OK, first of all, Loriann, you sound like a reactionist gringa. Chill out. I don't have a gun, I don't like guns, and I won't be needing one. Of course we will lock our doors! Anyone visiting a strange place would be stupid not to! We don't plan on doing any night driving, but if we do we will CERTAINLY pull over for police. We're not stupid tourists. We don't drink much....two drinks at most...so we'll never be all incapacitated and asking to be mugged the way many tourists in the DR do. We're not going to be carrying large amounts of cash and if someone wants to hold us up for our $10, we'll hand it over, same as we would do here.
I don't live my life in fear and I'm not going to stay home locked in my house because of what *might* happen. I will take precautions and be smart, it's who I am, but I'm not going to write the DR off as a vacation spot because it's a third world country and has some issues with crime. It's considered a safe place for Americans to visit, the State Dept has no warnings, I'm NOT worried.
3rd of all: Cabarete haters, please just go away. I researched my destination and I HAVE ALREADY PAID FOR MY ENTIRE HOTEL UP FRONT AND BOUGHT PLANE TICKETS TO PUERTO PLATA! WE ARE GOING TO CABARETE, PERIOD!
It shocks me that so many people are sooooo obsessed with "white sand and turquoise water". REALLY? I can assure you, we're ok with brown sand, as well as black sand and even GREEN sand (ie Big Island of Hawaii) I used to live in Hawaii and I don't need sugar sand and calm water to be happy on the beach.
We will be taking a day trip to Las Terrenas and/or Las Galenas for snorkeling and beach time. If we love it, perhaps we'll stay a night there instead of returning to our hotel in Cabarete.
The owner of our hotel is going to help us plan trips to some other beaches outside of Cabarete as well.
As far as the water goes, I LOVE waves! The water doesn't have to be clear. My only concern with the water not being clear is that sharks like to attack in murky water. What's the shark attack situation in Cabarete? Anyone been attacked in recent years?
Again, I don't mean to be rude, I do appreciate all the advice you guys are giving, but if your advice is "Don't go to Cabarete", I'm not interested in hearing it. I'm going. The end.