The Most Blissful Locale Among Punta Cana Resorts

This past weekend Mark and I opted to head down to to the Dominican to enjoy a long weekend away from responsibilities Back in January, during the dark, cold, snowy days, Mark decided we needed a getaway. He searched for something within a 4-5 hour flight that is warm, and relaxing. One particularly chilly January day, my phone buzzed mid school day with a screen shot of our booked trip to Excellence El Carmen. It seemed like the day would never come, yet here I am writing about our experience.

Our flight left at 8AM on Thursday morning. We arrived at the airport and headed to the AMEX lounge for some breakfast and mimosas before we took off. One thing I do whenever I fly is bring candy bags and "Thank you notes" for the flight attendants. When we got on our flight, I gave the bag to the first flight attendant I saw-you would have thought I was giving out money. They are always so thankful for such a small gesture. One flight attendant came up to us and gave us a huge hug and kiss for our thoughtfulness-and then the pilot personally thanked us over the loudspeaker mid flight. It is always such a good feeling to see how happy chocolate can make someone.

When we arrived, we headed for our transportation-immigration was easy and fast to get through. One word of advice (which I should already know), is to make sure you get OUTSIDE for your transportation. We were guided to our "transportation", but it was just someone who wanted to sell us excursions (rookie mistake). Once we got outside, we did eventually find our transportation-Mark booked a private van to take us, which was definitely worth it as we did not have to stop at multiple resorts to drop others off. It took us about 40 minutes to get to our resort. Sadly, it was a bit rainy on our arrival, but that absolutely did not affect our outlook on our trip.

Upon our arrival at the resort, we were greeted with champagne and flowers-it was around 2PM and check-in wasn't until 3, so we opted for some lunch at the Kitchen Table which was buffet style. There were so many options for us to try-it was all delicious! Around 3PM, we checked into our suite-Mark booked a Terrace Suite with plunge pool-this meant our second floor deck had a Jacuzzi and a small pool on it with a view o some beautiful gardens.

The weather was a little blah to start our afternoon, but we headed down to the pool to grab some drinks and start the fun. Boyyyyy were we in for some entertainment. It was pretty apparent that people had been enjoying the everflowing cocktails during the rainy weather-we still aren't really sure who was married to who, how many belly flops were performed, or if anyone from that group actually survived the rest of the week-Essentially you could split the pool goers into two groups: the entertainers and the viewers. It was during this time that we ran into another couple that was enjoying the "show" as much as we were, they even had some really amazing nicknames to determine who was who-we obviously immediately hit it off with laughs and drinks until the whistle was blown at 7PM which meant the pool was closed.

Mark and I headed back to our room and got ready for dinner. We were debating between The Grill & Chez Isabelle-The Grill had a bit of a wait, so we went to Chez instead. The meal was superb! We ordered a bottle of Cab, For apps, we got Crunchy goat cheese candies, wild berries and fresh mint, Dijon vinaigrette and Smoked salmon ravioli with fresh cheese and candied lemon peel. For our meals I ordered the Beef tenderloin finished with flambéed Cognac, onion confit with Port wine and potato mousseline and Mark ordered the Filet Mignon in three peppercorn sauce with vegetable jardinière and creamy mashed potatoes. We were extremely happy with our meals-the meat was tender & the potatoes WERE SO AMAZING!!!

After dinner, we headed out to the Sports Bar to watch some March and met up with our new friends Carol Ann & Rich for some cocktails.

Day 2:

I got up around 7 to head to the gym-I must say, their equipment was really great & it was nicely set up-with some great views. They even had some chlorophyll water & cucumber water for a post workout refreshment. When I got back to the room, Mark had ordered room service-we ate & got ready for the day. In the morning, we went down to the beach and placed our stuff under the thatched beach umbrellas. We took advantage of the nice weather and walked north along the beach. There were a few resorts as well as a few places to buy souvenirs if you were interested. When we came back, we lounged around-ordering some coconut water straight from the coconut and having some snacks from Las Olas which was the beach buffet. When it started to rain around 1ish, we decided to go back to the room to change for lunch.

For lunch we went to the Lobster House-I ordered Octopus “tostada” with parsley, red onion, avocado and chipotle dressing for an appetizer and .Mark got Crab rolls with sweet and sour sauce and Tempura fish taco with spicy red sauce. We both ordered Sav. Blanc for our wine-I was shocked that it was so good. Many times when we go to resorts, wine is not our first choice-I must say, the wine here was great-it was from the Astica winery. After lunch, we "bar crawled" around the resort. We tried some mojitos, mango margaritas, and even found a juice bar. On our walk, we found some beautiful flamingos near the pond.

Late afternoon we headed back to the pool, which was much quieter than the previous day. Overall, the resort was really quiet-we were trying to figure out where everyone was hiding during the days; it was really nice to have most of the resort to ourselves!

For dinner, we decided to head back to The Lobster House. We got the shrimp cocktail & Coconut crumbred fried shrimp in horseradish sauce, mustard and honey as well as Seafood soup with squid, scallops, crab and fish with aioli toasts for starters. For dinner I ordered Surf and Turf with lobster and grilled flank steak served with mashed potatoes, roasted garlic and buttered corn -Mark ordered the steamed grouper, however, he received two lobster tails instead (I know our problems are very big lol). We then went to the Sports Bar for more cocktails & basketball. After we left the Sports bar, we thought it would be fun to check out the night club (disco)-there were only 2 other couples in there but the music was great & it was a cool atmosphere if there were more couples.

Day 3:

This was the nicest day we had yet. We had a champagne breakfast on our deck to start the day & went right down to the beach. Again, not very many people were there so early. We took a walk towards the south end and then came back to soak up the sun and the ocean. The water was a little rough but beautiful, not too cold, and very clear. When lunch time came around, we went to Oregano. We ordered pizza for lunch which was delicious! After lunch we went to the pool again. It was raining a little bit, but after the rain let out, the most gorgeous rainbow popped up! We decided to go out for a group dinner with our new friends for all of our last night.

Dinner was at Agave, the Mexican restaurant. We ordered some appetizers and for my entree I ordered fish tacos which were delicious. We went to the Sports Bar afterwards and then took a long walk around the resort for our last night.

Day 4:

We ate breakfast at the Kitchen Table-again it was a gorgeous spread of food. We went down to the beach to soak in the last few hours of our vacation. Still, there were not many people to be found on the beach early mornings. Our bags were picked up around 10:30 and we enjoyed one last cerveza from the Martini bar followed by a Latte from the coffee shop for the ride to the airport. Our ride arrived right on time, at 11:00. Once we got to the airport, it was fairly easy to get through customs &, once we were in, we utilized the outside area to enjoy the rest of the Dominican Sun. Our flight home was easy & enjoyable.

Overall, this trip was the perfect short getaway. The resort was quiet and calm-it was the perfect combination of relaxation & fun. We also met some amazing people on the trip which made it even better! The food at the resort was pretty good-our dinners were always great! My favorite cocktail was the CocoLoco and my favorite meal was from Chez Isabelle. The sunshine was just what we needed to break up this Northeastern early spring weather!