Our welcome to Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic

We celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary in the Dominican Republic this year. To say that this was a dream of a trip is an understatement. In true transparency we never would have been able to experience DR the way we did without Sean’s childhood friend, Tom. Tom has a client (Alex) who has a house in DR who had been telling him for quite some time to take a vacation there and use his house. Tom finally agreed and then asked Sean and me to come along. All we would need to do was pay for our flights and bring spending money. He didn’t need to ask us twice considering that we were thinking of what to do for our anniversary.

This was our first trip that Sean did not really know the ins and outs of everything. We were taking Tom’s word for it that everything was going to go smoothly. I’m not really a spontaneous person if I’m to be honest but Sean was all like, it’s all good. Don’t worry. Um, ok. Well, turns out Sean was right!

We flew to Santo Domingo and then met Tom, Tonya and Alex's driver (Carlos) at the airport and then did the two hour drive to Las Terrenas. Let's just say that, that drive is not for the faint of heart with all the tight turns and how narrow the roads are. Any crazy turn and you would basically be driving off the mountain. The roads are very windy so you can imagine that our two hour drive from Santo Domingo to Las Terrenas was quite frightening especially since there are no rules to the road. You basically do whatever you want to do and well, let’s just say I like rules on the road.

When we finally arrived at our destination and walked into the house that we were staying at my jaw dropped to the ground. OMG, seriously?! This can’t be the house. The house was/is absolutely gorgeous especially the patio area. I could have spent all my time out there and kinda did which is why I was scratching mosquito bites weeks after, ha.

The house had plenty of rooms and bathrooms and well, it was quite the dream especially when we learned that we would have full access to Alex’s driver (Carlos), chef (Paulolino) and housekeeper (Maria).

I shared the beach house on instastories and multiple people asked me if we found the house through AirBnb. Alex does not rent his house but we did learn that several owners of the houses on the same complex (I think we can call it a complex?) do rent their homes out. Here's a link through Trip Advisor if you're interested.

When we were done exploring the house with our mouths wide opened we quickly changed into beachwear. We then walked over to a restaurant called Porto which was situated right on the beach across the street from the house. Porto was absolutely stunning with it’s open architecture, great views, comfortable furniture to lounge on, so of course I had to take a million and one pictures. The food was good but I’ve become a bit of a food tester over the years and I’ll admit that it wasn’t incredible. We ate here twice during our stay as it was so conveniently located with where we were staying and both times I thought the food was good but not great. The drinks are great though and the view can’t be beat so it is definitely worth a visit if you’re ever in Las Terrenas.

After we ate we walked the few steps to the beach and relaxed for several hours enjoying the water, view and atmosphere. Sean and Tom also did a bit of snorkeling. There was a bar at the beach called the Mosquito Bar which we visited a lot during our stay and I made sure to get my fill of pina coladas. We absolutely loved the Mosquito Bar! The drinks, the service, everything about it! We were constantly getting complimentary shots and it just might have made our trip, haha.

After the beach we checked out the complex's pool area for a little while.

And then after that we got ready for the evening. We received directions from Paulolino to a market not too far from where we were staying and stocked up on snacks, drinks and a few breakfast items for the next day. We didn’t buy too much as we were going shopping again with Paulolino and he was going to take us grocery shopping for the remaining days we were in Las Terrenas.

After shopping we had dinner at Le Tre Cravelle. I ordered a coconut shrimp which came on top of a coconut. I loved the vibe of the restaurant, décor, great service and our food was great. It would also be a great place to go during the day as you get the incredible views of the beach and water! I can just imagine how stunning it is to eat here during sunset.

After dinner we headed home and spent some time in the pool which was also a hot tub. Talk about luxury! Call me poor naïve but I had no idea that a pool could also turn into a hot tub, ha. Our first day in Las Terrenas was off to a wonderful start!