Touted as one of the world’s best place to learn kiteboarding is Cabarete, the heart of the Dominican kiteboarding scene. The perfect blending of its natural environment creates an unusual synthesis of outstanding wind and wave conditions.

The town of Cabarete is located an easy 20 minute taxi ride East of Puerto Plata airport (POP) on the spectacular northern “Amber Coast”. A bustling one-street village based on water sports tourism (kiteboarding, surfing, and windsurfing), Cabarete is extremely well set up for visitors from all over the globe.

With excellent hotels, restaurants and bars, good internet connections and many adventure sport activities, Cabarete is quickly becoming THE hottest kite destination in the world. Plus, if you’ve got room for more excitement after a day at the beach, the nightlife in Cabarete rocks!

Getting Here

A valid passport is necessary to enter the Dominican Republic, and there are many direct flights to Puerto Plata including American Airlines from Miami and JFK, Continental from Newark, and Delta from Atlanta. Alternatively you can fly into Santiago (STI) with Jet Blue and take a longer taxi ride (90 minutes) to arrive in Cabarete. Santo Domingo is quite far, so better not fly there!

Money

The official currency is the Dominican Peso (DOP), but American dollars and Euros are accepted everywhere. If you run out of cash, the many ATM machines will happily dispense pesos. Credit cards are accepted only in some establishments (most places are cash only) but be prepared to pay a service fee if you choose to use it!

Accommodations

For accommodation you can choose between two properties located directly next door to Laurel Eastman Kiteboarding (LEK) – A Best Kiteboarding School and Test Center. Ocean Dream Condos are spacious, new, and gorgeous, or the Hotel Caracol offers simple tranquility. LEK puts together packages including room or condo, so you can take care of all your arrangements easily. For more information about the packages and heaps of cool details about Cabarete check out www.cabaretekiteholiday.com

The Beach Club

LEK is located inside the stunning Hotel Caracol’s Beach Club, on the PKRA World Cup event site. A full service beach club, you can enjoy a tropical cocktail at the bar or a yummy pizza from Marabu Italian Restaurant and relax by the swimming pool, garden, or on the beach.

Photography

LEK also offers a very special personalized souvenir – a CD of photos of you kiteboarding in Cabarete! Take home the memories of your action packed holiday in paradise, and re-live moment like the first time you stood up on the board….

Kite School

Laurel Eastman Kiteboarding is the school of professional kiteboarder Laurel Eastman, an IKO approved center, and a flagship Best Kiteboarding Test Center. With the highest attention to safety and small details to make your experience the best one possible, you can enjoy a full kiteboarding course (460$ for an 8 hour, 4 day private course), an advanced or refresher lesson (130$ for 2 hours), a free introduction to kiteboarding with the trainer kite and an assistant instructor, testing and renting of 2007 Waroo, Waroo Pro, and boards, supervision with one of our Dominican assistants, group activity or dinner….LEK is your one stop concierge/holiday planning team! Check it all out on www.laureleastman.com

Activities

Cabarete is much more than only kiteboarding- the wild and natural surrounding areas have many challenging and inspiring activities that to thrill you! From full moon horseback rides along the deserted beach to jumping from fern covered rocks into crystal clear pools of water, surfing friendly fun waves, mountain biking in the national park, kayaking out to the reef, wakeboarding on a butter flat river, diving and snorkeling, there is something for everyone. And of course there is always good old rest and relaxation