Special report from Bavaro Beach
By Bob Schulman
The Dominican Republic, Island of Hispaniola – Foreigners have been coming to this central Caribbean country for over 500 years, at first on the rickety caravels of Christopher Columbus and today on jets from around the world. Covering the eastern two-thirds of the island (Haiti is on the western third), the Dominican Republic has become the Caribbean's top tourism destination, boasting pristine white beaches, hundreds of lavish resort-hotels and eye-popping historical attractions – including the oldest colonial cities in what the Spanish invaders called “the New World.”
One of the country's big headline-makers these days is an immense development among the 90 or so hotels on Bavaro Beach, a 30-mile-long strip of powdery sands running down the east coast of the Republic. Called the Barcelo Bavaro Beach Resort, the new property occupies a five-square-mile site and has three hotel sections, all told offering close to 2,000 rooms.
Technically, the Barcelo Bavaro is a reborn resort, having been originally opened in 1985 – but as something several notches down from the top-of-the-line property it is today. Completely facelifted over the last year at a cost of $250 million, everything on the property has been dramatically upgraded, from turning its lodging areas into tropical palaces to remodeling its 1,300-seat theater and its 5,000-person convention center, now one of the largest in the Caribbean.
And for many guests, the frosting on the Barcelo cake is a brand new 18-hole P.B. Dye Signature golf course.
The first of the resort's three hotel sections is the Barcelo Bavaro Palace Deluxe – the Palma de Mallorca-based chain's premium lodging product – with 1,366 posh rooms, mostly with two-person Jacuzzis on terraces looking out on a mile and half of beachfront. The other two are the adults-only Barcelo Bavaro Beach and Convention Center with 388 rooms, and the 236-room Barcelo Bavaro Casino section.
Getting hungry? Thirsty? Guests staying in all three sections have a choice of 17 restaurants and 13 bars, all available on on all-inclusive plan -- which means your room tab covers all you can eat and drink until the cows come home. It also gives you comp access to all kinds of land and water sports, and at night free shows in a theater straight out of the big rooms in Vegas. (Don't miss their Broadway-quality production of Cats.)
Several of the restaurants feature international gourmet-class dishes with long names sprinkled with al's, alla's, avec's, con's, de's, di's, e's and the like.
Part of the fun of staying at the resort is getting to know fellow guests from countries around the globe. Listen close, and you'll hear people chatting away in dozens of languages. English and Spanish are heard a lot, but you might be surprised at the numbers of people soaking up the Caribbean sun while speaking in Russian, German, French and Italian.
Right now most Americans get to the resort on nonstop flights to the nearby Punta Cana International Airport from major air hubs in the east and south, such as Chicago, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Miami, having either begun their trips at those terminals or made enroute flight connections there.
With the recent opening of the Barcelo Bavaro and other new developments there, resort officials are hopeful of getting nonstop air service from western U.S. hubs as well. “Los Angeles would be a real winner,” said one marketing executive.
The Bavaro resort is one of more than 180 Barcelo properties in 17 worldwide countries. The company has four other locations in the Dominican Republic.
More info: Visit Barcelo's home page at www.Barcelo.com and the Dominican Republic Ministry of Tourism at www.godominicanrepublic.com.
Photo credits: Images by Bob Schulman unless otherwise noted.
Higuey makes the maps (again)
By Bob Schulman
Not too far away from the Barcelo is a city you probably never heard of, but seeing it – and in particular its moderistic basilica -- is well worth an hour's ride inland on local buses. It's called Higuey, and by some accounts it was settled by Spanish troops in 1494, which would make it the oldest colonial city in the Western Hemisphere. Its name, taken from a local Taino Indian word, means something like “the place where the sun's rays first shine each day.”
So what's all that got to do with the basilica? The answer comes from several accounts about events in the 1490s. In one popular story, the Tainos were less than excited about giving up their sun-lit city to Columbus and his soldiers, and were about to send them packing – the hard way – into history. Surrounded, the invaders tried one last defense: They put a large cross in the path of the attackers. Miraculously, the cross glowed with an image of the Virgin Mary, which sent the Tainos packing instead.
The victorious conquistadores built a church on the site, then went on to name the surrounding area La Senora de la Altagracia (Our Lady of the Highest Grace), with Higuey its capital.
Fast forward to 1922, when La Senora de la Altagracia became the patron saint of the whole D.R., and then to 1954, when work got underway on the current basilica. It took 18 years, but when it was finished, its 200-foot-high arch and other architectural features put modern-day Higuey on the map. There are things to write home about inside the basilica, too. Besides ornate religious items, a display spotlights a famous 15th century painting of – you guessed it – La Virgen de la Altagracia.
Visitors should know that Higuey is a fairly large city with perhaps 150,000 people living there and seemingly the same number of two-person motoconcho (motorbike) cabs buzzing around in the absence of buses and regular taxis. Hailing one down is easy, except on Jan. 21 of each year. That's the Dominican Republic's national holiday of the Virgen de la Altagracia, and the town is flooded by tens of thousands of pilgrims, all headed to the basilica.
