To celebrate Chase leaving behind a quarter of a century of his life, I booked us a weekend getaway to the Dominican Republic.When I turned 26, Chase put together this memorable weekend-long celebration in Austin; there was so much thought and love that went into planning that birthday, I knew 15 months later I had to do something as equally awesome for him. So after Christmas, I was just day dreaming about all the trips Groupon had on their website. Normally the Caribbean options are much more expensive in the winter months due to it being peak season, but I stumbled across this trip to the DR for 67% off and my mouth hit the floor. Could we really go to Punta Cana in the middle of March and stay at an all-inclusive for that good of a bargain?! Apparently, we could! So we did! The deal was for a new resort in Punta Cuna called Presidential Suites. We got in Friday night and left Monday evening so it was a quick getaway but really just the right amount of time to enjoy ourselves and then head home. The resort was great. They had shuttle service to and from the airport and it took about 20 minutes. There were pools lining the accommodation area and then the ocean was just past the main restaurants and bars. Our room was definitely set up to house large parties or groups. We had two bedrooms, two baths, a large living area and a huge kitchen and dining area... Which didn't quite make sense considering it was an all-inclusive. The grounds were modern and clean. Everything still had a just finished look to it. We were also very grateful for how immaculate the beach was. We took an evening stroll and realized our resort had the cleanest sand because their grounds keepers raked up all the dead palms and seaweed every morning. All the other resorts around us didn't do this. Again, the resort was new so it was very well kept, the workers all spoke wonderful English (which apparently was rare) and the service was awesome. We made sure to tip every time we got a drink so the waitresses never passed us by. We were mesmerized by the turquoise water. It's probably the most teal water we've ever encountered. Compared to Turks and Caicos, the water was rougher in the DR, stirring up a lot of sand in the process, so you couldn't see your feet like you could in T+C, but the water's color was by far more radiant in Punta Cana. Some downsides to this stay: I'm going to be honest and tell you there were a couple downsides to the stay. The first being the resort had a first come first serve mentality. So every morning I had to walk down to the main lobby by 7am to make dinner reservations for that night. They wouldn't allow you to make them ahead of time so each day required a new reservation. If you didn't make reservations, you were stuck in the dinner buffet restaurant. This also went for the day-beds... If you weren't up by sunrise, you wouldn't get one. Needless to say, if you had planned on sleeping-in during your vacation, this is probably not the place for you. The other down side was their "optional" time-share presentation. I put it in quotations because if you said, "oh we're busy now, maybe later." They would come back and stand by your beach chairs until you went with them! We had read reviews about this on Tripadvisor so we knew it was coming and we went along with it the first time they approached us. We received a free gift and then waited for a representative to tell us how we could vacation anywhere whenever we wanted at no additional cost!! Long story short, we told the gentleman that regardless of the deal, there was no way we'd have a time-share before we owned a house (at the time, we didn't). It took some aggressiveness to let him know we were firm in this decision and he let us leave after 20 minutes. All in all, 20 minutes for 67% savings was quite the deal. Just remember, if you find yourself in a similar situation and know you're not interested, be firm or you'll sit there all day. With that being said, the trip was still an absolute blast! On the second morning, we went down to the beach to watch the sunrise and claim a covered day-bed. We watched the sun come over the water and was in awe of the colors. We sipped on some DR coffee (possibly the best we've ever had), grabbed lunch at the club house and just sat around the entire day. It was a birthday filled with reading, napping, and watching the waves roll in - three of Chase's favorite things! On our final day, we took in the views during breakfast and lunch and lounged around on the beach for a bit before grabbing our shuttle and heading back to the states. The DR was more beautiful than I had imagined and we were so glad we had the chance to get away and enjoy the country's vacation side.
Until Next Time, C + D
3 Comments
1/9/2023 11:16:32 am
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6/30/2023 06:52:44 pm
En iyi yozgat ilan sitesi burada. https://yozgat.escorthun.com/
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