Punta Cana is the most visited destination in the Caribbean. Located east of the Dominican Republic, bathed by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and a temperature ranging from 20 ° C in winter to 32 ° C make the suitable for a good holiday.

Punta Cana include areas (from south to north) of Cap Cana (Juanillo), Punta Cana, Cabeza de Toro, Bavaro, El Cortecito, Arena Gorda, Macao and Uvero Alto. Today, Punta Cana has become one of the best options for those looking for the perfect beaches, rest and relaxation.

The entire coast of Punta Cana is full of hotels IT (all inclusive) mainly oriented to family holidays. Some hotels offer within their complex activities but most activities are focused on meeting the needs of a family vacation. The exception is in the spring time where hotels are invaded mainly by groups of university students fly from Canada, USA and Europe. In this case the best hotels for these tourists are the largest hoteliers complex, where there are more nocturnal activities.

If you do not mind losing a day all-inclusive hotel in Punta Cana also it offers activities for the more adventurous. You can rent a 4 × 4 and venture outside the resorts to discover a magnificent world of caves, mangroves, deserted beaches with coconut trees in the nearby provinces of Hato Mayor, the Seibo. You can also visit Altos de Chavon, Bayahibe and Isla Saona near La Romana. All this just 2 hours of your hotel.

location near Punta Cana

Punta Cana area is ideal for those who prefer a vacation that they have all included in the hotel and do not need to get out.

The nearest city,
Higuey, is about 40 minutes. Around the hotels you can only find empty fields. You can walk freely along the beach without seeing anything more than a construction project or the next hotel works with yours.

The Cortesito ko, located between Punta Cana-Bavaro and Macao, is the closest and also the closest to a small town.Nearby is the park Manati Park, with fauna and flora of the Dominican Republic and the house of Ponce de Leon near Boca de Yuma, a good option if you want to eat fresh fish on the beach. Crafts vendors walk the beaches of the hotels offering their products. There are also some souvenir shops located on the beach and you can make excursions from Punta Cana.

History of Punta Cana

In 1969, a group of American investors purchased land with an area of approximately 48 square kilometers of pure jungle on the eastern end of the Dominican Republic. This portion of land is almost rectangular, of which approximately 10 kilometers bordering the sea, with numerous exotic white sand beaches and thousands of coconut trees, but without any type paths.

Shortly afterwards he joined them Dominican businessman Frank R. Ranieri, who had the idea to develop the area for tourism purposes. Under the direction of Frank R. Ranieri Dominican and American Theodre W. Kheel, the company of tourist, residential and industrial development, SA (CODDETREISA), currently GRUPO PUNTACANA, SA, began the development of the vast expanse of land in 1971 to a small opening known as Punta Cana Club hotel, consisting of 10 cottages with 2 rooms, a clubhouse, a small town for employees, a power plant and a rustic landing strip for small planes.At full capacity, this small hotel could accommodate 40 people, but never peaked, nor was profitable enough. But it did show that the property had great potential, which prompted the construction of the first hotel of 350 rooms Mediterrané the Club of Paris, France were to start in 1978. It should be noted that when the Dominican government completed until 1981 the construction of the first road to connect Punta Cana with the country’s road network, were needed 6 hours to get from Higuey, the nearest town, to Punta Cana. Today Punta Cana Higuey is separated by only 35 minutes.

This, among other reasons, sped up efforts to build the Punta Cana International Airport. After a battle of 8 years and 3 different governments, permission to build what would be the first fully private international airport in the world was obtained, the which it was begun in 1982 and inaugurated in 1984 with its first international flight, a twin-engine turbo propeller from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

After GRUPO PUNTACANA, arrived in the area companies such as Newco, who bought a piece of land to GRUPO PUNTACANA to make a Mediterrané Club which opened in 1981. A few years later the Barceló brothers arrived in the area of Bavaro, located north of Punta Cana, where they bought land and began building hotels in 1984, the year of the opening of the Punta Cana International airport. from then using the airport this area began a rapid rise to become what it is today main destination in the Caribbean.

Because of its isolated location and lack of public services provided by the Dominican government, GRUPO PUNTACANA, SA has had to fix and maintain itself all kinds of services required for operations such as access roads, security, water, electricity , garbage collection, sewage disposal, school, etc., by creating projects and subsidiaries. Since 1997 GRUPO PUNTACANA owners are Theodre W. Kheel, Frank R. Ranieri, Julio Iglesias and Oscar de la Renta.

Origin of the name of Punta Cana

According to maps of sea routes of the time, the property acquired by GRUPO PUNTACANA in 1969 in the east of the country was called Punta Borrachón. Frank Ranieri immediately understood that this was not an attractive name for tourist and commercial purposes. This is how you choose to use Punta Cana, named after a nearby area located further south of the property, as the name of the first hotel built, Punta Cana Club.

With the opening of the Punta Cana International Airport, tourists coming to the area understand that they were coming to Punta Cana. What we did not know was a difference, that once they landed, they were moved to hotels located in the areas of Bavaro, Macao, Arena Gorda, El Cortesito, Cabeza de Toro and Uvero Alto. Thus today many hotels use the name Punta Cana with its brands without being geographically located in Punta Cana.

In an attempt to preserve the name Punta Cana, in late 2004 the Board of Directors of Grupo PUNTACANA, he decided to make a differentiation, making PUNTACANA your brand, always making a single word written in capital letters. Only if the airport was decided not to use the mark to avoid further confusion between it and the destination.