The Beach

Boca Chica beach is a reef-protected lagoon of tranquil blue waters and powder-white sand. One can wade out 100 yards from shore into glassy waters and still be only waist deep with nothing but soft clean sand underfoot. It’s the perfect beach for small children because there are no waves and no deep waters. Boca Chica is crowded on Sundays when capital city come to the beach, returning home at night. The rest of the week, the sand and sun is for the tourists.

One can find just about everything in Boca Chica, making it one of the most complete of the ungated beach towns in the country. There are hotels and dining for every budget, great night life, proximity to the airport and capital, yet it’s still small enough to build relationships.

Boca Chica is a "shopping beach" because pleasant Dominican vendors wander the beach or sell from their shops on the main street that runs parallel to the beach. While tanning, you can haggle over silver jewelry and paintings, or get your hair braided in corn rows. No heavy pressure. Just people trying to get a few of your tourist dollars.

What else is nearby?
If you like to explore and are getting tired of the bathwater ocean, you’ll find slightly wilder water at Playa Caribe. About a 10 minute highway drive west of Boca Chica, it’s a small horseshoe bay that offers great boogie boarding and a nice, if small, beach. Further west are the towns of Guayacanes and Juan Dolio.

Guayacanes has a beautiful palm-studded beach that’s quiet every day but Sunday.

Its wonderful coral reef lies just meters from the beach – snorkelers’ paradise. World class shopping is available 30 minutes away in Santo Domingo. Buses that travel up and down the highway will take you directly into the old colonial zone of the city where you can marvel at Spanish colonial architecture. Or just go shopping.

How to get there
Most visitors arriving in Boca Chica will land at Las Americas Airport, the largest and busiest in the country. The town of Boca Chica is a 15 minute taxi ride from the airport. As well, Boca Chica’s all inclusive hotels are popular with the cruise-and-stay clients who arrive at the seaport after a week cruising the Caribbean and stay an extra week in a local hotel.

Getting around
Boca Chica’s main area of interest to tourists is quite small and easily walkable.

However, there is a taxi stand at each of the three large resorts and desk clerks at the smaller hotels can call one for you. They can also advise you on what the fares are.

You will see many motoconchos, or motorcycle taxis, in Boca Chica. For 15\20 pesos, they will take you anywhere in the town.

If you want to travel to neighboring towns on the Las Americas highway, go to the Shell gas station (la bomba) and wait at the corner for a gua-gua (public bus) heading east or west.

Attractions
The biggest attraction in Boca Chica is the beach.

That’s why each hotel offers a lot of water sports and beach activities to keep you occupied. You won’t find much high culture here – there are no theaters, galleries (but Haithian pictures...) or movie houses. The big hotels have their own evening shows and discos and there are many public discos throughout the town. Plus the Hamaca Hotel has a Casino open to the public. Most visitors to Boca Chica spend their days either on the beach or going on excursions to see the rest of the country.