The Dom Rep is a great destination as long as you pick a 4* (or pref 5*) hotel ! Big mistake IMO to book a 3* - lots and lots of bad reports on these.

Also I would go to the Noth Coast (East Side) as the sea is warmer and calmer that side.

We stayed at The Fiesta chain of hotels at Bavaro a number of years ago (sorry can't remember name but Thompson / Thomas Cook still go there) and it was top class for food, drink & facilities etc.

- also would recommend Iberostar chain of hotels- alway good reports on these (and we have used them alot in Europe and found their standards to be very high if 4* +).

Hope you are not put off by your experience - you can still get an excellent caribbean holiday, without spending the earth, by going to the Dom Rep.

We spent Xmas and new year in the Dom Rep a couple of years ago and had a fantastic time. We stayed at the Riu Merengue on the North coast but also were able to use the sister hotels the Riu mambo or the Riu Bachata which were two minutes walk in either direction. It was great having a choice of bars to visit in the evening - somenight we did a bit of a pub crawl, other nights it was just nice to go somewhere else if the bar at your hotel had crappy entertainment on that night.

Christmas was great - there was a huge gala dinner on Xmas eve and another on new years eve and sanata turned up at the beach on christmas day by speed boat and gave presents to all the small children.

we actually looked to go back last year but the price we were quoted was actually quite high so we paid a few hundred pounds more and went to the Maldives instead which is heaven on earth - we're back there again this Christmas.

I would definitely reccomment either a riu or iberostar hotels as they asre the most well respected chains in the dom rep and get consistently high ratings from guests.

Have fun

Tracy

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