Travel
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Dominican Republic vacation... Advice??
My husband and I want to go to the Dominican Republic this summer for our 1 year anniversary. He is Dominican but has never been, so neither of us know what to do while we are there. Has anyone here been to the DR, and would you recommend any resorts? I've heard you can get all-inclusive resort packages for very cheap, but I don't want to end up staying somewhere sketchy. Advice? I'm really eager and want to start planning now 
Re: Dominican Republic vacation... Advice??
cheap is a pretty relative term
check tripadvisor for hotel reviews.
My SIL and my ILs have vacationed separately at Iberostar Grand Bavaro in P*nta Cana and loved it; it's an adults only AI
However, I think right now it's up to about $6.5K for a couple to go for a week (ILs wanted to go in Mar and it was up $2K from when they went at the same time 2 yrs ago).
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I just got home from a week-long trip to the DR on Saturday. I'll be honest - I would not go back (however, in fairness, going to the DR was never something that interested me in the first place and we only went for a friend's birthday party - I never would have chose the destination myself).
We stayed in Las Terrenas in the Samana Peninsula in a huge villa (which was gorgeous and which had amazing access to the beach), so my experience was a little different than your standard AI in the DR, as we weren't in a very resort-like community. That being said, my general impression of the DR was as follows:
-People are incredibly friendly, though in our area of the DR most spoke only Spanish; I'm assuming in the standard resort areas (i.e. P. Cana) English is much more widely spoken.
-Roads need serious work. I would not drive in the DR - we hired a driver for taking us everywhere and I'm glad we did. Driving there is not for the faint-of-heart. If you're just looking at going to a resort, then there's no need to drive. We did drive from Las Terrenas to Las Galeras (about 1:45 each way) and the roads were amazingly bad - manholes that weren't covered, potholes everywhere, a spot where the street had just washed away and nothing had been done... also, our driver got a flat tire and that is apparently VERY common there because the roads are so bad. I was told that tire-related jobs are the second or third most common job in the DR (not sure if that's accurate, but it wouldn't surprise me).
-Infrastructure, at least in the Samana Peninsula, also needs work. We lost power every day (usually for short amounts of time, but a few longer outages happened as well); one day we were without power and water. Again, I'd assume resort areas are better equipped to handle the power / water needs of their guests, but just be aware that this is still very much a developing nation. You could check with the resort to see if you need to bring a flashlight.
-Safety - again, if you want to just stay at a resort all the time, you're probably fine. When I was at our villa (which was guarded by an armed security guard) I felt totally safe. Two of the friends we were traveling with did get held up at gunpoint while driving (a very common scam, at least according to the US Embassy there, is that a group of Dominicans will surround your car on scooters, and they'll be dressed in police / military clothing and carrying guns - they'll pull you over and "ticket" you for speeding, and you pay on the spot, usually around $100 to $150. This is clearly extortion.). You will see an armed guard at every ATM in the country and it isn't uncommon to see people holding guns while driving through town - we saw teenagers, adults, and even old ladies holding guns. I found it mildly unnerving at times, and I'd just suggest you exercise caution if you decide to leave your hotel, take guided tours recommended by the hotel, etc.
-Mosquitoes - they are everywhere and the DR is one of two countries on the Caribbean known to have malaria outbreaks (the other being Haiti). One can also get Dengue Fever from the mosquitoes. I took along 30% DEET bug repellent; pre-treated our clothes with Promethrin; used mosquito coils; and came home with 80+ bites. I tend to be a magnet for mosquitoes, though, and again - the resorts may have more comprehensive plan to combat mosquitoes, as our house (while gorgeous) was maybe not the best-prepared (they did spray but I don't know if that did any good). Make sure you stay in rooms with A/C and with screens on the windows. We went to a travel clinic before our trip and got anti-malaria medicine; it's not required but I felt better taking it along (mind you, it is very expensive - ours is about $10 a pill and you take 1 pill a day while there, plus 9 pills before / after - 2 before your trip and 7 once home).
The island itself is beautiful, and the beaches are very nice. If you go off the resort, exercise caution; we had a police man escort us to the beach we wanted to go to in Las Galeras because apparently it is very common for "pirates" to come along and rob / strand people. (This beach was accessible only by boat, so I guess the M.O. used to be that the pirates would boat up to the beach once you were there, take your money, valuables, and boat, and leave you stranded and waiting for another boat to come along and pick you up... now you take a tourism policeman along with you in the boat and he - and his gun - patrol the beach to make sure you won't be bothered. You tip him a few hundred pesos and everyone's happy). You will find that most all the beaches are nice, so I doubt you'll have a real reason you need to leave the resort. The food there is standard rice, chicken, salads, etc. Don't drink the water (again, at a resort it may not be a problem) and exercise caution eating anything from smaller restaurants or roadside stands that may have been washed with tap water. In my opinion, the DR is just like a lot of other Caribbean islands I've been to, so if I were to go back to the Caribbean I'd probably pick another island (Grand Cayman is my favorite as I find it the most developed / safe), but given your H's ties to the DR you two may go and love it.
I'll finish by saying that I'm not a particularly paranoid traveler, but I'm also not a budget traveler so I've spent most of my time internationally in more-developed nations and that, perhaps. tainted my experience in the DR. I'm the type of person who would rather NOT travel than travel on a budget, because I find I can't relax, so that may have made the DR seem worse to me. I generally read the US State Department's report on any country I visit (outside of Europe) just to know what the issues / concerns are, but I don't tend to worry much about anything (and assumed most of the stories are isolated incidents - so I was surprised two of our friends got scammed). I also generally consult the CDC website to know what health concerns or issues might come into play, and I register my trip with the US Embassy there so that if something DOES happen - natural disaster, riots, etc. - the government knows I'm there and can work to help get me out of the place.
If you go, have fun - and I hope you don't get bit like I did by those darn mosquitoes!
I think the best two places to go if you're looking for a beach vacation is P*nta Cana on the East Coast- which tends to be more popular over the last few years, or Puerto Plata (which has started to decline in tourists since P*nta Cana became so popular)
I'm biased towards Puerto Plata since I was born there. However, it does offer things that P*nta Cana doesn't, at least in my opinion. If you are interested in touring and seeing the country/culture, you can really do that in Puerto Plata. P*nta Cana is basically a resort town and Puerto Plata is a town with resorts. Puerto Plata also offers different type of places. Puerto Plata is the state and so the different towns within are all great (including Puerto Plata). Cofresi for example-Tropical Lifestyles resort is there I think-has a dolphin swim thing. Cabarete-known for windsurfing internationally. Sosua-an old Jewish history from Holocaust refugees. Puerto Plata-Playa Dorada complex of 15+ all inclusive hotels.
The beaches are different in Puerto Plata and P*nta Cana as they are different oceans. I think P*nta Canas is a bit nicer.
There are other places to visit in Dominican Republic as well that have tourist areas. Samana/Las Terranas, as a PP mentioned, is very out there. It seems that more of the resorts there are bed and breakfast types rather than all inclusives. It is on the North East coast and not as popular a destination (I don't think) If you go between Jan-April/May there is whale watching . Another area of interest is Santo Domingo, the capital, though this wouldn't be a beach vacation. Santo Domingo is one of, if not the, oldest cities in the New World. There are a alot of first buildings from the New World and a lot of history to see there. Again, not really a beach vacation. Though it could be a day trip (3 hours from P*nta Cana and 3 hours from Puerto Plata)
If you are looking to go there since your H has ties there, an AI might not be good only because when you're at an AI many times you tend to just stay there and don't see the country you're in except for when you go to and from the airport. (Though that isn't always true) Find out where you're husband is from and maybe go to that area, or near there since not all areas have resorts.
Let me know if you have questions!