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The restaurant, decorated in cool green and white, is a truly relaxing place to be.

A beach bar and a disco, Bambú gets extremely lively after midnight.

The first French Canadian windsurfers arrived in 1984, creating a surfing paradise around the long strip known as Playa Cabarete and a couple of nearby beaches. As a result, a modern tourist town has grown up between beach and lagoon, catering not only to the surfing fraternity but also to a growing range of independent travelers. Surfing, both windsurfing and increasingly kitesurfing, are Cabarete’s main raison d’être , but there are many other activities on offer.

This beachside bistro offers elegant dining and good food, including both meat and seafood.

The advent of the Ocean World theme park in the vicinity of this formerly quiet fishing village, allegedly named after an infamous local pirate, has done much to change its ambience. But the delightfully curved horseshoe cove still draws many visitors to its generous expanse of sand and shade-giving trees. Expensive-looking villas gaze down from the hillsides, while behind the beach stands the up-market Hacienda Resort. The beach becomes much busier at weekends, when the surfing crowd comes in search of its hefty tides, but during the week you’re likely to be much more on your own.

A cheerful place to relish Dominican cuisine, mainly chicken, beef, and fish. Check out the menú del día .

Only a short taxi ride away from the busy center of Puerto Plata, the beach is just west of town, offering a complete change of atmosphere from the city itself and from the highly developed tourist strip to the east at Playa Dorada. There are no big hotels here, but rather a cluster of tasteful waterfront villas and condominiums, mostly owned by well-heeled locals or foreigners. The beach itself is an extensive strip of soft white sand with calm water and very safe swimming, even if shade is in short supply. The settlement also has a good range of refreshment options.

One of the better hotel discos, the music changes from steamy tropical rhythms to hiphop to techno. There’s something for everybody (see Crazy Moon, Puerto Plata).