, there weren't any sizable communities in the region at all, and certainly nothing with the deep historic appeal and long-established roots of Puerto Plata.

Today, two communities that fill in the gap are the hamlet of Friusa, a dull and dusty settlement with banks, gas stations, repair stations for cars, and refrigeration facilities, but with very little appeal to temporary visitors; and the even smaller but somewhat more charming hamlet of Cortecita. Cortecita originated as a preplanned community intended to house the workers who built the first of the region's hotels. Today, having adopted some aspects of an independent community in its own right, it's the site of several eateries and bars. And don't expect a coherent set of roads with names, because most of them are unnamed. Look instead for signs with arrows that point the way to the individual hotels, each of which was designed like cities unto themselves. Each resort -- especially the all-inclusives -- has enough amenities to keep visitors happily sequestered on-site for the duration of their holiday. The result is a necklace of self-contained communities, each with drugstores, food markets, coin-operated laundromats, and all-inclusive food services, draped along the waterfront of the peninsula.

Whereas the policy of self-containment (which is encouraged by the architecture and the closed-off, fenced-in nature of each resort) suits the hoteliers just fine, many small start-up businesses, including restaurants, must rely almost exclusively on local Dominican business for their livelihood, having been cut off from the masses of foreign visitors who remain within their individual hotels. And since the hotels do everything they can to increase their allures in-house, there simply aren't a lot of independently operated Dominican businesses, outside the big resorts, in this community.

Every large resort maintains at least one beachfront kiosk loaded with staff and watersports equipment. They tend to be operated by the same central organization, charge all the same prices, and even move their staff from one kiosk to another, regardless of whose beachfront they're sitting on. And it's entirely likely that the scuba or snorkeling trip you sign up for at the kiosk of your hotel might combine your outing with clients of several other hotels along the same beachfront.

Getting Around

Most taxi fares, including those connecting the airport with most of the major hotels, range from RD$800 for up to four passengers. Your hotel can summon a cab for you. If you want to tour along the coast, you can rent a car on-site at the car-rental desks of all the major resorts.

Guaguas, which tend to be filled, sometimes to overflowing, with local service personnel and construction workers, also run up and down the coastal road during the day, but not at night. Most of these motorized vans charge RD$25 for the average ride within town, and, say, RD$45 for transit from Punta Cana to Higüey, point of residence for many of the workers who labor in Punta Cana during the day. The price, of course, depends on the distance traveled.

Should you wish, you can also rent a car for the duration of your stay, although most visitors manage to forego this luxury since they are so resort-bound at their all-inclusive. There is little need to get about. If you're interested, Avis Car Rental, Carretera Arena Gorda (tel. 809/688-1354), offers a fleet of cars. Europcar, Calle Friusa Fiesta (tel. 809/686-2861), also rents vehicles. Rates at both companies are subject to wild fluctuations, even in the same season, even from week to week. Just as a general guideline, the same economy car can start at RD$2,200 a day, going up to RD$3,000 a day.

Fast Facts

To call the police in an emergency, dial either tel. 911 or 809/688-8727 for direct access to the tourist police, which have all the power and authority of the mainstream police, but with, at least theoretically, a more defined grasp of how to deal with foreign visitors and a better grasp of foreign (that is, non-Spanish) languages. For Internet access, go to Business Center, Punta Cana Resort and Club, Carretera Punta Cana (tel. 809/959-2262), open daily 8am to 9:45pm, charging RD$72 for 15 minutes. The office of Western Union is found at Plaza Bávaro (tel. 809/532-7381), open Monday to Friday 8am to 10pm, Saturday 8am to 6pm, Sunday 8am to 5pm. Many hotels have offices that will sell you routine drugstore items, and some actually have full pharmacies. Otherwise, you'll have to go to the inland city of Higüey 45km (28 miles) to the west, where you'll find that the most central pharmacy is D'Hidarnis Farmacia, Av. Trejo 26 (tel. 809/554-2719), open Monday to Saturday 8am to 10pm, Sunday 8am to 1pm. For medical services, go to Centro Médico Punta Cana, Carretera Bávaro, Fríusa, Bávaro (tel. 809/552-1506).