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A stunningly pretty desert island, Cayo Levantado lies a couple of miles offshore from Samaná and is easily reached by regular boat services from the Malecón. Such is the tropical charm of this Robinson Crusoe-style cay that it’s said that the world-famous Bacardi commercial, featuring white sands and a particularly pretty palm tree, was filmed here. Nowadays, it’s advisable to arrive early or visit later in the day, as the island can be very crowded with excursion-ists around lunchtime. The beaches to the island’s south are slightly less busy, but you are unlikely to escape fellow sight-seers altogether.

Lying at the eastern extreme of the Samaná Peninsula, the charming village of Las Galeras has witnessed significant tourist development over the last two decades. But it has not yet lost the ambience of a remote and relaxed fishing community. The main attraction is the beach, a strip of fine sand set in a pretty curving bay backed by cliffs and forested hillsides. Unspoiled by commercial sprawl and hustling, this is a beautiful place, with its calm, shallow, and inviting water. A smattering of hotels, guest-houses, and restaurants offers a choice of accommodation and eating options.

The most developed tourist spot on the Peninsula is a fairly relaxed place, where life revolves around a couple of beaches, seafood restaurants and a busy nightlife. Hotels and guest-houses are mostly small, and situated along the main town beach or the next-door Playa Bonita. A single main street is lined with stores, cafés, restaurants, and nearly all entertainment needs are catered to in town.

The road eastwards out of Samaná runs along the shoreline, passing numerous beaches. At the small village of Los Cacaos you’ll discover a truly wonderful hotel, the Gran Bahía (see Gran Bahía, Samaná). Los Cacaos village itself is a modest fishing community, with no tourist facilities. But a rough track up into the mountains leads to an impressive waterfall, with plentiful cold water rushing down the green hillside.

Sánchez is probably the most convenient starting point for a day trip to this wild and isolated nature reserve. A boat departs daily, crossing to the Sabana de la Mar fishing port, where hired guides can lead a boat trip to the small part of the park that’s open to visitors. Here, you’re confronted by one of the country’s most unique landscapes: hump-shaped hillocks rising out of the water and covered with dense tropical vegetation. These strange mogotes , along with mangroves and rainforest, shelter a variety of flora and fauna.

Only a robust four-wheel-drive vehicle or a 20-minute boat ride from Las Galeras will get you to the splendidly isolated and spectacular Playa Rincón, hidden by the steep bluffs at each end of the beach. Aficionados claim that this is the best beach on the Peninsula, and it’s easy to see why. A 2-mile (3.2-km) stretch of bleached sand is bordered by azure sea and leads back inland to an expanse of coconut trees. While hardly a secret, sheer inaccessibility means that this piece of paradise will stay uncrowded for some time to come.

Santa Bárbara de Samaná is the main town on the Peninsula, a busy little port overlooking the huge bay. While much less of an obvious tourist destination than Las Terrenas, it has plenty of charm, despite the fact that most of its Victorian-era architecture was demolished in an ill-advised 1970s modernization scheme. The mostly concrete buildings are laid out in a grid system. The focal point is the wide seaside Malecón (boulevard) – a magnet for those who enjoy a walk, especially in the evening. Look out, too, for La Churcha (see La Churcha, Samaná).

The vast, glittering expanse of Samaná Bay comes into view as you drive along the Peninsula’s southern coast road. This magnificent natural harbor, sheltered by surrounding hills, forms a perfect haven from hurricanes. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, several European powers as well as the US saw the Bay’s potential as a naval base. Luckily, the plans never materialized, and the bay remains largely unspoilt, with beautiful beaches, seaside villages, and fantastic views across the placid water. The bay attracts not just sailors and devotees of water sports, but also humpback whales, which mate and raise their young here.

Traditionally the gateway to the Samaná Peninsula, bustling Sánchez is where all vehicles turn off to cross the mountains over to Las Terrenas. It was an important place when a rail connection linked the port to the agricultural powerhouse of the Cibao Valley. But those days are long gone, and now the town is quietly going to seed, kept alive only by its fishing industry and the tourists. The old, prosperous times are visible in a handful of ornate but crumbling gingerbread-style mansions near the waterfront.

The whale-watching season around Samaná generally lasts from January to March, when an estimated 12,000 humpback whales – the whole population of the North Atlantic – converge on the waters around the Peninsula. The mating and rearing activity takes place in Banca de Plata (Silver Bank) to the north of the Peninsula, and in and around the bay itself, where the shallow and warm water is conducive to courtship displays as well as birthing. Humpback whales can weigh up to 40 tons, so their acrobatics of diving, rolling, and leaping clean out of the water are spectacular.