Caribbean.
Spa Botánico, Ritz-Carlton Reserve Dorado Beach.
Treehouse treatment cabins. A botanical garden the spa team forages every morning. The Watermill — five distinct water rituals from cold plunge to thermal soak — runs 90 minutes pre-massage. Book the Hammock Garden suite for the post-treatment hour.
Read the article →Old San Juan — 500 years of Spanish stone, still walkable.
El Morro at sunrise before the tour groups. Castillo San Cristóbal at golden hour. The guide we route is a Smithsonian historian — and she opens doors most tours don’t see.
Read the article →Tortuga Bay at Puntacana Resort & Club — Oscar de la Renta villas, private beach.
Oscar designed the villas himself. The marina runs to Saona Island by 6 a.m. We know which villa to book and which week the sargasso stays away.
Read the article →Mesón de la Cava — dinner in a 25-million-year-old cave.
You climb down a spiral staircase into a limestone cave. Above you, the colonial city. In front of you, the country’s best Caribbean cuisine. Reserve the table at the back wall.
Read the article →Puerto Plata — Victorian gingerbread on the north coast.
Cable car up Mount Isabel de Torres, rum from the original Brugal cellars, and the quietest stretch of north-coast beach in the country. The hotels worth booking? Two.
Read the article →Luquillo — the rainforest meets the reef, all in one morning.
El Yunque rainforest in the morning, the seven-mile crescent beach by noon. Bioluminescent bay by kayak after dark. The local operator we use — third-generation — keeps it intimate, never more than six on the boat.
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