Hi Julie,

Yes there is a Caribbean side and an Atlantic side to the Dominican.Yes it is still warm on both sides. The beaches are better for the RIUs on the East side of the Dominican, the East side of the Dominican is still not really the Caribbean side geographically if you have a look at map the Caribbean sea is to the South of the island.But people class the East as the Caribbean side because of the white powder beaches where the North Coast is more of a light golden sand.

http://go.hrw.com/atlas/norm_htm/dominrep.htm

Angie.

We went to the south after being at the Riu Merangue in the North and were very disappointed with the beaches there,
They were very narrow and seemed to have a lot of seaweed and not as nice as the North.
The exception being the beach in front of the Coral Hamaca hotel in Boca Chica which had a lovely shallow lagoon.

We've stayed at the Riu merengue in the north and at a Dreams resort in the south East. Although the beach was of a more white powder nature in the south-East, the beach on which the Rius in the North were situated was also lovely.

We fancied the Riu Bambu down south/east but eventually ended up in Dreams, La Romana as we had a good deal. I have to say it didn't live up to the standard of the rius for me.

If I was to be offered a good deal, I'd love to give the Bambu a try.
Good Luck in your search.

Julie,

Here is a map of the resorts on the East side of DR, the Riu resorts are the 12th down from the top on this map.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/fullsize/2682610320077359999CLCdnZ

If you need info on the Rius on the North Coast just give me a shout lol !!

Angie.