Planning a trip to the Dominican Republic: Secrets Tides, Dreams Onyx, Riu Republica

In this episode of the Travel Agents Podcast, hosts Brian and Will discuss their recent experiences in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. They highlight Punta Cana's beautiful all-inclusive resorts, stunning beaches, and excellent service. Brian shares his first visit to Punta Cana, despite it being a top seller at Chima Travel for years. They discuss the features of the three resorts Brian stayed at: family-friendly Dreams Onyx with its epic pool, romantic adults-only Secrets Tides, and jungle-like Dreams Flora.

In this episode we talk about the importance of resort security, advising listeners to stay on the resort unless on a guided excursion. Noting that while international cuisine at the resorts can be hit or miss, local Dominican dishes like "mangú" and fresh fruits are excellent. Our key travel tips include learning basic Spanish phrases, completing the Punta Cana entry and exit form beforehand, and considering travel insurance, especially during hurricane season.

We want to assure our listeners that the turmoil in Haiti has not significantly affected the Dominican Republic, which maintains high security to ensure tourist safety. Brian and Will highly recommend visiting Punta Cana for its memorable experiences, and they encourage listeners to reach out with questions or comments.  For more information on planning your trip, check out the all-inclusive packages at Chima Travel.

Transcript

00:02
travel agents.

00:13
Travel agents bringing you the latest travel news Hola, I'm Brian and I will wear your host for the travel agents Podcast will how's it feel to be back recording more podcast again feels good, man. It feels good It's it's been a long time coming and yeah I feel like one day we'll have to touch up on why there was such a long absence And maybe we'll dedicate a little episode to that

00:40
But we are back now and we have a full year of content planned and mapped out. So we are back. That's exciting. Yeah, I'm really excited. I love podcasting. I know it's so much fun. So I love talking about travel and you know, you get home from a trip and people like, how was your trip, Will? And you go to tell them they don't really care. Right. Yeah. Because it's not the time and place. They just want to hear you say it was good. Yeah. And then move on. It's our chance to just talk fully about our experiences. And when people are ready to hear, they come listen. Yep. And they...

01:10
Listen. Yeah. So thank you for being our therapist. Yeah. Well, this destination is fun. And it's funny because this is my 12th year in the travel industry. Yeah. And Punta Cana, which is in the Dominican Republic, has remained one of our top three bestsellers in our whole inventory at our chemo travel agency. And I've never been there. So funny. Until last month. Yeah.

01:36
But you've been to the Dominican, but you just haven't been to Punta Cana. Right. The place where we send everyone. Mm hmm. Yeah. So for people who might not be aware, what is Punta Cana? What's so great about it? And why would I want to even go there? Punta Cana is on the island of Hispaniola, which is two countries in one big island. Yeah. Yeah. On the west side or left side, you have Haiti. And on the right side or east side, you have the Dominican Republic. And just a quick side note, Dominican Republic.

02:05
while yes, it's in the Caribbean, it's different from another island called Dominica, which is more rare, not as many flights go there, some cruise ships stop there, though I hear it's a nice island, that's not it. This is the Dominican Republic, often referred to as the DR. Yep. So Punta Cana is on the far east side, about as far away from Haiti as you could possibly get.

02:32
Yeah, I was going to talk about Haiti a little bit later. Just touch on it. Yeah, perfect. Just just to kind of give you that idea. Yeah. Is it far east side? Yeah. So that's that's it. Um, I'll just a quick note. It's a remarkable amount of all inclusive resorts. Yeah, that's insane. Gorgeous beaches, great service and a lot of ocean themed activities and excursions. I got to go to Punta Cana just in May of 2024, a few weeks ago.

03:01
I was there for a three night conference, but will I added on three extra nights? Cause I'm like, I gotta see this, this country. I gotta see this, this city Punta Cana. Okay. Cool. I stayed at three different resorts, typical Brian fashion. I'm not just going to do one. I'm going to move around. Yeah. So shout out to the Hyatt all inclusive collection or Hyatt inclusive collection. I stayed at dreams onyx, which is connected to breathless Punta Cana, which I visited. I'll go over that secrets tides and dreams flora.

03:32
I tried, how did you get to and from the resorts, Brian? I used Ubers, I walked, talk about that, and I used Amstar. Perfect. Will. Yes sir. You've been to Punta Cana. I have, yes. And well before I was a travel agent, and well before I was even remotely close to being an experienced traveler, I went to Punta Cana with some friends, and we went to Rio Republica. And this is gonna be quite the different experience.

04:01
compared to Brian's experience with dreams and secrets. And we're gonna touch up on why you would wanna go there as opposed to maybe secrets and why you would wanna go to secrets as opposed to a Ryu chain. And we're gonna touch up on all of that. But before we jump into that, I think it would behoove us to really say and mention that as great as Punta Cana might be.

04:24
we're really gonna concentrate mostly on these four resorts and kind of detail about what makes these chains unique, what makes these hotels unique, why you would consider going to these places and see if it might be a good trip for you and your trip. But we're gonna touch up on Punta Cana and talk a little bit about what it's like to visit there. But with that said, Brian, what do you think? Yeah, I couldn't agree more. You go to Punta Cana for the all-inclusive resorts. Mm-hmm.

04:52
You stay on property. You enjoy these gorgeous properties. The girl I'm dating is Puerto Rican. My girlfriend is Puerto Rican. I'm sorry, let me try again. My girlfriend is Puerto Rican and she does 45 minute flights to the Dominican Republic. They're cheap too, I looked at them. Are they? Yeah. It's not fair, Christina. Yeah, there you go. Shout out.

05:20
I said to her, I said, hey, I think maybe I'll like run a car and drive around the island a little bit. She goes, no, you don't. OK, sure. You don't do that. Why is that safety? OK, yeah. We're talking maybe gang violence, maybe unpaved roads, bandits. What are we talking about? How bad the roads are nice. OK, I found them to be nice, at least in the tourist areas. Sure. I don't fit in. OK, particularly as an American, I'm going to stick out. You're six, three. You're tall.

05:49
in Dominican Republic, ellos hablan en español. They speak Spanish there. My Spanish isn't great. I'm a beginner. But for sure, that's kind. Thank you. So with the language, but, you know, there's some some poverty. Who knows if I'm going in a good neighborhood or not. So safety is a concern. OK. So our clients go there. They stay on property unless they're doing an official guided excursion. Yes. Where they have a local.

06:18
an official company who takes them in their nice shuttle and takes them off property. Yeah, they have a guide with them at all times. And yeah, they know exactly where they're going. This is where it's tough, well, because I'm thinking, you know, me, I'm so big into culture. I love I love learning about it. I'm not great with other cultures. Sure. Sure. Listen, shout out to the China episode. But but with that said, it's like as much as I'd love to talk about Dominican culture.

06:47
their way of life. I'm a little sad to say, though it's just the truth, our clients go there for these gorgeous, all-inclusive resorts, which are very westernized, very Americanized. Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, not to beat a dead horse here, but it is for sure why someone would go to the Dominican, for the most part. It's similar to Cancun and going to Mexico, and Cancun, Mexico, and maybe Cabo and those sorts. It's really the...

07:16
Resorts those beautiful beaches that are going to bring the majority of folks So that's why we want to touch up on these different resorts and kind of highlight what makes each one of these unique and What makes these chains? Absolutely, let's start with our three defining words. Let's do it

07:36
Will, my first word is playa, no, beach, beach, beach, beach. Bavaro Beach, La Romana, which I didn't get to see La Romana Beach, but I saw Bavaro Beach, spent six days there. Wow. It's good. Is it nice? Yeah, it's really nice. And Will, you're gonna talk to you more about this, and especially from, actually, let's just talk about it now. Okay, yeah, let's do it. One thing we learned from season one, don't say we'll talk about it later, just talk about it. And if we take time talking about it, I wanna talk about it. So check this out, Will.

08:06
looking into the ocean multiple times. I'm like, wow, the ocean looks to be different colors about 50, 50, five zero, 50 yards out. It's a different color. It's okay. It's different. And there's this weird little like white line. My eyes can see it. It's floating on the top of the water and it's perfectly straight. And it goes as far as my eye can see. And there's no seaweed in sight.

08:32
beautiful, beautiful white sand beach in the most clear water. Wow. And I learned from my golf caddy, because I went golfing and this was then verified by people at the resort. Okay. That, uh, what I'm looking at is a barrier they've put up in the ocean, maybe it was 30, 40, 50 yards out. Okay. It goes like across Bavaro beach and

09:01
Think of it like a net. It keeps it clean. It keeps the seaweed out. It keeps sharks out. Wow. And so that area that you would swim is absolutely gorgeous. Just pristine, beautiful Caribbean water. There's no seaweed, also known as sargassum. That's the technical term. Which was just plaguing Poind'Akana, also parts of Cancun and Uruguay and Maya. And...

09:28
First off, just the engineer feed of this is amazing. Sure. It also then keeps the seaweed perfectly kind of up against that barrier. So if you wanted to collect the seaweed, you go out there and they have a ways with their ocean material, I don't know, ships to scoop it up. Cool. And with that, I watched a fascinating business insider documentary of a guy who takes the seaweed and makes bricks. 40% of the brick is made using the seaweed. He uses that brick.

09:56
This is a guy in Mexico to build homes in Mexico and they're incredible homes. Yeah, that's so cool. Talk about utilizing, it's awesome. So when you as an engineer mind, think about the amount of work that goes into this. Also my mind, part of it wonders about like ethics. I think I'm okay with it. I mean, we get this gorgeous beach with no sharks and no seaweed. Yeah. Is there any...

10:22
I wonder if there's any damage to marine life maybe? That would probably be my only. What's the controversy here? Yeah, yeah. Because the moment you start messing with the ocean, my question is like, what does that do? What's the trade off? Yeah, that's a good question. But for travelers, beautiful, pristine beaches, you don't have to worry about sargassum, seaweed, sharks, dangerous wildlife. How about jellyfish? Maybe even jellyfish? You don't have to worry about that. Wow.

10:49
That's such a good point. Yeah. Every time I go to the beach, it's like, all right, I thought how many times are we going to get so much? Yeah, I felt calm. This can be in the water. OK, I guess pretty cool. It's kind of nice, like kind of like making the ocean safe for swimmers. So those with that philassophobia, you don't have to worry. Oh, wow. The ocean. Check that out, man. So that's an interesting topic. I'd be curious to hear if other people are OK with this or if they think like, no, this is they're against it. I haven't heard the other side of the story.

11:17
The only side of the story I can tell you is how nice it was. Yeah. Yeah, you guys have any thoughts on that? We'd love to hear it. Yeah, send us a message and just like the smell. Oh my gosh Oh, I think July 2017. I went to Cancun with a buddy and it was like awful seaweed The smell it actually turned your stomach and kind of took away your appetite. It's very it's very seafood like

11:43
Ask but like but like trash, dude. Yeah, it's like it just feels grimy and smells. Yeah The guys out there at like 5 a.m. Yeah, yeah Job yeah, that's rough. Okay. Okay. Well, that's good to know man, Bavaro Beach Is it Let's say is it public and can folks, you know Dominicans?

12:08
So parts of it are public, parts of it just weren't. Like at the resorts I was at, I was at, there were security guards walking up and down the beach. As a matter of fact, I like to take night walks at the beach. I felt very safe because I was bookend on both sides of each resort I was at by security guards who would wave to me. That's cool. One asked me like, are you okay? Like, what are you doing out here? I'm like, oh, I'm just walking. They're like, oh, okay.

12:33
Cool. Yeah. Trying to find drugs or what's going on here, dude? Yeah. But that's so you know, that's a thing. A few years ago in the headlines, people dying going to Dominican resorts. And the reason being was because of the bootleg alcohol that people were buying off of the beach. I don't know why you would go to an all inclusive resort where alcohol is included in the package, but they decided to buy bootleg alcohol from strangers on the beach in the Dominican. But hey, they did. And they died.

13:03
Now, that wasn't always the case, but for most of them, like stories, 15 years old or something. So is that like maybe they weren't getting it? Yeah, maybe. Because I think you have to be a plane. Yeah. Most countries around the world is 18 to alcohol. That's a good point. Maybe that's the case. All that I know is that there was. An issue with bootleg alcohol and the purchasing of the bootleg alcohol coming off of those beaches, so.

13:29
I wonder if that's part of maybe the increased security and protecting the beach goers and things like that. Security was top notch. My Ubers couldn't get into the resort. They wouldn't let them in to pick me up. They're like, no, you have to walk out to the gate to go get your Uber. We only let official licensed companies in who have like a contract. I'm like, wow, this security is top notch. If you were worried about safety, go to these resorts, you're fine there.

13:56
Do you have any insight as to why there's that increased security? Did they say anything about that? Is that maybe to provide protection with Haiti and everything like that? Or maybe get a peace of mind? Yeah, I mean, where tourism thrives, safety is present. The moment there's a lack of safety, bookings decrease. Yeah, absolutely. It takes one death. Thousands. So that year...

14:24
I want to say before the pandemic, yeah, when there were like eight deaths in the Dominican Republic, it's crazy. Inclusive resorts. I'm saying eight. You can fact check me, please. But I just remember that number. It's like, yeah, bookings dropped in the D.R. Yeah, it was a huge issue. So I can speak for every single resort that they all have security guards. I'm just going to say the three high inclusive resorts I went to. Yeah. Every beach was bookended by security guards, which is saying quite a bit.

14:54
Nice. Yeah. And it's been a few years since I've been to the Rio Republica. So my, you know, my memory is going to be a bit outdated because when I went, it was before this issue. So I don't know if that was maybe something that factored into play here. But when I went, I don't recall any increased security. But I also went unbeknownst to me to a party resort. So I don't know about that now. Yeah, I mean, yeah, let's talk about Rio Republica now. Let's do it. Yeah, let's do it.

15:22
My experience with Rio Republica, I went to the Dominican for the first time in my life by going to the Rio Republica. I had only heard about All Inclusives. This was well before I was a travel agent. Well before I had really experienced any other country outside of maybe Ireland and some countries in my youth. But as an adult, I had always heard all my friends were going to Honeymoons for All Inclusive. So we were really eager and excited to.

15:50
to go to these resorts and experience it for ourselves. Now, if you're not familiar with the term all-inclusive, that's gonna include really everything in your package, flights, transports, well, I can't say flights, sorry, not flights, most packages when you buy an all-inclusive resort, it's probably gonna include your flights, but all-inclusive package is definitely going to include your food, your alcohol, and your transport to and from the airport. And so when I went to Rio Republica, it's a large resort, probably is going to have

16:19
I would say a few hundred rooms. So there's going to be a lot, a lot of rooms. And I would say the big downside to Rio Republica is that it attracted more of that younger crowd, that crowd that was looking to just take advantage of the alcohol. So a downside for you, but an upside for the partygoers. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if you're looking for that party resort, I think we have a public and maybe the real chain could be a good option for you. And the price point.

16:46
It's very economic for folks who are looking for that economic option for resorts Um, I will say too in in the check mark for rio república is that it was so clean It was such a clean resort. I would say the only downside out in that like clean aspect was there this like, uh, This river that kind of cut through the middle of the resort and it smelled like sewage It was not a flowing river. So a river probably wasn't a good term for it, but it

17:16
It was shaped like a river. It was just a, yeah, it was a sitting lake. Okay. And outside of that, the resort was really clean. The food, it went through, yeah, you know, it just, so didn't get, it didn't stick. If I could just touch Riu, R-I-U, started by, I want to say a guy in like Spain or Greece or something. That sounds right. He brought it over to Mexico and the Caribbean, huge hit because wow, you can, we're seeing packages for the whole week for

17:46
Seven, eight, yeah. Seven hundred bucks a piece with flights from Cleveland. Crazy deals. All your breakfast, lunch, dinner, beer, wine, liquor, tips, gratuities, lots of activities on a beach. I mean, what more could you ask for? And if you're if you're a college kid, do it, it's perfect. Especially if you're 18 years old and the drinking age there is 18. I'm going to Google that here. But talk about a nice package where you can just party for a week and.

18:13
You can leave your wallet in the in-room safe with the four digit code locked and not worry about it because it's all Inclusive baby. Yeah, and it's an adult only resort and so that particular one was that one not all reusable Yeah, not all reuse but re repubblica was an adult only so there were no kids um, so for folks maybe looking for an economic option for the honeymoon and uh, They're a little nervous about going to a party resort Um, there are sections of the resort that work

18:43
Wyatt, but I would encourage you to look at some other resorts and maybe the resorts that Brian had went to during his experience in the DR would be a better fit for you, even if they are not adults only. So I'm with you. And I think we're just real quick. The drinking age in Dominican Republic is 18. Nice. Just to verify that. And that brings me onto my everything you just said brings me onto my second defining word, which is price price price price. Punta Cana.

19:13
Is a great price point. Yeah, it is and it can be extremely attractive to those who From many gateways in the united states or even porto rico want Some flights lots of flights there uh beautiful airport and uh Great price for a week or even a weekend getaway all inclusive. Yeah, I would say uh, it's mexico

19:42
economic all-inclusive options on the Caribbean. I agree. And it's typically going to more so bounce back and forth between Mexico and the Dominican as your most economic with Jamaica coming right below it. Best bang for your buck. Yeah. So those clients who, hey, Brian, we've done Cancun, we've done Riviera Maya, we've been there like three, four times we want, we'd like the price point, we want something else, hands down Punta Cana. Yeah. Punta Cana, so price, great.

20:11
last defining word. This won't come as a surprise, but resort. This is Punta Cana. Unless you're have like, you're Dominican and you maybe you have family there that you're going to visit, which that's great. That's great for you. But we're coming at this from very much the tourism perspective. Yeah, resort, resort, resort, stay on the resort unless you're leaving for a guided tour or your transfer to the airport. Stay on the resort. You don't go stumbling off the property.

20:40
As a matter of fact, you really can't. It's like a half mile walk to the gate, you know? Then there's a security guard. Dude, the one time when I left my first resort to walk next door to my second resort, this security guard at the gate said, where's your exit ticket? No way, really? I said, my exit ticket, dude, I'm checked out. I just wanna, I'm like, well, actually I didn't check out. I just kind of left. He's like, no, you have to go back in and get permission to leave. Wow. I was like, you guys are serious about security here. He's like, yeah.

21:09
I go back in, I do the whole checkout process, I get my ticket, I go back, I hand it to him, I said, okay, can I leave yet? He goes, can I just call you a taxi or can you call an Uber? I know it's just the next resort, but you don't wanna walk. I'm like, dude, I'm okay, it's noon, I got my suitcase. I'm gonna literally walk from resort to the resort next door. Wow. There's actually two resorts down. Sure. He's like, are you sure I can't call you a taxi? I'm like, I'm gonna be fine. And...

21:37
I kind of wish I had called it that. No, why is that? It was fine. It was a far walk, though the road and the sidewalk was fine. Yeah. I was approached by five people asking if I wanted a taxi. I had to like wave them off. One guy came running out of a restaurant to come like flag me down, taxi, taxi, taxi. I'm like, no, man, I'm fine. I'm just right up here. Two minutes away, you know? And I was perfectly safe. There was a little market I passed. I saw a bank. I saw restaurants.

22:06
It was totally fine. It's just kind of feeling like I was harassed five different times during a seven minute walk. Oh man, just a seven minute walk? Yeah, just to get to the next resort. And then when I got to the second resort, the guy said, where are you coming from? I said, I walked here. He goes, no, you didn't. I said, I did. He goes, are you serious? I was like, yeah. He goes, okay, let me see if your name's on the list. And my name was on the list. He's like, okay, well, welcome. Can I call a golf cart to come get you and take you the rest of the way? I'm like.

22:35
I'll just walk." He's like, are you sure? Like, wow. Let's talk about one high level of service, but also they're really making sure you don't come in or out unless you are on that list. On that list. Was that walking from a secrets to a beaches resort? I was walking from a dreams resort to a secrets. Dreams on X, secrets tides. Yeah. I mean, dreams. Defining words, beach, price, and resort.

23:03
Should we touch up on the three resorts now? Absolutely, dude. Okay. First resort I went to was called Dreams Onyx. All three of the resorts I went to are part of the Hyatt Inclusive Collection. Huge, we're huge fans of those. Hyatt Inclusive Collection, you have resorts. Each resort, you need, actually, I can't say this enough. You actually need to get a travel agent when you're going to Punta Cotta, and I mean it, like get one.

23:29
because there's so many resorts and so many options and overwhelming. So overwhelming. Yeah. And we cut through all the mess for you and say, stay here, stay there, stay here, stay there. Don't bother with this one. This was, okay, so backtrack. When I booked Rio Republica, we were going off of, we went on Apple vacations, we booked the reservations off of Apple Vacations, which is a provider of these all-inclusive packages. And they have this very own rating called Golden Apples.

23:58
And we based off our decisions off of these golden apples. Sure. They're not. I don't want to say they're not credible, but they don't paint the full picture. So huge fan of Apple vacations. Yes, absolutely. We often have is how do different resorts get their Apple ratings? Yes, because it's yeah. So just a thought, just throw that out there. Travel agents. Yeah, we can really have a we want you to come back happy. Yeah.

24:27
Rio Republica, six golden apples, I think highest rating, I think, something like that. To put it in context, granted, different resort, different country, but Jade Mountain in St. Lucia, one of, maybe one of the most gorgeous, most famous resorts in the Caribbean, strictly due to its visual appeal, highly respected, highly critically praised, very expensive resort.

24:56
I don't even think it has like three apples on Apple vacations. Really, there's a huge dichotomy in terms of quality. Anyway, to circle back to our original point, when I booked the rear Republic, we were going based solely off of those ratings from Apple vacations. Sure. And while we were there, the whole time I was thinking, dang, I wish I knew a travel agent. And then I met Brian and I said, hey, man.

25:21
What do you think about? One of the first questions I asked you is like hey, how do you feel about RYU Republica? And you're like don't go it's terrible don't go Well, it's not a good fit for right for what you wanted right yes, yeah For what you wanted it wasn't the right fit and that's our job as a travel agency We find the right fit because the RYU resort is the right fit for some people. It is it is it is yes Yes, it is for campers and Europeans It's the right fit for some people yeah

25:51
I'm sure we would have had a lot of fun at a certain stage in our life. Yeah. Well, you know, it was fun. We had a lot of fun there. It just, it just wasn't a good fit for us. All the resorts I went to were awesome. I'll be quick. Dreams Onyx tried and true resort, one of the most epic pools ever has, this pool has a lazy river in the middle of it though, our waterfalls as well as a giant open area with a swim up bar where if you're an adult,

26:21
You can go get alcohol. And if you're a kid, you can go get virgin drinks. Heck yeah. And there's like four slides. I did one of them. It was awesome. You know what? Speaking of slides, Rerepublica, incredible slides. There you go. So fun. And then you had a stage where bands performed live. So cool. For the people in the pool. And palm trees over your head, guarding you with shade and stuff. I mean, awesome pool. Dreams Onyx, huge fan.

26:50
It's connected to Breathless Punta Cana. Breathless is adults only and it's a little more risque, a little more party, a little more sexy, right? That's its whole push. Yeah. I did walk over there just to see. They had some dancing, they had a performer doing some covers, it was nice, it was fun. Their entertainment team was going, they weren't doing the foam parties or the bikini fashion show, which I've heard about. It was a little more of a team night, which I appreciated. But.

27:19
The cool thing is if you're an adult staying at Dreamzonics, you can walk over to Breathless and enjoy that more adult-centered entertainment. Cool. Two doors down was Secrets Tides. Secrets, this is your resort for your lovers. Yes, singles are allowed here, but don't go if you're single. It's really a great honeymoon resort, a great for anniversary goers. It's for adults only, and it's catered for lovers. Yeah, it's very romantic. Extremely chill and romantic. Mm-hmm.

27:48
the entertainment team, they're not bumping music. They're just there to chat with you and be like a live guitar. Exactly. Maybe a cello. Yeah. Little guitar, little jazz band at night. They did have there was a section where you could have a little more a little more fun entertainment, more like a nightclub feel. Yeah. You did not have to go there. You could do a nice walk on the beach if you wanted. That's a secret. How did secrets kind of paint that romantic feel? Like if I'm playing in a honeymoon.

28:16
Sure. What can I maybe expect with a secrets resort or maybe even particularly with secrets tides? Were you able to pick up on anything in particular? Everything is gonna it's not geared towards kids, right? Yeah in the same way princess celebrity and holland america cruise lines kids are allowed but there's they're bored as heck There's nothing on them to do right royal caribbean norwegian cruise line and disney and carnival Geared for kids your money's going towards the kids. Yeah, you go to a dreams property, which is family friendly

28:46
Wow, you're much the amount for the kids to do is great. Okay, right video games water slides entertainment even the music is gonna be Stuff like Bruno Mars, right? Yeah, which actually do like Bruno Mars but but still like more maybe more kid-friendly stuff and then Maybe that wasn't a good example of music you go to the secrets resort adults only Make it some nice soft jazz. Yeah

29:14
We're playing for sachi on the floor when you're talking Bruno Mars, you know, exactly you go to the buffet It's not chicken fingers and hot dogs. Okay, it's risotto and steak dinners and creme brulee for dessert Yeah, exactly. It's just a little more a little more adventurous of that for the entertainment It's not the Kid Bopper Spongebob entertainment. It's maybe a comedian. Maybe You know, yeah something. Okay

29:42
Marengue or Bachata or salsa dancers as opposed to, you know, okay Cool the spongebob Paw Patrol type stuff. Okay, so secrets great for the honeymooners the romantics those looking for a romantic adults only getaway right while dreams is Great for the family. So then I drove I took am star 40 minutes from secrets tides where my

30:06
A conference was great conference. Yeah, dreams flora another dreams resort. So family-friendly. Okay, I'm gonna interject real quick Is that okay, please? What's am star? Amstar is the ground operator for Apple vacations who we love. Yep and in in lots of islands and Mexico in the Caribbean so you can trust them. They were blue flowered shirts They have appropriate signage. We trust am star. We love them. We say book year

30:36
not just transportation, but also excursions. Through Amstar. Yep, absolutely. They have from like 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. there's a rep at like every hotel. It's so nice. Yeah. You can walk right to the, hey, I wanna do an excursion. There's safety. That's like on our final documents, Will, we put a picture of their reps and their shirt. Oh, yeah, that's right. Just so we can be like, hey, this is safety. Look for this when you arrive at the airport. Look for this when you wanna book an excursion. So, I...

31:06
appreciated my driver who took me from one resort 40 minutes to the next I stayed at dreams flora Flora means flowers in Spanish. I don't know flora and fauna, right? I think so Anyways, this whole resort is kind of like a jungle theme you walk through it It's almost like yeah like the you see these you kind of protected by all these cool like anywhere you walk of Palm trees and fun plants and in wildlife and really cool feel. Yeah, I liked dreams flora a lot

31:35
What about it did you like? I liked the feeling that it wasn't. So Secret's Tides was so giant and big and open. Okay. You could see from the beach all the way to the front lobby which was like half a mile and back. All very open. Yeah. Pristine and beautiful. Dream's floor is like a little jungle, right? You gotta walk in through it. And the pool was maybe the biggest pool I've ever seen.

32:01
but it just kept going and going and going and going. And you're like, is this, am I still in the same pool? Yeah. One point you're going under bridges, there's a volleyball nets, there's swim up bars, and you keep going around bends and curves. And you're like, wow, I'm in the same body of water as those people like 10 minutes ago, you know? So it's got a very cool feel with that. They always say, judge your resort based on its pool. Right? So while there's some resorts, you're like, oh, that pool's really lacking. But some resorts like this.

32:30
pool is epic. People come from all over the world for this kind of pool. I remember the West in Maui, a travel agent said, Brian, look at that pool. This was in Maui, right? She was like, that pool, people come from around the world for that pool. And I looked at it and I'm like, wow, that's an epic pool. If a resort is going to be awesome, they're going to put a ton of money into their pool. So just keep that in mind.

32:58
particularly for the dreams resorts. Sure. Obviously it's family friendly, but hey, maybe, because family friendlies tend to be, not always, but they tend to be a little bit cheaper than adults only. I agree. So maybe I want that really nice resort, Dreams, but I'm a little nervous about going to a family friendly restaurant or resort. Are there areas in the resort that might be like adults only or maybe might push towards adults only? Maybe you have the adults only pool.

33:27
or maybe a section where it's like, hey, you know, this is the section for the adults and no kids. I can appreciate that. And I think one thing you'll find is yes, a lot of resorts do have that option. And some of them will say like, if you upgrade to a preferred club status, each resort has a different word for it. VIP, resort, preferred club, or you know, whatever it's called. Yeah.

33:55
Upgrading to that gives you access to certain areas of the resort. Not everyone has maybe a private section of the beach, maybe a private pool, maybe a private lounge. I was not preferred club at the two dreams resorts I was at. Yeah. And I kind of felt it. Yeah. Because I walked past those preferred club. I was like, Oh, that's so fun. Yeah. It's got that exclusivity to it. It's really good. The conference at the secrets resort, they gave it all, all the attendees, they gave us preferred club status. So I got to walk around there like a king. Yeah, sir.

34:25
It's a different vibe. I'm like, oh man. So we kind of learned that the hard way with some clients that came back like, Brian, I kind of felt left out. I wish you would have told me about the preferred club, upgraded VIP, at whatever resort it was. But I agree with you in that a lot of resorts are doing the, hey, this is gonna be an adults only area, even though it's a family friendly resort. That's a good point. That's cool. And not to...

34:52
You know, maybe jump forward. I hope I'm not jumping forward. But I remember when we talked earlier, you had mentioned that one of these resorts had probably the coolest pool that one of your top pools that you've ever seen. Is that going to be dreams? Flora? I was the dream is flora. Okay. Yeah. I was just impressed with it. Yeah. I just liked how it kept going. Yeah. That's those huge pools. Well, we grew up with.

35:17
Like think about your local YMCA. It's a square. Which is fine. But that's all we've ever known. So the moment you're like, wait a minute, you can do this with a pool? You could just dig a crazy design that just kind of keeps going and going and going and like zigs and zags and you can do that. It's like, why not? And so cool. And they did it. Is it like, I remember when we went to the Blue Lagoon in Iceland, which we have an episode for, if you're interested in learning about Iceland. But in the Blue Lagoon, huge, huge,

35:47
I'm not it's not a swimming area but for lack of a better word a huge pool Yeah And there were areas with like these like huge like caves that you could kind of go in and kind of have like a little Bit of like a private experience and things like that. So is it kind of maybe more on that sort of vibe? Yeah, I couldn't agree more particularly for dreams floor. I kind of felt like you had a little crevice as you go in and just have Like some privacy. That's cool. Yeah, that's a really cool and then correct me if I'm wrong, but one of these resorts

36:15
is fairly new, right? Yeah, that would, oh, Secrets Tides just opened, thank you, January of 2024, so like five months ago. The paint's not even dry yet, really. It felt new. Yeah. But what I appreciate about, I think, a brand like Hyatt who owns this, they're great. They're so good, it's not a lot, like sometimes when we put clients at brand new resorts, we're a little bit nervous, like,

36:43
Maybe they haven't worked out all the kinks yet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What happens when the staff isn't all trained? Yeah, the faucets broke, this isn't there, they don't have plates at this restaurant, they ran out of plates, I don't know, things like that. Those stuff don't happen at the resorts that have been around for a few years. Right. So when can you trust that a resort has been around long enough that they have those kinks fixed? Mm-hmm, yeah. I think six months in, I would say, I saw nothing wrong with it. Nice. I was really impressed. That's good to know. Yeah. Yes.

37:13
Okay. I want to go into my highs. Let's do it.

37:30
When it comes to the highs, you know, what I've learned about different countries is, I don't know if this is like a governmental thing, but if you wanna get people to your country, it all starts with the, we call it the lift, the airlift. The flights. Yes. Right? Why we're seeing growth in Ethiopia and Rwanda because those airlines are doing well. They're incredible. Airlines that aren't doing well. Well, first, my first question is, do you have any flights in and out? Sure.

38:00
So a significant amount of nonstop flights from Cleveland in the Midwest. Yeah. And many other gateways to Punta Cana. The Punta Cana. Yeah, there are a lot of airports that are flying directly into Punta Cana. Look at all the people from Northeast Ohio. Keep in mind, Ohio is the eighth most populated state in the U.S. Yes, something that's nothing. It's not. Yeah. Yeah. And you look at Cleveland, a huge city.

38:29
We have nonstop flights to which international destinations besides Cancun and Toronto. Where do we have nonstop flights to? Dublin. Dublin? That's huge actually. Yeah. Thank you, Aer Lingus for the Dublin flight. Yeah, absolutely. We're very appreciative. We got great feedback from it. But Punta Cana. Yeah. Punta Cana. There you go. And the same is said for places like Milwaukee. Yeah, Milwaukee's got great flights. Yeah, places like...

38:57
Kansas City, Missouri. Mm-hmm. A ton of places they can go. Yeah. And they're going to Punta Cana. And when it come, people hate layovers, right? Yeah. They suck, dude. Yeah. So if I can get that nonstop flight, all of a sudden, it's like maybe they never heard of Punta Cana, but they heard there's a nonstop flight. So they're like, tell me about it, Brian. Tell me about it, Will. I want to hear about Punta Cana. I don't even know what country it's in, but tell me about it. Yeah, that's awesome. The airport.

39:25
Comfortable beautiful airport to fly into put a ton of cash into that airport. I will say super super nice Dude, my priority pass got me lounge access on the way out. I got to the airport early Okay, and there were two lounges. Yeah first lounge near my gate closed bummer Because they're remodeling. Okay, there was a second lounge, but it was like a seven minute walk. I'm like I'm gonna do it right cuz I had like two hours for my flight. I walk seven minutes

39:54
I get to this lounge, it's an elevator upstairs, gorgeous lounge, gorgeous windows overlooking the runway, a buffet, bartender, a ton of seats, there was a kids play area, then there was an outside. I walk outside and there's a private swimming pool with restrooms and lockers and a water fountain and beach loungers, all overlooks the runway. We're watching airplanes take off and land.

40:21
in a private swimming pool, like a large swimming pool, like the size of my grandpa's growing up underground. And you're up on a third story swimming in a lounge. I didn't, I'd have my bathing suit with me. Yeah, who would think to bring your bathing suit? So if you're going to the Dominican, maybe. Right, get to the airport, they're gonna get you nice and early. Go enjoy. That's incredible. If you haven't gone to a lounge in an airport, granted, some of them are not great. Most of them?

40:51
Incredible. So much great experience. They're so nice. You look at people say, what's the worst part about flying? Oh, the airports having to wait there at the gate. Do you know? I'm sure private lounges. Imagine if you could take that terrible experience and make it an awesome experience. Yes. Yep. That's the goal of like like anything. Right. And most lounges, you're going to get food, drinks, alcoholic drinks.

41:18
Free Wi-Fi electricity, comfortable chairs. Lots of plugs to plug in, charge your stuff. Some have beds that you can... Some have showers. One has a pool. Yeah, one has a pool. You know, if you're looking at some of the more major airports, you're gonna get nicer amenities. If you're looking at, you know, I think... Cappuccino machines. Cappuccino machines, yeah. When we were flying out of, oh, not Palermo.

41:46
But Katanya, thank you. The airport lounge wasn't great. That was. Yeah, they arrange. But how did you get access to your lounge? Was it through your Chase Sapphire card or Chase Sapphire reserve? The greatest credit card on Earth. Shameless plug. We do love that card. It's great. Great. Dude, I wish. And if I refer to people, I no longer. I don't get any points. OK, they stopped out like the first year. Oh, really? So I can't benefit from telling people. Yeah.

42:15
It's almost like the best cap see going should I hang on to it or no? I don't know. We don't want the priority lounges to be crowded. Right, right, right. You get free priority pass They're so nice but if you don't have a chase sapphire card and let's say you fly with like united or you fly with delta sure, um, You can a you can pay for access to the priority lounge. There may be I'll say 45 to 65 dollars depending and honestly, they're kind of worth it

42:43
Even on the 65, if you're gonna be there for several hours, like more than five hours, you can get two meals out it, you can get drinks, you can get some workout, work, knock out some work. Same goes with Delta, United, those two, definitely are gonna offer those. Different lounges have different, you can get one time passes. One issue I'm finding, which is how, these airports will say they have a limit of occupancy. Yes. And what's happening is, especially if you're on

43:13
time, which is hard to say when our time is crowded, right? Like a Saturday, super busy, or I don't know, afternoon. Well, I don't quite know. But I've been where I said, hey, can I just pay cash to go into this lounge? I have a four hour layover, I just want, you know? And they're like, oh, you know, because we're so full, we're not doing the cash passes right now. It's like, ugh. So sometimes yes.

43:41
Yeah, sometimes now, but you can order it through the app and if it's at occupancy, it won't let you order it. Cool. And also, if you're flying business or first class, you're going to get access to this a party to an international to another continent. Yes. Yes. Thank you for the correction. Yes. Next, Let's see when I got the airport customs easy baggage claim easy finding the transfer easy

44:09
You know, especially when you're flying into a foreign country, this is a lot of the high stress points for travelers, particularly travelers who don't travel a lot. So Punta Cana airport, easy, beautiful, nice. Yeah, go ahead. Do they have a, um, uh, maybe a service, if you will, like club Moby that gets you through customs with someone there picks you up with the cart and everything like that on departure on departure. So when you're, when you're ready to leave Punta Cana and come home,

44:39
I'm so upside into this. You can spend 20 bucks and you get access to a VIP lounge and they take you a back way through like security and check in. It's so nice. I have no idea why I didn't pay the 20 bucks, but everyone should do it. Because you get streamlined. Yeah. And you feel like a VIP when you do it. You feel like a VIP and you can't miss it. As you're walking to the gate with every single person, the one way you have to go, it says right here, $20 VIP service and you can just pay it right there. I didn't do it. Incredible. Because I thought I could see the line and it looks short.

45:08
but I couldn't see around the corner to where the masses were. Just turn right around and get that $20. Yeah. Go back through the one security. Yeah. Next parts of the, I'm just going to go over these highs. Sure. Knock it out. Gorgeous resorts with beautiful beaches. The staff at these resorts is getting better at English. That's going to go with my lows in just a second, but they're getting better with English. There's lots of resort options.

45:36
If you go to Punta Cana and you don't like the resort you're at, don't write off Punta Cana. Trust me on that. There may be, there will be, I'm almost positive, a resort for you. There's resorts for foodies, there's resorts for adults, there's resorts for partiers, there's resorts for older people, younger people, families, there's resorts for, you know, kind of like everything, right? Yeah, there's something for everyone.

46:03
It's a great price if you have a low budget. Think of Punta Cana, ask a travel agent, what's the best bang for my buck? We're gonna say Cancun and Punta Cana. That's what we're gonna say. Beautiful golf course I got to play at called the La Cana Golf Course. I played 18 holes, Will. Hey, look at you. And it overlooked the ocean. That's cool. This was hands down the most beautiful course I've ever played at in my life. That's awesome, okay. Came with a caddy. Dude, while we rode in the golf carts, he walked behind us in the 90 degree sun.

46:31
Wow. He does two sets of 18 holes per day. Wow. The dude was awesome. I felt so unworthy. I golf once a year. I suck at it. Though I had some nice drives. Nice, some clients give me some good tips for you. But dude, like he the caddy, he'd tell me what club I should use. And then he had this like binocular thing that told us how far away from it. He's like, okay, you're a

46:56
110 yards from the hole. I'm like, that means nothing to me. But other guys like that, you know? I know. The winds do east 35 miles an hour. Oh, okay, thank you. Dude, every four holes, this nice lady on a golf cart with a cooler, with cold, cold Coke, juice, water, beer, came to replenish us for free. It's incredible, man.

47:24
Was this a part of one of the results as well? All right This lacana golf course is an excursion you can go to and you can pay a couple hundred bucks apiece for transportation 18 holes, you know comes with Dude after nine holes. We went to the clubhouse and put in panini orders delicious chicken panini. There was Beer there was coke. There was water. There was juice. There were chips. I load it up

47:54
Incredible. It was amazing. All included. So this is a great excursion if you're a golfer. Nice. And the clubs that were included were Titleist clubs, which allow all the golfers I was with were like, these are great clubs. Yeah, these are great. Next last high was just that barrier in the water to keep out the seaweed and sharks. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I'm really peace of mind. Beautiful water. I can't enjoy that. Yes. Caribbean water. That's why you go down there.

48:22
I have four lows, okay? All right, so, here we go. The food. All right, here's what I'm gonna say. The food was better than I thought, because I was told it was mostly inedible. Oh, wow. It was from a pickier travel agent friend. Food was better than that. I would just say this. One cool thing with these resorts is they have like, okay, for example.

48:51
a Japanese restaurant, a French restaurant, a Mexican restaurant, a, thought I was gonna keep going, another type of restaurant. Mediterranean fusion restaurants. There you go, nice, love it. I think like the first restaurant I went to was a Japanese restaurant and you know, I've been to Japan, I've tasted incredible sushi. Heck, even here in Ohio, there's some nice Japanese. I was so unimpressed. I went to a French restaurant, I gave it maybe like a four out of 10.

49:21
Oh no. But then I went to the Mexican restaurant. It was incredible. And we're a lot closer to Mexico. Yeah. Yeah. I had some great tacos. They had churros. They had great frijoles beans. Heck yes, dude. Cristina Abichuela. Sorry, that's from Puerto Rico. Dude, go to like 10 different South American countries or Central America or Caribbean. They have like 10 different ways of saying the word beans in Spanish.

49:48
In Spanish. Incredible. Interesting. I did not know that. I thought it was just real. Hold this. You see? It's awesome. So what made the French restaurant terrible? What made the Mexican restaurant? It just feels like people who don't know French food are making it. People who don't know Japanese food are making it. People who, you know what I'm saying? French food is hard. Well, here's the thing. We're very blessed. We're very fortunate in America that we are such a melting pot. Yeah. So when we go to a Japanese restaurant, guess what?

50:18
Maybe there's a Japanese person making it. Yeah, that's pretty darn fortunate. Yep. I agree. Same with Italian, right? Mm hmm. Oh, there's lots of Italian restaurants over there. And dude, this one, this pasta I ate at one of those words, I thought, I think I could do better and I'm not a cook. So right off the bat, I was a little bummed with the food. But then I was chatting with my girlfriend, Christina, who goes to Puntacana often. Forty five minute flight from Puerto Rico. And she's like, Brian, try the Dominican food.

50:48
You're in the Dominican Republic. You're all upset about the Japanese, the French, the Italian food. Yeah. Because the pizza was awful. Yeah. Hold on. I did have good pizza at one of the places, sorry. Okay, okay. What I'm saying was I tried mangoo, which is plantains mashed up into kind of like a mush, and they add different other toppings to it. It's more for breakfast. Okay. It was great. Where did you get it at? Did you get it at the resort? It was at the buffet. The buffet at the resort. They said every morning we have mangoo. We have a whole Dominican section.

51:17
Right. Interesting. That's cool. I tried the mangoes fresh from the trees. The mangoes in the Dominican. Incredible. Amazing mangoes, amazing fruit, the pineapple, the kiwi. So I think what happens was, I guess you need to say your expectations. Don't go to the D.R. expecting great French and Japanese food. Yeah. Yeah. If you go there with beans, rice.

51:46
plantains, fresh fruit, grilled chicken. Like it's delicious. Yeah, yeah. Some fresh like Caribbean style cuisine. Yes. And that's I think where the big problem comes for people who go expecting. I can see that. Hey, they have a French restaurant. It should be, I was in Paris. I'm expecting great food. Should be great, yeah. All right, that's food. Number two, English level. It's getting better though. Okay. Thing is you go to like a place like Cancun.

52:16
I just feel like the English level is pretty solid. Yeah, it's pretty solid for a foreign country, right? That we can have. So what I found in Punta Cana was the English level overall was good. It was good. The more complicated people's requests were for like food or service. It was it was fallen through. Sure. And they're like, wait a minute. But I asked when I was talking to the waiter, I asked for this and I didn't get that. It's like, well, you said a lot to the waiter.

52:45
and he only got maybe 20, 30% of what you said. Okay. So this is going back to our Italy episode. This is where you look at the menu and hate to say it, but you point to the thing you want and you say, yeah, I would like this or that. And yeah, that's just one. Next low, just maybe some inconsistency with food and drinks.

53:08
I just went on a little rant here about how the Japanese food wasn't good. Then I went to Dreams Flora. I went to the Hibachi restaurant and it was good. OK, so explain that to me. Yeah. So shout out to Dreams Flora. Great Japanese food. But the sushi at Dreams Audix was the word I actually wanted to spit out of my mouth. Oh, wow. Sushi. Yeah, you're a big little inconsistency there. OK. Overall, I do.

53:35
Good experience. I'm a fan. Good experience. I would go back to Punta Cana. I would go back and I would, I'd like to try even some more of the resorts. Those are all my lows. Awesome, man. Okay. Do you have any tips? I mean, we kind of intermingled like a lot of tips and tricks and kind of talked a little bit. Dude, I have so many tips. We're gonna have to go through these a little quicker. All right, let's go on. Let's fire around. Tips from the travel agents. All right.

54:05
Dominican Republic we can call it the DR. It's a lot quicker and that's what it means next Cruise ships do cruise ships go to the Dominican Republic the DR. Yes, they do but they go to an area called Porto Plata That's nowhere near Punta Cana. No like force three four six hours away by car or something Yeah, the south right? Yes cruise ships. Don't go to Punta Cana Next learn some Spanish. Yeah

54:34
I haven't asked my butler at secret sites. I was like, dude, do you have any tips for people? Kind of guys like, yeah, learn some Spanish. It's going to be helpful. Yeah. Keywords, bathroom, beer, water. Whereas specifically beer, sir, Vasa. See, for Americans, we have to do a punta canta canta punta canna entry and exit form before we go. It's annoying punta canna or Dominican just for punta canna.

55:04
Hold on good question because I thought it was a Dominican one good point I think it's Dominican because it asked me what airport I was flying into. Yeah, so Punta Cana entry and exit form. Here's the cool thing It only took me about three or four minutes and I was able to fill out the entry and exit form all before I even Left my home. Yeah, I was at the office a couple days prior. You can do it up to seven days prior Yeah, so 48 hours before I left I hopped on I did it

55:32
I'm also a travel agent, so maybe I was a little quicker. But a lot of our clients do it with no problem. I'll just say this. At Cleveland Hopkins Airport, they asked for it. I said to the lady checking me out, I said, do some people not have it? She goes, oh, tons of people don't have it. They have to go over to the side. They're on their iPhones, scrambling, sweating, trying to figure it out, and they're all stressed. And then when I was in Punta Cana, they asked me for it. And I said, hey, do people ever not do this? And she's like, yeah, look at them. She points over there. There's like these four people.

56:00
They were young too. And they're on their iPhone scrambling like frantic like trying to do this thing. And then if you don't have like a service like yeah what happens when you do? Right, right. So I couldn't tell you. Your travel agent will remind you. At Kima Travel we remind all of our clients to fill this out. Next get travel insurance because it's a foreign country. If you get hurt you have to go to a hospital they're going to charge you. You can get reimbursed for all of it if you have travel insurance. Next have realistic expectations on the food.

56:30
Yeah, we knew about that. Right. All right. The drinks are good overall. Yeah, they're good. Yeah. Don't get too fancy. Sure. Simple things. Margarita. Yeah. Dacquiri, Pina Colada. You're on the beach. Get those beautiful beach. What's the banana with chocolate mudslide? Yeah. Oh, good. Right. Yeah. What's the the D.R. has a signature drink, the Bahama Mama, right?

56:56
Oh, I do know the Bahama Mama. I don't know if that's maybe a Bahama drink. Oh, no. What is the drink? It's a signature DR drink. Did they give you? Dominican drink signature cocktail. It is strong. It's so good. But it's strong. Mamawana? Mamachewana? Mamawana? Mamawana. That will be careful with it. Be careful with it. It's very tasty, though. It is strong.

57:22
As far as the water goes, these resorts I was at, they all had purified water, so no worries. They all had a ton of bottled water in the room too. Interesting. Now, I did not brush my teeth with bottled water. I know some clients do. I was fine. Sure. I also lived in China for a year. Yeah, you got that Chinese gut now. There's a chance my gut is just a little stronger than the rest. I wouldn't blame you if you wanna do bottled water to brush your teeth. But at these specialty restaurants and the buffet, and they give you ice water, it's okay, drink it.

57:52
Nice. You're OK. It's filtered. Yeah, they won't give you something that they know. They know. Yeah. We talked about this already, but as specialty restaurants, point to the item on the menu you want. Don't rely on your Spanish if you don't speak that well. If you don't want alcohol, you can say scene S.I.N. Seen alcohol, that means without alcohol. That's that seem to work really good. Also, the word no means no. So you can also say no alcohol. Mm hmm.

58:19
but I noticed a lot of people saying seen alcohol and that's seen without. Without. Yeah. That's all it means without. Packing. So I'm a fair skin guy. I have a sun shirt I got in the Galapagos. I love it. Dude, pack a sun shirt. Big hit for me. Like my body, I like to get a little sun after 10 to 15 minutes, I'm good. Yeah. I don't want eight hours of sun. Yeah. I put on my sun shirt. Or tan before, tan a few weeks before I go to a tanning salon, it helps a lot.

58:47
It really does. Yeah, that's like one of my biggest tips like a little tanning. Yeah, uh that came from my wife She kind of was like hey, you're gonna want to do this and I just tend to listen to her. What's up, dude? Yeah, ready to go pack a bathing suit pack breathable clothes. It's hot there. It's humid there for dinners You're going to these nice restaurants at the users resorts. Some of them have a dress code ladies I saw a lot of sundresses. They're very comfortable very breathable

59:12
guys, I saw a lot of polo shirts and khakis, breathable, comfortable khakis, comfortable polo shirts. Don't you don't need a tuxedo at these resorts. You don't need a jacket. You don't need a tie. Don't bring a tie. Just class it up a little bit. Yeah. Okay. That way you're not bringing down the class. Some restaurants don't allow shorts or flip flops. So bring nice if you want to wear sandals ladies bring nicer sandals. Yeah. Even guys too.

59:40
pack a spare bag, because when you're flying home, you're gonna have wet clothes or wet shoes. You always will. Yeah, always. And so having that spare, just like laundry bag or plastic bag in your suitcase is clutch. Now, some of these resorts do have laundry service that you can pay for. True. And they'll do your laundry for you. True. We talk, yeah, but typical when you're doing laundry at a hotel or resort, they charge per item, not per load. Yeah.

01:00:08
So it could add up, but good point. Yeah, you could absolutely do that. But give yourself a two day buffer. Cause if the day before you're leaving, you give the laundry service, all your laundry and it takes them two days and you're already flown home. You're not going to see those clothes again, which reminds me going home, reconfirm your transfer 24 hours prior to departure. So if you leave on July 8th to fly back home to Kansas or Texas or Ohio, that means on July 7th, you go up to the lobby.

01:00:38
You find your Amstar blue flowered shirt transfer rep, and you say, hey, my name's Will, and I leave tomorrow on the 1 p.m. flight back to Cincinnati. What time should I be ready? Checked out, bags in hand. And that, they're gonna be like, thank you for reconfirming it. These are those steps that make your good trip great. Yeah, it is, yeah. And they'll let you know even too, if there's a flight cancellation or a delay, they're gonna be your point.

01:01:07
person to let you know, hey, actually, guys, your flight's been canceled or your flight's been delayed. They help a lot. And because they're associated with Apple, Apple Vacations, let's say, for example, your flight's been canceled and you have to wait an entire day before you can fly back home. What happens? This never happened to you, Will. Yes, it did. Tell the story. So essentially what happens, we got ready. We got our bags. We've checked out. We are waiting to board the bus to go to the airport.

01:01:37
And our rep came out and said, hey guys, your flight's been canceled. Go ahead and stay at the resort here. We're going to figure out what to do next. Uh, it's, it is looking like your flight is going to fly out tomorrow. So we're going to organize a stay for you guys somewhere at a different resort. And so, uh, they did that for us. All we had to do was just sit back, relax, enjoy our drinks. And, uh, uh, they, they, they took care of everything for us. We got situated with a brand new resort and stayed there for a day and everything was taken care of. Very nice.

01:02:06
That's why you go through a travel agent who knows what they're doing with a nice package and worked with good reputable companies. Absolutely. Yeah. My next one has to do with excursions. So I had a free day. I ended up doing nothing. I stayed on the beach and just ate and drank and read and relax and listen to music. It was great. But I was looking at different excursions. And I'll just say this when it came to excursions. It wasn't clear on the websites of these excursions.

01:02:36
how far they were from your resort. So for example, when I did golfing, it was awesome. What they didn't tell us was an hour drive to get there. Oh man. It's kind of a big deal. It is, yeah. Maybe you would have liked to know that. Yeah, two hours of driving, I mean. There was a cool looking, it was a Santo Domingo, the capital city day tour where you got to see and kind of experience the city. They took you around the downtown, saw the cool cathedrals, saw the market, saw the local life.

01:03:05
I thought that'd be cool. Yeah. Two and a half hour drive from my resort each way. That's five hours of driving. Yep. No fun. There's this area called La Romana, which has a gorgeous beach. My Romanian friends swear by it. It's not that close to Punta Cana. I think it's like a 45, 50 minutes south of Punta Cana, right? It'd be nice to know. Yeah. There's this area called Monkey Land, which I didn't do, but it looked a little more for kids though. There may be some adults who are gonna say.

01:03:35
It's an hour away from Punta Cana. Okay. So just something to keep in mind as you're looking at this, like Cancun, one of the cool things is there's a lot of excursions that depart from like five minutes away. So there are some Punta Cana excursions that depart from five minutes away, but talk to your Amstar blue flowered shirt rep and be like, hey, we're interested in excursions. Could you tell us some that depart like 10 minutes or less from here? And they'll give you that list. It's kind of nice to know, right?

01:04:05
Next tip, vacation club or timeshare. So timeshare has kind of become a nasty word. Yeah. And you're gonna find resorts like this aren't gonna use it. They're gonna use a totally different word. And if you say, is this a timeshare? They're gonna be like, no, no, no, it's not a timeshare, right? Yeah. There's words like vacation club, vacation opportunity, president circle, things like that, right? A fun way of kind of making their timeshare scheme

01:04:35
sound great. Now I'm going to kind of talk negatively on timeshares because I'm a travel agent. Yeah. And the moment our clients buy timeshares, we lose them as clients for life. Right. So yes, it's a known fact that travel agents and timeshares we don't we clash. Yeah. Actually, pro tip, if you're at a resort, and a timeshare rep is hounding you.

01:05:00
just say you're a travel agent, they leave you alone forever. You're out there like, oh, okay, sorry. And they run away, you know, it's awesome. So just a little pro tip there. Yeah, they know, they don't wanna hear about it. We're their competition, right? So I guess beware, I saw quite a few families being pulled in to the timeshare spiel. They're offered a free excursion.

01:05:25
They're offered a free this, a free that, a free room upgrade, a free something. I don't know exactly what it is. If they just listen to a spiel, a totally noncommittal spiel, just listen to it. Right. And you see the overly ambitious salesperson who's kind of got this family of four cornered, the kids are falling asleep on the mom's shoulder is they're bored out of their minds and the parents are trying to smile and nod while this overly ambitious salesperson is like thinking they got the sale, right? Yeah.

01:05:53
And, uh, and they have a special lounge just for the, uh, unlimited vacation club people, you know, and then, and they say, Oh, well, no, this isn't a timeshare. Because at a timeshare, you have to go back to the same room, the same resort, the same hotel year after year after year at our timeshare. You have access to all of our portfolio all over Mexico and the Caribbean. And now we're even in Spain and Greece. And we're even in.

01:06:19
South America, right? There's so many portfolio of areas you can go to, and we're not gonna raise the prices so often. I don't know, whatever. So they're really gonna say this is not a timeshare, right? But it is a timeshare. It's a type of timeshare. Yes, maybe it's more, it's a different timeshare than what it was like in the 80s and 90s, but it is a timeshare. For the younger audience, I might not be aware of what a timeshare is.

01:06:44
You're locking into a long-term contract for the rest of your life at a place that you have to go back to even if you never want to go there again. Yes. So I have a friend whose brother bought a timeshare. They paid $10,000. Upfront. Upfront. Yes, upfront. And it wasn't lifetime. It was, I want to say like five years, something like that. It was a crazy.

01:07:09
But then they never have to pay any more money ever again, right? Yeah, no, that's not the case. It was like they got, they got suckered. There's other fees. There's upping the fees. There's other fees. Be careful of time shares and not even, not even as a travel agent, like genuinely be careful of trying to talk, uh, if time shares are so great, why are these salespeople trying so hard to push them? Yeah. If time shares are so great, how come a couple of times a year, I get a call from a client saying, Brian, you know, for a way for me to get out of this time share.

01:07:39
If timeshares, Will, are so great, how come I get calls from friends of family of friends of family saying, hey, Brian, would your travel agency be able to sell my timeshare to other guests that you work with? I'll give you a great deal. That's all I'm gonna say. Maybe that brings up a good point. And maybe we cover this in a separate episode. Maybe this requires a separate episode. And if it is. Oh, a timeshare episode.

01:08:01
Maybe maybe you can just say that but is there a way to get out of there's I've seen this ad on TV called Like timeshare exit comm. Oh my gosh. Okay, it's exit time sure to come. It's one of the two and I think is a company out of Florida that helps you Wow. I doubt they're cheap. Yeah If you're currently in a timeshare, don't lose heart. Yeah, it's okay. It happens. Maybe you know what?

01:08:25
I had a friend growing up, they had a good timeshare experience. Okay. They also shared it with all four kids and the grandparents paid it. So the kids got, took turns every once every like four years, that one family would go. It was a good experience. Sure. And, and I heard from another couple that they had a good experience too. So that's all I'm saying. Okay. Next.

01:08:45
bring US dollars to the DR. Absolutely, yeah. No need, the local currency is called the Dominican pesos. As of June, 2024, one US dollar is about 60 Dominican pesos. That's good to know. However, they like that US dollar. Who doesn't? You don't need to, don't go exchanging your money. Yeah.

01:09:06
If you use an ATM there, it's gonna spit out Dominican pesos and large bills, which are hard to use. You have to go to the front desk and say, hey, could you please give me smaller bills? It's always a problem, but that's okay. Next, tipping. You know, I regret all the tipping I did. I did a little too much. I was, well, I was being too generous. I'm giving out, and they're actually looking at me like, really, really, you're giving me a tip? Like, these are all-inclusive resorts. The tips are included, right? If someone goes above and beyond, yes, you can tip them, but.

01:09:36
I just, I did a little too much, a little too much tipping. And then I started to resent myself and the staff. Like, are they just doing this for a tip? It's like, no, Brian, they didn't, because you're tipping them, you know? So it was really my fault. And a shout out to, I forget his name, but the guy who welcomed me at Dreams Flora. I walk in, he's so nice, huge smile. And you know what? I've already been at the trip for four days at that point. And I'm thinking to myself, this guy just wants a tip. Yeah. He takes me up to the front desk. He's like, Brian.

01:10:06
Mr. Mr. Chima, you're going to get checked in by this by this lady right here. And she's going to do a great job and we're going to get you to your room soon. And here's the place you can eat tonight, et cetera, et cetera. He's being very nice. I said, great. But, you know, sir, I'm really sorry. I don't have a tip. I said, oh, wait, I do have a tip. And I pulled out 100 pesos, which is like a dollar sixty. I hand it to him and he says, no, it's OK. I'm just I just love my job. Just take it back. Yeah. I almost went to came to tears. I was like, wow.

01:10:35
You just you could have had this tip. Yeah. And you just genuinely wanted to welcome me to your resort. Yeah. It made me feel so happy. I was like, you know, I was wrong. So all that to say, shout out to the I don't know if it was a GM or manager on duty or what at the Seek Dreams flora, but yeah, that's awesome. They're not all in it for the tips. Yeah. All right.

01:10:57
hurricane season is super long. It's like technically May through December. Like more than half of the year. Yeah, it's getting longer. But specifically September, October, November. If you ask any Caribbean person, they're gonna say, I mean, it could rain at any moment, right? Even if you go in non-hurricane season, like February, it could still rain every day a little bit, you know? So don't freak out. Like that's just part of the Caribbean. But with that said, September, October, November are gonna be your key. When's your, when did you go to?

01:11:27
Puerto Rico? September. Okay. Hurricane. Hurricane season. Yeah, Hurricane Maria? Yes. Yeah. Devastating. It was crazy. Devastating. So I've sent people to the DR in September, October, November, they've been rained on. They've also not had rain. So it's hard to plan your trip around it. Does travel insurance cover for hurricanes? Not quite. If the flight's still going and there was, here's how travel insurance works. You have, you're telling the travel insurance company, hey.

01:11:57
I'm going to make every effort to go on my trip. I really am. But if something major causes me from going the travel insurance can step in, like you break a leg or you lose a family member or your brother gets super sick or something like that, right? Something happens to you. It works. One cool thing about the packages we sell will cancel for any reason. I was just about to bring that up. We can do cancel for any reason for, uh, get you credit for the amount of money that you spent.

01:12:26
as well as cash back. And just a forewarning for you guys, they are predicting that this year is going to be a very rough hurricane season for the Caribbean. So if you are looking to spend some time in the Caribbean and go on an all-inclusive vacation, I really, really encourage you guys, please consider getting travel insurance just to protect your peace of mind. You never really know. Trust me from experience, you don't wanna be.

01:12:55
in these positions where you're caught in the middle of a hurricane and you're freaking out. Travel insurance is really gonna help you out. And you can cancel up until like an hour before your flight leaves. Yeah, it's incredible. If it's looking like a bad hurricane, cancel. Yeah. My last tip is a story about my first Uber to my first hotel. You ready for this? Yeah. All right, so I land in Punta Cana. I don't have Amstar as a transfer. Okay. I really wish I did. Yeah. I pull up my Uber app. I call my Uber.

01:13:25
I get, right away I get accepted by a guy who's an Uber driver. He has five stars on Uber. He has 12 reviews. Which, if you use Uber a lot, a lot of these Uber drivers have like 12,000 reviews. So many, yeah. So this guy has 12 reviews. Five stars, 12 reviews. I'm like, that's kinda weird. He finds me, which is kinda cool, cause he calls me and...

01:13:55
He helps me with my bag, we walk to his car, we put my suitcase in the trunk, I get in. He hasn't started the car yet. He doesn't speak English. Now I'm currently the best I am at Spanish because of my girlfriend. Yeah. Not great though. And what he's asking me in Spanish is, can you please cancel the ride on Uber?

01:14:23
and pay me cash because Uber takes such a big cut. He can save me money by not going through the Uber app and he can get more money by not letting Uber have their cut. And I'm thinking, wow, see with Uber, there's great safety. Yes. It knows where I'm at. It knows the license plate of the car that I'm driving. Yeah.

01:14:53
I also share with three different friends whenever I use Uber, they see where I'm at. They can see where I'm at. Yeah. In the car. Yeah. Payment is done through the app. You could even tip through the app. So I said, I'm not comfortable with that. Yeah. I just want to use the app. And he insisted I canceled a ride and use payment cash. And I said, I'm not comfortable with that.

01:15:24
I'd like, and we're sitting in his car. And he's bigger than me. Almost not a big guy. I would like to use the app. And he tried one more time saying, he was very kind, he wasn't mean. He was just very gently explaining it would mean a lot. Only in Spanish, by the way. And a third time I said, I don't have cash. Which I didn't. I'm a terrible traveler. My dad would be very upset.

01:15:52
And he goes, oh, okay, okay, okay. I said, I don't have cash. I'll tip you generously through the app. Tropic tip, I knew that word. And he said, okay, okay, okay. Our drive was very pleasant. He was very nice. I got to practice my Spanish. He was a God-fearing man, nice guy. Showed me a picture of his wife and son. Nice. And I...

01:16:19
I mean, the guy gave me his WhatsApp number. He said, hey, feel free to reach out if you need more transportation services here. I also do some touring to tour guide and stuff, too. Nice, very comfortable car. Awkward first experience. Yeah, don't don't cancel your Uber ride, especially in a foreign country. It's. It's it's it's dangerous. It's dangerous. I didn't say it just have some cash for a tip right there. Whatever. I mean, like, just stay on Uber. Yeah.

01:16:48
Cause the moment you cancel Uber, you're in someone's car who could take you anywhere. Cause I don't know the roads. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You could be trafficked. Honestly, you could genuinely be trafficked that way. It's so sad. So get, have your travel agent book you a transfer. So this episode's running pretty long at this point, but I wanted to check in. Do you have any other last minute thoughts? Cause there's one other topic that I wanted to touch up on. What if I just go by my standby items so quick? Yeah, let's do it. Standby items.

01:17:17
It's empty another one for it's them by items. Here we go. We already talked about seaweed. Kind of curious to hear people's thoughts about this whole little barrier thing in the ocean. Yeah. Is it ethically okay or not? The capital of the Dominican, the Dominican Republic is Santo Domingo. I didn't go there. I don't really think you need to go there. It's kind of far from every, from Punta Cana baseball, baseball's huge in the D.R.

01:17:45
a lot of Caribbean places like soccer. So I was like, oh, you guys take us to football. They're like, no, we like baseball here, dude. Yeah. You not know anything. Yeah. Dude. Famous baseball players from Dominican Republic. So many. David Ortiz. Big Papi is his name, I think. Pedro Martinez, Bartolo Colon played for the Cleveland Indians. You know, yeah. Manny Ramirez, my favorite baseball player growing up. And there's a whole list of other people. Sammy Sosa turns out was from there. So.

01:18:14
Carlos Santana. Wow. That's the name of that guitarist. Yeah. The weather, it's pleasant year round, but it does get hot in the summer. Like even more hot. It's humid. So you're going to sweat your heart out. Mangoo is the traditional Dominican dish, which I think for breakfast, which you should totally try. It's delicious. Mash plans, taints a lot of the one cool stories. A lot of these pro MLB players, they make a ton of money in the MLB and then they go give back.

01:18:43
Gorgeous roads, gorgeous houses. They say, yeah, this road is funded by Big Poppy. That's awesome. This golf course is funded by so-and-so. This resort is funded by so-and-so. This school is built by Big Poppy. Yeah, countless stories, right? Yeah. Proximity to Haiti. Was that what you were gonna touch on? I was gonna ask about it, yeah. So, honestly, that's my, kind of my last point. Let's talk about it. Yeah, let's talk about it. So, for those that are unaware, Haiti for the...

01:19:12
For the lack of a better word, it's a failed state. They currently do not have a head of state. They have a prime minister, but they do not have a head of state. It is currently overrun by gang lords. And in fact, as of this recording, Kenya is going to lead a UN peacekeeping mission to Haiti. Wow, really? To clean up the streets. It has been ongoing for probably two years at this point.

01:19:39
And it seems like it's finally been green lit. So hopefully, hopefully this will actually happen soon. Last month, Christina said last month that the president, prime minister of Haiti flew to Puerto Rico for safety. Yeah, he has resigned. Okay. He's resigned. Is barbecue still the? He is still the, I guess, defacto leader. Which is a gang leader. He is. He's a cannibal. That is the story. Yeah. He goes by barbecue? Yeah.

01:20:07
Yeah, that's the story. He was a he used to be a police chief. He was he was police. He was supposedly a dirty cop, made connections in the gang, criminal underworld, rose to power, and now he is the de facto head of state of Haiti. So the question is, has this turmoil, has this violence spilled over to the Dominican? And

01:20:37
The short answer to this is no. It really hasn't. There is a long history between the Dominicans and Haiti. And it's too long to really dive deep. They share an island. Yeah, it's they share an island. It's a long story, but the short of it is, is that they don't get along. But Will Vox does a fascinating documentary on this. I watched it on a flight once and it's about 15 minutes. And so what I learned is there's a border wall.

01:21:05
that separates the two countries. And every Dominican Republic person I met, I asked them about Haitians. And okay, that was like four people. The four people I asked all gave me the same answer. The Haitians who are here in Dominican Republic take on very difficult jobs. A lot of DR people maybe aren't willing to take. Got it.

01:21:33
They're low pay and extremely difficult and they are incredible at them Yeah, they are the most hard-working people and in the D in Haiti. They speak French Creole. Mm-hmm and French Yep, and they're coming to the DR having they have to learn Spanish. Yeah, and they're they're learning it Yeah to take on a much better life. Yeah, and This is maybe so maybe to ease any Discomfort if you're looking at going to the DR or anything like that think of it like this

01:22:04
The Dominican's biggest economy, biggest driver of the economy is tourism. And that center is Punta Cana. And they will do everything to protect that economy. It is the lifeblood of their country. Honestly, it genuinely is. They depend on the tourism dollars that much. That is why we see this increased security. It's not because things have happened, it is to prevent things from ever happening. So.

01:22:33
If you're nervous about going to the DR just because it shares a border with Haiti, don't. It's the same way that you probably wouldn't be nervous about going to Texas just because we share a border with Mexico and Mexico has cartel violence. You don't worry about that, right? It's the same kind of aspect. I couldn't have said it better myself, Will. I'm glad we touched on it. Yeah, I think we did it in the best way we could. It's such a volatile situation. I think we're both hoping that.

01:23:00
Even weeks or months from now, it's a very different story there. This is recorded in June of 2024. We're just going based off what we know. Yeah, absolutely. But this is, I think, the end of a very long episode. Do you have any other last-minute items that you wanna cover? I was looking at the time, like, oh my gosh. This is so long. How on earth did we go this long? But...

01:23:24
We're touching on a destination that's one of our top three selling destinations in our whole inventory at chemo travel agency So I think it's okay. I agree. Yeah, I know we did talk a lot But i'm just gonna say I I will gladly go back The dr is a beautiful country. Yeah, and uh highly recommended for folks that haven't gone or uh, maybe had a bad experience at a

01:23:50
At one resort. Yeah, at one resort. There's like hundreds of others you can go try. So don't write it off. It's a really great, fascinating country with a lot of beautiful resorts with beautiful people who are so kind, almost to a point where they wear their heart on their sleeve. Yeah. Beautiful people, beautiful country. Highly recommend going. If you have any questions about what it might look like to go to an all-inclusive resort, whether it be in the Dominican or somewhere else in the Caribbean, hey, we're travel agents.

01:24:20
We work at Kima Travel, that's our travel agency. And we'd be happy to answer any questions you might have. See if we could find a resort that could be a good fit for you, your family, or your honeymoon. Or, hey, your graduation or your spring break. Got your back. We got your back. And you can reach us, actually you can go to the link in the description. We have the ability to take fan mail now. And it's a form of like a text message, I believe. So hey, if you wanna reach out to us, let us know what you.

01:24:50
What you think, Kale, if you have thoughts on that barrier on in the ocean, let us know what you think. We'd love to hear about it. But I think that's the end of the show. Do you have anything else? Thanks, Will. Dude, adios, me amigos. Thank you for listening. Bye, guys. With the travel agents, that's the end of our show. Make sure to comment and subscribe before you go.

01:25:12
Thanks for listening

01:25:18
Now put your trip pack your bags Do some traveling