About 24km (15 miles) east of Puerto Plata is one of the finest beaches in the Dominican Republic, Sosúa Beach. A strip of soft, white sand more than .8km (1/2 mile) wide, it's tucked in a cove sheltered by coral cliffs and has crystal-clear water. The beach connects two strikingly disparate communities, which together make up the town known as Sosúa. As increasing numbers of visitors flock to Sosúa, mainly for its beach life, it is beginning to rival Puerto Plata. You won't find the superdeluxe resorts that are commonplace in Puerto Plata, but prices in Sosúa are half what they are at the big resorts and the beaches are just as lovely.
At one end of the beach is El Batey, an area with residential streets, gardens, restaurants, shops, and hotels. Real-estate transactions have been booming in this area and many villas have been constructed, fronted by newly paved streets.
At the other end of Sosúa Beach lies the typical village community of Los Charamicos, a sharp contrast to El Batey. Here you'll find tin-roofed shacks, vegetable stands, chickens scrabbling in the rubbish, and warm, friendly people.
Sosúa was founded in 1940 by European Jews seeking refuge from Hitler. Trujillo invited 100,000 of them to settle in his country on a banana plantation, but only 600 or so Jews were actually allowed to immigrate, and of those, only about a dozen or so remained on the plantation. There are some 20 Jewish families living in Sosúa today, and for the most part they are engaged in the dairy and smoked-meat industries, which the refugees began during the war. Biweekly services are held in the local one-room synagogue. Many of the Jews intermarried with Dominicans, and the town has taken on an increasingly Spanish flavor; women of the town are often seen wearing both the Star of David and the Virgin de Altagracia, the patron saint of the Dominicans. Nowadays many German expatriates are also found in the town.
