Playa Laguna Real Estate is located right between Sosua and Cabarete on Highway 5, just up Playa Laguna Road and right next to the famous Playa Laguna Hotel.   Playa Laguna Real Estate has Villas, Condos, Lots, and Rentals available to view today.    We also provide Construction contracting services if you plan to build.   Visit the website today or give us a call at 809-901-3959.   From the USA or canada call us toll free at 1-866-459-5596.    We’d like to make Playa Laguna Real Estate your source for Real Estate in the Dominican Republic.

Where to Stay

Cabarete and Sosúa have a wide range of choices, but luxury is the exception. For a weeklong rental at low prices, you can’t go wrong with Cabarete Palm Beach Condos (Cabarete Beach; 877-240-5605; www.cabaretecondos.com), a quiet beachfront condo that offers spacious, two-bedroom apartments starting at $80 a night in the off-season and $140 in the high season (not including taxes). The apartments are smartly decorated and have full kitchens and private patios. Beachfront restaurants and bars are nearby — or with the money you save, hire a Dominican cook for a traditional home-cooked dinner.

The white-washed, over-the-top Italianate design of the Piergiorgio Palace Hotel in Sosúa (Calle La Puntilla No. 1; 809-571-2626; www.piergiorgiopalace.com) wears its gaudiness well, especially for the price: $95 a night, $115 for an ocean view (taxes included). Though a few blocks from the town and beach, it feels isolated enough that you might not leave. The resort, after all, features a clear blue pool, a good Italian restaurant and endless terraces and nooks overlooking the bay. And the rooms, though not chic, are pleasant and clean.

Where to Eat

When you’re daydreaming on the beach, it’s easy to forget how beautiful and bucolic the tropical interior can be. Blue Moon Retreat (Sabaneta-Moca Highway, Jamao al Norte; 809-757-0614, www.bluemoonretreat.net), perched on a hilltop overlooking lush hills, is an Indian restaurant with a Caribbean twist. Dinner, $20 a person prix fixe, is a tropical dream of chutneys, Caribbean-style tandoori chicken (with garlic and oregano, without yogurt) and pakora fritters. Call ahead: the restaurant usually doesn’t open unless eight or more have reserved. It’s also a beautiful place to stay overnight — for $50 — if you don’t mind a thin mattress and rustic accommodations.

For cheap eats along Cabarete beach, head to La Casita de Don Alfredo (Cabarete Beach; 809-986-3750), a k a Papi’s, a tables-on-the-sand restaurant famous for whole shrimps served in a cast-iron pan with a cream sauce, for 750 pesos, or about $21 at 36 pesos to the dollar. Finish dinner by 11 p.m., though, before the dance music starts blaring from the club next door, utterly ruining the sand-in-your-toes tranquillity.

There are also plenty of tasty shacks on Sosúa Beach. Mofongo King, toward the middle of the beach with a bright aqua-blue roof, serves an excellent version of its namesake dish, a mound of fried, mashed plantains mixed with pork crackling or chicken (around 200 pesos).

Cheap Beaches

There are long, picturesque beaches in both Cabarete and Sosúa, but they’re also commercial, with lots of places to eat ranging from beach shacks to fancy lounges. For a quiet beach with nothing but beige sand, a handful of beach chairs and water in several gradations of blue, walk a few blocks east to Playa Alicia, an idyllic cove with a few palm trees and a lazy feel at the end of quiet Calle Dr. Rosen.

Where to Party

Colmados are what Dominicans call the local grocery stores, which come nighttime, double as neighborhood hangouts. El Flow (Calle Pedro Clisante No. 34; Sosúa) is like a colmado without the groceries, serving cheap beer and rum (both from 50 pesos) to a boisterous, informal crowd of Dominicans along with some tourists trying their best to dance to the blasting merengue and bachata music. Lax (Cabarete Beach; 829-915-4842), by contrast, is for tourists — tourists, that is, looking to trade in the corny beachfront clubs for a more relaxed, loungey feel.

What to Do

This is a water sports country. Here’s how it breaks down: Sosúa is for divers and snorkelers, with lots of dive sites teeming with brightly colored fish that are quickly reachable by boat. A 90-minute snorkeling trip with Northern Coast Diving (Calle Pedro Clisante No. 8; 809-571-1028; northerncoastdiving.com), staffed by easygoing, friendly English speakers, goes for $29.

But the bigger action is in Cabarete, where windsurfing rules. Several outfitters, including Cabarete Windsports Club (Cabarete Beach; 809-571-0784; cabaretewindsportsclub.com) offer rental equipment, which goes for about $65 a day including a lesson. What time of day you go will depend upon your skill level. Winds get strong in the early to midafternoon, especially in the winter.

What to Buy

Gift shops in Sosúa seem to specialize in schlock — gaudy paintings of Caribbean sunsets, for example. But a few places do offer tasteful and wholly Dominican wares including Patrick’s Silversmithy (Calle Pedro Clisante No. 3; 809-571-2121), run by Patrick Fagg, a British expat who has been in Sosúa for 35 years. He makes earrings, bracelets and charms out of silver, as well as local larimar and amber. Earrings start at about $15. You can also get great Dominican cigars at Cafe Cubano (Calle Pedro Clisante No. 27, Sosúa; 809-571-3493) for 100 to 1,000 pesos.

How to Get There

JetBlue and Continental fly nonstop from the New York City area to Gregorio Luperón International Airport in Puerto Plata. Round-trip fares start at around $400, according to a recent Web search. There are also nonstop flights from Miami (American) and several airlines fly to Santiago, which is about 30 miles away.