Punta Cana
Dominican Republic
Fifty kilometres of palm-backed white sand
Photo by Rodrigo Castro on Unsplash
Photos by Joe deSousa, Jared Lisack, Joe deSousa and Victor Rosario on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Dominican Republic
December to April
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 180mm in May
Where it is
18.58°N, 68.40°W Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Several days- Spend a day on Bavaro Beach
- Catamaran trip to Saona Island
- Swim in the Hoyo Azul cenote
- Take a buggy tour to Macao Beach
- Snorkel the offshore reef
- Day trip to Isla Catalina
Punta Cana travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Dominican Republic
Mid-rangeUS dollars are accepted at resorts but always at a poor rate — pay in pesos wherever you can. Exchange at a bank or an official casa de cambio rather than at the hotel desk.
ATMs & cards
Use Banco Popular, BanReservas or Scotiabank machines inside branches or resorts. Dominican ATMs charge a fixed fee of around 250 DOP and cap withdrawals fairly low. Always decline conversion.
Avoid these
- resort lobby machines
- ATMs inside the Hotel Zone shops
Use these instead
- Banco Popular
- BanReservas
- Scotiabank
Dominican ATMs charge a fixed fee around 250 DOP and cap withdrawals low. Withdraw pesos, never dollars, and decline conversion.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Dominican Republic
Reasonably safeResort areas are heavily policed and comfortable. Do not walk unlit beaches after dark, use only authorised taxis, and treat organised excursions as safer than unlicensed boat operators.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (6 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- Walking the beach outside resort boundaries at night
- Unofficial taxis and excursion sellers
- Rip currents at Macao, which is the one public beach with real surf
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Dominican Republic visa rules
No visa neededup to 30 days
A tourist tax is included in the airfare. The free E-Ticket form is required for entry and exit.
Other passports
Visa required in advance
How to get it: Complete the E-Ticket at eticket.migracion.gob.do within 72 hours of each flight.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Before you fly: the arrival card
E-TicketRequired
Before boarding, and again before you leave the country.
Have these in front of you before you start:
- passport
- flight number
- the full address of your first night
One per passenger, though the customs half is only for adults. Produces a QR code worth saving offline.
Use the official link above. Sites that charge a "service fee" to submit one of these for you are not the government, and they want the same passport details the real form does.
Health & emergencies all of Dominican Republic
Good but costlyRequired to enter
- Yellow fever certificate, but only if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever is present
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Hepatitis A
- Typhoid
- Tetanus up to date
Getting treated
Private clinics in Punta Cana and Santo Domingo are used to treating tourists and are competent, but expensive and quick to require payment up front. Public hospitals are poorly resourced.
Do not drink the tap water. Dengue is present year-round.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
GoodLeave the resort at least once. La Bandera — rice, beans and stewed meat — is the national plate and costs a fraction of hotel prices. Try fresh fish at the beach shacks in El Cortecito.
Nightlife
Almost entirely inside the resorts, plus one enormous open-air club that everybody is bussed to.
- Coco Bongo Punta Cana — the show-club, and the bus that fills it
- Los Corales — the bars outside the resorts
- Bávaro — the beach strip, and the hotel bars
Closing: 04:00.
A beer in a bar: RD$150–350
Getting around
Limited- UberWorks here
- inDriveWorks here
- BoltNot here
Uber Santo Domingo, Santiago and Punta Cana
- From the airport
- Punta Cana airport to Bávaro $25–40 — the resort strip is taxi-union ground
- Against a taxi
- Much cheaper in the cities. At the resort airports the union sets the price and the apps cannot pick up at the terminal.
Time zone and your working day
America/Santo Domingo — the same time as you
8 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–17:00 your time, 09:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 09:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 09:00–17:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Dominican Republic
Why these are Dominican Republic's numbers and not Punta Cana's
Home broadband — Fair. Video calls and streaming for one or two people — fine for a holiday, thin for a household working. Broadband here runs at 57% of the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Good. Maps, calls and streaming, and enough to tether a laptop for an afternoon. Mobile runs at 1.2× the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Punta Cana, so these are medians for all of Dominican Republic. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Dominican Republic, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Spanish (Latin American)
- HelloHolaOH-la
- PleasePor favorpor fa-VOR
- Thank youGraciasGRA-syas
- Yes / NoSí / Nosee / no
4 more phrases
- Excuse meDisculpedees-KOOL-peh
- How much is it?¿Cuánto cuesta?KWAN-to KWES-ta
- The bill, pleaseLa cuenta, por favorla KWEN-ta
- Cheers!¡Salud!sa-LOOD
The c and z are said as an s here, not the Spanish "th" — gracias is GRA-syas.
Religion
Catholic
Catholic by constitution and tradition, with Evangelical churches growing quickly.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Greet before asking anything — buenos días first, question second
- Tip 10% on top of the service charge already added
- Dress up a little for evenings out; presentation matters
- Learn a few words of Spanish; English fluency drops fast outside resorts
Don't
- Do not drink the tap water
- Do not photograph people without asking, especially in poorer neighbourhoods
- Do not haggle in shops with marked prices, only with street vendors
- Do not confuse the Dominican Republic with Dominica, or with Haiti
Where to stay in Punta Cana
No Holistay rentals in Punta Cana yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Punta Cana on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Punta Cana PUJ
20 minfrom the airport· 4 km as the crow flies
20 min to most resorts.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
