Beaches west of Santo Domingo?

rrwells

New member
Mar 19, 2002
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Hi,
Curious if anyone has had experiences with the beaches west of Santo Domingo, Playa Palenque or Playa Bahi areas. I hear a lot of people talking about Juan Dolio and Boca Chica but what about going the other direction?

Thanks for any information you can share!
 

kjdrga

New member
Mar 25, 2002
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Pleneque

I have been to plenenque, it is outside of San Cristobal, it is really a more local hang out. There aren't fancy hotels and I never saw another tourist. I went with my dominican friends, the village rented out some buses we cooked our food the night before and basically got there mid morning, enjoyed the water and bought beer and danced all day at the discotech... and got back on the bus drove 5 hours back to the village. It was one of the best experiences at any of the Domincian beaches, it is sort of off the beaten path...
 

Mcinbrass

Bronze
Jan 2, 2002
835
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Playa Palenque

Here is an excerp from my review of Playa Palenque from a previous trip tp DR

Last week I visited Playa Palenque in the south. It was a black sanded beach as I understand most are in this region. I retreated to the mens room to slip into my thong. I then went swimming. When I returned from the water, a native man approached me and told me to turn around(in spanish) which I did. He saw my thonged ass and told me that was a problem here and he called the police. Well the police arrested him, but I am wondering why he felt this way. I was a bit unnerved at the thought of going to a dominican jail for indecent exposure. Please let me know the other perspective. Thanks in advance.
 

Drake

Bronze
Jan 1, 2002
667
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Beaches to the west SD

I remember Palenque as a kid being a nice isolated beach within a short distance of SD. In those days it had a large buoy washed up on the beach and had very few people who visited it. A year ago I revisited and was disappointed to see that it had completely changed. Since the guagas (the local buses) have began arriving they have brought with them the masses of urban dwellers from San Cristobal and SD. The beach is now full of frituras (fryup stalls) and garbage. Incidentally the buoy is now about 150 feet inland having been moved by hurricane David.

There is a fairly nice beach near Trujillos old beach house which is near Palenque.

The town of Bani which is further to the south west has it's own beach called Las Almendras which is similar to Palenque in many ways.

The best beach in that area is in Las Salinas. It is located next to the only sand dunes in the Caribbean. It is a great place for windsurfing and scuba diving. You might want to also try Palma de Ocoa which is where all the rich beach houses are located.

Enjoy the South, El Sur as it is known here as it has its charm..
 

Cleef

Bronze
Feb 24, 2002
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Did this trip on Sunday

I went on a road trip along the shore (south of) San Cristobal all the way to Las Salinas looking for some fishing spots.

Stopped at a half dozen spots - not sure of all the names: Bani.....etc.

The jist of the story is that everything was pretty clearly marked, so with a little sense of direction, beaches abound.

Las Salinas was really nice, very picturesque, the mountains (almost) come right out of the water - if I had a scanner I'd share some of the great shots I captured - spent most of the day at Las Salinas entertaining the locals with how bad we were at fishing. In the typical Dominican way, they laughed at us for a bit then helped us out by setting us up with the proper bait and technique.

Saw a large Dorado - but caught nothing but a buzz, a bunch of laughs and a decent burn/tan.

I didn't go to "beach it" per say, but it was definitely there to be had.

We'll go again, you're welcome to come along.