Soooo obviously travel is a little limited these days…thanks Covid 😒. Therefore instead of doing a big trip last year for the holidays, I decided to hit an island instead. I’ve been wanting to see the Dominican Republic for a long time and I finally went ahead and made it happen!
Alright let’s start with the costs breakdown for this 6 day/5 night trip (numbers shown are for 2 people):
| Flight and Hotel (“oceanview” suite at Riu Republica) booked through Delta Vacations $1880 | |
| Monkeyland and Zipline Adventure $210 | |
| Bebe Catamaran Snorkel and Booze Cruise $125 | |
| Saona Island Cruise and ATV Combo $198 | |
| Vacation Total: $2,413 for 2 people (less the $500 from my Skymiles points 🙌🏾) |
We gon get into them excursions because CHILE some of them was a REAL trying adventure 😒.
Our first tour with Runner’s Adventures doing the Monkeyland and Zipline was AMAZING! We also got to see the process for how they make coffee and try some great fresh, locally grown coffee, hot chocolate, and of course MAMAJUANA 🍷! To buy the products there was relatively inexpensive (the hot chocolate was like $10). I personally am not the greatest fan of zip lining (it’s a lot of walking, the ropes are up in places God didn’t intend ropes to be, and after the first line I’m uninterested) BUT we ziplined. I was there for the monkeys and boy did I get MONKEYS! Check out the video below.
Outside of monkeys jumping in my face 😂, our next tour was a party boat by Bebe Catamarans on the Sail Snorkel Booze cruise. I’m going to be honest guys…it was ok. And that’s no shade to them I’ve just been on far better party boats. This was really more of just a catamaran ride with some rum. Everyone was very nice though and the little snack packs they provided were good after you’ve been out snorkeling. They even threw fish food into the water so that all the pretty fish would come swim around us 🐠. Y’all know I know nothing about fish so it was like ooooh that’s pretty, ok back to the rum 🤷🏾♀️🥃.
We stopped at a shallow area where a bunch of boats gather and vendors come over and have you take (expensive) pics with monkeys, parrots, and lizards and sell you coconut drinks. I’m sure I don’t have to tell y’all this but NEGOTIATE! Prices are never fixed. Start super low and then find a median you can live with if you really like them. Admittedly, we got some pretty good pics.
Our last tour was a Saona island and buggy combo tour. Now THIS was the party boat! I definitely could have skipped the other “party” boat and just did this one. This one was booked through Get Your Guide. I actually really love Get Your Guide and generally use them over Viator for finding tours. *TRAVEL HACK* I always look through the pictures to see if anything has a pic of the name of the actual company then look them up to see if the price is cheaper on their site.
Now the negative…the company that actually provided this tour provided NO PRIOR INFO. The setup on Get Your Guide was a bit confusing so it wasn’t clear that the tour would be split over 2 days. Luckily I only had a beach massage scheduled that didn’t have a deposit down so it was easy to cancel for the day this had to spillover into. The day before the tour was supposed to happen I finally messaged them as no one had messaged me and the person who responded on Whatsapp was not clear at all. Due to this, we ended up in the lobby at 6:30am waiting for a tour pick-up that never happened 😡. I LOVE sleep like beyond a normal amount so I was big mad. When the company responded to my Whatsapp they said basically “O that pickup time is for your Saona Island tour tomorrow, your buggy combo tour pick-up is today at 11:10am. 😒” I mean I guess that was ok because we got to have breakfast and relax but I was still mad.
The actual tour was fun though. On the buggy tour day, we rode ATVs through the mud to a little beach, got to swim in a cenote, saw a little Taino dance, and again try the coffee, hot chocolate, and mamajuana (yes you’ll do this every tour LOL). The Saona island day had the party boat all the way lit with free rum and bumping music the entire way! The hosts had us all up dancing having a great time. We made some great friends and partied 💃🏾. When we got to the island they had a nice bbq buffet laid out for us and we got to lay out and enjoy the beach. YOU WILL BE ASKED A MILLION TIMES IF YOU WANT A MASSAGE FROM THE LADIES THERE. Just know its going to happen. O and bring bug spray. I looked like a pin cushion 🤦🏾♀️.
Lastly, we stayed at the Riu Republica and it was nice, but it had just opened after many months due to Covid so I’m sure it is much better outside of Covid times. Only 1 pool bar was open so despite the fact that there were like 8 pools people were only actually in 2. The buffet restaurant was open for every meal but only 1 of the specialty restaurants would open per night and on 1 of the nights we got there 40 mins after opening and all of the reservations were already full 🙄.
AND THE WORST PART: THEY HAD NO LIQUOR ON TAP IN THE ROOM! Ok I am a real Riu fan. I’ve stayed at several of their properties and they are always my 1st choice when booking a Caribbean All-Inclusive but one of the main reasons for that is the liquor on tap in the room. The other disappointment is that the resort isn’t really directly on the ocean so it really isn’t an oceanview room, more of an ocean sound room with a nice balcony lol (see the walkthrough below).
Well that’s it folks! Any questions or comments, as always just let me know 😊.
Love & Passport Stamps,
Khalia J.