Nicole schreibt...

Dominican Republic 2025

Last year's Broadway Cruise, especially the wonderful day on Seven Mile Beach on Grand Cayman, had reminded me just how beautiful the Caribbean is and after the all the rather stressful trips across the pond in the last two years I felt like a week on a gorgeous tropical beach would be just the thing for this winter. I ended up voting for the Dominican Republic, partly because it had been one of my first big trips many years ago when I saw a bit of the north but nothing of the south, partly because I'd want to explore so much on other islands I don't know yet, that it wouldn't be a restful week on the beach but more zipping around the island. As it's also a popular destination for Germans it means there are plenty of hotels to choose from and direct flights from Frankfurt. And so we were on one of the new Condor planes direct to Punta Cana in the east and from there another hour by bus transfer to the lovely fishing village of Bayahibe in the south east, where several all-inclusive resorts have sprung up along the coast, including our choice, the Sunscape Dominicus.

And all-inclusive has certainly come a long way since our first trip in 2004 - gone are the days of a single uninspiring buffet restaurant, instead the resort had a choice of Italian, Asian (Sushi, Teppanyaki Grill and regular dishes), South American, Mexican, a leisurely pizza place and a food truck and one general buffet restaurant, so we could literally eat our way around the world. The whole resort was huge too, with low buildings integrated into large gardens and barely visible from the beach or the street and none of the godawful concrete blocks that blight the Spanish coasts. There was also plenty of evening entertainment and I couldn't help thinking that this is really the somewhat environmentally friendly alternative to the shitty cruises that only pollute the air and don't contribute anything to the local economy in the ports, while simultaneously offering pretty much the same without crowding everyone onto ships. Here are some pictures of the resort (the pool view taken from our own balcony no less!) and the beach area:

Tempting as it was to just stay in a sunlounger all week, I did want to see more of the island and one of the main reasons for picking the south coast this time was to daytrip to the Dominican Republic's capital Santo Domingo, which boasts the claim to be the oldest continously inhabited European settlement in the Americas and the first seat of the Spanish colonial rulers in the New World - cynics may thus say, this is where all the misery began. Columbus himself pottered around here and while it was actually his little brother Bartolomeo who founded Santo Domingo (big bro had already tried in the north with La Isabela and failed), it's Cristoforo (Christopher, Cristobal... take your pick) who's now honored and buried in the spectacularly ugly "Faro de Colon", a mix of museum, mausoleum and lighthouse that cost the Latin American states a measly 79 million dollar to be built for the 500th anniversary of Columbus' first voyage in 1992. We only stopped briefly for photos, then proceeded to the main sight, the Colonial Zone that's now an UNESCO World Heritage Site with several buildings still standing from the first decades of colonial Spanish rule.

Our first stop was the Museo de los Casas Reales, the first Spanish HQ on the island then known as La Isla Espanola (which became Hispaniola soon after) which had quite a nice exhibition (that in some ways felt like the sequel to visiting the Casa de Colon on Gran Canaria a few years ago). It contained both the private quarters of the governor as well as the colonial administration and the first Spanish court in the new world and was a great introduction to the history of Hispaniola and Santo Domingo. So here are a few more pictures of the place:

From the museum we went on a walk through the nice (albeit slightly dilapitated) streets of the colonial district with a short stop at the Museum of Rum and lunch at a touristy restaurant where we were also treated to some local dancing, before finally ending on leafy Parque Colón, where the big guy has been put onto a pedestal.

Our next stop seemed silly at first glance, but made sense later: A touristy 4D Cinema that took you along on Sir Francis Drake's attack on Hispaniola 1586 with wobbly seats and sprays of water. From here it was just a short walk to the Cathedral of Santa Maria la Menor, built from 1504 to 1550 and therefore the oldest still existing cathedral in the Americas. The Spaniards had taken some pride in making it all look nice with their newly found gold... until Drake rocked up 36 years later to loot it all. While the building doesn't look like much from outside, it really is rather pretty from the inside and was the perfect end to a nice albeit somewhat chaotic tour. I see now what certain people meant when they said Spaniards make for the worst tour groups to guide...

It wasn't the last day trip though, because you cannot stay in Bayahibe and not do a day trip to impossibly beautiful (and protected) Isla Saona at the southern tip of Hispaniola and Cotubanama National Park, where scenes of two "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies have been shot. Many day trips just stick people on catamarans and dump them on the main beach, but I had made sure to book with a small local tour operator who would also take us into Mano Juan, the only settlement of the island where they support a local Turtle Conservatory (and some of our money went to them as well). We also went by faster speed boat, which made for a bumpy but fun ride and got us to far more places.

After visiting the turtles and getting to look at tiny baby turtles that cannot yet be released into the wild, we went for a walk through the village that has no streets and possibly the cushiest job for the local cops in this little police station.

The rest of the trip was left to lounging on an impossibly beautiful beach, where we could go snorkelling in moderately intact coral reefs and I met some of of my friends from the Maldives like Bluey, Yellow and Stripey again, and another stop where we could peek at starfish that hang around a sandbank in their dozens - and with the water so crystal clear, I could actually take a photo of them with my normal camera!

The trip to Saona was definitely the highlight of this vacation and a grand finale before my body let me down on the last day and instead of a final leisurely day by the pool side I ended up dealing with a massive migraine, which I dragged all the way home with me. And while I think I may be done with the Caribbean for the near future, overall it was a lovely week of resting and chilling though, just what I had hoped to get out of this along with sunshine and warmth in the middle of the dreary German winter...