Friday, March 6, 2009

Dominican Republic Punta Cana

Punta Cana is one of the most beautiful places to visit in the whole of Dominican Republic and I am putting a few facts here for the sake of the fact that this will help you be more prepared than anything else for the Punta Cana travel as for the amazing place which is Punta Cana

Punta Cana is on the East Coast side of the Dominican republic and the province under which it lies is the La Altagracia .

The best season to travel to Punta Cana is between the months of November and April and that is true for the whole of the Dominican Republic.

The months between June to September are hot and are not good for the tourists. The intervening months of April to June get considerable rain and hence are not recommended for the travel.

There are a lot of places to visit in Punta Cana and these are apart form the beach destinations that you have every time heard of in Punta Cana

The places are
Manati Park
Golf courses
Snorkeling
Horse riding
Scuba Diving

As far as the list of reports goes there are a lot of resorts that are there for the purpose of relaxation and the activities. Each of these resorts offers variety of packages including the all inclusive hotel packages which are so much of a money saver.

Here is the list of resorts and this by no means is the comprehensive list and you may find a lot of other resorts which will be available to you if you try to book via the agent which specializes in Caribbean destinations.

Sirenis Cocotal
Sivory Punta Cana
Riu Naiboa Punta Cana
Excelenece Punta Cana
Riu Bamba Punta Cana
Carabela Bavaro Punta Cana
Natura Park Punta Cana

As far as the beaches are concerned there

Macao beaches
Arena Gordo beach
El Cortecito
Cabeza De toro
Uvera Alto
Bavaro beach

In fact above mentioned are the main sectors which are there as far as the beaches along the 30 mile coastline are concerned.

In Punta Cana the main thing which is there as far as the big city to visit is the place called Higuey and that is the place where the Spanish settlers once came in search of gold and were provided for the “Casabe” bread by the leader of the natives called the cacique. That is another story that later the Spanish and the natives fought with each other bitterly.

Destination wedding Dominican republic

Dominican Republic destination weddings are becoming increasingly popular and the reason is that there are a lot of beaches for the nice exotic weddings and the wedding requirement are also not that much harder to fulfill.

In addition the white sand beaches, the lakes and the carnivals and the forever party type zing on the island helps make the wedding memorable.

The main things that you need to look for as far as the Dominican republic weddings are concerned is that there should be a basic thing that you will need to have and that is the marriage requirements for these destination weddings.

So here is the list of things that you need to check as far as the wedding in Dominican Republic is concerned

Check how much the waiting period is.
Check whether the blood test is required or not?
Howe many witnesses are required?

You will need the permission of the American Consulate to marry in Dominican Republic.

You will need the following documents which are

Passport
Original birth certificate
Single status certificate in Spanish


Also please reed the Dominican Law for various other things that you will need that will help you get ahead of some of the hassles you are likely to face.

However nowadays with the current trend of beach weddings there are a lot of hotels who will do this whole ground work for you but you will have to notify them well in advance say about a month.

Places where you can say I Do are

Playa Doarada –
Punta Cana - for the nature lover
Santo Damingo - Old historical city

In general the package will include a lot of things that you will have to do it all by yourself and that means things like the getting the official to perform the wedding

Registering the wedding
Marriage license
Wedding cake and the decorations
A lot of companies also offer wedding site thrown into the package.
Then they also arrange for a tour of the wedding place in a carriage if possible.
Of course no wedding is complete without the floral decorations and the hotel or the resort will help you get all the arrangements done for the same.

Tip: If you need wedding decoration ideas for your Dominican Republic destination wedding then visit this site. This has some very and valuable information on the wedding decorations.

The dinner is also arranged for the guests. Be sure to check as to how many of the guests are included in the standard package.

Hopefully these tips will help you have a good memorable wedding in the Dominican Republic.

All inclusive Dominican Republic vacation

Generally as an advice the bets thing to do when you are visiting the Dominican Republic is to get the all inclusive hotel in Dominican Republic or a resort that will help you get some of the best deals and also relieved you of all the hassles of expenses and juggling the various things that you need to do. The one bill for the whole trip is then such a wonderful idea and that helps each one of us in a very much easy manner.

The main place of interest in the republic is the Punta Cana

The main thing that you need during the vacation is the meals, then comes the tips and then comes the taxes. The all inclusive vacation will include each of these three things in one package deal. Also the fact of the matter is that these deals and packages will generally have the best thing going for them and that is that a lot of hotels also include the sports activities or the other entertainments like the live band etc.

The bargain is very good as paying separately generally you will end up paying more and this helps you save some money on the Dominican Republic vacation.

There are plusses and minuses as part of the all inclusive deals. A lot of people who take these all inclusive Dominican republic packages do not check the details and hence are not sure what is there in the package whereas the fact of the matter is that these packages actually exclude a lot of stuff like the alcoholic beverages or the sports activities.

Then as the hotel has an all inclusive package a lot of people do not venture out and hence lose out on some very interesting things that they can do while exploring the basic culture and traditions of the republic.

So make sure that you know exactly what will be in the package and what will be not and then make sure that you have the best deal which is available. Read this site for more interesting travel and places information. It helps to get some good insight

Also carry extra cash as you will need this while on vacation and hence can be a great thing if you decide to go on amore exploratory trip deep within the area.

Planning your Dominican Republic vacation

If you are planning your trip to the Dominican Republic then make sure that you have the best of knowledge about the areas where you need to cover while on vacation and that will generally mean that you can actually enjoy the whole island if you plan properly.

Southeast region – mainly agriculture
Southwest region – mainly a desert area and generally less crowded.

For the best information on the island I would suggest that you use the most official and the authentic source of information for the region which is the official tourism site and it is known as the (http://www.dominicana.com.do/).

The other source of information is family friend that have visited this place more often and have some knowledge about the place. The there are the travel guide books which help the person in getting the right information.

The money matters in the area can be challenging but here is the low down on that you can get hotels for as low as 50 dollars to good hotels for as high as 300 dollars per night.
Also then there are the places which offer the all inclusive Dominican republic vacation packages which can help reduce the cost and everything is there on only one bill.

The main tourist season for this island is between November and April. In the off season you may have things looking good for you with hotel rates very low.

Other things that you should know

Food is relatively easily to procure and you can find a deli or a pizza joint in every place and these can be again based on the location range from very costly to less expensive.

As far as travel within the island goes then you can use the public transport with tickets as low as $3. Then there are the metered taxis which cost a minimum of $4. As usual in a tourist place you may to haggle with the taxi driver for a good price but then that is the usual thing in all the Caribbean islands.

Another method is to us the car rentals in the area and these can be on an average of $70 per day.

As far as shopping is concerned rocking chairs is the best thing and there are other thing like the cigars, artwork and the jewelry.

As far as taxes are concerned there is $10 departure tax and also the $10 tourist card for the tourist. Please maker sure that you account for all the expenses while planning your vacation.

Dominican Republic culture

If you are a beach vacation person then this guide is for you and for those who are interested in reaching this interesting place on earth which is the Dominican republic.

Dominican Republic Culture and History

The main tribe in the republic is the native Taino people and then there are the Spanish colonist and the African Slaves. In this milieu of three different diverse folks have made this small republic a good place to visit where you will be able to see some interesting and very special influences on the whole Caribbean island.

The main prevalent religion is the Roman Catholic religion and also there are some people who have belief in the Episcopalian Christians as well as Jews.

As far as the culture goes the main thing that you can use as a takeaway form the visit is the mahogany and guano rocking chairs.

In terms of musical culture the main form of folk music is the Merengue and then there is the bachata which is mainly the rural music form but very popular. However you will see a lot of hip hop and other stuff in the republic.

As far as the musical instruments are concerned the main form of music is influenced by the guiro. There are other instruments like the gourd based areito music. The main drum which is used is the Tambora.

As far as the economy of the region goes there has been several upheavals in the road to prosperity of this small country. The main thing which helps survive this place is the tourism industry. But that is not what started this place on the read to boom and it was the gold which the Spanish were searching for which led to mushrooming of the republic. It is this Spanish folks who enslaved the Taino but the good part is that they also established the place called as Santo Domingo.

At one pointy in time the agriculture was the mainstay of this place but by 1970’s the tourism industry has begin to rear its head and now there are famous place to be visited in this place and then there destination weddings that happen here which helps the people here make some very decent living.

This place was discovered by Columbus and the island which is by far the biggest is the Hispaniola . It is he that discovered that gold can be found on the south of the island and his successor which is the Francisco de Bobadilla started the main city of Santo Domingo.

The total area of the republic is 18750 square miles.