The Dominican Republic receives an average of over 11 million tourist visitors per year. The majority of them don’t go near Santo Domingo, the capital and my current home. The most popular region by far is the most eastern section of the country: Punta Cana.
Golfing at Hard Rock Hotel, Punta Cana
Sign at the beach. I didn't see it. I didn't see any beaches.
For a long time, there was nothing here. Isolated, undeveloped, covered with jungle. In the 1960s, a young Dominican man called Frank Ranieri teamed up with some American investors to build a hotel called the Punta Cana Club. From that point, the region transformed into what it is today: the most visited location in the Caribbean.
Probably had the palm trees, but not the golf green
The building site behind is one example of continued construction in the Punta Cana area
Punta Cana isn’t actually that far from Santo Domingo (less than 200 km). We decided to take our first trip east, braving the Friday traffic that had us crawling along the road heading out of Santo Domingo.
Punta Cana is the eastern tip of the island of Hispaniola
An internet picture of Santo Domingo. The way people drive here, I wouldn't dare lose focus for a split second to take my own photo!
When someone thinks of Punta Cana, they likely picture beaches and ocean. Where we stayed…wasn’t that. It was arguably better, one of the nicest AirBnBs I have ever stayed in.
A very open, spacious living room
The rocking chairs next to the pool got used a lot!
Halloween is here, which some houses seem to be 'celebrating'
We weren’t coming for the ‘typical’ Punta Cana experience, you see. We were here for one its other touristic magnetic pulls: golf. The number of courses in this part of the Dominican Republic is in double figures. It brings a lot of golfers, particularly Americans, down to the Caribbean.
No shade on Americans here: we played with Rob from Chicago on Sunday and he was lovely
The driving range at Iberostar, which is a Spanish chain
I knew that there were a lot of North American tourists who popped down to Punta Cana, and it gave me a preconception of what to expect. Something similar to Playa del Carmen in Mexico: gringo town without a single semblance of authentic local culture. I’m not sure if Punta Cana is like that, because we didn’t really go into Punta Cana.
Santa was visiting the community where we stayed
This is as close as I got to my stereotype: a photo in the toilet of a golf course
Whatever that might be, actually. I couldn’t actually figure out where this vision of ‘Punta Cana’ existed. It seemed to be a bit of a sprawl, all roads and no central node. There is an area called Cap Cana, which has a small marina and a slightly Disneyfied vibe. Maybe that is the ‘centre’? My guess is that perhaps people base themselves at their all-inclusive hotels, so there’s no reason for there to be a main area of hubbub.
Its coastline stretches up to about 50 kilometres
I didn't take a picture at this restaurant, called Noah's - too busy eating delicious seafood
Wherever they may be, the huge number of visitors bring with them what I would describe as American prices. This is definitely reflected at the two golf courses we visited, with the cheaper one being $180 for 18 holes. You do get other things included in that, but that is $10 a hole. Luckily, if you play like me, that’s less than $2 for each time you hit the golf ball.
Golf carts were included
What we got through sheer luck were coconuts that they were bringing down from the trees - many in our group thought the water made them play better. It didn't work for me...
Far luckier for us, and the reason we can actually afford a weekend like this, is the fact that nationals and residents of the Dominican Republic don’t have to pay these prices. Having a residency card, which I received a couple of weeks ago, allows you to register for an app called Fedogolf. Paying the joining fee - approximately $100 - gives you reduced rates at the courses. So the course that was $180 actually cost me $55. Signing up paid for itself.
The magical money-saving app
Another course price dropped from $195 to $80
The first of those courses also has an American connection: the hotel it belongs to is called the Hard Rock Hotel. This opened in 2010 and is enormous, with almost 1800 rooms. We didn’t get near the hotel itself, as its eponymous golf course is closer to the main road. Still has some clues about the connection, mind…
The entire Hard Rock Hotel Complex
The sign in front of the driving range
Hard Rock’s course was apparently designed by Jack Nicklaus, history’s most successful male golfer. The course was enjoyable, though I’d have been worried about staying in one of the rooms along the fairway. The complimentary golf cart was appreciated as the mercury rose and clouds dispersed soon after our 7:30am tee time. It also helped keep our beers cold, which is always good!
My drives often go left - luckily I drove pretty well and kept the people in the hotel rooms safe
Humidity was pretty high in the morning
When the sun was out, the weather felt quite fierce
We were allowed to sneakily play as a group of 5 here, which made it a lot more fun. We were briefly joined by a litter of cats, who seemed keen to explore the snacks within our golf cart. A group of players behind us seemed keen to join us, as they once hit tee shots when we were on the fairway, with one ball landing a metre from our golf cart.
Far from a snail's pace was our speed, even as a fivesome
Another fun hole filled with potential hazards at Hard Rock
The rules seemed stricter at the other golf course we visited on Sunday morning. At Iberostar Bávaro Golf Club, we were forced to split into a 3 and a 2. This course definitely had a more manicured look than Hard Rock, though I enjoyed both equally.
The Iberostar Group was founded in 1956
Their hotel in Bavaro was created in 1993, their first outside Europe
The golf club opened in 2009 - I'm glad they kept many funky trees that are far older!
Iberostar’s signature hold is a par 3 with the green and immediately surrounding rough cut into the shape of a starfish, plonked onto a large tranche of sand. I’m pleased to say that I did not end up in that sand, managing to squirt my shot onto the bottom of one of its arms. I also didn’t end up in the water at the beautiful par 3, whose green sits behind a pond. I avoided that by about 50 centimetres, my ball hitting the rocks immediately above it and thankfully bouncing on forward rather than back into the drink.
An internet picture of the hole
View from ground level
Hole 16 has a viewing platform behind it
I’ll be back in Punta Cana in December, as its airport has a direct flight to the UK. I imagine I’ll return a few times whilst living in the DR, hopefully giving myself the opportunity to find the ‘real Punta Cana’. Admittedly, what I found in terms of golfing, I really, really liked.
In a previous blog I alluded to the fact that a lot of people run here. Many of them were targeting one race in particular: Maratón de Santo Domingo.
Half marathon finish
There were three events in the city this year - if you did all three, you could create a super-medal.
Finishing in 1:42:23.
To be clear, I wasn’t doing the full distance of 42km. Not in these conditions.
5am start. Still red-faced.
It's used as a qualifying event for the Boston Marathon
A day or two after arriving in the Dominican Republic, I registered for what is called a medio maratón in Spanish: half marathon. 21k.
More than 5,000 people ran in this event
It was first held in 2018
Wide range of distances
Training mainly took place in the city’s long park trip called Mirador Sur. Starting a run anytime after 6:30am made them activities to endure, rather than enjoy.
My happy place in Santo Domingo
Some train indoors to beat the heat - this gym is over $80 a month after a discount, so I didn't run here.
This is mainly down to the humidity. The temperatures aren’t significantly hotter than places I’ve been living in for the past ten years. The real feel, however, is a change. A sweaty, energy-sapping change.
Before Hannah arrived, I was up and running at 5am
See that 97% humidity?
As with almost all races like this these days, you collect your kit the day before. I began to get an idea of the scale of the race when I spent almost 20 minutes trying to park in a hotel multi-storey car park which was seemingly built before the invention of the SUV. Tight corners.
Internet picture of the Hotel Catalonia - parking was behind it
Interesting swag, ranging from a headband to a bag of rice
Kit collection was chaotic. A very small line to register and get a race number, followed by a very long line to collect your bag…which didn’t contain a race shirt, because of course you needed to go to a different line to get that. All lines criss-crossing each other, naturally.
Part of the very long line
Amongst all this, there were no medium shirts. Luckily, 'large' seemed to be a medium.
This experience made me realise that driving to the start line, in a fairly soulless area called Centro de los Heroes, was going to make my life difficult in the morning. With the half marathon starting at 5am, that means organising an Uber at 4:15am.
Not sure whether this man ever ran a half marathon
Glad I didn't drive - this was over 500 metres away from the pedestrianised area
Understandably, given what I’d seen the day before, the area was buzzing. As I weaved my way through crowds, I saw the end of a priest’s speech on a platform with a shockingly right screen behind him, and almost got run over by someone filming what I can only assume was a TikTok reel. The full marathon set off minutes after I arrived, fireworks illuminating the dark night sky.
The start was at Centro de los Heroes, an area of municipal buildings between the park and the sea
Our 5am start did leave on time. Having set myself a target of 1 hour 45 minutes, I was in the first section, allowing us to move away from the pack. Well, we would have done if people had been running instead of filming. I was - briefly - guilty of that.
A screen grab of the start of the 21k run
The route took us along the Malecón, a long esplanade on the city’s southern shoreline. Initially we headed west until reaching a large brewery, at which point we did a U-turn and started the long slog to the Colonial Zone, almost 7 kilometres. It was at this point that some people tried to jump into the race, which annoyed people in front of me.
I'm towards the back of this picture
The Malecon has much less to see at 5:15am
As I was targeting a time, I didn’t take pictures. What I saw:
two brass bands;
a fire truck which was sprinkling people as they were running;
a very enthusiastic dog sprinting with the pace-setters of my race;
supporters wearing inflatable unicorn and bee outfits;
lots of plastic water bottles flung to the sides of the road.
I have not found any pictures of the band, fire truck, dog, unicorn or bee...so here's a lot of runners
An Instagram post I saw later that day detailed quite how many plastic bottles were flung to the sides of the roads
Before heading into the Colonial Zone, the route took us across the river that divides the city into west and east. We didn’t spend a long time on the eastern side, but that was where one of the ‘hills’ was. My watch said that I went up a whopping 10 metres in that kilometre. Very flat and easy course.
Thankfully, the cobbled look of this street was just for show!
Strolling out of the Colonial Zone
Starting at 5am certainly helped, as did the fact that the weather seems to have become less harsh in the past two weeks. Most people I know who have been here longer than me have said that it will be pleasant in November. Here’s hoping! Seeing a band of orange on the bottom of the skyline as I exited the colonial zone was a lovely moment.
I don't know whose technique is worse in this picture...
Less visible: thin film of sweat
It was also the time when I decided to get a move on, feeling that I had enough energy in my legs (and gummies if I didn’t) to finish a bit faster than 1:45. I crossed the line with my watch telling me I had been running for 1:42:23. It also told me that my heart rate was 199 at that point, which seems…high…
This muscly man inadvertently paced me for a lot of my run
The giant fans behind me were a great way to immediately cool down!
Post-race I was immediately presented with a chunky medal, as well as enough food to satisfy a small army. Less impressed with the drink offering…
The sign at the end reading: Congratulations Runners.
Red Bull coconut - this should not become a thing
It’s not been the easiest start to life in the Dominican Republic. Running has therefore been a bit of a release for me, and having a target like the Medio Maratón de Santo Domingo has been something that has helped me physically and mentally. A rewarding way to spend a Sunday…even though almost all of Sunday was still left!
