Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, St Thomas, St Maarten, St Kitts, Dominica, Barbados. This was our honeymoon’s itinerary. We’re now back home and want to share some interesting stuff with you.

As mentioned in the previous posts, our Wedding was on 22nd and 23rd February in the beautiful Buenos Aires. After this big weekend, we spent couple of days with our families and friends to then start our beautiful honeymoon. Here’s a little summary.

Dominican Republic

Our first stop was Puntacana, a region known for its 30km stretch of beaches and clear waters. We stayed at The Westin Puntacana Resort & Club by the magnificent Playa Blanca beach. Pristine white sand beach with crystal water. We truly enjoyed the amenities of the hotel but more than anything else, the beach! It was absolutely the paradise. Extremely peaceful and just awe-inspiring. The following day we went to Anamuya, an amazing rural area where we spent time with squirrel monkeys, tasted some local arabica coffee from a coffee plantation, hot cacao and rum.

Puerto Rico

Our stop here was San Juan. We stayed at La Concha Renaissance in the trendy Condado district although we spent much more time in the Old San Juan, the home to the National Historic site, with buildings dating from the 16th century, including the San Felipe del Morro and San Cristobal fortresses and the old city walls. Colourful houses line cobbled streets and stunning plazas with nearby cocktail bars and cool restaurants. We went to the Chocobar Cortés to have an 80% local hot chocolate drink and saw some live music at El Bastión cultural centre. On the other hand, we had the Condado beach just opposite the hotel, although relatively small, wavy and brown sand. Some people liked it, although us personally didn’t enjoy it that much. Locals suggested us next time to go to Flamenco beach in Culebra island. We enjoyed one of the nights in La Placita, the hub of one of San Juan’s hottest nightlife scenes. During the day it’s a market place with some open restaurants but in the evening another story as you can dance salsa or merengue while also enjoying some live music. We did a lot of walk in the city so we discovered very interesting places to eat and drink, monuments, historical sites and parks. This was also our embarkation port to start our cruise.

St Thomas

Our first stop during the cruise was the gateway isle of the US Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, known for its beaches and snorkeling spots. We enjoyed the best coffee of the whole trip here in a placed called Virgin Islands Coffee Roasters in the Haven sight area across from the cruise ship dock. We spent the day in the stunning Magens Bay beach in the Northside region. It was an amazing white sand and blue water. Obviously not as quiet as Puntacana due to the number of cruises but still worth exploring.

St Maarten

Part of the Leeward islands, St Maarten was our next stop. It was 2 separate countries. The French side being Saint Martin and the Dutch side being Sint Maarten. It was a super busy island with some vibrant life and plenty of duty-free shops. We went to the Rockland Estate and took the Sky Explorer and the Flying Dutchman, the steepest zip line in the world! We experience the thrill of a lifetime, harnessed in a chair and launched down the mountain on a flight line dropping 1,050 feet in elevation over 2,800 ft. Besides this outstanding adventure, we very much enjoyed the Great Bay beach with white sand and turquoise water. Lots of different water sports activities were available.

St Kitts

Next was the larger of the 2 Caribbean islands that comprise the nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, known for rain forested mountains and great beaches. We enjoyed swimming with dolphins and interacted with them as they kissed us, snuggled with us and finished off with an exhilarating boogie push, where the dolphin pushed us across the water surface while we were riding a boogie board. We also did the belly ride where we were holding on to the dolphins’ fins as they rode backwards across the water. We did a bit of sightseeing and discovered the Sir Timothy’s hill, also called the Honeymoon hill! We went the rest of the day at South Friar’s bay beach which presented a strong competition to St Maarten.

Dominica

We were supposed to go to St Lucia but for some reason the cruise was not allowed to so we ended up in the island of Dominica. No, this is not a typo. This is not Dominican Republic. It’s a different country and they obtained its independence from Britain in 1978. They heavily rely on tourism to drive the economic development. Its natural beauty is unbelievable. We went to the jungle and spent the day at the Trafalgar Falls, Morne Trois Pitons National Park and Emerald Pool, a rocky ledge and small waterfall in a serene rainforest. Our bus broke down on the way back in the middle of nowhere so we waited for 45 minutes to be rescued! This was hilarious, most people here when breaking down, just leave the car and jump into another one. This is exactly what happened to us. The driver left the bus and we also jumped into a new one! Luckily, we made it on time for our cruise.

Barbados

This is where we spent the most time. An eastern Caribbean island and independent British Commonwealth nation. We did a little sightseeing in Bridgetown and spent many hours at Copacabana beach in Carlisle Bay. We swam with turtles; we did a shipwreck to explore sunken vessels dating as far back as 1919 and snorkeling in the calm leeward waters. The location was pristine. The white sand and the water was absolutely impressive. Undoubtedly competing with Puntacana and St Maarten for the Gold medal of best beaches! There was a lot of nightlife and quite well-developed city to be honest. This was a nice surprise and it is definitely a place to come back and spend more time.

You can see my Instagram Stories for much more details day by day. I’ll also prepare some posts island by island for the blog but in the meantime, enjoy the teaser with the following photo!

Caribbean
These places were the closest to the paradise.