This was my first visit to the Dominican Republic and my first villa vacation. It surpassed my expectations The 2 bedroom villa with 15 foot ceilings is spacious and open, beautifully furnished, with lovely landscaping. I loved being surrounded by beautiful flowers and plants.

Our stay at “Villa Brigitte” would not have been nearly as memorable were it not for the host, Florence. She gave us plenty of information on where to go and what to do, and made sure that there were plenty of guides to the Dominican Republic on the coffee table. The small touches – like having a pre-paid mobile phone there for us to use, and offering us the daily ride to the local gym – helped to set this place apart from anywhere else we stayed in the Caribbean on our trip.

The most amazing thing about staying there is that they dole out the toleit paper one roll at the time and you have to go up to the owners apartment and ask for each roll and the man fusses at you for needing it. I stayed for 6 nights and this was a real pain. If you ask the maids for it, they tell you that you must go upstairs and get it.

Also the maids did not know what the "included" breakfast was and of course I did not know, which was a hassle. It was 2 pieces of bread and coffee.

We flew from Canada to Puerto Plata airport. My husband and I went back to the DR in July 2005. We had been before two years ago for our honeymoon and stayed at an all inclusive, it was beautiful. But this time we decided to rent a villa to get the full idea of this beautiful country and its warm and friendly people.

We rented a one bedroom villa at a place called Orilla Del Mar,right on the beach, about a mile or so out of Cabarete, NE. The villa was great, the people working their were awesome.This is a nice villa mostly owned by Europeans (very nice people too), the pool was nice, and the beach was right out our window, we heard the crash of waves every night. This used to be an all inclusive rental but has changed and is now mostly privately owned with a few being rented out. Quiet. We spent two weeks there (750 US$) well worth the money for this place, and the weather was great, yes the power went off a couple of times but no matter you are in paradise. My only complaint would be the dogs that hang around (I hate dogs). We rented a car (Tracker) and drove to Rio San Juan, Puerto Plata, and Playa Grande, it was a nice drive and experience. We did the horseback riding thing, it was fine, but the horses there are skinny not like the quarter horses at home, so a little hard on the butt.

Our favorite place to eat was Delio's, the Tropicale restaurant at Sea Grapes village, the food here is to die for and a good price, and the desserts are beyond heaven.Delio is gracious, typical Dominican hospitality. Janet's supermarcado in Cabarete had pretty well everything we needed to keep the fridge in our villa full.But if you want steak go out to one of the many excellent restaurants in this town. We went to Jose O'Shays on Cabarete beach a few times, it was a bit more price wise, but still for that price and the food it was worth it, considering the view you get. It was still cheap compared to what you get at home. For their price compared to North American it is still cheaper. And the view of the kite surfers is awesome, hundreds of them.We went on a horseback ride, (5 1/2 hours) cheap, fun, but the horses were rather small and scrawny so hard on the body, but fun. There was four americans on our trip, they whined a lot about bugs, the horses, etc. and did not last the whole trip, they opted to end there journey early. The best part was having an aunthentic Dominican meal at their home, this lunch was included in our trip, those others missed out on a good thing. These people are so polite and hospital, gracious, now they got class.Our guide's name is Alex, and he was a lot of fun, we had a little boy with us also but he stayed back after lunch, and the three of us went to a place where the river flows into the ocean, it was very warm, we stayed and had a Presidente at this little canteena, we bought Alex a beer and then we took the beach back to our Villa.We tipped generously as Alex showed us a good time and instead of taking us back to the corral and then wait for a cab he took us back along the beach, I think he enjoyed our company also.

We have been coming to the Dominican Republic for nearly 25 years and love it. We love the DR for many reasons: the wonderful warmth of the people, the majestic beauty of the country, the diversity of the terrain, the vividness of the beaches, and the list goes on and on. Now we have one more reason to love it: Sea Horse Ranch.
Of ALL the places we have stayed in the DR over these 2 and a half decades, we have never had a more comfortable, enjoyable or romantic vacation. Sea Horse Ranch provided much of that.

Seahorse Ranch is located on the outskirts of Cabarete on the DR's north shore. It retains the feeling of country side though the enclave of villas is beautiful, lush and sophisticated in layout and design, leaving no rough edges to be seen. Each villa is distinct in floor plan, size, extent of renovation and update, and price, of course. But if you are travelling as a couple and take a smaller villa (as did we), the sense of tranquility and romance can not be surpassed. And, if you are travelling as an extended family or group of friends, the luxury of your accomodations is a true bargain when evaluated on the per person cost.

Smaller or larger, the villas all have lovely, private properties and pristine pools. Maid service as well as landscape clean up and pool care are daily amenities offered with each villa. Depending on your villa and length of stay, the maid might also serve as your cook for the vacation.

In fact, the overall sense of maintenance of the Seahorse complex grounds and individual villa properties is one of the many facets of Seahorse Ranch that distinguishes it from other vacation accomodations throughout the Caribbean.

In addition to your own villa pool, there is a large, natural looking and aesthetically pleasing pool near the club house and restaurant where you can also find one of the beaches that dot the property. Again, these beaches, while small, are immaculate. Every square inch of Seahorse Ranch sparkles and pleases the eye with towering palms, ginger in bloom, and every shade of green lining the walkways. In a secure, quiet, delightful environment, you can walk the extensive property day or night.

The restaurant fare and decor gives the Ranch a distinctly Dominican flavor, but the people you will find vacationing are not only Dominican but Spanish, Italian, French, Scandinavian and, yes, even some Americans like us. But you will have to look for them. The ranch sprawls out over 250 acres and with the exception of dinner at the restaurant, you could spend your whole day without seeing any one.

If the quietude is too much for you, the seaside resort town of Sosua is only five minutes away. In Sosua, you will find more night life, an array of dining options and shops of all kinds.

We spent two weeks in Bahai de Arena in March 2005. The villa was lovely, well equipped and clean. The linens were changed every other day and the whole villa was cleaned from top to bottom thoroughly. The small complex had beautiful gardens and was a two minute walk to the beach which was fantastic.

Unfortunately there was no pool as advertised as the sharing arrangements between Nanny Estates & Bahai de Arena had collapsed. We were allowed to use the private pools of other villa's if the villa was free which worked well. However, if this option was not available we would have been extremely disappointed as we have 3 kids! The tennis courts are no longer available either as they belong to Nanny Estates.

The complex is well maintained and delightful except for the constant competition between the local disco's. The booming of the music starts at 12pm & goes on to 5am every single morning with both disco's competing who can be the loudest! It is too bad, as we would never ever go back here due to this.

We visited the local restaurants & Dicks bakery is great from little hedgehog bread loaves to yummy lattes every day. Lax was a great place with a good atmosphere however a little pricey... due to its popularity as was Jose O'Shays. The majority of the restaurants that we tried had good food but we quite often suffered a little the next day with stomach issues.

The local people are friendly and very helpful. We did hire a car and everyone we asked for directions tried to help even though they were not always accurate. I would highly recommend driving up into the mountains as it is a beautiful country and very different when you get away from the touristy area's. The roads are bumpy and full of holes but fun to drive on.

Our family of four from the States spent spring break vacation in Cabarete March 19-26, 2005. Our kids are son 15 and daughter 12. We knew the DR somewhat. I had been to Sosua several times in the 1980s, and my wife and I honeymooned in Sosua 18 years ago (Blue Bayou) and returned to the now closed Sandcastle a couple years later. We are used to putting together our vacations ala carte.

And about the review that follows: Despite the bumps along the road (many literally), we had a great time on our vacation.

Getting There
We bought our plane tickets back in October in order to get Saturday to Saturday reservations with seats together etc. We flew into Santo Domingo to save $150/ticket over flying into Puerto Plata. This was a mistake. I had thought the drive from south to north coast would be 3.5 hours. We did arrive in Santo Domingo airport on schedule at 2:15 pm on Saturday but things fell apart from there.

First, there was the usual airport chaos. For some reason American Airlines persists in handing out DR immigration cards, which everyone dutifully fills out on the plane. Upon arrival you eventually discover that you need to go to the “Tourist Card” booth and buy your $10 US/card and put all the same information on that card (and throw away the AA version). Of course, DR immigration also could help things out with a simple sign saying “ALL VISITORS MUST OBTAIN TOURIST CARD BEFORE ENTERING IMMIGRATION.” No such sign, but on the other hand the Brugal folks were there handing out free samples of their wonderful rum to help ease the pain.

So it’s around 3:15 pm and we have retrieved our luggage and arrived at the Hertz counter for the usual car rental rigmarole. I guessed (probably wrong) that Master Card covered us with insurance and declined the $15/day insurance charge extra. Out to the car rental lot to the Fiat Doblo we had reserved. The Doblo is sort of a mini-mini-van. The Hertz folks were helpful in allowing a hustler to impersonate a Hertz employee and volunteer (no charge!) to drive us to Route 1 on the west side of the city. And the Doblo they rented us had a faulty seatbelt, luke-warm air conditioning and no compression. The helpful non-Hertz employee drove us to the Hertz office in downtown Santo Domingo which miraculously was still open and where we switched to a Fiat Marea (a mid-sized car for the DR) which did last the rest of the trip. The hustler drove us from there to Route 1 where he got out and instead of saying good-bye demanded the equivalent of $40. I gave him $20 and we shoved off. It’s now 5:15 pm.

Everything you’ve read about not driving in the DR at night is good advice. As darkness fell on Saturday of the biggest holiday week in the DR (Easter Week) we were still south of Santiago. It was easy to get lost in Santiago (forgot about the map showing a 4-lane highway through the heart of the city), but we were fortunate to get great directions from a mini-mart manager.

The two-lane road from Santiago to Puerto Plata and eastward to Cabarete is brutal at night. Potholes come from nowhere. Folks are out partying in the street. The scooters travel in both directions on both sides of the road. Cars pass with complete abandon. Key road signs are missing. Trucks kick off debris with every bounce of the road. Near death experiences abound. And that’s just the first mile.

We arrive in Cabarete around 10 pm, and can’t find our place. Another 20 minutes later, realizing that our little Cabarete map is largely obsolete, we stumble across the Bahia de Arena. It’s only been 16.5 hours since we left our home in the States and we’re here!

Being There
Things turn around. The guard at the entrance has the key to our villa and directs us there. We pile into a gorgeous 3-bedroom beach house, and there are 4 Presidentes in the fridge. Unload the luggage and go out again, driving about half a mile to Tropicoco where the Saturday night buffet is still on! And live music! It’s about $2600 RD for the 4 of us. Food never tasted so good.

Sunday morning the sun is shining, the temperature is perfect, the ocean breeze sweeps over us, and we’re in paradise. My son announces that yesterday must have been a dream. We venture out to explore the place.

Bahia de Arena is a collection of villas with various owners, most of whom rent out their places (ours was $910 US for the week, no extra charges or taxes). It shares a common pool and tennis court with a small condo development called Nanny Estates. Our villa was very clean with a nice kitchen, nice beds and baths, and cable TV. The development is located on the west end of Cabarete Beach, a good walk along the beach from the town. The web site is www.cabaretevillas.com. It is managed by Gundula Margies, who is very friendly and helpful.

The pool is delightful. The tennis court is perfectly adequate. The view of the beach from the rise at the development is wonderful -- you can look east to Cabarete Beach and west to Kite Beach. The villa rental includes maid service and filtered water. You have to bring your own beach towels. Laundry service is available for a very modest fee.

Food. There are a number of markets. We soon found Janet’s, which is the largest supermarket located on the main road on the east end of town. Our favorite DR foods were fruits like pineapple, yogurt drink, and orange juice. The ground coffee, such as Santo Domingo brand, is excellent. Cheeses and breads are very good. The local beers, Presidente and Bohemia, are good. Every morning I picked up breakfast pastries at Dick’s in the middle of town.

Restaurants

As said above, Tropicoco was a wonderful place for our late Saturday dinner. For Sunday lunch we walked 100 feet down the beach from our place to a beachfront spot called Sun Dreams. Wonderful pasta, sandwiches and burgers for $800 RD for the 4 of us, and make-shift pool table. Spectacular beach vistas. We had the place to ourselves until a couple guys showed up for their 3-beer, 3-shot lunch. We ate there Monday, Tuesday and Thursday too.

Sunday night we went to Las Brisas in town for a nice meal on the beach for around $1700 RD. When eating on the beach you should consider bug spray -- my daughter got a number of sand fly bites that lasted several days. Stopped at Bon for ice cream.

Monday night we ventured out the local road toward the “caves” to an authentic Dominican place called Mercedes. Wonderful dinner for around $800 RD for all of us. When we showed up the only other patrons were a family from Wisconsin who had walked there from their resort -- at least a mile on a rough road. They seemed relieved to see us and were very happy when we gave them a lift back to town after dinner. Stopped at Bon for ice cream.

Tuesday night to another local spot called Fat Chicken, located beyond the east end of town. Great food for cheap, $1050 RD. Quite the scene as all kinds of folks showed up later competing for one of the 4 tables in the whole place. Stopped at Bon for ice cream.

Wednesday lunch was PJ’s in Sousua. Good pub grub, at $1200 RD. It was an old times sake lunch, as I had known Jose, the original owner of PJ’s, more than 20 years ago. PJ’s then was just a narrow bar. The jewelry shop across the street, Patrick’s Silversmith, dates from that era, and Patrick is still there. A great place to buy a jewelry gift. We cruised the stalls at the beach, negotiating sunglasses from $1200 RD to $250 RD, and doing less well on t-shirts from $400 RD to $300 RD.

Back in Cabarete for dinner we went to LAX for wonderful beachfront dining. Great vegetable curry, wings, fajitas and pizza for $1500 RD for all of us. We learned there that the bigger restaurants use ice from filtered water so it’s safe to drink. Oh yea, stopped at Bon for ice cream.

Thursday dinner we walked along the beach to Jose O’Shays in the middle of town for another beachfront meal. Food was good, although relatively pricey at $2400 RD.

Activities
Cabarete Beach! A beautiful cove beach with lots of activity. The principal one is kiteboarding. When the wind is good (as it was the whole time we were there), the place comes alive with hundreds of kite boarders and a few windsurfers cruising the water. Other ocean activities like bodysurfing and boogie boarding have to be undertaken with due regard for the kite boarders whipping along. Plenty of places for sunning, dining and cruising.

Cabarete Town: Beyond the shops, restaurants and bars, not a lot. We played “Micro Golf” one night which was fun (and inexpensive). Did I mention Bon for ice cream?

Go Karts: Just east of Puerto Plata is a “Fun City” amusement park with 4, count ‘em 4, different kinds of go karts. Fixed price for all you can ride all day at $250 RD/person. There were only about 12 of us in the whole park so we got our moneys worth.

Horseback Riding: We spent all Friday on a horsebacking riding adventure in the mountains outside of Gaspar Hernandez. Pickup at 9 am by Lucas and Reggie. Lucas owns the operation; he is a Belgian living in the DR for the last 12 years. A baker by trade he lives in Gaspar Hernandez where his bakery is located. Our guides were Reggie and Laurie -- a charming couple living winters in Sosua and summers in the Miami and Virginia. We had a 40 minute drive into the mountains on the worst road I have every seen (by far). Arriving at “Rancho Marabel” we were matched up with some very nice horses, and joined by a Dominican who runs the stables. It was a nice ride along the same terrible road to a dream-like waterfall where we swam under the falls and had a wonderful time. We then reversed course back to the village for a late lunch -- very good -- and the return drive home. Our children were novices at horseback riding and suffered a couple twisted ankles. Nothing serious but we thought some more about what one does out in the mountains of a developing country in the event of serious injury. Cost for everything was $210 US for the four of us, and we added a tip.

Travel Notes
• Exchange rate was about 27.5 when we were there. The ATMs at Reserva Popular and Bank BHD usually didn’t work. The ATM at Scotia Bank worked every time. Max withdrawal, $10,000 RD.
• Electricity went out a couple times a day for between 1 minute and 10 minutes.
• Local radio -- there is a Sosua radio station at 92.5 FM with a variety of DJ’s from the U.S. and U.K. domains playing great rock. www.rubi92fm.com.
• Cell phone -- believe it or not there was as a stronger signal here than I have at home. I called AT&T Wireless before I left and for an extra $5/month got $0.18/minute service in the DR.
• Water -- we didn’t drink the tap water and avoided ice in drinks except in restaurants where we were told the ice was from filtered water. None of us got sick.
• Driving -- as described elsewhere, very difficult particularly at night.
• Supplies -- items like sun screen can be hard to find and expensive.
• Easter Week -- we had been told Easter Week would be a problem but things weren’t too bad through Good Friday. Everything closed at noon that day. There is one definite problem, though, if you’re unlucky to be in a place hit by loud, and I mean, LOUD music. Every night we were there a bank of speakers started up from a gas station (thanks, Exxon!) about a mile away, and the pounding went on until 3 am weeknights and from midnight until 6 am on Friday night (I guess technically it was Saturday morning and not Good Friday).

Getting Back
Needless to say we weren’t looking forward to the trip back. We drove a different way back, through Moca and then to Route 1. The road was in good condition and the mountain scenery was spectacular. Despite having directions, we did get lost in Moca. But the first Dominican we asked talked to someone else who led us in his car to the road out of town. I don’t know about you, but that don’t happen where I live.

We also got lost in Santo Domingo, but fortunately the city was still waking up around 11 am on Saturday and there were no traffic jams. Thanks to a good street map we’d bought in Sosua, we were able to figure out where we were and where we needed to go.

Back at the airport the Hertz rep argued with me for 10 minutes about whether the gas gauge was a hair off from full. So I drove off and added about a quart. We had a couple hours to kill and had a couple beers. At one airport spot the price for a Presidente was $250 RD (about $10 US) while the spot next door it was $65 RD (about $2.50 US). I think the first place might have mixed up $250 RD with $2.50 US, but the cashier was adamant. Bottom line, it pays to shop around -- even at the shop next door!

Our plane left a little late, which shortened our connection time in Miami to one hour. In Miami we were told we needed to clear immigration, get our luggage, clear customs, drop luggage, and clear security again. At immigration we managed to pick a line with a guy who found himself immensely amusing to everyone. So at one person every 10 minutes, disaster loomed. We managed to find another line and get through, only to discover that one of our bags didn’t make it (thanks again, American!). So we bagged the bag, ran to another terminal, got through security and ran to the gate. We made it by maybe 5 minutes. Back home at our airport there were no taxis so we stood outside in the cold in our shorts for about 40 minutes until a taxi we had called finally arrived. And home from there.

Reviewed by a frequent visitor to Puerto Plata from New York City -- " Villa for Sale or Rent " (6 Palma Real Avenue, Cerro Alto, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic -- March 19 to April 3, 2005)

From March 19 to April 3, 2005, I had the pleasure of renting one of the two one-bedroom, fully furnished apartments that are available for rent at 6 Palma Real Avenue in the Cerro Alto section of Puerto Plata. One of the highest situated villas in Puerto Plata (and about 65 steps up from street level to the living areas), the house (built only a few years ago) commands a truly spectacular view of much of the city of Puerto Plata far below as well as an enormous stretch of the distant blue sea. The house is immaculate, and boasts beautifully tiled floors and bathrooms (with hot water) throughout. Being on a mountainside, hundreds of feet above the city (with no development on either side of the house), I enjoyed cool, quiet breezes while relaxing on the veranda. At night, fireflies would dance above the lush foliage as frogs serenaded. The quietude, full moon and breeze made one surrender to relaxation. And in the morning, spectacular full-view sunrises from the east horizon served as a prelude to daytime pleasures. My apartment was thoroughly cleaned (and bed linen and bath towels changed) once a week by a trusted member of the household staff ... and I do mean thoroughly.

Although I did not have occasion to use it myself, there is a lovely swimming pool in the back yard that guests are invited to use. The villa is beautifully landscaped on all levels, and there is a garage for the 'master' vehicle as well as additional parking space for five cars. (A vacationer would almost definitely need a rental car to get around, unless some other arrangements could be made for transportation. I rented from Europcar, at the Puerto Plata airport, which worked out very well and gave me the independence to travel where and when I wished.)

On the floor above the two one-bedroom apartments sits the master (two-bedroom) apartment. I was graciously invited in to see it, and it is truly magnificent. The living room is very large with many windows and the kitchen is well laid out. The house has too many nice features to describe ... it has to be seen.