Punta Cana Day Trip to Los Haitises National Park

From your Punta Cana hotel you will be picked up in a bus headed west towards Higuey, the largest city in the Dominican Republic's eastern region. After a quick stop, you'll wind through the northwest passing the small cities of El Seibo and Hato Mayor, typical country towns and small Dominican communities. You will then change elevations, crossing the Oriental Mountain Range which offers spectacular views of the Dominican countryside. Your licensed guide will bring the world outside the bus to life, teaching you about everyday Dominican customs and spotting some of the country's most recognized natural produce like cacao, banana, pineapple, mango, papaya, coffee and the all-important sugar cane, which although used for sugar, is more famously used to produce rum.

Arriving at our destination, the coastal town of Sabana de la Mar, you will board a catamaran on the outskirts of Los Haitises National Park and maneuver through the winding canals of the park's majestic mangrove forests which act as an ideal home for hundreds of species of birds, fish, reptiles and crustaceans. Leaving the mangrove forests, the scenery opens up into the San Lorenzo Bay with photo-inspiring views of the park's lush outcroppings and the mountains of Samana in the distance. If you're lucky, you may even have some company in the bay's deep waters as dolphin sightings are not uncommon.

During the tour of Los Haitises, you will visit two caves once used by the Taino Indians for more than a millennium. The first, Cueva de la Arena, is located on a secluded beach. The cave's several waterfront caverns hold Taino sculptures in the rock and bats in their natural habitat. The second, Cueva de la Linea, is located deeper in the forest and is filled with Taino pictographs, giving you a better sense of how these indigenous people lived before the arrival of Christopher Columbus.

From the park, it will be time to eat. Lunch will be served at Yanigua Spa, a small ranch deep in the region's countryside with lush vegetation and even an amazing waterfall! You'll be treated to a typical Dominican lunch of chicken, rice, beans, vegetables, salad, fruit and a delicious fish typically eaten in the local area called Minuta. After lunch, you will head to the river where you can swim in the refreshing waters, jump from the waterfall, or apply the riverbed's curative mud to your skin. After your swim in the cool waters, have some hot chocolate or coffee at the ranch.

For a genuine contact with the Dominican Republic's history, culture and natural beauty, take part in this unique adventure to Los Haitises National Park.