Travel Review - Dreams Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (Part 3)

I recently vacationed at the Dreams Resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. I was there with my husband, my son (age 5) and my daughter (age 2). Dreams, an all-inclusive resort, is located on the same property that used to be the Sunscape Resort. The city of Punta Cana has over 70 resorts, most of them being all-inclusive.

The main activities of any resort in the Dominican Republic are the beach and the pools. At Dreams, there is one main pool and it wanders through the entire length of the resort. The buildings line the perimeter of the property. Five buildings are on one side and four are on the other.

Nestled in between the buildings and the pool are lush tropical landscapes and plenty of comfortable wooden lounge chairs. In one area near the pool, close to building 4, you can find several pink flamingos and some wild turkeys.

The beach area is the center of many daytime activities. At the beach, you can sit for the entire day underneath an umbrella hut made of palm tree leaves. There are an adequate amount of beach umbrellas and chairs, but it's a good idea to try and get to the beach before 9:30 am if you want to find your own area and enough chairs for your party.

At the end of the pool near the beach is the Sugar Reef bar. The Sugar Reef opens at 10am and stays open until the pool area closes. During the day, you can order any kind of drink here, alcoholic or non-alcoholic. At 1pm, the soft serve ice cream machine is available and you can make your own ice cream cones.

The Manatees pool bar is on the other side of the Sugar Reef bar. The pool bar is a great place to relax while winding your way on a raft around the enormous pool. It gets crowded there in the afternoon, so expect to wait for your drinks. Manatees is open from 10am to 5pm.

Other beach activities which are part of the all-inclusive package include kayaking, snorkeling (the snorkeling takes place right in the water off the beach), tennis, aqua aerobics, aqua volleyball and beach volleyball. In the pool area near building 8, there is an activity area where you can play ping pong and big chess (the chess pieces are two feet high and the board is made of black and white rubber squares).

Dreams Resort also has a full entertainment schedule which changes daily. The daily entertainment includes Spanish lessons, ping pong tournaments, step aerobics, meringue dancing lessons, and various types of contests. One day I watched an arm wrestling contest. Another day, I was the judge at the paella cooking contest.

If you wish to take an excursion off of the resort premises, there are several tourist desks located right outside of the World Café. Day trips, which are not included in the all-inclusive hotel rate, are scuba diving, snorkeling on an excursion boat, taking a jeep ride in the jungle or swimming in the Caribbean with dolphins. Of course, there are several types of golf trips and sunset cruises available.

Every night there are shows which are performed by the Dreams entertainment staff. The shows have a different theme each night. When we were there, some of the themes were Latin night, Broadway Show songs and Magic Night. Since the shows started at 9pm and the kids were tired, we didn't get to see any of the shows.

My favorite activity was lounging in the pool on the resort-provided rafts. I also liked playing in the pool with my kids. The pool was the center of our family activity. One day we set up our location by the beach under one of the umbrella huts. The water was warm and calm and there was a beautiful Caribbean breeze all day.