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Christan Thomas - The Go-To-Gal Christan  Thomas Christan M. Thomas leads a double life as a student in the Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy at East Tennessee State University and a columnist for GoTriCities. Visit her blog at www.xanga.com/thegotogal or e-mail her at thegotogal@hotmail.com.

GTG returns from a tropical vacation

Published August 3, 2010 | By Christan Thomas | The Go-To-Gal

Hey guys! Glad to be back after a week off in a tropical paradise.

That’s right, my husband and eight of our friends just got back from a week at an all-inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic. And—even though this has absolutely nothing to do with the Tri-Cities region—I’m going to tell you all about it.

This was both my first trip to the Dominican Republic and my first all-inclusive vacation. I have to say that I loved them both.

The great thing about the Dominican Republic is that it’s still relatively inexpensive, though there are lots of resorts to choose from. We compared it to Mexico, Puerto Rico and some other all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean, and it was by far the least expensive. It’s also a pretty short flight. We flew out of Cincinnati on Delta, which was only about a 3.5 hour direct flight into Punta Cana International Airport.

Keep in mind; however, it’s still a developing country. You can’t drink the water and the services, etc. are not like the U.S. Once you figure that out, it’s definitely worth a look for your next big vacation.

Punta Cana is a very beautiful area to travel. The beaches are beautiful white sand and the water is blue-green.

We stayed at the Majestic Colonial Punta Cana. We chose the resort because it was ranked in the top 10 on TripAdvisor.com and was the most reasonably priced in the top resorts.

It’s billed as a five-star resort on their Web site, but I wouldn’t say it was five-star by U.S. standards. When I think of five-star I think Four Seasons, fluffy white down comforters with duvet covers, chocolate on pillow, etc. There’s none of that here, but the resort was extremely clean and the hotel grounds were beautiful. The staff took extreme care to keep everything looking perfect.

Speaking of the staff, they were all super nice and very professional. Despite a language barrier (no you can’t expect everyone in a Spanish-speaking country to speak perfect English); they went out of their way to make our stay great. There were also plenty of activities including dance lessons (shout out to Sexy Papi and the rest of the crew) beach volleyball tournaments.

The best thing about all-inclusive is that you can eat and drink all that you want and more. (I clearly did this since my Wii Fit informed me that I gained 5.7 pounds since my last visit. Nice.) The restaurants were all fairly good—the best being the Japanese hibachi.

Overall, I’d definitely go back to the Dominican Republic and stay at the Majestic Colonial. If you’re looking for a nice vacation spot in the Caribbean, you might want to check it out.

Got any more favorite vacation spots? Leave a comment here or send me an e-mail to thegotogal@hotmail.com.

If you’re staying here in Kingsport and not hitting up a beach resort for the next few weeks, there’s plenty to do with Fun Fest. Visit www.funfest.net or check out the Times-News every day for all the info. I’ll catch you all at the concerts in J. Fred Johnson next week.

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