TAKE A SURF HOLIDAY TO THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Only 4 hours direct flying time from New York and less than 2 hours from Miami, sits the beautiful island of the Dominican Republic. Sharing part of the land mass with the island of Haiti, you may not have heard that the Dominican Republic North coast enjoys some of the best waves to be found in the entire Caribbean region. You don’t have to go all the way to Costa Rica or Nicaragua to escape the cold surfing waters of the North Atlantic or the Pacific oceans. We have the kind of waves and warm water most surfers will delight in: Our seas have an average temperature of 80 °C so you won’t need to pack your wetsuit, not even a shortie!

GETTING TO THE DR

The airports to fly into for a surf holiday to the Dominican republic are:

• Puerto Plata ( airport code POP) 20 minutes away from Cabarete.
• Santiago ( Airport code STI) 1,30 hours away from the north coast surfing spots of the DR
• Santo Domingo (Airport code SDQ) 3,5 hours easy taxi ride away from the North coast.
• Samana airport ( airport code AZS) 3-4 hours away, charter flights from mainly France and italy.
• Punta Cana ( airport code PUJ) Not recommended, it’s a 6-7 hours expensive taxi ride away from any good surf spots.

Puerto Plata and Santiago are busy airports with direct flights from Miami and New York on a daily basis with American Airlines and Jetblue. The folks at Swell Surf Camp  in Cabarete have more details on the different airlines and who flies where.

Getting around

To get from Puerto Plata or Santiago airport to Cabarete, it’s an easy taxi ride, costing from 35 USD from Puerto Plata to 75 USD from Santiago. Onmce in Cabarete there is no need to have your own transport. Cabarete is a relatively small town where most things are easily accessible by foot, or if you prefer a motor taxi away. Best to stay in cabarete town itself and not at Playa Encuentro, since you’ll be going back and forth a lot. Swell Surf Camp provides transport to and from the surfing beaches, and once you are in town you can do everything ob foot.

What to bring

Don’t bother with warm clothes, the weather is always warm enough fro shorts, tshirt and flip flops. Bring mosquitto repelent since it’s the tropics, and so at certain times of the year there can be some mozzies around. No Malaria, so don’t bother with pills.