My wife and I chose the Tropical Garden Club Resort for our honeymoon in March 2000 after deciding that the Dominican Republic offered us the best all-inclusive deals when compared to Mexico and Cuba. We were not sure, however, just exactly what we were getting ourselves into!

Upon arriving at the airport in Sosua on the north coast, our tour company representative met us and we and several others boarded a minivan. As the van drove east from Sosua toward the village of Cabarete, people were being dropped off at other resorts until finally my wife and I were the only ones left on the minivan. We thought our resort must be a joke or something, as nobody else chose to go there!

Finally, about 10 minutes east of Cabarete (and 40 minutes from the airport), we turned off the highway onto a rough road flanked by pasture land and after a couple of minutes came across a small village.
Then, we turned right onto a dirt road flanked by tropical forest and vendor shacks. I was not feeling too impressed at this point!

A couple more minutes, however, and the road turned to pavement and on our right was the spacious, open-air lobby of the Tropical Garden Club!
After some apprehension, the sheer beauty of this place put most of my fears to rest.

Truly, this resort lives up to its name. It occupies a rather large area about a kilometre or so from the main highway, so traffic noise is minimal. Rooms occupy a variety of buildings, anywhere from 2-storey strip-motel kind of buildings to little bungalows! All of them are surrounded by beautiful palm trees and all sorts of tropical vegetation, including bright flowers.

There are three pools: one with a built-in bar; another where all the music, sports, and partying takes place; and the nice, quaint, family-oriented pool that my wife and I had the pleasure of looking out onto from our main-floor suite. At each pool is a bar where both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks are served -- all were absolutely delicious!

The main dining area was this enormous open-air hut next to the lobby, literally a 5 minute walk from our suite, but one that I never got tired of due to the sheer beauty! There, a vast array of food and desserts awaited us three times a day. I'll admit that Dominicans don't seem to have a clear idea of what constitutes a good dessert, but the other food was fantastic for the most part.

The brochures we consulted were vague about how far we were from the beach. In fact, there were no signs to mark the way to the beach! So on our first full day there, my wife and I were told to walk on that dirt road and make our first right onto another dirt road, literally in the middle of the forest! Not knowing whether we'd be mugged (we didn't yet know the friendly nature of the locals), we cautiously made our way toward the sound of crashing waves and by accident came across a path leading to a sand dune to the left of the road. Tired of walking to this point (but only about a kilometre, or half a mile by this point), we thought we'd see if this was the beach or not.

As we walked over the dune, we were greeted to one of the most beautiful beach scenes that we had ever seen! The white sand was scattered with little hut-like umbrellas and you could rent chairs for only 10 Dominian pesos apiece. If you were thirsty, a mini-bar was also there, courtesy of our resort. The beach was by no means crowded at any point, and one could walk for miles in any direction and scarcely pass another person. Total paradise!

There were some other nice touches at this resort. Upon realizing that we were newlyweds, the manager treated us to a complimentary bottle of rather good tasting champagne. We also rented our in-suite safe for our 14 night stay for $26 U.S.; it was quite spacious and well worth the peace of mind. We didn't need the air conditioning for $5 U.S. a day as the ceiling fan and the only slightly cool evening breezes did a fine job of keeping us comfortable.

If you hate insects, fear not. We only saw two cockroaches the whole time, and there were very few mosquitoes. The cecadas(?), however, were there to serenade us to sleep every night.

Some tips: Have a good sum of American dollars on hand. ALWAYS wear a hat while out in the sun. Use the shuttle buses to go to Cabarete and Sosua for shopping; cabs are grossly expensive. Spend the extra few hundred dollars or so on the recommended tours. We took one to the capital city of Santo Domingo and another Jeep Safari one into the backwoods; both were tours that I will NEVER forget. They were fantastic and gave us an appreciation of the people and culture of this wonderful yet little-known country.

Truly, this resort was a diamond in the rough! People we talked to on the way back to Sosua complained of excessive party noise at the other all-inclusive resorts and rooms that were often run-down in appearance.
Our resort, on the other hand, was well managed, clean, quiet (depending on where your room was), and absolutely gorgeous!

We give it the highest recommendation possible.