Its quite a long drive from Caliente. It is about 20 minutes from the nearest secluded beach area but does have its own pool which is well maintained and the surroundings are incredible BUT it is a good place for some very quiet naked down time with others with the same in mind. The accommodation is very good and the other people there are nice and the security is good. I have attached a VERY long trip summary for anyone interested. My wife was able to join me for the last week and she enjoyed it as well for its natural beauty and several hiking trails ( gravel roads throughout the property ):

Day 1: ARRIVAL DAY ( This will be a fairly lengthy summary )
Left Calgary at 12:40 AM ( red eye ) to Toronto and then changed planes to arrive in Puerto Plata at ~ 1 PM their time. No US interconnect!

The flights were full but went quickly considering I slept most of the time.
Arrived with red eyes – nothing to do with the beer and wine on the flights!

The airport customs was fairly easy and went well. Nothing compared to the customs / security delays normally experienced when travelling via a US route.

Once I was through customs a porter decided he was going to help with my bags so I let him carry my stuff a few steps out the door where there were about 50 signs being held up by people waiting on travellers. My rep from OK motors was first in line so I followed him to his car. The porter ( volunteer on his shirt ) was insistant that I pay him – I didn’t need or ask for his help so call me cheap but I didn’t give him anything.

After a 20 minute drive along the coastal highway we arrived at the OK motors lot.
Renting the vehicle went very well except they informed me that the small car I had booked would not be adequate to drive on the roads into Cambium ( too low to the ground). I ended up with a small SUV which was definitely needed. The portion of road off of the coastal highway leading to Cambium is hilly, gravel / clay and at times has been cut through or worn out by rain run off and therefore would not be drivable by a small car.
The SUV was $ 46 / day instead of $ 38 for the car ( with full insurance coverage ) so no big deal.

I was met there by Dawn who is the wife member of a couple that manage the Cambium property. She was helpful and gave me some info on Cambium and provided me with directions .

Got the rental and had to fill it with gas as they rent them empty and then you return them empty. The gas is expensive – it took 3,200 pesos to fill which is about $ 80 CDN.

After I got the vehicle I went to the nearest grocery store which was recently opened. That went well except for the unfamiliar names. Spent about $ 100 to stock the house I was renting.

Started out to drive to Cambium and had trouble finding the road turn off based on the directions / instructions they gave me. It didn’t help that the rental people told me the vehicle odometer was in KM when it was actually in miles. Eventually I called Diogene who is the head of security at Cambium. He happened to be nearby in the village I was stopped at and he found me and lead me to Cambium a few minutes away.

Security appears to be good with a check in gate and guard. They asked me for my passport number and name.
The property is clearly in the middle of the hills and feels remote by its very nature of being difficult to get to by road.
The house accommodation is extremly nice and the pool is nice.

Day 2: ( Recovery from travel and get to know the surroundings )
Woke up from a previous long day and maybe too much to drink on arrival.
There were 6 native workers cutting some growth in the area around the houses with those big knives ( machetes ). They took about an hour to get that done which clearly was needed to clean up some growth. Then a couple of other guys showed up with a truck to load some cinder blocks from the same area to haul away. This all was a function of the nearby unit that has been under construction and nearing the end. Now that I understand its all fine – no big issue.

After breakfast ( 9 AM ) I got my stuff organized and headed to the pool which was vacant of any others.
After nicely settling in and starting my book a nice good looking couple showed up ( 60 year olds so I found out - they clearly were young for their age ) who were from Colorado and had sold everything a few years ago and were now looking for a place to settle down and enjoy life with a much slower pace.
I relaxed in the sun and enjoyed the pool with some light conversation.
Then a lady showed up ( German lady ) who knew them and very politely introduced herself. She talked with the girl and then eventually the 2 women left and the husband ( Kenneth ) was leaving and he ended up giving me a brief ( 1 hour ) tour of some of the Cambium site – it is amazing! So remote, tranquil, beautiful and all while naked – I felt like I was one with nature, and no pressure.
He described the many trees and other houses and showed me the local creek which runs through the property. Apparently it runs for a couple of miles when walked – I plan to do that soon and without any clothes along – that’s going to be cool.

I returned to the pool on my own and settled in when a guy showed up at the pool ( Gary ) who happens to be here for a week from his busy life training commercial pilots at Dubi ( United Arab Emirates ). He could speak good English.
Then another lady from Germany showed up ( sister to the previous German lady ) and swam a little and sat in the shade to read for a while.
I zoned out and woke up later to find myself alone in the declining sun by the pool.

Got up and walked up the hill to peek at some of the other vacant houses and the view from the top is incredible! I felt like I was in another world – absolutely beautiful!

After all that I returned to the pool, got my stuff and returned to my house to fix something to eat and here I am at the end of another FANTASTIC DAY IN PARADISE – did I mention I didn’t need to wear clothes at all ! It is an amazing feeling to leave my clothes in the suitcase and still live comfortably.
Day 3:
Woke late and decided to do the road trip for some exploring and to pick up a few things. I could have picked a better day as most stores are closed on Sunday. I drove back to Puerto Plata and a little further. Motor bikes everywhere! You gotta be careful. I stopped at a couple of spots to check a couple of resorts at Cabarete. The beaches are endless and very few people there so nude tanning on the beach would likely be just fine as there aren’t any people around. The resort I checked on only had a dozen people and there weren’t any people on the beach at all.
I drove through Caberete and a couple of other towns but found a large crowd at Sosua where there were a lot of school busses and virtually no place to park. I didn’t stop but it must have been a Sunday weekend thing for the locals.
This day went by rather uneventful but I arrived back to heaven just in time for it to spit a little bit.
I also met another couple who own one of the houses here. They seemed nice and invited me to their house when I’m nearby.
I think I’ll take them up on that.
Day 4:
Woke early at 7 AM. About 8:30 the construction guys were back to take another load of cinder blocks and the painter is next door finishing off one of the houses. Quite a bit of motorbike traffic this morning but its now 9:30 and everything has quieted down.
Day 5:
Went past in a blur
Day 6:
Went past in a blur except I did a little trip to some of the local beach areas ( Los Gringos restaurant ) and there are literally miles of beach to walk if you chose to do that. At night there are also VERY persistant frogs that sqwak all night and keep you from sleeping. Something to do with the heavy rains and long grass outside – that was cut down today ( day 7 ) so maybe that will change?
Day 7 ( Thursday ):
The security guy lined up a replacement car rental for me for the next 2 weeks at a reduced price of $ 32 / day instead of $ 46 from OK motors. I am a little nervous about that as they don’t speak English and the “contract” lacks a lot of verbage and honestly doesn’t include much for clarity regarding insurance. I am assured that the insurance certificate in the car covers everything but it sounds like insurance for the vehicle and not for me – I decided to risk it and save the bucks – go with the flow.
Unfortunately I filled the other rental car for ~ $ 75 but that was a mistake since I will be returning it tomorrow. Early tomorrow ???? will help me transfer the fuel from the OK rental to the new rental and that should be interesting.
I got back to my house about noon and it was RAINING heavy which apparently happens a lot in May! I made something to eat and magic happened – the sun came out and I hung by the pool for a few hours.
One of the owners of one of the new houses showed up and I graciously asked if I could see the place and she showed me around it and we ended up in a 2 hour conversation. She informed me about the entire community and the Cambium late history.
It has gone through some recent changes with a change in management and that resulted in most of the established staff being let go along with her and her husband. Apparently there were some financial issues and mishandling.
She seemed very nice and they have been here for about 5 years so she had some interesting stories including there run in with some bandits on the road which involved a death of one of the perpetrators and her pictures of the evidence that kept them whole. Hint: take pictures and don’t say anything or agree to anything until your lawyer shows up – they walked away but it was tense for a while.

Day 8 ( return the OK rental and pick up new provisions and take a new hike naked in the jungle )

Day 9, 10, 11, 12
What can I say? More total naked sun time. The only clothes I’ve had on in about 10 days are my shoes or sandles to walk naked on the roads or jungle.
Day 13:
I had to drive into town to get some more provisions and decided to check out the beach near Los Gringos restaurant. I walked about 500 yards up the beach and dropped my shorts and shirt and walked about a mile with nobody in site. The beach is nice and flat and fairly wide with lagoon inland so nobody to worry about there. It was quite windy when I reached the big ( mile long ) bay area.
I could tell I was getting a little too much sun so headed back.
Drove back to Cambium.
My pressure regulator on one of the propane tanks for my hot water quit working a couple of days ago so I had to “borrow” another one from one of the other vacant houses on site. Eventually the maintenance man will bring a replacement but I didn’t want to wait.
Day 14:
My wife arrives tomorrow so today is clean up day I quess. The internet stopped working overnight and my phone service wasn’t working very well either. It wasn’t our router but was something further down the line – nobody seemed to know what the issue was.
Day 15;
Still no internet!
The cleaning girl dropped by in the morning to clean and change the bedding. She asked if she should do something nice ( surprise ) for my wife and I said sure – not sure what she was talking about. I also gave her some clothes for laundry which she said she would do.
I left at 11 AM to go to Puerto Plata airport. I couldn’t find the airport turn off as it truns our its not at Puerto Plata. Its actually only a little past Sosua and the sign is a little covered by tree branches and faded so I missed the turn off.
Once I got there ( late ) I found out that my wife’s flight was the next day!!
I returned back to Cambium and went to Los Gringos which is a little down the highway.
I walked in and thought I would order a beer. There was nobody at the bar so I wandered around behind the bar until I found the beer and helped myself to one.
I then walked out to the beach and went up the beach to the right and walked a few hundred yards, took off my clothes and walked about a mile along the shore without anyone in site. Decided to return and did finally run into some guys shooting birds with a sling shot. I put my shorts on and finished walking back to Gringos.
Returned to Cambium and finished out the day.
Day 16:
I picked up my wife at the airport on time this time around. Her flight arrived at 1:07 PM but she didn’t come through the gat until 1:40. We stopped at the beach just before Cabarete ( there was a dirt road heading off the highway to your left which led to the beach ). It was hot and windy and quite deserted there so we took a brief stroll naked and it was a great start to her holiday.
We picked up more groceries, each bought a cold beer for the road and headed back to Cambium. She loves the jungle like surroundings.
Not much to say except the internet still wasn’t working!
Day 17:
Finally got the internet working – either a transmitter or a line was broken down line. We had a nice day and we hiked some of the roads on the property.
My wife met some of the people on site. Not much else to say.
Day 18, 19 (Sunday & Monday ):
The weather was little unpredictable so we walked some more of the roads and generally layed around and enjoyed the pool and sun.
Day 20:
Very cloudy so decided to go to Caberete to check out the shops and the beach bars.
Shopped for a few hours – definitely negotiate or bargain with the local stores – the initial price is typically at least double what they will settle for!
Ate a late lunch at a pizza place on the beach and had a 16” pizza with 2 beer for ~ $ 20. It was good buy part of it was a little burnt on the bottom and a little too thin a tomato sauce. It pored rain most of the day and for the drive back to Cambium. We didn’t do much after that except watch a movie on Netflix, eat supper late and hit the sack ( all naked I should mention ).
Day 21:
The weather is starting to be a pain –it was cloudy and drissly all day except for about an hour where the sun came out and it was very hot which lead to my wife getting a little burn on her top and tummy.
Day 22:
Internet NOT working again!
Its early and looks quite cloudy again!
Our neighbor went to the base camp and re – booted the internet and it started working again. It cleared off some so we were able to spend some time at the pool and otherwise watched a movie and walked the trails a little.
Day 23:
The day was HOT so we spent all day at the pool and laying in the sun.
We did take a long walk and I showed this amazing low area near the creek that has a couple of massive trees growing there that look like another world. We explored a little there and along the creek and returned to the pool to soak up the last of the sun for the day before returning to have dinner and watch another Netflix movie.
Did I mention we didn’t wear clothes all day!
Day 24:
Woke up early as its home time. Had a nice bacon and egg breakfast prepared by yours truly, the naked cheff.
Generally cleaned up and started packing – we have to leave by 10:30 to head to the air port.
Funny thing was we discovered we didn’t have hardly any dirty clothes because we almost never wore any except to run in for groceries. My wife commented that she used 3 articles – cool!

PS: It might seem like there wasn't much sun but it was very sunny and hot for the first 2 weeks and the 3rd week is was quite cloudy but apparently May is supposed to be the rainy month of the year. I managed to get a very deep and dark tan in the process and cleared my mind for another period before we go again.
I also added some pictures:

Hi. I put this into a new thread so when I archive trip reports, it will be easier to find. Thanks for the report!

For some reason the trip report is posted twice in the OP.

Sorry, you are correct. I think it's correct now.

Great report, but where did you post the pics?

Sorry for the confusion on the post. I am a newbie for posting trip reports and also sorry for the LONG report but I had time and it was kinda neat to recall the day's events and sometimes TRY to recall the day's events after maybe a little too much DR rum. I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO PUT MY PHOTOS ON THIS SITE so if you could give me some guidance I could try to do that. Amazing jungle feel to the place and definitely a place to get away from work, friends, sales people, textiles, and generally live natural and in comfort with others that were friendly and generally made you feel comfortable in you skin.

Check this link wherein posting pix is explained. Or PM charlieh.
web page

With regard to pictures, in short, you need to upload your pictures somewhere else on the web and then either post a link or use the IMAGE tag here. We just don't have the storage space or bandwidth to be able to store everyone's pictures directly here on our servers.

I'm not able to post the pics now but will try when I get a chance.

I never did get around to posting pictures but am thinking of returning again this year in April or maybe June.
Has anyone been there since last year?
Just curious if its still the beautiful location it was when we were there. I'll just need to take more pictures and this time post them!
Anyone else planning to go? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />

Just getting around to reading your review. I can't help you with your question but let me get this straight. You let the porter carry your bags but you didn't tip him because you never asked him for help? Seriously? You asked us to call you cheap. That's not only cheap, that's lame.

It almost sounds like you actually believe he's a volunteer and just doing that out of the goodness of his heart.

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />

We must remember that some people in the service community (waiters, bellboys, etc), receive only a meager base salary, and are dependant on tips. I would have probably considered a higher tip for someone that took the initiative to pick up the bags without asking, rather than having to ask for his assistance.

There's a lot of info in my report that I would hope someone would find helpful but "porters" ( I use that term losely ) were only mentioned so others might be prepared for the scam to unfold as soon as you set foot in the airport. I didn't provide much detail but for clarity, I did not need the help ( I had 1 pull type wheeled bag and 1 small carry on ) so didn't ask for assistance nor did he ask if he could help me. The scam begins with a false statement ( volunteer ) on their shirts. Perhaps they should wear a shirt that says "porter" and then there would be no confusion!
It was as though the porters were insistant on carrying your bags about 20 feet ( which you have no idea at that point ) to where you then carry them yourself out to the car. Its clearly a scam to bilk money from unsuspecting tourists and not a porter there to help you. To expect payment for carrying ( pulling ) my bags 10 ft to a set of doors and maybe 10 ft outside the doors is a scam. I believe people get paid for a service provided which there was non provided.
On return to depart there was also a "kind" person who claimed to need to help me fill out some exit papers for a $5 charge (large amount when compared to their local cost of services) . I said no thank you as I could handle the task on my own and again suspected his sincerety - he was quite insistant that I would have a problem if I didn't take his advice. It turned out when I passed through security etc. I didn't need the form anyway - another scam. I refuse to pay people who are trying to scam unsuspecting tourists but I will pay generously when they are truly trying to help and deserve my tip.
I worked in a restaurant and both my daughters worked in a restaurant and we all understand the value of tips, especially when they are earned and deserved for good service. When they are not, I make it clear why.

I certainly agree. I don't appreciate people trying to "pull a fast one" on me either. In that case, I too would not have tipped, but offered a kind and sincere "Thank you".

I agree. It is not my fault the wheeled luggage industry most often more me makes the porter, bellhop unnecessary and I hate feeling guilted into tipping when before I can grab my own bag while paying a cabby or similar a bellhop already has it on his cart. If I need their services I'll gladly tip.

Thanks for the support on that. I tip gererously when its earned. Too many service people today have a sense of entitlement for anything and everything they get.
Unions at McDonalds so people can have a living wage??
I worked there for 2 years and worked my way to management in that time and never asked for a union to control my pay levels. I earned my raises and didn't need to thank any group negotiator to pressure someone to give it to me and I feel that I was very well compensated for the level of knowledge I needed and the level of work I was performing.
BTW, we never expected tips but occasionally we did recieve some and occasionally got a tip from our owner.
It was an entry level job to learn from and if management was our goal the opportunities were there if you wanted to work for it and had the aptitude.
Anyway, it looks like I will NOT be returning to the DR this year and instead will be going to Phoenix.

Not sure what your work history has to do with anything but whatever.

If a guy grabs my bags and starts waking away from me and I don't want to tip him, I stand there and motion him to bring the bags back and I take them from there.

It sounded to me like he grabbed your bags and you willingly followed him only to then realize that it wasn't that long of a trip. To me, you tacitly agreed to tip him when you followed him willingly without protest.

That's just how it works and you should know that (IMHO).

I seriously doubt that this guy is suffering from a sense of entitlement. Yes, he's trying to scam you in the sense that it's hard for you to say no when he's already got your bags but it's also not really a con when everyone knows the game.

One time at lax, a redcap grabbed my bag from a Marriott van and I had to wait in line curbside to get my bag back. I didn't have any cash. After waiting 10 minutes he checked my bag and I said thank you and he went into a loud, embarrassing shout, " Just want I always wanted, a GrEAT BIG THANK YOU!" About 5 times as I walked away to the terminal door. So, you read that anyway you want.

Agreed. If he takes the entire decision out of your hands, you are justified in not tipping. The way I read the OP was different than that and perhaps I misunderstood the situation. Apologies if so.

It sure sounds like these guys see you coming a mile away.
Good luck with that.
I work too hard for my money to give it away to someone undeserving.
This post was orignially NOT about a porter, volunteer ( which he had on his shirt - scam I say! )or my willingness to tip.
I will leave it at that an no more replies from me.
Happy travelling.