Cabarete DR: Mary and Mark's Excellent Adventure

[windydoug]

Long time local Waterman Mark Rosenzweig and his wife Mary travelled to the Dominical Republic for a late winter escape.  Here is why you should do it too.

Mary and Mark’s Excellent Adventure

 

To get the record straight, we love winter. But, this wasn’t much of a winter, and yet it seemed to be hanging on a little too long. Also, in general, late March and most of April isn’t that great around here—it’s what we call the mud season. So, with that background, we decided to go somewhere warm. I guess you can’t really call what we did a vacation since we are retired.
Now, we had to decide where to go. Warm and windy were the most important criteria, But we also wanted to find a place where while I was kiting, Mary could hang out and be comfortable and also have fun. Criteria such as relatively short travel time, safety, good food and other things to do when it is windy were also relatively important.
We remembered that years ago we had traveled on two separate vacations to Cabarete in the Dominican Republic for us both to do windsurfing. I remember that on the Second trip we were skunked completely not windsurfing even one day. However, we both remembered that it still was a pleasant place to hang out and that there were other things to do such as surfing (which we did), jungle trips( which we didn’t do), etc. I also remembered that, Although the wind was too light for windsurfing that week, folks were successfully kite surfing in that same light wind. Of course, now that I have gone over to the dark side (mostly), I figured that the odds were pretty good that I would be able to kite a good bit during this trip.
Like anything else that is well thought out and even well planned, it doesn’t always work out that way. But, sometimes you get lucky— and we did! At the end of it, we looked at each other and agreed that it was the best vacation trip, ever. The key word that kept coming up that best described it all was EASY. Let me break it down into its components:

 

 

Getting There:

6.5 hours from wheels up in Rochester until wheels down in Puerto Plata, DR, the closest airport to Cabarete. Then a $35, 30 minute cab ride to our hotel. The cabs are right outside the airport. Just make sure to agree on the price before getting into the cab. And when you are in Cabarete, there is no need for renting a car. You can walk or take a short cab ride everywhere. The cabs vary from ones in which you are the only ones in it (cost to El Centro negotiable— about $4) to minivan cabs that stop all along the way, picking up and dropping off folks along the way for about a dollar each person. Or, if you’re ready for an adventure, motorcycle cabs will take one or two riders behind the driver— yes, 3 people. We didn’t try that.

Taking your stuff:

We flew United Airlines, who actually had a designation for Kitesurfing equipment in their sporting goods classification as accepted luggage—same dimensions as a golf travel bag. No need to lie and say the (stealth) golf bag contains golf clubs. I used a standard kitesurfing roller travel bag that contained three kites, two bars and a twin tip board and other stuff, just under 50 lbs.
Hotel: We stayed at the Agualina Hotel, right on kite beach, the epicenter for kiting in Cabarete. This boutique-type hotel has 11 units, ranging from a single hotel-type room to a 3rd floor penthouse luxury 2-bedroom, 3 full bath suite with large living-dining room and full kitchen. All units have either patios (ground floor) or large balconies, and all are on the ocean side, with view of the beach and kiting. The hotel was very inexpensive at just over $700 for 7 nights for a junior suite, less for a single room. There are even cheaper hotels on kite beach. Kite beach is a 30 minute walk on the beach from El Centro, meaning the center of the other hotels, condos, shops, grocery stores and restaurants/ bars in Cabarete.

Food and Drink:

There is a very nice open air restaurant on the hotel grounds on the hotel property that serves breakfast and lunch most days and dinner a few nights with a full bar. The other hotels nearby also have restaurants. We only went into town 3 times in a week. Of note, at a hotel two doors down from ours is a fantastic restaurant, called Bali Bali, whose owner is a beautiful and charming Indonesian lady, married to the owner of the kiting concession there. We had dinner there 3 times. So good that it almost is worth the trip there just for that! The grocery stores are pretty good—not quite Wegmans— if you want to have stuff in the room and/or cook. Yes, you need bottled water.

Kiting:

There is a lawn on the hotel grounds on which you unroll your kite. They have an air compressor with a long hose, set at low pressure for inflating your kite. Then you carry the kite about fifty feet onto the beach, lay out your lines and go. There are many young boys scurrying up and down the beach who help you launch and land your kite, and even offer to carry your equipment back for you if you get blown down the beach. The beach lines a large bay, and the trade wind blows side-on, so you cannot get blown offshore. It is expected that you tip the boys a couple of dollars for their help. We did that at the end of each day on which we had any help. There are many kitesurfing businesses at kite beach, all offering lessons, rentals and repairs. Vela, an international windsurfing and kiting company, has its concession on the grounds of our hotel.The water and wind are warm year round. I was in a bathing suit to kite. The water is Caribbean clear and flat inside, meaning about 200 yards out until you reach the reef, where the waves gently break for some mellow wave riding, and swells outside that. No objects to avoid in the water, but often a lot of kiting traffic and many beginners, because of which I tended to stay upwind and out near the wind.
Windsurfers stay in El Centro and the conditions are identical, flat inside, waves at the reef.

The Wind: I attached a link that talks about the windspeed through the year. April is known to be somewhat risky. I kited 10m and 14m four days, then no wind on the last three days.

Cabarete Weather

 

Accommodations:

So, I want to let folks here know about this very cool place that is so easy to get to and so easy to enjoy. I didn’t mention anything about the people, but the Dominican people that we met were all warm, friendly and helpful. We also got to meet folks from England, Europe, Brazil and Argentina— I got to practice my Spanish with them, but almost everyone who lives and works there speaks English. I’m going to post some photos and links that might be helpful. Check out the penthouse and next-door loft condo at Agualina owned by a very nice young couple who lives there, but rents it out at times via airbnb.
Kite Beach Condo Rental

Mark is a Rochester area windsurfer turned kiter who only stops adventuring when it’s bed time.  His previous travels have included the Columbia River Gorge, and Cape Hatteras.  He is sponsored by no one. When not beckoning to sails and kites from the rocks, Mary rips down hill on mountain bikes and snowboards.  You  can reach Mark via private mail as a member of this forum.

[kelshipman]

Hey Mark, nice write-up!  Kathy and I went this year as well and had the exact same experience.  Planning to go back this coming Feb!

[docheart]

Hi, Kel.  I’m glad you liked it, too.  Where did you stay?  Did you do any side trips and activities?  I suspect that we will go back there, too.

[Author]

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