Manati park

[Lorraine]

Can anyone tell me exactly what is at Manati Park and how far it is from Punta Cana. We will be staying at the Melia Caribe over Easter vacation. Thank you.

 

[Cathy]

Lorriane: Manati Park is a small park with a variety of beautiful plants and flower, and animals found in that region. They have shows with dancing horses, parrots, sea lions and dolphins. Very much "tourism" oriented. Swim with the dolphins, I'm told, is cruel. They are kept in small pool and pose mostly for pictures. We just returned home from Punta Cana last week. We decided not to go on that tour. It cost US $21 from Apple Tours from the Bavaro Palace Resort. To swim with the dolphins is US $65 (includes admission to park). I can't remember the lenght of time to swim with the dolphins,it seems to me it was 5 or 15 minutes.

 

[Heather]

I was there in 1998 and yes it is touristy......but the grounds were very beautiful, I didn't see any horse shows, and one lady in the crowd got to swim with the dolphins free and it was a 2 minute swim..........the cruelty I did not see, and at the time I went the park had not been open for very long. They have brightly colored buses that come around to the resorts and it cost nothing to ride the bus to the park.......except for the wear and tear on your nerves.....ha ha ha. If you do go......make sure you get the right bus back......they all look a like but have different routes. I found after 2 weeks of beach and resort......the 2 hour outing was a welcome change......don't expect Sea World!

 

[Mitch]

Just came back from Punta Cana, we went one day at the Manati park, it's worth it, it's not really big, it's very nice,lots of trees, flowers. The dauphins show is good, I had my picture taken with a dauphin for $7.00 U.S. I didn't swim with them. The Taino village is very nice, you think you are in Africa! All the others shows were good too, but we found they were not long enough. They have a schedule for the bus to take you back to the hotel. You should do the tour to La Romana - Altso de Chavon, very interesting, with that tour you really see how the Dominican leave.