Travelling to Punta Cana?
Punta Cana is 50 km of textbook coconut-palm beach, organised into all-inclusive resorts. The trick is to get out at least one day: Saona Island, the Hoyo Azul cenotes, or the fishing village Bávaro was before all this.
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What to see in Punta Cana
8 ROUTESOur routes, not a list of everything. Places that have been there for centuries: no opening times or prices, which go stale.
- 01
Punta Cana in a day
9 hThe day you leave the wristband behind. A cenote at the foot of a cliff, twelve freshwater lagoons and the only beach around here that belongs to no hotel.Bávaro at dawn, before the sunloungers · Hoyo Azul · The Indigenous Eyes · Macao, the beach that belongs to nobody · Dinner outside the wristbandRead the full guide - 02
A weekend in Punta Cana
18 hOne day by boat to Saona and one on land. With a warning about the starfish at the natural pool that you’ll be asked to pick up.Saturday: Saona Island · The natural pool, and the starfish · Saturday night: the colmado · Sunday: Altos de Chavón · Sunday: HigüeyRead the full guide - 03
The beaches of Punta Cana
Fifty kilometres of sand and a coral reef that makes them possible. And sargassum, the brown weed arriving every year since 2011 that appears in no brochure.Sargassum, and when it arrives · Bávaro · Macao · Juanillo and Cap Cana · Uvero Alto and the northRead the full guide - 04
Eating in Punta Cana beyond the buffet
Dominican food isn’t inside the resort, and it isn’t the chef’s fault: the buffet cooks for twenty countries at once. You go out, and you eat rice and beans.La bandera · Mangú and the three hits · Sancocho, and why it’s a Sunday thing · The Presidente dressed as a bride · The 28% that isn’t on the menuRead the full guide - 05
Where to stay in Punta Cana
Here you don’t choose a neighbourhood, you choose a hotel: there is no town. What does change a lot is how far from the airport, and from real life, you end up.Bávaro · Cap Cana · Uvero Alto · El CortecitoRead the full guide - 06
Day trips from Punta Cana
Saona, the mangroves of Los Haitises with their Taíno caves, and a sixteenth-century village built in 1976. Here the trip out isn’t an extra: it’s the holiday.Saona Island · Los Haitises · Altos de Chavón and La Romana · Santo Domingo · Montaña RedondaRead the full guide - 07
From Punta Cana airport to the hotels
There’s no public transport. None. It’s an official taxi at zone fares (charged per car, not per person) or your hotel’s transfer.The official taxi: per car, not per person · The hotel transfer · An airport with a palm roof, and privately ownedRead the full guide - 08
Punta Cana: practical tips
Sargassum has a season, the bill carries 28% on top, and the sun here sits at 18 degrees of latitude. Three things that decide the trip and none is in the brochure.Sargassum has a season · The 28% on the bill · Sun at eighteen degrees · Hurricanes and tap water · Mobile dataRead the full guide
Airport to city centre
1 OPTIONSThe real options, with what actually decides it: which terminal it leaves from and where it drops you. Fares and timetables live with the operator, who keeps them current.
- TaxiBávaro · Cap CanaThere’s no real public transport: official taxis with set hotel-zone fares, or whatever transfer your hotel sells.·Fares and timesAeropuerto de Punta Cana
VIP lounges in Punta Cana
2Before you fly, or on the layover. Pay per visit, whatever airline.