Kite Life

Cabarete – it was great.  Plenty of beach space if you can be bothered to walk far enough. Always plenty to see and do. My wife didn’t kitesurf, but was never bored when I was out kiting – for a start, there’s lots of buff men around the place to look at, and loads of kiting going on too of course! 

Hotel Carocol was really well positioned – just away from the noise of Cabarete centre, but only a very short walk along the beach to get to. The room was basic, but just about comfortable. Thankfully we had a room at one end of the hotel grounds so didn’t get too disturbed by the occasional late night return from the other guests. The fridge in the room was very useful. The hot water/shower situation was a little bit volatile – could never quite work out how much hot water you would get before it ran out…   Other than this, the hotel has a fantastic restaurant/bar right on the beach which is superb for chilling out with a beer and watching the world go by. 

Breakfast time too is really nice to sit and watch people walk along the beach.  However, the breakfasts were a little haphazard – I never did work out if you had to ask for orange juice and croissant or if it just arrived. Seemed to be no pattern to it!  

Finally, the hotel shares the beachfront with the Laurel Eastman Kite School. Everyone there was very friendly, particularly the local lads Francis and Lilo – who were very encouraging about my (very poor) kitesurfing skills!  It was nice too, not to have to cart all the kite gear to another school, so having one right on the hotel (although apparently not the cheapest school) was very handy. 

We ate out most evenings, and although the food in the restaurants in town was ok, it wasn’t anything to write home about. By the end of the holiday we were looking forward to some home cooked food – there’s only so much pizza and nachos you can eat! 

Finally -  a note about credit cards – very few places seemed to accept them, with most deals being done in cash (Domincan Pesos or Dollars).  There’s a cash machine in Cabarete so it’s not the end of the world, but worth remembering that if you are paying for a few hundred dollars of kite lessons, you still need to come up with cash not plastic! 

Overall ratings: 

Flights (MyTravel) Staff: 8/10 

Flights (MyTravel) general quality compared to scheduled flights:  2/10 

Flights (MyTravel) cost and ease of taking 20kg of kitesurf gear with me (£40 return): 9/10 

Transfers: 9/10   (no nasty buses with all the other tourists on the plane) 

Hotel location: 9/10 

Hotel room quality: 6/10 

Hotel room bed comfort: 6/10  (mattress was a bit saggy in middle) 

Cabarete bars: 9/10   (we liked Lax!) 

Cabarete restaurants: 5/10   (struggled to find anything authentic and sensibly priced) 

Kitesurf conditions: 7/10  (lots of good wind, but could have been flatter water (although we were warned that it wouldn’t be calm so can’t complain too much)) 

Kite repair (professional job done within a day by a guy who looked like Lenny Kravitz for $20): 10/10 

Beach: 6/10  (nice enough but not always much space for launching and landing kites) 

Weather: 9/10  (perfect – only one day that was a bit grey – sunny all the time the rest of the time) 

Sea: 8/10  (warm, and clear, but a bit churned up by the waves) 

Holiday Overall:  8/10

On arrival at the airport in Domincan I was seriously impressed to find
a taxi driver already waiting for me with a large printed sign with my name
on it, I had not expected that and had not really apprecitaed transfers had
already been organised but was chuffed to pieces - oh yes, I also felt very
important as his sign was bigger than most others and was printed in large
important letters, it was a really nice (if egotistical) welcome to the
Domincan Republic.
Accomodation:  Perfect.  Excellent remote control air-conditioning in
the bedroom and fans in the bedroom and living room.  Good size fridge,
clean, comfortable, all round excellent accomodation.  Swimming pool was a
nice touch (though in fact I never used it).  Being attached to the beach
via the Maribu / breakfast tent / Laurel Eastman school was just the icing
on the cake, the tent was an excellent place to have breakfast overlooking
the beach, the bar oozed welcoming cool, the sort that makes you feel like a
rock star, in fact, like THE rock star because the staff always stopped what
they were doing to assist you.  How cool was that?!  Imagine my joy when I
realised that the kiting world cup was being held less than 100 yards from
the hotel’s beachfront and the DJ was in fact set up at the hotel!  This was
just getting better and better.
Internet was available at the hotel - couldn’t believe my luck with
this, all free as well!
Staff were so helpful it was unreal, always met with a genuine smile! 
(maybe they really did think I was a rock star?)
Kiting:  I was with John’s school and by asking  around, people in Cabarete

directed me to Kite beach. one on one tuition worked a treat and I have
gone from hesitant first steps onto the board sort of guy to one who can
confidently get onto the board every time, ride up and down in both
directions, work the kite to the right extent before parking it and hinting
myself up-wind - even landed a couple of planned jumps. 
This is me, not some expert but I felt really safe due to the instructor and surprised myself
at just how well the tuition worked.  What topped it was that after the
tuition the school runs a “supervision” option, where an associate helps you
onto the water with your kit, launching etc., then walks with you as you
lose ground downwind, or rage upwind, finally helping you to land your kite
afterwards.  Knowing there was someone always keeping a watchful eye on you
- and dedicated to you alone! - really made me feel safe on the water. I
could not believe how cheap this service was;  particularly given that all
equipment was included in the price!  Bonus!  This was one of the best
elements of the holiday as it allowed me to practice again and again what
I’d been tought in my tuition.  The kite-school had crap lavatory but come
on, this is a beach front, we were lucky to have a lavatory at all!  The
small kitchen selling drinks and food was unbelievably cheap but really
decent, just what the Dr. ordered.  Staff in the building like “Skip” made
you feel really at home, one of the family, these guys actually cared how
you were progressing and would talk about how the students were coming along
amongst themselves when they thought nobody was listening, now that makes
you feel like your teachers really care.  Basically the staff were better
than I could have hoped for and made good company on nights out on the piss!
  Kite-school also had compressed air pumps, fresh water hoses and showers
and lockers so I could not have asked for more. 
Will definitetely go back to them in the future if I can.