Dominican Republic

Area mostly all-inclusive resorts with small pockets of local community. Restaurants appear on the map, but all are hidden behind resort walls and will not serve the public. We were lucky enough to find a colmada where the very kind owner made us sandwiches. There is a bazaar-style market where the vendors are fairly aggressive and the prices border on extortion. We also seemed to be the only tourists walking around the local neighborhood and probably two of the only people staying in an Airbnb condo instead of an all-inclusive resort- unbeknownst to us, it was a private condo *inside* a resort where the restaurants wasn’t operating. The most expensive place we stayed- complete with a hot tub that didn’t warm up and air conditioning we couldn’t control (ironically, the only place we stayed with A/C, and we would have preferred to d without it.)

Bright side: big fireworks display on the beach on New Year’s Eve at midnight. However, we didn’t know about it beforehand so we watched it from our rooftop balcony.Read more