Questions About Punta Cana

[rboesl]

Wife and I are traveling to Punta Cana for the first time. We're staying at MVC at Melia Caribe Tropical and we have a few questions that we hope this group can help us with:

1. Has anyone stayed at this resort? What were your impressions?
2. Should we consider renting a car?
3. What were your favorite activities? Any recommendations? We like to take guided tours/activities that gives a view into the area we're visiting and its history.
4. We've been cautioned about venturing off property. Is this something we really should be concerned about? Or, is there just a time of day (day or night) where we should avoid going off property?

Thank you in advance for all your help. This info will go a long way to making this trip special.

 

[moonstone]

We stayed at a resort a little further up the coast from where you've booked. Pretty much the whole coast in that area is resort after resort. Our tour guide called it Punta Canada due to all the tourists there. We didn't venture off the property after seeing a little of the local area on the bus in from the airport. We live in Belize for 3 mos every winter and the town didn't look much different than where we are in Belize. If you do decide to rent a car be careful driving around, and definitely avoid driving at night. On the way in from the airport our bus had to make a fast swerve at high speed to avoid hitting a cow that was standing on the road. We also saw horses right at the edge of the road grazing on the grass.

We were disappointed in the beach at our resort, yours may be different. The beach sloped down to the water at such a degree that it made walking along the beach (one of our favorite pastimes in the south) nearly impossible with our old knees. The water was nice but dropped off quite quickly compared to other islands we have been to.

~Diane