Punta Cana is the Dominican Republic's tourism engine and probably the most heavily sold sun-and-sand destination in the Caribbean. The eastern coastal strip holds some fifty kilometres of continuous beach, with fine white sand, palms to the waterline and a reef that keeps the swell gentle.
The beaches
Playa Bávaro is the main one and the most built up, with calm shallow water for a long way out. Playa Macao, a little further north, is public, has surf, and is where the surf schools go and where Dominicans go on Sundays. Cabeza de Toro and Juanillo are more sheltered.
A warning about sargassum: this coast is affected by drifting brown seaweed, most intensely between March and August and with marked variation year to year. Hotels clear it daily, but it can shape the experience.
The all-inclusive model
Understand what you are buying. Punta Cana runs on large resorts with private beach, food and drink included and organised activities. It is comfortable, safe and competitively priced, and it also leaves visitors fairly insulated from the country: there is no town to walk out into.
Anyone wanting something different has options within the same area: apartments and small hotels in Los Corales or El Cortecito, where there are independent restaurants, colmados and local life at beach level.
Excursions
Saona Island, inside Parque Nacional del Este, is the classic day out: catamaran or speedboat, a natural pool in the middle of the sea with starfish, and a postcard island. It draws crowds; earlier departures are better.
Hoyo Azul, in Scape Park, is a turquoise cenote at the foot of a cliff. Catalina Island has good diving, and from La Romana you can reach Altos de Chavón, a recreation of a sixteenth-century Mediterranean village built in the 1970s, with an amphitheatre above the Chavón river.
Practical
Punta Cana airport is the country's busiest, with direct flights from Europe and the Americas. Transfers usually come with the hotel. To move independently there are taxis with fixed zone fares and local guaguas, considerably cheaper and considerably slower.
When to go
The east coast is the driest region and works nearly all year. December to April gives the best balance of sun, calm sea and no sargassum. September and October carry the hurricane risk and also the lowest prices of the calendar.