Those heading for some much-needed rest and relaxation at the (mostly) wonderful all-inclusive resorts of Punta Cana and Bávaro probably need not read further. A good package will include transportation to and from the resort in question, and many guests are more than happy to enjoy beaches and facilities that are part of their resort and venture no farther. Some guests, feeling—probably four days in—a touch restless, can take advantage of their resort’s adventure desk for day trips. Choices might include all-terrain-vehicle adventures, parasailing or open-sided bus trips.

This guide is more for the person who wants to wing it across the region. On my recent trip to the Dominican Republic I enjoyed several days traveling on my own, four days at the Iberostar Grand Hotel Bávaro and then a couple of days traveling on my own again. I took 20 local buses—called gua-guas—the back seat of five scooters—called motoconchos—and even one truck delivering what I think was fertilizer.

Where Are You?
Punta Cana is in the far southeastern tip of the Dominican Republic. There are only a handful of miles to the south before one hits the bottom of the island of Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic shares this large island with Haiti) and the coast turns west. The bit of the Caribbean Sea that guests see from their Punta Cana and Bávaro hotel rooms is called the Mona Channel, a thin stretch of water that divides the Dominican Republic from the U.S. island of Puerto Rico and that is named for a very small lump of rock roughly half way between the two. The name of this uninhabited island, which measures roughly 7 miles by 4 miles, means, quite aptly, “in the middle” in the Taíno language (The Taíno were the first inhabitants of the area). For the obsessed, Punta Cana’s coordinates are 18o32’N, 68o 22’W.

How to Get There
Punta Cana has a very nice airport where it is possible to extend your vacation to the very last minute. Open sided, the facility has several outdoor areas where those sad about going home can grab a beer, cocktail or coffee (all overpriced, of course, like most airports) and sit in the sun beside the runway and behind a low wall. The thatch of the airport roofs extends the feeling.

There are direct flights from the New York area, and the flight takes roughly four hours. On arrival, there might be a line of planes waiting for steps to be rolled over to them. If there are, expect to wait for another 20 or 30 minutes on the tarmac. When I was there, I saw several airlines I had not seen before, only heard of, such as Pullmantur (from Spain), Martinair (The Netherlands), Eurofly (Italy) and Transaero (Russia), although in this last case what I saw was an unpronounceable—at least, for me—name comprised of letters from the Cyrillic alphabet. This all means that you’re sharing this sunny wonderful country with lots of interesting people from other parts of the world, including, definitely, the sun-starved of Europe coming in off charter plane after charter plane.

How to Get Through the Airport
Bring your passport. No visa is needed. Personally, I would not come to the Dominican Republic with any of the new Caribbean-travel alternatives to the passport. Many of these new ID formats, including Enhanced Driver Licenses and Passport Cards, are meant for land and sea crossings only, not for air travel. Get a passport. Bring that passport. The U.S. Department of State’s travel Website will have the latest on the situation—http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1103.html

When you get off the plane, the first thing you will need to do is to fill in a tourism form. Sometimes the crew of your airplane will give these to you, but not always. Have a pen handy, fill in the easy form and pay US$10 per person to the customs official. Have your passport inspected, and you’re in. There is a departure tax of either $20 or $25, depending if you have been in the country for less or more than two weeks, but usually this fee is already part of the price of your airline ticket.

How to Get About
Even apart from your resort’s minibus service, there are plenty of ways to get about. Like most airports, the first sign of life outside of the airport will be a rank of taxis and their drivers. A taxi to the coastal destinations of Punta Cana or Bávaro will cost between $30 and $50 (there are 10 or so miles between the closest resort to the airport and the most northerly). Groups can book transportation before they leave the United States for a cheaper cost-per-person fare.

Punta Cana’s airport has desks representing the major U.S. car-rental brands.

If you are of the adventurous bent, it might be more fun to travel completely by bus. Local buses—which range from ex-U.S. school buses to rickety minivans—are called gua-guas, and you will see them everywhere, although it is not always so easy to see from where you can catch them. Some stop if they see you, but quite often, each unsigned bus will have its own particular station (often just a parking lost somewhere) and the bus rules will appear to the first-time gua-gua traveler as indecipherable as Egyptian hieroglyphics. A grasp of Spanish certainly helps, but if you tell the driver where you want to go, and continue to remind him throughout your journey, you will eventually get there. Several times in which I took a gua-gua, its driver flagged down passing buses so that I could effortlessly continue my way. If you have a map, then you can hop across this section of the Dominican Republic, as I did, knowing that the bus will stop at anything remotely suggestive of a large village. Then look at the map for the next village and ask if the gua-gua driver carries on to there.

I walked through a double row of taxi drivers at Punta Cana International Airport, walked through the parking lot and saw my first bus stop to the right. Five minutes later, my first gua-gua arrived. It was going to the small city of Higüey, so that was where I decided to go, too.

The taxi, minibus or gua-gua ride from the airport to Punta Cana and Bávaro is not memorable. There is only sprawl and resort-access roads to see, and the beauty of the area will not be apparent until you see your resort and its adjacent beach.

Gua-guas charge no more than $2 a ride, and that $2 will get you 30 miles or so from where you started. Never once did someone attempt to cheat me, and I must have taken 20 of them. The buses are packed, and no one sees the problem of packing 25 people in where perhaps 15 would have already been a squash. Passengers’ fares are passed from back to front, where the driver’s assistant sits or stands, and change is passed back in the same manner.

My route might be typical: Punta Cana International Airport, Higüey, El Seibo, Hato Mayor, Sabana de la Mar, Miches, Playa Limón, Nisobon, La Banda Otra, Bávaro, La Banda Otra, Higüey, San Rafael del Yuma, Boca de Yuma, San Rafael del Yuma, Higüey, La Banda Otra, La Vacama, La Cruz de los Isleños, El Macao, Bávaro, Veron and Punta Cana International Airport. If anything, the last leg from Bávaro to the airport might have been the most difficult because the assumption there of the drivers is that no visitor ever takes the gua-gua here and also because it is a long, long walk between bus stops. In Bávaro, an off-duty gua-gua driver who recognized me stopped to take me for one stretch of two miles to the right bus stop. By that time I was being stubborn in my desire to complete my circuit by these wonderful buses. This type of travel, however, I am sure, is not for everyone, but I had a blast.

What to See
This article assumes that you’ve had a close look at the resorts of Punta Cana and Bávaro and want now to explore farther out.

• Parque Nacional de los Haitises — Covering approximately 100 square miles, this national park is a joy to hikers and bird watchers. In the northwestern part of southeastern Dominican Republic, the park’s edge starts six miles from the small town of Sabana de la Mar, and some form of transport is definitely needed to get between the two. I took the back seat of a motoconcho, the Dominican name for a motorized scooter, and it was a bumpy ride down a gravelly track. Hold on tight! The motoconcho driver will assume you want to go to the 28-room Paraíso Caño Hondo hotel, and why would you not want to? It is a wonderful place, with the feel of an eco-resort, an open-sided restaurant, airy rooms and lots of nature: forest walks, waterfalls, abundant vegetation. It also has a tour desk. I took a path directly from the hotel, and it reaches the park boundary within five minutes. Birds galore flit around, and early in the morning, you might be lucky and espy one of the Dominican Republic’s rare animals such as the Hispaniolan solenodon, which sort of looks like a long-legged shrew or mole with a long snout and has a poisonous tooth, believe it or not. The walk is best done with a guide, perhaps for safety reasons and certainly because the usual route reaches the edge of the Bay of Lorenzo, an arm of the Bay of Samaná, and then takes a small boat back to the start. On the way, hikers will pop into several caves to see petroglyphs carved and painted by the area’s original inhabitants, the Taíno. The things depicted include herons, alligators, shamans and a cross, which experts assume was carved after the arrival of Christopher Columbus to this isle in the late 15th century. The caves are dark (is that a surprise?), so be careful, and also look out for the very rare Hispaniolan owl, which often hangs out during the day on the edges of such caves. In fact, if you do see one, it might mean bad weather is on the way, or at least that is what my guide told me. The boat back will often stop off at a beach where a cave displays rock carvings in the shapes of faces. Behind the hotel is a fainter path that was where I saw, after a mile or two, the area’s biggest birdwatching prize, the incredibly rare Ridgway’s hawk. Only 120 survive, and all are here.

• Parque Nacional del Este — This larger park is in the far southeastern tip of the area and effectively divides the zone containing Punta Cana and Bávaro and the zone containing the area’s other tourism site, Bayahibe. There are only a few entrances to the park. Do not try and chew too much off and walk forever, as there are no hotels and no roads, only thick vegetation and a thin ground soil over coral hillsides that quickly wear out calf muscles. The entrance I came in through was approximately half a mile from the village of Boca de Yuma (see below), and there is a park guard at the entrance station at all times. He was losing at cards when I arrived. There is a fee of approximately $3 dollars to enter. Birdlife is abundant here, too, and every once in a while the path splits off to give dramatic views along the cliffs. After two miles (I did warn you that the walking was difficult), the vegetation stops, and all is coral. The waves crash through a water hole at one spot, which is quite thrilling. This was as far as I went in. If you’re going farther, then a guide would be a good thing. There are caves here, too, but they are remote. Note that the park also contains the large island of Soana, which you might see in the distance. Boat trips to there, as well as the islands of Catalina and Catalinita, are popular, especially from the park’s other entrances near to Bayahibe. A popular trip from Bayahibe is to a sand bar that is about 300 feet off the coast. Sun-worshippers come here, stand waist deep in water, sip cocktails and thank whoever it is one thanks when one is grateful for life.

• Boca de Yuma — This is supposedly the Dominican Republic’s last fishing village. I did see the village’s Fishing Cooperative, so I suppose some business is being done. The small harbor contains about 40 small wooden boats that generally disappear in the morning, either out to sea or along the Yuma river. The boats will supplement their income from fishing by taking tourists up river to see caves, stalactites, stalagmites and river and riverbank life, including the Rhinoceros iguana. It gets its name from two small bony protuberances on its snout. Hotels here are basic. I stayed at one run by Italians. It was called La Pirata Vieja, which has a small pool (with a separate charge) and a few restaurant tables on a thin patio. All the conversation I heard was in Italian. Along the edge of the cliff here are a series of fish restaurants. Be warned. Fish is weighed, and the price quoted to you will be by the pound, not by the dish, which can make what you thought was a $20 lunch (still expensive for the country in general) into an $80 one. But this is the best place to eat fish in the country, and occasionally a coach will pull in from Punta Cana. Apart from that, this is a sleepy place of dusty streets, perfectly suited for rest and off-the-beaten-path tourism, but lacking evening excitement.

• San Rafael del Yuma — This small town will be passed through between Higüey (see below) and Boca de Yuma (see above). It is only notable for it being the site of Juan Ponce de León’s first residence in the Americas. He was the man who supposedly discovered the Fountain of Youth. Considering it is the only thing of note here, it is surprising that it is not signposted. It cannot be seen from the main road either. It’s near the police station. You’ll need your Spanish to ask them the last few directions and also if you want to understand the guide at the house, which is now a museum. Buses from Boca de Yuma will stop at San Rafael del Yuma’s bus station anyway, so a stop here is not unthinkable.

• Higüey — I was reliably informed that this small, ramshackle city has the best nightlife in the area. I did arrive on a Saturday evening, and what I saw might gently attest to this. A thin strip of open restaurants in the middle of a street called Santana, to the southeast of Higüey’s famous basilica, is a fun place to while away the evening, watching locals dance and relax. At my restaurant there was a large screen showing sports, and the game of the day was an odd one. Softball from Venezuela, with a women’s team wearing shorts playing a men’s team wearing long pants. That’s good, I thought, a co-ed game. No unnecessary division of the sexes. Then a male batter stepped up whose right arm ended at the elbow. Again, that’s good, I thought, to include those with disabilities. Then, when the women’s team stepped up to bat again, its second batter was not female, but male, and he was wearing a yellow, red and blue tracksuit (the colors of the Venezuelan flag). It was the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez. Based on his softball skills (I only saw him come to the plate twice), he should remain in politics. Or sports management, as certainly all the other players were hanging on to his every word, although I could not lip-read his Spanish. The one tourism attraction in Higüey (the city’s full name is Salvaleón de Higüey) is the Basilica de Nuestra Señora (Basilica of Our Lady), the most revered religious site in the country. It contains an even more revered artifact, a painting called La Virgin de la Altagracia, which was brought from Spain in the 15th century. Curved roofs and blue trim offset the basilica’s blandish concrete shell, but architectural considerations do not worry the faithful, who attend services here every day and especially on Jan. 21, which is the virgin saint’s saints day and a national holiday. This painting originally was housed in the city’s second church, San Dionisio, where the faithful often queue to polish the altar. There are some interesting designs on the inside of its dome. Other than these churches, there is not so much here to hold the attention, but the busy city retains some charm, and you will see it a lot if you decide to travel in the manner I did.

• La Otra Banda — This small town that lines the main road between Higüey and Bávaro is known for its meat stalls, which provide much color for photographs. I personally would not eat what I saw draped over wooden poles or hung upon nails banged into doors and walls, and I rather suspect you would not want to either. Its original inhabitants were from the Canary Islands, the Spanish territory off the coast of Africa. The Dominican Republic’s former dictator, Rafael Trujillo, invited them to settle in his country in order to, so it is alleged, to “whiten” the people. Far from me to guess why he wanted to do that, but one rumor is that he felt that he could manipulate them, first with free land, secondly with the threat of deportation, thus these immigrants then facing the possibility of losing everything they had been given and built up, all in a scheme for new blood to become loyal to his repressive regime.

Beaches
The best beaches, not surprisingly, are in front of the luxury hotels of Punta Cana and Bávaro, but there are several gorgeous strands that will be emptier and are equally captivating. The three I describe are on the northern coast of southeastern Dominican Republic. On the southern coast, really there are only beaches close to the hotel zone of Bayahibe.

• Playa Limón — Between Miches and Nisobon is Playa Limón. Sometimes locals refer to the area as El Cedro. The bus drops you off by a huge side that tells of the delights of Laguna Limón nature tours, although to arrange a trip, it is necessary to go farther east along the main road and strike a deal first thing in the morning with the fishermen or boat owners who are preparing to sail off (that said, the best thing is to ask Walter (see below) to set up a tour). The two-mile path from the main road where the bus drops you off is a beautiful one, with wonderful scenery and, in February when I was there, 1,000 butterflies that appear to cocoon you. Approximately 500 feet before the sea is a battered sign that announces the La Cueva Hotel (www.rancholacueva.com), which is run by a gregarious, knowledgeable Austrian called Walter. Five tables are set out for dinner, usually fish. The hotel has only seven rooms, but you know you’ll be sharing the place with off-the-beaten-path travelers such as yourself. Walter arranges tours, and large groups often overwhelm the place for lunch, so be warned. That said, you can have a walk on the deserted beach at 7 a.m. (the hotel dog always accompanies the first guest to wake up), come back for breakfast, go for more exploration and arrive back in the early evening, and you’ll not see any of these day-trippers. There is another hotel behind La Cueva, called Harley’s Heaven, but it did not exude the authenticity of its neighbor. The beach itself is fringed with a wide expanse of palm trees and curves around to a point that gives a glimpse into the lagoon. Kingfishers, egrets and kestrels fly around, and if a river flows into the ocean, it is because the locals have purposely cut through the sand bar that keep the lagoon’s water in. Walter says that the best time to sit on the beach is between 11 and 2 if you want to see a manatee, which do populate the area. I had no luck.

• La Vacama — This beach is to the other side of Nisobon than is Limón, and it is farther walk from the main road than is the walk to Limón. Everywhere in this part of the world are motoconcho scooters waiting to take you the extra distance, so you do not need to walk. This is cattle-grazing country, but another lagoon to your right displays egrets, herons, limpkins and ibises. An Italian-owned hotel sits right on the beach, but I cannot tell you much about it. I saw a room, and it was very nice, but the price quoted to me was exorbitant, as I was to have been the only person staying there that evening, and it would not have been worth their while to open for anything less. I did espy a curious zoo on the premises, with a squawking parrot and an inquisitive ostrich. The beach itself is the place to come if you want to see crashing waves.

• El Macao — This remote beach is only a handful of miles north of Bávaro, but it is remote. To get here from La Vacama, it was necessary to change buses at La Cruz de los Isleños, which is not much more than a road junction. I saw two rainbows while I was there and ate some tasty roadside fried chicken. When the bus drops you off for El Macao, it is necessary—what a surprise!—to hop on the back of a scooter. This beach takes second fiddle, in my opinion, to Playa Limón. It curves around to a fence behind which, far in the distance, is a ritzy hotel in a place called Uvero Alto. Beach shacks cook up fish for lunch and serve bottled beer, and this is all wonderful until tour groups from Punta Cana hotels show up on all-terrain motorbikes. They make noise, circle the beach twice, whoop with joy and leave huge tire tracks in the sand. They do look like they’ve had the time of their lives, though, mud from some lagoon they’ve sped through splattered on their faces and arms. When they’ve gone, the beach will be almost all yours again. From here it is possible to get a bus to Bávaro, and then you should flag down a taxi or follow my advice in the How to Get About section above.

Useful Information

1. Currency
The Dominican peso. It is usually written as DOP, as in DOminican Peso, or RD$, as in República Dominicana peso, the $ sign standing in for “peso.” RD$1 is divided into 100 centavos, which, also perhaps confusingly, take the same sign as the U.S. cent, that is, ¢. RM$ banknotes exist in $10, $20, $50, $100, $200, $500, $1000 and $2000 variations. My experience is that smaller-denomination notes ($10 to $200) are better to have than larger ones.

2. Exchange Rate
100 DOP=US$2.80 (as at press time)

3. ATMs
The hotels of Punta Cana and Bávaro have them, as do the towns of Higüey and La Otra Banda. There is an ATM and a bureau de change at the Punta Cana International Airport. Boca de Yuma most certainly does not have one, and I did not see any in Sabana de la Mar (even at the Paraíso Caño Hondo hotel (although it did take credit cards)), Miches or near any of the beaches I cover above. Make sure you have enough cash to get you through the countryside.

4. Visas & Documents
See “How to Get Through the Airport” above.

5. Arrival/Departure Taxes
See “How to Get Through the Airport” above.

6. Health
See the Website of the U.S. government’s Centers for Disease Control & Prevention at wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/destinationDominicanRepublic.aspx for the latest information and necessary precautions, if any.

7. U.S. Embassy
The Embassy of the United States in the Dominican Republic, César Nicolás Penson (Street), on the corner of Leopoldo Navarro (Street); phone: (809) 221-2171; fax: (809) 686-7437; embassy open Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., Dominican time. The Embassy of the United States in the Dominican Republic’s Website, santodomingo.usembassy.gov, has more information on many aspects of traveling in the Dominican Republic.

8. Time
Standard time in the Dominican Republic is -4 GMT, or +1 EST. Daylight savings is not observed, so when the United States does observe it, New York and Dominican Republic have the same time.

9. Electricity/Phone
Do not worry. The Dominican Republic—in most cases—uses standard U.S. electricity outlets. To phone the United States, dial, or punch, 011 before the number.

10. Driving Rules
Dominicans drive on the right. American drivers should take especial care to drive safely and within the law, for they, like all tourists in most countries, might be unduly hassled by local police. Please note that the state of the roads in Southeastern Dominican Republic has much to be desired. Potholes are everywhere. In many cases where bridges have been washed away by storms (and there are many examples of this), the engineers attempted to make repairs, but even if they’ve been successful, they certainly forget to re-tarmac the surfaces. To negotiate such potential perils, cars drive on either side of the road until such time as they see another vehicle coming in the other direction. Be warned. Driving at night is not recommended.

11. Holidays (for the rest of 2009)
April 10, Good Friday; May 4, Dominican Labor Day; June 11, Corpus Christi; August 16, Restoration Day; September 24, Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes Day; November 9, Dominican Constitution Day; December 25, Christmas Day. Note that U.S. government offices in the Dominican Republic celebrate Dominican and U.S. holidays and thus will be closed on those dates.