Is this resort still operating?
Anyone been there lately?

Was there last April and had a fine time. Facility in good condition, beautiful grounds and great food. Was there between two groups taking over the resort so it was practically empty. Choose your airport carefully - the wrong one will take you on a 2 hour ride each way.

It's been a long time since we were there, but back then, it didn't matter, I think the CLOSEST airport was like 2 hours away. What is the closest airport now and how far a ride is it?

No, the wrong one will involve a 3 or 4 hour transfer each way! We had to fly into Santo Domingo last time we visited and it took hours to get to the resort (and even longer on the way back to the airport as our taxi was held up at gunpoint by renegade soldiers and police, looking to augment their salaries).

The nearest airport is Samana, but Puerto Plata isn't too much further away.

The resort offers free taxi transfers, and they send a cooler with iced beer and water in it.

Check the resort's events calendar if you want to plan your trip to avoid overt behaviour! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Blush.gif" alt="" />

Yikes!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Shocked.gif" alt="" /> Did you miss your plane? Don't think I'd be going back if I were you!! So the closest airport is still two hours away??

We didn't miss the plane, fortunately. However, we'd never go back to the Dominican Republic! It's a troubled corrupt third-world country, and even though Caliente Caribe has armed guards at night, I can think of more relaxing destinations to spend our tourist dollars.

Caribe say that transfer times are 1 hour for Samana, 1.5 hours for Puerto Plata, 2 hours for Santiago and Santo Domingo. Our transfer from Santo Domingo to the resort was about 3 hours, but maybe we just had a slow driver.

when we went it was about 1.5 to puerto plata, winding 2 lane road in good condition but 40 - 50 mph