RELATED LINKS Return to 10 Great Golf & Spa Getaways

Hotels

• The Casa de Campo, located along the southeast coast at Punta La Romana, is a very large country club property with villas and hotel rooms, all beautifully furnished and well-maintained. It's probably the country's best choice, frequently hosting pop stars and other celebrities. Facilities for just about any sport you can think of, especially golf, are first-rate. Villas from about $400 USD; double rooms from about $200 USD.

  809-523-3333
  www.casadecampo.com.do

• Coral Marien Beach Hotel, on the Marapica beach at Costa Dorada, is set in landscaped gardens, with its 335 rooms clustered in seven low rise buildings. Rooms are furnished in tropical style, with Caribbean decorative motifs that reflect the tobacco farms in the surrounding Cibao region, where the noted Dominican cigars are produced. Insist upon a room on either the second or third floor; ground level rooms are noisy and lack any view. Also, don't accept any of the back facing rooms.Doubles from about $150 USD.

  877-464-4458
  www.coralbyhilton.com

• The Renaissance Jaragua Hotel, situated near the Caribbean shore in Santo Domingo, is about 20 minutes by taxi from a good bathing beach. The 290 are reasonably well furnished rooms, but avoid the lower floors for quiet nights. Facilities include full sports and spa services and a large casino with merengue shows. Doubles from about $150 USD.

  809-221-2222

Dining

• Pappalapasta offers a broad selection of very good Italian-style dishes with a Caribbean twist. Try the delicious snapper chiaro di mare that's prepared with olives, capers, garlic, tomato, and peppers. Service is leisurely, almost to the point of forgetful, but all requests are cheerfully fulfilled. Dinner for two, without wine, about $50 USD.

  809-689-4849

• Fogarate is a lively place with friendly, informal servers who will explain the large selection of local favorites served buffet style. Regardless of what else you choose, be sure to try the sancocho, a stew made with chicken, pork chops, bacon, sausage, goat, plantains, yucca, malanga (a starchy tuber), spanish pumpkin, sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, yams, naranja agria (sour oranges), onions, bell peppers and spices. Dinner for two, about $50 USD.

  809-688-0044

• Fonda de la Atarazana is a pleasant restaurant in what originally was a colonial warehouse. Seafood is king, but if polo loco is on the menu, try it; it's one of the country's most distinctive dishes. There's a terrace with an interesting view of the Alcazar de Colon, the 1510 house built by Columbus's son. Ask to be seated on the patio. $40 USD for two, without wine.

  809-689-2900

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