I left my heart in Punta Cana
Our trip to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic was AWESOME!!! It was 7 days of tropical paradise in an all-inclusive resort. This trip was for our friends' wedding, and also served as our belated honeymoon. It was my first time going on an all-inclusive package, and it was quite a wonderful experience. So far my travels before were a bit different. The itinerary would always be packed full, there would be a schedule of waking up early for breakfast, going sight-seeing, making sure we get on the bus on time for the tour of the day, etc. Exciting? Yes. But also a bit tiring, as when do we fit in the time to just sit back and chillax?
This time our itinerary, for the most part, was to wake up whenever we felt like it. Some days we were early enough to catch the breakfast buffet, some days not. Altho it wasn't a big priority as a big buffet lunch always awaited us at the International Restaurant just off the beach. We'd stroll along down to the beach, where we proceeded to alternate between rolling around in the waves and slow-cooking ourselves into our nice deep tans. It was a nice mix of ppl there, families, older couples, a lot of Canadians, not a whole lot of Americans, and a shitload of Europeans. Them and their speedos! I vote to ban the speedo!
When it got a bit too hot, we'd move to one of the 3 pools in the resort. We'd cool down by the shaded huts, or sit in the swim-up bar, and that would usually start our boozing for the day. An entertainment team would usually round up ppl at the pool for activities like water polo, water aerobics and latin dancing lessons. That was probably the extent of my exercising the whole time I was there. There was a gym in the resort somewhere, although I never saw the exterior or interior of it =)
Then usually we'd go shower and get ready for dinner. There were a bunch of ala carte restaurants around the resort: Italian, Chinese, Mexican, Spanish, Seafood, etc... if we felt like it we'd make our reservations to one of them, but most of the time we'd just end up at the buffet restaurant, where they had a little bit of everything. Yes, pigging out was the norm of our everyday there, food food food! Then we'd chill at the lobby where there would be a live band performing while we downed glass after glass of alcohol-filled drinks! Some nights we'd head over to the theater where the entertainment team had different shows like a horror show, magic show, and one time they had karaoke night. And after that, we'd walk to the disco (yes that's what they called it =) and dance and drink the night away. It felt weird at first to go up to the bartender for drinks and not have to dish out $7-10 per drink. Now it'll be strange going to clubs in Vancouver and HAVE to pay for drinks!
After the disco, we would usually go to the open 24/7 sports bar to chow on greasy food to absorb the alcohol. I miss their nachos!!! We'd play foozeball and pool for a little bit. Funny but everyone was bad at pool. Not sure if it was the alcohol or maybe their pool table is crooked? And depending on how ppl are feeling, sometimes we'd stumble to the beach and/or the pool and goof around til they closed the lights on us. Then we'd stumble back to our rooms.
The wedding itself was beautiful. It was on our 4th day of being there, so we'd had some time to unwind and get nice tans. There were about 30 of us there, family, relatives and friends of the bride and groom. It was right on the beach, and it got a bit cloudy and breezy, which worked better so we didn't melt in the scorching heat. The reception followed later on in one of the restaurants. It was fun riding in the little train to the reception, with the newly married couple and the whole group.
We walked to the end of the beach one day to the little shops, but that was kinda scary as the vendors there were super pushy, dragging us into their stores and making us buy their wares. Just got a couple souvenirs and quickly went back to the safety of our resort. The locals out there were also giving us dirty looks. That was when I came to the realization that the resort employees were super friendly, but the locals were quite hostile towards us. You'd think they'd be happy that tourists bring money into their country, but I guess their govt officials see and pocket that money, not the townsppl. So sad.
And one morning all the guys went deep-sea fishing. But an hour and a half into trolling on the high seas, half of the guys realized their love of land and starting puking their guts out the side of the fishing boat, so they had to be brought back via speedboat. Heehee =) But that was the extent of life outside the resort for me and Dave. Mostly we were just relaxing, recharging our batteries and partying it up inside the resort.
We were sad to leave on our last day. We definitely want to go somewhere warm now every winter. Also, the bar has been raised as far as all-inclusive resorts go. We were pretty spoiled and pampered, the employees went all-out, and service was top notch. Food was excellent and all the drinks were served with so much rum! I definitely recommend this place.
This time our itinerary, for the most part, was to wake up whenever we felt like it. Some days we were early enough to catch the breakfast buffet, some days not. Altho it wasn't a big priority as a big buffet lunch always awaited us at the International Restaurant just off the beach. We'd stroll along down to the beach, where we proceeded to alternate between rolling around in the waves and slow-cooking ourselves into our nice deep tans. It was a nice mix of ppl there, families, older couples, a lot of Canadians, not a whole lot of Americans, and a shitload of Europeans. Them and their speedos! I vote to ban the speedo!
When it got a bit too hot, we'd move to one of the 3 pools in the resort. We'd cool down by the shaded huts, or sit in the swim-up bar, and that would usually start our boozing for the day. An entertainment team would usually round up ppl at the pool for activities like water polo, water aerobics and latin dancing lessons. That was probably the extent of my exercising the whole time I was there. There was a gym in the resort somewhere, although I never saw the exterior or interior of it =)
Then usually we'd go shower and get ready for dinner. There were a bunch of ala carte restaurants around the resort: Italian, Chinese, Mexican, Spanish, Seafood, etc... if we felt like it we'd make our reservations to one of them, but most of the time we'd just end up at the buffet restaurant, where they had a little bit of everything. Yes, pigging out was the norm of our everyday there, food food food! Then we'd chill at the lobby where there would be a live band performing while we downed glass after glass of alcohol-filled drinks! Some nights we'd head over to the theater where the entertainment team had different shows like a horror show, magic show, and one time they had karaoke night. And after that, we'd walk to the disco (yes that's what they called it =) and dance and drink the night away. It felt weird at first to go up to the bartender for drinks and not have to dish out $7-10 per drink. Now it'll be strange going to clubs in Vancouver and HAVE to pay for drinks!
After the disco, we would usually go to the open 24/7 sports bar to chow on greasy food to absorb the alcohol. I miss their nachos!!! We'd play foozeball and pool for a little bit. Funny but everyone was bad at pool. Not sure if it was the alcohol or maybe their pool table is crooked? And depending on how ppl are feeling, sometimes we'd stumble to the beach and/or the pool and goof around til they closed the lights on us. Then we'd stumble back to our rooms.
The wedding itself was beautiful. It was on our 4th day of being there, so we'd had some time to unwind and get nice tans. There were about 30 of us there, family, relatives and friends of the bride and groom. It was right on the beach, and it got a bit cloudy and breezy, which worked better so we didn't melt in the scorching heat. The reception followed later on in one of the restaurants. It was fun riding in the little train to the reception, with the newly married couple and the whole group.
We walked to the end of the beach one day to the little shops, but that was kinda scary as the vendors there were super pushy, dragging us into their stores and making us buy their wares. Just got a couple souvenirs and quickly went back to the safety of our resort. The locals out there were also giving us dirty looks. That was when I came to the realization that the resort employees were super friendly, but the locals were quite hostile towards us. You'd think they'd be happy that tourists bring money into their country, but I guess their govt officials see and pocket that money, not the townsppl. So sad.
And one morning all the guys went deep-sea fishing. But an hour and a half into trolling on the high seas, half of the guys realized their love of land and starting puking their guts out the side of the fishing boat, so they had to be brought back via speedboat. Heehee =) But that was the extent of life outside the resort for me and Dave. Mostly we were just relaxing, recharging our batteries and partying it up inside the resort.
We were sad to leave on our last day. We definitely want to go somewhere warm now every winter. Also, the bar has been raised as far as all-inclusive resorts go. We were pretty spoiled and pampered, the employees went all-out, and service was top notch. Food was excellent and all the drinks were served with so much rum! I definitely recommend this place.
posted by Jazzygirl at 12:11 p.m.
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