My spouse and I decided to visit Punta Cana for a brief December getaway from the snow in our hometown. When planning the trip, we flip-flopped a good bit on ground transportation companies and resorts, as it's hard to get a good read on exactly where to stay, based upon our budget for the trip and the online reviews. It seems just about every place will have its pros and cons. We eventually settled on the Royalton Bavaro and transfers via DAT, so we figured it would be good to add some extra data points on those companies. We'll also share some extraneous things regarding travel to the DR that others may find helpful.
This was my spouse's first trip out of the US in a long time; my spouse is a lawful permanent resident (as of quite recently), with citizenship of a country that often requires visas for visiting various places. So we were concerned about DR entry. There were reassurances online that my spouse would indeed be able to enter, but something like this is the kind of situation that you want to quintuple-check before heading to the airport and starting an international trip. I sent this email to the consulate in our hometown, with some redactions here for privacy:
Hello, I would like to check on entry requirements for the Dominican Republic for a trip from Dec. 12 of this year to Dec. 15 of this year. I am an American citizen, so I know I do not need a visa, but I want to check for my [spouse]. [Pronoun] is a [Country] citizen ([Country] passport), but has a green card for permanent residency in the US. Will [pronoun] need a visa? I have already completed e-tickets for both of us, and we will pay the tourist tax upon arrival, but I need to make sure there's nothing else that we will need.
I received this response exactly two hours later:
No need to worry. Your [spouse] has legal status in the USA, therefore [pronoun] can enter the DR, just like you. Also if you bought plane tickets, the tourist fee should be already included. Please check with your airline.
We then checked our itemized receipt for the airfare, and saw that it was indeed bundled in with the price. Great! Speaking of prices, let's start with our costs (all in USD), and see if we got our money's worth.
| Line Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| R/T nonstop airfare for 2 from our home airport in the US to PUJ | $625.34 (includes $10/person tourist fee |
| Royalton Bavaro accommodations (3 nights) | $1,015.98 via AAdvantage Hotels (Includes 8,300 AAdvantage miles, so that offsets the cost.) |
| Souvenirs & Incidentals | $47.50 |
| Tips | $60 (We brought $60 in singles, but didn't quite use them up. Rounding up to $60 for simplicity.) |
| Pet Boarding | $225 |
| R/T ride share transport to/from home airport | $70 (approximate, incl. tips) |
| DAT transfers from/to PUJ | $80.30 |
| Total | $2,124.12 |
| Amount Per Day | $531.03 |
| Amount Per Day Per Person | $265.52 |
| Total Without Pet Boarding | $1899.12 |
| Amount Per Day Without Pet Boarding | $474.78 |
| Amount Per Day Per Person Without Pet Boarding | $237.39 |
Given our status as parents to a furry friend, our job was to each get $265.52 of value from our experience. However, I value AAdvantage miles conservatively at 2 cents each based on my travel plans, so I'm counting the 8,300 incoming miles as a $166 value. That brings our per person daily value goal to $244.77 ((2124.12 - 166) / 4 days / 2 people). We happened upon very low airfare, which ended up as one of the deciding factors that brought us to PUJ in the first place (my spouse was initially eyeing a return to Cancún, remembering previous good times had there). We were in basic economy, so the miles we earned on our fare were negligible (not included in calculations for simplicity).
We woke up, tied up loose ends at the house, and grabbed a Lyft to the airport. The flight was not 100% full on the way there, but there were a good many people onboard. We started in the Admirals Club for breakfast between H/K gates, and filled up on coffee, surprisingly good chia pudding, scrambled eggs, sausage, etc. If we were paying for airport breakfast, it'd easily be a $10 outlay per person, so we are now down to $234.77 in value per person to extract for the first day.
We went to the gate, and I was called to the desk. There was one seat in business class available, and they asked if I were willing to split up the party in order to take it. We declined, but one of us taking it would have made a sizable dent in the day's value for sure. We had a smooth flight with an early departure and an even earlier arrival. We landed and made our way to passport control. It was a long walk; thankfully, neither of us have mobility issues of any kind. If you or anyone in your party does, though, I recommend making arrangements for assistance at the airport. That said, I can't speak to anything like that since neither of us used such services.
Passport control wasn't super crowded when we arrived. We were sitting in row 8, though, so we were able to disembark pretty quickly. Things seemed to move along at a decent pace there, and we probably waited for under 10 minutes. They have a series of kiosks there that can be used by passengers from some countries, including the US. We tried my spouse's passport, thinking we may still be able to use the kiosk due to permanent residency, but the passport being from another country prevented this. We went to the desk, which had no line, and were greeted by our first point of contact in the airport: a super friendly gent who took care of everything and got us on our way in under a minute. Next stop: customs (we didn't check bags, so we skipped any baggage claim experience). We weren't asked about any declarations, we just fed our bags through a scanner and were on our way. Then, knowing that we were not supposed to drink local tap water, we stopped by a shop on the way out to grab a couple of bottles of Fiji water ($9.50 U.S. for 2). Expensive, but hey, that's airports for ya. We walked outside to the designated pickup area for DAT. They sent us an email well in advance about how to find them, and their instructions and attached photos guided us super easily to where we needed to be.
We saw my name on a small placard at their station, along with several other names. We were soon approached by someone in a DAT shirt, who informed us that he would come back and get us to our ride in about 10 minutes, and we could just wait there in the meantime. As promised, we were shepherded to a van quite shortly. Our driver was great! He answered a lot of questions for us about what to expect from our experience, and was jovial the whole way. He also navigated us through the very chaotic traffic patterns near the airport with ease, and made us feel comfortable the entire time.
One thing to note is that I am a (more or less) fluent Spanish speaker, so I was the one doing the talking with the driver. However, my spouse also had some questions, which I was translating. The driver informed us that he didn't speak too much English, so if you're not a Spanish speaker, I would definitely recommend a translation app with a downloaded language pack. Then again, this goes for travel to anywhere where you don't speak the predominant language(s) of your destination. Speaking of downloaded: we had talk/text/data included with our phone plan, but if yours doesn't include such a thing and you don't need to make calls/receive texts, you may want to skip buying an international pass through your carrier and opt instead for an eSIM for data. We didn't need one there, but I used one from Holafly in Europe recently, and had a good experience.
We arrived without incident about a half hour after leaving the airport, and were greeted by a resort employee who tagged our suitcases and held them up front. We didn't have anything critical in our roller bags, so we were fine with this, but if you are packing something in your luggage that you won't want to leave unattended, it's worth checking if you're allowed to bring it with you to check-in.
Royalton Bavaro offers an online pre-check in service. Basically, you give them a few preliminary details, and you join a different line upon arrival for people who have filled out the form. It was a bit confusing to find that area (it's a small desk, detached from the check-in desk, off to the right), and we went there. Regular check-in seemed to be moving quickly, and the desk where we were had just one couple in front of us, who were taking quite awhile. So you may want to complete the form and then see how things look when you actually arrive. We were given wristbands at check-in, and told that we would keep them on for our whole stay, and that we must be careful, as there is a $150 charge if a wristband is lost. I wasn't a big fan of having something perma-strapped to my wrist for several days straight, but perhaps that's par for the course with these types of places (I had never been to an all-inclusive resort before). One thing that struck me as odd was that they didn't, in my recollection, take a card for incidentals. Nonetheless, we received a receipt at checkout saying that 12,000 DOP had been credited back. It may have just been a matter of them forgetting to take that, and then clearing the account in some default way.
After check-in, we and our bags were taken by golf cart to our building, where we found the room to be well-appointed and comfortable. We were on the second floor, so we took the elevator up. However, the next day, the elevator was out of order, and remained that way for the remainder of our trip. I believe there was an alternate elevator in the building, but I'm not sure, so things like this could cause problems for people with mobility issues (or lots of luggage, for that matter). Our room had two beds, and a nice balcony. Service was generally good and prompt. We did have a few room issues, though:
None of these issues were a big deal at all, except for the potential blood stain. The in-room safe was easy to operate and had enough space to store valuables: wallet, medications, 2 phones, a 14" laptop, and an iPad Pro all fit fine with room to spare. We also had a fridge with plenty of water and other beverages, as well as ample hangers for drying swimsuits (it was especially helpful to have some space on the balcony that seemed to be designed for hanging things outdoors).
We decided to hit the Gourmet Marché buffet for dinner. The food was by far the biggest downside of the whole trip. We figured that perhaps it was simply a matter of us being there on the later side, but subsequent buffet meals revealed that these issues were pervasive: tough meats, soggy pastas, etc. Also unsure why I decided that chow mein was going to be a star of my first meal there. Not exactly local cuisine.