The resort books your buggy. Book the rest of the country yourself.
Which Saona catamaran actually stops at the sandbar. What the Damajagua waterfalls cost once you skip the desk. Whether Los Haitises is worth the drive out of Samaná. Reviews of every tour you can book in the Dominican Republic.
Saona, the water caves, the colonial city, the monkeys.
The five bookings a first Dominican week is built around. What each costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The island daySaona Island Day Trip From Punta Cana with Lunch and Open BarCatamaran out, speedboat back, lunch on the sand at Saona. The day everyone else on your flight is also doing, and still the best one.- 02The dirt dayPunta Cana Dune Buggy Adventure and Amazing Water CaveA buggy down the Macao tracks and a swim in a lit cave under the cane fields. Wear nothing you mind losing to the mud.
- 03The city dayFull-Day Santo Domingo City Tour from Punta CanaThe Alcázar, Calle Las Damas and the first cathedral in the Americas, four hours west of the resort strip.
04The one for kidsMonkeyland and Plantation Safari Tour from Punta CanaSquirrel monkeys land on shoulders at Monkeyland, then a plantation walk for coffee, cocoa and cigars.
05The Samaná dayZipline Adventure in El LimónZip lines strung over the El Limón valley, with the waterfall walk at the end of it.
Punta Cana is one of five bases, not the whole country.
Every region →Almost every tour here is sold by where you sleep. Pick your coast and the day trips that actually leave from it: the eastern resort strip, the amber coast, the colonial capital, the Bayahibe boat harbour, the whale bay in the northeast.
Punta Cana & Bávarothe eastern strip · buggies, Saona, catamaransfrom $2
Puerto Platathe amber coast · Damajagua, the cable car, Sosúafrom $18Santo Domingothe colonial city · Zona Colonial, Los Tres Ojosfrom $5La Romana & BayahibeAltos de Chavón · the short boat to Saonafrom $5SamanáEl Limón, Los Haitises, whales in seasonfrom $2 Sandbar buffet, snorkel reef or a deck with a bar. Pick your boat.
The Dominican day out is usually a hull. Three kinds of boat day, what it costs to get on each, and which harbour it sails from.
Six Dominican days that fill up before the rest.
Mud tracks behind Macao, a cave with a swim in it, the 27 pools at Damajagua, humpbacks in Samaná Bay, cut stone in the Zona Colonial, and the sandbar at Saona.
Behind the resorts the island turns to red mud and cane.
Twenty minutes inland from the beach the tarmac stops. Buggies and quads run the tracks between the cane and the cattle, and almost every route ends the same way: a rope ladder down into a flooded cave for a swim.
The Dominican Republic’s most popular days out.
Every Dominican tour we have reviewed →The tours more travellers take than anything else on the island, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Adventure Bundle: Monkeyland, Ziplines & Buggies Punta Cana
Review of Punta Cana’s full-day adventure bundle, with 12 ziplines, Monkeyland, buggies, river swimming, lunch, and practical booking tips.
Read our review →
2
Punta Cana Zipline Adventure with Buggies and Horseback Riding
from $100
3
Full-Day Santo Domingo City Tour from Punta Cana
from $95
4
Catamaran Boat to Saona Island with Buffet Lunch
from $82
5
Monkeyland and Plantation Safari Tour from Punta Cana
from $80
6
Punta Cana Dune Buggy Adventure and Amazing Water Cave
from $61
7
Half-Day Adventure 4×4 ATV, Water Cave and Dominican Culture
from $64
8
4×4 Dominican Adventure with Chocolate and Coffee Tasting
from $59
What a day out in the Dominican Republic actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what you pay per head. Plenty of the best days here cost less than a round of drinks at the swim-up bar.
Colonial walks, cigar and rum tastings, half-day buggy runs and the short boat hops out of Bayahibe.
The full-day standards: Saona by catamaran, Damajagua’s upper pools, Los Haitises, whale season in Samaná.
Private drivers for the day, chartered boats and the small-group versions of days everyone else does forty-up.
Three things that only happen in the Dominican Republic.
Beaches and buffets exist all round the Caribbean. Twenty-seven waterfalls you climb and jump back down, a mangrove park full of Taíno caves, and the oldest European street in the hemisphere do not.
The 27 Waterfalls of Damajagua
A river has cut a staircase of pools into the limestone behind Imbert, and the only way down is the way the water goes: you jump, or you slide. Guides take groups up to pool seven as standard and to twelve or twenty-seven if the water is right and you have the morning. Helmet and life jacket are not optional, and the upper pools close whenever the river runs hard.
- 1Damajagua The 7 waterfalls excursion – Amber Cove & Taino bay★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 502 reviews
- 2Damajagua Waterfalls Adrenalin Adventure Amber Cove-Taino Bay★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 381 reviews
- 3Damajagua Waterfalls for Cruise Ship Passengers★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 366 reviews
Los Haitises
Limestone humps stand out of the mangroves on the south side of Samaná Bay, hollowed underneath into caves the Taíno used for shelter and left covered in charcoal drawings. Boats go in from Sabana de la Mar and from Samaná town; the crossing is open water and gets choppy after mid-morning, which is why every operator leaves early.
- 1Punta Cana 3in1 Adventure: Los Haitises Park, Waterfall & Montaña★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 303 reviews
- 2Los Haitises National Park & Cayo Levantado Island★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 214 reviews
- 32in1: Los Haitises National Park + Yanigua Waterfall-SPA★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 97 reviews
The Zona Colonial
Calle Las Damas was laid out in 1502 and is still the oldest paved European street in the Americas. Diego Columbus built the Alcázar at the top of it, the first cathedral in the New World sits two blocks over, and the whole grid is walkable in a morning. From Punta Cana it is a long day in a bus each way, and worth it once.
- 1Full-Day Santo Domingo City Tour from Punta Cana★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 4,500 reviews
- 2Day Trip to Santo Domingo from Punta Cana★★★★★★★★★★ 3.5 · 659 reviews
- 3Santo Domingo Day Trip with Tickets and Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 3.8 · 584 reviews
Four Dominican bookings that will not wait.
Most of this island can be arranged from a sun lounger the day before. These four run on a whale calendar, a national-park boat timetable and river levels that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Whale Watching and Cayo Levantado Full Day TourHumpbacks are in Samaná Bay from about the middle of January to the end of March, and nowhere near it for the other nine months.
- 023-in-1 Adventure Haitises Park Waterfall MontañaThe park runs on boat departures out of Sabana de la Mar and Samaná town, and the crossing gets rough once the wind picks up after mid-morning.
- 03Catamaran Boat to Saona Island with Buffet LunchCatamarans leave Bayahibe together, early, and come back on one tide. Miss the departure and there is no later sailing.
- 04Damajagua The 7 waterfalls excursion – Amber Cove & Taino bayHow far up the river you get depends on the water on the day, and the twelve- and twenty-seven-pool trips start earlier than the short one.
Dominican afternoons come with weather. Plan the second half indoors.
From May the cloud builds over the cordillera through the morning and lands on the coast some time after two. It rarely lasts, but it will close the beach and cancel a boat. The fix is the same every time: do the water first, then go under a roof. Cigar rolling, rum and mamajuana, cocoa, a cave, or the colonial streets, which are better wet anyway.
By place — coast, capital and cay
By kind of day — mud, hull, cave or table
The newest Dominican tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
“Round-Trip Private Transfer: Punta Cana Airport ↔ Uvero Alto ”
Read our review →
Secrets Royal Beach – Round Trip Shuttle – Punta Cana Airport
Read our review →
Private Airport Transfer to/from Punta Cana Airport and La Romana
Read our review →
City Tour with Horseback Riding, Zipline, and Dune Buggy at the Countryside
Read our review →
Catalina Island with Altos de Chavon – Full Day All Inclusive
Read our review →
