Saona Beach, the perfect place for rest and relaxation. The calm Caribbean sea, clear waters, perfect temperature and a gorgeous day. It's a popular day trip for people staying in Punta Cana and crowded. We got there first thing in the morning and were able to take this picture before things got busy. I believe they filmed the Bounty commercial on this island, that's how idyllic it could be.
Two years ago to this day we were in the middle of a two week vacation at Ocean El Faro in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. You might be wondering why we would go to an All-Inclusive vacation, it's not like us. Well this was during the height of covid, we had just gone through a lot of tests to go to French Polynesia, so we decided to take it easy and relax. $1100 bucks per person for two weeks at a 4.5 star giant all-inclusive resort was too good of an offer to be true.
The main lobby was immaculate, you could see yourself in the floor and top shelf booze was available for free from 10am to midnight. We often hung out here in the lounges speaking with new 'friends' until the late night. The resort was relatively busy but it was so big and most people were sleeping or chilling somewhere else at this time.
Source: https://www.oceanhotels.net/en/punta-cana-hotels/ocean-el-faro
To walk from the beach to the lobby is about 800 m, this place is huge. There was a lazy river, pool bars, ten restaurants, a giant buffet, food everywhere, real coffee, entertainment, shops, spas, a casino, a health clinic and a disco. The grounds were well kept and it was like a town.
The Al La Carte restaurants were hit an miss. The service is slow and the buffet has more choices and better food. We went a few times to some of the better ones, but during the second week it was all buffet, twice a day because I'm not a pig. With a few snacks of course.
We had a nice balcony right next to the adults only section. That side costs more and they play loud music all day. Other than that, it's the same thing. You pay more if you want a full ocean view or a room where you have a pool right outside your room.
This is what the balconies look like from the outside. They are all low rise buildings and there are over 600 rooms spread out across the resort. It's an impressive place and makes for an easy, no brains, vacation.
Nightly shows with fire spinners, dancers, and interactive performances were a hit. They would have locals sell things on market nights along the esplanade. There was an indoor theatre with performances too, we avoided that because I didn't want to get sick and have to stay locked in the room.
The beach parties were fun too. They had crazy dancers and more drinking. When it ended the diehards would go to the disco. We went anyways as alcohol kills viruses and active people don't get sick, or something like that.
The beach was too wavy and rocky. This resort is not at the best part of Punta Cana for that but there was a nice cove next to the resort with a calm sandy beach you could swim at. So most days, I would just ride around the lazy river and float in the pool. We wore reef shirts to not get burnt and had giant reusable plastic bottles to drink from like all the other veterans.
The nature around the resort was nice, but it's hard to get out of the pool for long when you're in this sort of heat. There were mostly birds, like these nesting egrets and lots of pelicans.
We haven't been back to an all-inclusive resort since 2021 and have been on six vacations since then. They aren't our thing. But thinking back to it, shutting off my brain for two weeks and wondering around without an intelligent thought in my head was much needed therapy at the time.
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