Dominican Republic Travel Diaries: 5 Days at Occidental Punta Cana

Wow, what a month it has been! I feel like I’ve been neglecting my blog so much this past month, but there’s a good reason for that! Peter and I have both been doing a lot of traveling, which has made it tricky to keep up with all of the blog content. If you’ve been following me on Instagram, then you’ll know that I’ve been posting daily along with sharing stories of my everyday life through my IG stories. Hopefully that has been keeping you entertained while you’ve waited patiently for my blog content to return. With that being said though, I have so much content to be sharing with you over the course of the next month, along with so many travels coming up as well. So while I thank you so much for your patience, I also promise that things will be picking back up around here! And now back to our regularly scheduled programming… a blog post!

Earlier this month, Peter and I had the chance to escape the impending fall weather by jetting off to the Dominican Republic. While this was my second time there, it was Peter’s first, and also his first time doing the all-inclusive resort experience as well (he was in for a treat). I’ve already had the opportunity to stay at a few different all-inclusive resorts so I had a rough idea of what we were getting ourselves into, yet I was still pleasantly surprised. We were invited to visit Punta Cana with Barcelo Resorts, to experience one of their properties—Occidental Punta Cana, and to also share what they have to offer. The last time that I was in the Dominican Republic, I ended up getting a lot of bed bug bites from the resort that I stayed at, so I’ll be honest to say that I was a little anxious to return. Thankfully that didn’t happen at all this time around and we had such a lovely time there.

We had the luxury of staying in the Royal Level for the 5 days that we were there, and we were definitely treated like royalty the entire time. Not only did we have a private pool, but a portion of the beach was also sectioned off especially for us to use. After having the chance to experience resort life at its finest, I honestly can say that it’ll be difficult for me to go back to what I used to do before. We also had access to a private dining restaurant that served sliced mango for breakfast—it makes all of the difference when you can simply pick up a piece of mango with your fork and immediately consume it, as opposed to walking into the buffet dining hall and getting pieces of mango that you have to cut up on your own. All of the added attention to detail really pays off in ways that you never knew that they could!

The majority of our days passed by with the same routine of waking up bright and early to catch the sunrise on the beach, followed up with an early breakfast in the private dining restaurant, before heading back into our room for a 1-2 hour nap. Because it gets so hot during the day, waking up as early as possible in order to get all of our shots in was imperative. Our mid-afternoon nap really helped to pass the time spent in the heat. After waking from our naps, we’d venture out to the beach side buffet for a casual lunch before setting up camp back on the beach for an afternoon drink with a good read. We spent most of our beach time within our private beach area mainly because it was quieter, more secluded, and the drink variety was better.

Once it became too hot to tolerate, we would enjoy some time in the ocean before heading back into the resort for a quick dip in the pool. Our mid afternoon dips were often done in the main pools with the rest of the resort guests as opposed to our secluded private pool, just so that we would still be able to revel in the energy of other travelers as well.

While there were warnings of too much seaweed washing ashore leading up to the week that we were to travel to the Dominican Republic, we never really found it to be much of a problem for our resort. You could easily tell by the tire tracks in the sand, that workers would go across the beach scooping up all of the seaweed, and leaving beautifully soft-to-the-touch sand in their wake. For the most part, the beaches were fairly clean except for the errant piece of seaweed here and there. But in all seriousness though, what else would you expect being that close to the ocean?

Wrapping up our afternoon dips in the ocean and the pools, Peter and I enjoyed passing some time in the shade and drying off before returning to our rooms. We tried to maintain an earlier dinner time, but eventually succumbed and scheduled them a little bit later so that we would be able to fully enjoy the sunset each and every night.

Pro Tip: If you like watching the sunset, make sure to schedule your dinner reservations for 1 hour after the sun has set. This will not only give you enough time to fully enjoy the sun setting over the horizon, but to also provide you with enough time to return back to your room for a quick shower and change before heading off to dinner.

Like most other resorts, you have the option of dining in their buffet, or setting up reservations at their a la carte restaurants for themed dinners. We had the lovely chance of trying out the Mexican, Asian Fusion, Seafood, and Italian restaurants, and I would have to definitely say that the Mexican was my absolute favourite. I usually gravitate towards any sort of Asian themed restaurants, but I found that the Mexican restaurant in particular did a fantastic job with their menu and that there wasn’t a single dish that I didn’t enjoy.

We ended each of our nights by the stage-side enjoying the resort’s shows, and had a fabulous time watching the performers both dance and entertain us. As crazy as it sounds, we actually went to sleep quite early every night. I’d like to attribute it to waking up ridiculously early just to see the sunrise, but if I was honest, it was most likely the jet lag. But the final night out of our 5 evenings, we had sufficiently trained ourselves to stay awake about 2 hours later than the first night that we had arrived. However, besides the jet lag, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were to crawl into bed early just to be able to wake up early enough to catch a beautiful sunset.

Both Peter and myself had such a lovely time at the Occidental Punta Cana, and were treated like royalty while staying in their Royal Level that I can’t help but already dream of returning back for another vacation! Perhaps next time we’ll spend some time in the city and book some excursions as well! It’s safe to say that all reservations that I held for the Dominican Republic have completely vanished after our amazing time at the resort.

Photography Credits: The Dunk Listt
Occidental Punta Cana graciously hosted us, however all views are 100% honest and my own.