Playa Caribe is in the small fishing community of Guayacanes. While this is a quieter destination than Boca Chica, it still is a rather popular beach when the weekend rolls around. Although most tourism has been funneled into the Puerto Plata and Punta Cana areas, in the last couple of decades hotels and resorts in this area have slowly begun sprouting up.

Playas Juan Dolio, with their small neighborhood of Villas del Mar, make up a stretch of beach that was developed, over decades, into a five-kilometer-long sprawling string of seaside hotels and resorts. Since there isn’t much in the close vicinity of these towns, selection of your hotel becomes a more weighty decision.

Villas del Mar is the stretch of Juan Dolio where you will find many shops, Internet services, and some hotels. Unless you invest in some excursions at extra cost, you should think of your vacation to Guayacanes and Juan Dolio (and Villas del Mar) in an “all I’m gonna do is lie on the beach” kind of way.

The water is rougher along this stretch than that of the placid Playa Boca Chica, and the beach does attract the usual souvenir hawkers but they’re not as hard-core. While the beaches here are nice, they aren’t as picturesque as others in the nation. Mainly, the advantage of this beach rests in its proximity (a one-hour ride) to the capital. It’s a good place to get both tranquil beach time and lively city in one vacation.