SURFING IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
While looking for cool surf spots, I came across the Pacific coast of the Dominican Republic and instantly fell in love. Tropical beaches, wild ocean and palm trees, palm trees, palm trees. In my opinion, surf spots always have a great vibe, even if we ourselves aren't the most talented surfers.
Getting there
With Air Canada I found good flights on KAYAK from Frankfurt via Canada to Puerto Plata, the airport in the north of the Dominican Republic. Once we arrived in Puerto Plata, we had a driver organised through our first hotel, the El Encuentro Surf Lodge . Getting a child car seat locally turned out to be a bit tricky, but after a few emails back and forth it worked out in the end. Child seats in cars are really not common at all in the Dominican Republic! In general, we didn't drive ourselves at any point during the trip; instead we always had the hotel arrange a driver to get us from A to B and asked for a child seat in advance. That always worked perfectly.
The best time to travel
The best time to travel to the north of the Dominican Republic is February to April. We were there for 2 weeks at the beginning of March: one week in El Encuentro Beach, a small surf spot near Cabarete, and one week on the Samaná Peninsula in Las Terrenas (more on that in my post BEACH PARADISE SAMANA).
Our hotel – a true surfer's paradise
The El Encuentro Surf Lodge was our first hotel. We stayed in one of the brand-new beach bungalows. These rooms belong to the hotel but are a little set apart – right on the beach, in a small complex with its own pool. You can order breakfast via WhatsApp and have it brought straight to your room. We loved it.
What is there to do in El Encuentro?
Every morning we walked the 20 m down to the beach, and we explored pretty much everything else by bike, which you could rent at the hotel. Just a few metres further along is the surf beach, with a small kiosk and 2 surf schools. There is only 1 restaurant near the hotel, Chez Arsenio. We found this seclusion great for a week! Once we also went to Fresh Fresh in Cabarete for dinner. The restaurant was great, but we didn't like Cabarete itself at all. Far too loud, far too crowded.
