Punta Cana 

My friends and I traveled to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic for our Senior Spring Break of College in 2012 with 200 other students from Michigan State and Western Michigan University. It was so much fun, but an absolute disaster all at once!

Barcelo Bavaro

We ALL stayed at the all inclusive Barcelo Bavaro hotel, which had beautiful grounds will palm trees lining the resort, and the best part was that we got really good deals… so that was amazing! It was also so fun to have everyone together to be able to celebrate almost being done with college. Since the hotel was all inclusive, we went all out at our first night of dinner. I was trying all of the different options they had on display, as we were all very excited to be there, and very hungry. After eating dinner our first night, we kept it pretty tame the first night and just hung out at the hotel lobby bar. I had maybe one or two drinks. The entire next day, I was sick and could hardly move from my bed. Anytime I remotely moved, I had to run to the bathroom to get sick. I was not the only person that this happened to. Over the course of our trip, at least 10 other people got sick too. I thought that I was going to have to fly home early, but finally a day later, I was feeling better and could hold down bottled water, gatorade, and bread. The rest of the trip I only ate pancakes for breakfast, pizza for lunch, and pasta for dinner (carb overload!!). I didn’t want to risk getting sick again. Another con was that a few people were robbed on the beach, the hotel room next to us flooded from the ceiling, and a girls passport got stolen from the safe. We were definitely not staying at the Ritz Carlton.

After I felt better, I went to the day parties on the beach every day. For the price we paid to all stay there, we had a good time, but the hotel definitely has some areas they could improve upon.

Imagine Club (Inside of a Cave)

My favorite part of the trip was the one night we went to a club in a cave called Imagine. It was the coolest night club I have ever been to. They had multiple bars and rooms with different music in each bar. The hotel arranged for buses to take us to the club and back, which was really nice, however, some of us had to re-pay when we got there (either the organizer or the club ripped us off). Regardless, the club was a blast once we were inside.

Oro Nightclub – Hard Rock Hotel

Another night, we went to the Hard Rock Hotel club. We got bottle service at the club and danced the night away.

Overall Thoughts

Most of the people that worked anywhere we went were extremely happy to have us visiting, and they would do anything they could to help us, which was very nice. Overall, I would say the trip was more fun than bad, but I definitely had to watch what I ate and drank! In the end, we were very happy to be back in the US and to eat American food. Be very cautious if you visit!!!