Punta Bávaro

A very different experience to the start of DR. Deciding on more of a holiday resort for our last 2 weeks was a tough decision but we'd read it is not so easy to travel around DR without hiring a car.

So, with expectations that it would be a little more expensive, we booked what we thought was a nice, but basic, small, clean studio with little kitchenette. It was most definitely not cheap by latin standards, the most expensive beach place we've stayed at but was definitely cheaper than the all inclusives which are eye wateringly expensive when not a package from the UK! There wasn't lots of choice condos wise and nothing in the mid price between these type of studios and the all inclusives......maybe due to school hols, or the time of year but the owners of these buildings we booked seemed to have the monopoly on property available in the area.

The one night airport hotel was iffy to say the least but we were happy to head to our new and final travel home on my birthday yay!!!!

Then we arrived....to what was the worst place we stayed in our whole trip. Even places we stayed for 30 quid a night were better. They were as basic but they were cleaner, less rusty, safer than this hole. I was already struggling with missing mum and dad as it was the anniversary of losing mum the day before and my dad's birthday hadn't long passed so I held it together just, went for a lovely dominican traditional meal to celebrate my birthday and pretended we were in a lovely place. We spent every day out walking just to be away from there.

On the plus in the first week had 4 of the best 10 meals we'd had in the whole trip..excluding our taco experiences of course😋

After 2 days they reluctantly agreed to move us from the broken, rusty, dirty hole into slightly better one..after we viewed 2 others. Still rusty shower fixings, mouldy and broken furniture, a rusty fridge, broken electrics and windows with holes in stuffed with tissues to keep the mossies out. But the hob worked, the taps didnt fall off, the ceiling was still in one piece and the floors and shower unit were clean. In fairness the mattress and pillows were quite comfy. This was jokingly called Deluxe studios. We then watched 3 other couples being housed in our first room, sadly looking at their faces and feeling awful for them. Meanwhile we trawled the Internet to find somewhere else. The owners own 5 or 6 condo blocks, change the names frequently on booking.com to confuse and trick people away from the bad reviews. They show pictures of other condos and of beach bars completely unconnected to the buildings to fool people. In our complex there were 4 blocks...all had different names on booking.com....the one we actually booked under wasn't taking bookings anymore. The rating had dropped from 8.9 when I booked to 5.9. To be honest I'm not sure how it got a 5!

In the end we resorted to going into condo blocks and asking. 2 had vacancies coming up but none of them could show us rooms until vacant and then we lost them to people who booked online as we were too scared to book without viewing the rooms.

Then we passed a place, got the whatsapp number, booked to see it next day and loved it. It's literally 6 times as big...too big for us two probably but I didn't care...I cried when he said it was available. You could have fitted the studio into the living room twice but that didn't matter. I'd have been happy with the same size studio as we actually quite like living in square rooms for 6 months. Well one was circular but small is all good to me. But, it was clean. Not rusty. Had decent towels and sheets that weren't itchy. Proper lights and a sharp knife to cook with.

It has literally everything you could want to wash with, clean with, cook with, go to the beach with including chairs, umbrella, towels and bags..nothing to do except turn up with your bag and buy fresh food if cooking. Literally the height of condo luxury at..............£6 per night more.

So after a dodgy beginning to our DR stay we are now grateful to be finishing the trip with the same enjoyment we've experienced the rest of our trip...possibly even better.

I know these are first world problems and we are so grateful and know how incredibly lucky we are to have been able to have travelled as we have. I know this probably comes across like a spoiled brat post but I thought at the very least it will give you a laugh to know it wasn't all fun and games ...even though most of it was a blast.

See you all soon!❤️Read more