Playa Dorada Beach Day

Our family of nine booked a beach day during our stop in Dominican Republic. We decided on this tour. We were accompanied by one other small group (5 guests). The pick up point is a healthy walk from the ship, literally leaving the port along the highway. We arrived late after the van left. Tour operators contacted the driver and he rerouted back to pick us up. Pretty amazing customer experience. The beach is located Adjacent to a resort. Beautiful location. There are facilities for food, a bar, restrooms, and buying trinkets. The operators of the trinket stores are a tad pushy, visiting you several times while your on the beach urging you to visit. However, the tour guide Alex, was great. Very knowledgeable about the history of the DR and the area we explored. We definitely enjoyed the tour despite the challenge of getting to the pick up point.

Interesting ride along coast Tour guide was well informed and polite and gave a good description of the area. The group was small and plenty of room on small van The beach was beautiful and private but too rough seas to swim. The lounge chairs and umbrella were in good condition. The restaurant was very appealing and eye catching but there was not enough time to have a tranquil lunch. The other attendant a young fellow was also very attentive and helpful keeping a eye on our safety.

We were booked on the beach day excursion and 4 of the 7 folks were no shows. The sky was a bit overcast and it didn’t look like it would be a great day. The tour rep offered us 3 options: go to the beach as planned, receive a full refund or join another tour that would be an upgrade from our original tour. Since it didn’t look like a great beach day, we chose to join the tour. It was great. We drove to the cable car that took us up the mountain to see the ‘Christ the Redeemer’ statue. It was wonderful to see, especially since we didn’t even know it existed in Puerto Plata. We then went to visit a fort, walk around the city square, viewed the cathedral and had time for shopping. We drove to a beach area and were treated to locally grown bananas by our guide Henry. Henry did a great job all day. All in all, we had a very enjoyable day. On our next visit we will rebook our beach day, but we are very glad we accidentally ended up on the alternative tour.

At first we were a little bothered that we had to walk off the pier to the highway to meet the tour guides. Once we found them they offered us bottled water and their wifi so while waiting for the others to arrive from the ship we could surf. You get a tour on the way to the resort and the guides stay with you while at the resort. The food was excellent and very inexpensive. Would definitely do this excursion with this company again.

MY WIFE AND I HAPPENED TO BE THE ONLY TWO PEOPLE ON THE TOUR AT THAT TIME OF THE DAY. OUR GUIDES AND DRIVER WERE SIMPLY SUPERB! THE BEACH AREA WAS PRISTINE AND OUR PERSONAL ATTENDANT WAS EVER MINDFUL OF OUR COMFORT WITHOUT BEING BOTHERSOME. IF WE EVER GET BACK THIS WAY WE'LL REBOOK WITH THESE FOLKS AGAIN!