Stay at Viva Tangerine
My family of 10 (from age 4 to 72) spent a week at the Viva Tangerine in Cabarete over the holidays. It was my second time to the D.R. (and Cabarete) and everyone else's first. Overall, it was a wonderful trip and we really enjoyed the Viva Tangerine.
With any trip, I find that managing expectations is key, so I will give you some of the ups and downs and things to look out for.
The Resort: We found the resort to be the perfect size. It was small enough that we felt pretty comfortable letting the kids go back to the room by themselves, but large enough to have a nice set of amenities and activities. It seemed that they were focused on maintaining the buildings and the grounds and keeping things looking pristine. We did have a leak in one of our bathrooms, but it was fixed pretty quickly. One thing to watch out for... there is a lot of tile that can get slippery after a rain... evidenced by my mother who slipped next to the bar (no, she hadn't been to the bar yet).
The Staff: The staff was friendly and helpful. It was nice to see the same faces every day and have a level of familiarity with the staff - again, an advantage of the resort being a manageable size. We had one issue with our bill that dampened our spirits upon check-out, but Gabriel helped us through that upon our return and the resort eventually corrected their mistake (although it was a little disappointing how long that process took).
The Food: We thought the food was quite good. The variety of food at the buffet was great, although there was often an issue with its temperature. We ate at both restaurants and really enjoyed those meals too. I think the overall concensus was that the Mexican was the favorite, but we really liked both. I think having a few desserts out all day and evening would be good. One night I took the kids to the "snack bar" but they didn't like what was there. A constant plate of cake or cookies would have gone over well!
The Beach: We loved the beach but be ready for non-stop waves. When I was there earlier this year it was unusually calm, so I thought the water would at least be calm in the morning. Not the case! We had large waves (4-6 feet) for the entire week. We much prefer this to calm water, but the waves were a bit much for the 4 year to tackle without someone holding on to her, although she did do a bit of boogie-boarding right close to shore. The nice thing is that the waves break reasonably far from shore, so it is possible for older kids to play in the waves without getting swamped by a 6 foot breaker. The waves were also too strong to enjoy the catamarans (they didn't want us taking them out) or the windsurfers (we were too wimpy to take them out). It certainly wasn't a good place for a beginner windsurfer or kitesurfer. However, it is a great place to watch people who really know what they are doing. The sight of all the kitesurfers and windsurfers really added to the vista.
One thing that distracted from the beautiful beach was all the trash. I don't remember seeing so much trash this spring, but maybe that was because the water was calmer so it wasn't getting washed-up. On the other hand, I didn't see any trash actually in the water, which led me to believe the trash was getting dumped. Viva does a great job of cleaning up their beach each morning, but if you walk in either direction down the beach, you will see a lot of garbage. It was also disconcerting to see an employee take a wheelbarrow full of garbage from in front of the Viva and relocate it just a few yards down the beach. It seems that it would be more effective, and more enjoyable for those that take walks, to remove the garbage all-together, rather than just move it down the beach.
OK, this is getting long, so let's wrap this up. So, is this the right place for you? Well, first you have to ask if Cabarete is the right town. If you want nice steady winds and waves, and want the opportunity to enjoy fun adventures, like boogie boarding, cascading (an amazing trip with Mama Iguana), biking, seeing caves, and windsurfing/kitesurfing, then Cabarete is great. If you are looking for snorkeling and peaceful swims in the ocean, then it is not. Also, if you want to do a lot of sightseeing without getting into a car, then it is not the right place either. But it is a great jumping off point for sightseeing if you rent a car or hire a driver (the Blue Lagoon tour is a pretty good way to pack a lot of sights into one day).
Once you have decided on Cabarete, if you want an all-inclusive and don't need things to be super-posh, then I think you'll have a great experience at the Viva Tangerine. I don't think it is quite a 4 star, but I think it is a solid 3 1/2. I'll be interested to see how the place ages, but at least for now it is well taken care of, offers lots of activities to keep you as busy as you would like, and has a great staff. I think it exceeded our expectations.
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