The following is a report from my most recent trip to Boca Chica in the Dominican Republic, November 1995.

The booking. I decided to try a different hotel this time and I chose the Don Juan. I initially had trouble booking a room at this hotel. My travel agent had called and indicated that nobody there could speak English. So, she sent them a fax and requested a return fax. A fax was returned 2 days later, and it indicated that I had to make payment in full by wiring money to a bank in Nova Scotia. This was out of the question, so I decided to phone them myself, and using a friend who speaks fluent Spanish, I obtained more information. We were told that they did accept credit cards, and that the rate was $120 per night per person, double occupancy, and that it included dinner. My friend asked, on my behalf, why the travel agent was quoted a much lower rate of $60 per person on the fax. We were informed that the rate is much lower if booked via a travel agent.

My Travel Agent. I had my travel agent fax them back again, requesting a reservation for 2 people, with 2 double beds, and she included my Mastercard number. Two days later, they returned the fax with a confirmation. It turns out that the call I made myself cost $17 for not even 5 minutes using my AT&T calling card.

The actual deal. This trips was a short one - only 3 days and 2 nights. When we arrived, we were surprised to find out that the $60 included the room, ALL meals, including snacks, all domestic drinks, and all non-motorized water sports. Indeed, this was a very good deal. The hotel tacked on a 13% tax and if we did not settle in cash, another 7% "conversion" fee. With a few phone calls to the U.S., the total bill came to $300 for two nights for two people.

The hotel layout. The Hotel was nice, but not super luxury. Our room was on the fourth floor, the top, and there wasn't an elevator. All rooms had private outdoor entrances, motel style. The hotel was very spread out and actually consisted of a half a dozen separate buildings. Our room had a balcony that contained a table and two chairs. The room had a TV with Cable, CNN, HBO, and about 6 other channels. Most of the channels had a fair amount of static. The room also had a telephone, a reading table and chair, and was quite clean and comfortable. It was air-conditioned and had a ceiling fan. I actually preferred this room over those at the Hamaca Hotel down the road. Walking around the resort required some type of sandal or shoes because the walkways are made of flat broken stones and when wet, are very slippery with some jagged edges.

The bar at the pool was much better than the Hamaca. It was less crowded, the drinks were stronger, and it was a lot easier to get a drink. Each drink had to be signed for, even though they were free for us. The bartenders (and all the resort workers) seemed to have a much better attitude about serving the guests than at the Hamaca. Resort guests were not completely "all inclusive". To upgrade from "lodging only" to "all inclusive" was only $15 per person per day.

The entire strip of activity in Boca Chica is only two blocks wide and 1/4 mile long. The Hotel was at the opposite end of town from the Hamaca hotel, and was right in the center of the long Boca Chica Beach. The location was perfect. The pool was very nice. It was nicer than the beach-side pool at the Hamaca, and was much more pleasant for soaking up the sun because they did not blare disco music all day long.

The Hotel was quite a bit smaller than the massive Hamaca hotel. This translated into more prompt and personal service, much less crowded, and the buffet style food was better too.

The Beach. While the property itself was not as luxurious as the Hamaca, it was much more inviting. The Hamaca is like a fortress, keeping out all who are not staying there. The Don Juan has a huge spread of beach between the pool area and the water that is borderless on either side. Anybody can walk the beach in front of the Don Juan, but the beach sales people are not allowed to solicit there. This made for a much nicer beach area. The public beach areas to either side of the Don Juan Hotel, as well as the Don Juan Hotel beach area were all essentially spotless. I don't know who cleaned the beach, but the ENTIRE beach (1/2 mile to either side) was beautiful -- more so than our last trip only six weeks earlier.

During one day, my friend and I decided to buy some T-shirts and beaded necklaces. Within moments, we were surrounded by every vendor in the area, trying to sell us something. We just walked away and they did not follow, unlike Jamaica, where it can be very difficult to shake a beach vendor.

Full body massages are available right in front of the hotel on the beach, for $10. Private massages are available for $15 in a small room off to the side of the pool area. The beach chairs were abundant and did not require padding because the support is made up of many flat rubber bands instead of a hard plastic surface.

The resort maintained a ski boat right on the beach in front of the hotel, although we preferred to use one of the dozen private charter boats that are docked along Don Juan's private pier. The resort boats and their ski equipment were much better than that at the Hamaca Hotel. I did not SCUBA dive, so I cannot not judge that equipment, other than to say that they had plenty of tanks and the dive boat was decent. At the end of the private pier was a bar. The beach area in front of the hotel was well guarded by private security.

Hotel details. All in all, this hotel was a great value. It was less then half the price of the Hamaca, had a nicer beach and pool, better food, better location, better service, and was less crowded. Of course, the Hamaca hotel boasted several restaurants, shops, a casino, and a much more luxurious lobby and building structure. The resort guests were almost exclusively German, while the Hamaca Hotel had a mix of German, Italian, English, and Canadian.

The only problem we had was with the water pressure. Our toilet would not flush unless we flushed, waited 5 minutes for the tank to refill, and flushed again. Also, the shower would only produce water that varied between a small stream and a dribble. When I asked to be switched to another room, I was told the hotel was full. I told them I didn't believe it, because during the day, there were only a few people at the pool. There was NO WAY that the hotel was even CLOSE to being full. The hotel clerk said she would call me back. During that time, I noticed that the door to the adjoining room was not locked. I opened it and found the room to be empty. At that moment, a maintenance man arrived with the key to our new room, which by coincidence, happened to be the same room next door. We switched to the room next door, and it had the same problem. We decided to flush the toilet by filling up the waste basket with water and dumping it into the bowl. This was a hassle but solved our problem. I must attribute these problems to the fourth floor, but I can't be sure. The hotel maintenance people could not fix the problem. I must add however, maintenance showed up within minutes of my complaint, unlike the Hamaca, where the staff would not show up at all, even after many phone calls.

Night life. The Hotel provided nightly shows, and the shows were pretty bad. They were little more than people dressed in stupid costumes, jumping around and lip- synching. Also, the resort sound system was so bad and distorted it was annoying. The resort also had a night club. I never checked it past 11:00pm, but I can say that prior to that, it was always empty, although it looked pretty nice, inside. It is possible that it filled with resort guests after the show, but I was never around to see that happen.

The night life just outside the hotel was great as usual, with the streets seeming to get more crowded than ever at night. In fact, the night life seemed to start earlier, around 10:00pm instead of midnight. There was much more activity on the streets (outdoor eating and drinking), and the police were even spotted on occasion. The majority of the police in Boca Chica are plain clothes, so you will never know they are there unless you talk with someone that knows.

The hot spot was a bar called "La Terraza", the main disco and right on the beach. The alternative to going to the bar was just hanging out on the street as every few feet there was an outdoor area to eat or drink, with plenty of people watching to make the area exciting. Music filled the air everywhere. Of course, the streets and bars were filled with the usual hordes of young Dominican women on the "prowl", young Dominican men trying to make a buck by offering rides on miniature motorcycles, trinket peddlers, and small children offering to clean your shoes.

It rained every day for an hour or two in the afternoon, very hard at times. The streets in Boca Chica do not have a very good (if any) sewer system, so the rain caused the streets to flood. Even at night, there were still lots of big puddles that had to be negotiated as we walked, and the broken cobblestone streets became a little muddy. My shoes got a little muddy, even though I was careful, but it didn't matter because every time I sat down, some small child was there with a cloth and toothbrush to clean my suede Rockports.

Other activities. We hired a boat to take us snorkeling, swimming, and water skiing. It was the same boat we hired on our last trip, and the owner had become our friend, complete with an exchange of addresses and telephone numbers. We went outside the reef to an area just to the side of the Hamaca Hotel resort property. There, we found the water to be deeper (10 feet), with submerged reefs, each about 10 feet wide and 5 feet high off the ocean floor. Fish were everywhere and the snorkeling was excellent, except for the rough water at the surface.