Dominican Republic

IF you thought that ditching long-haul holiday for destinations closer to home will save you money, you’re wrong.

Majorca is just a few hours from the UK and a trusted holiday spot – but in some cases it’s actually cheaper to go to the Caribbean.

The Spanish island has always been a top holiday destination, with two million British tourists going there every year.

It’s not hard to see why – the flight is short at around two and a half hours long, it’s got great weather and lots of pretty beaches.

But if you want to get more bang for your buck, you might want to look elsewhere – like the Caribbean.

In some cases, a two-week holiday to the Dominican Republic came in cheaper than a one-week break to Majorca.

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This was highlighted by Pedro Fiol, the president of the Aviba association of travel agencies in the Balearics.

Talking to Majorca Daily on behalf of Spanish citizens, he said: “At certain times of the year it is more affordable to spend 15 days in the Caribbean than to enjoy a week in our own country.”

He continued to add: “For one of the most popular weeks of the year, around August 15, this can cost some €2,300 (£2,000) per person.

“In contrast, for the same dates a trip to the Caribbean, for example to Punta Cana (Dominican Republic), for 14 nights in five-star all-inclusive hotels can be found for around €2,250 (£1,957) per person.”

While Pedro Fiol highlighted the expense for Spanish citizens to go on holiday in their own country – the same applies for Brits heading there too.

Looking at the likes of TUI, a one-week all-inclusive in Majorca during the week of August 17, 2026 can be as high as £3,793per person.

To have an all-inclusive break on the seafront – in similar looking locations to the Dominican Republic – you can book a break from £1,921 per person.

This is for a seven-night all-inclusive stay at the Iberostar Selection Albufera Playa departing on August 15, 2026, which has multiple swimming pools and beach access.

Meanwhile, 14-day all-inclusive to Bahia Principe Explore La Romana in the Dominican Republic departing on August 17, 2026, works out at £1,832 per person.

The Bahia Principe Explore La Romana has everything from multiple swimming pools to bars, a kids’ club and five on-site restaurants.

Overall the trip to the Dominican Republic is £89 cheaper – and you get to stay for twice as long.

At a day-rate, the break to the Dominican Republic resort works out at £130pppn, and the one in Majorca is £274pppn.

Here are some of our favourite Caribbean holidays…

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Hotel Capriccio Mare, Dominican Republic

Facing the calm, crystal waters of the Caribbean Sea, Hotel Capriccio Mare looks like a bright white island villa. The hotel’s position on Bavaro’s coastline is perfect for exploring the popular resort town of Punta Cana. Whether it’s strolling the sands to grab a fresh coconut with a straw, or venturing out on a catamaran trip to Saona Island, this dreamy Caribbean resort is not one to miss.

BOOK HERE

Coconut Court Beach Hotel, Barbados

This friendly, family-run hotel is a slice of Caribbean paradise. This hotel sits smak-bang on a sugar-white beach with warm turquoise waters. Enjoy both the beaches of Barbados and its plethora of rum bars – there are about 1,500 of them on the island.

BOOK HERE

Sugar Bay Club, St Kitts

Set on the quiet side of St Kitts’ Frigate Bay, the boutique Sugar Bay Club offers superb value and wonderful views of the Atlantic Ocean. Staff are on hand to assist with island tours, from catamaran cruises to scenic railway excursions.

BOOK HERE

Antigua Yacht Club Marina Resort, Antigua

Amazing Antigua has 365 beaches – one for every day of the year – as well as a fascinating history. This resort in Falmouth Harbour is perfect for exploring the beautiful local area, including Pigeon Point, Nelson’s Dockyard and English Harbour.

BOOK HERE

All-inclusive breaks to Majorca don’t have to be that expensive though – with TUI they start from £953 per person.

At this price you can stay for seven-nights at the Hotel Stil Picafort Park which has an adults-only pool, to entertainment like cabaret and comedy performances as well as bars and a restaurants.

It has four-stars and includes return flights to London Gatwick departing on August 17, 2026.

But, it still works out cheaper to go to the Caribbean island though by £6 a day.

The Dominican Republic is one of the cheapest Caribbean islands, so it’s fairly inexpensive to explore when you get there too.

The average price of coffee in the Dominican Republic is £1.54 and a meal at an inexpensive restaurant can start from as little as £4.96, according to Wise.

In Majorca, a coffee can be as much as £3.04 with a meal ranging from £26 to £43.

The flight to the Dominican Republic is, of course, longer, taking on average nine hours and 15 minutes.

But you can expect better weather all year round too – even its coldest month, the average low is 23C.

One of the world’s best is Canto de la Playa which is found on Saona Island and is considered ‘one of the Caribbean‘s best-kept secrets’.

It’s been described as having noticeably soft sand with calm waters for swimmers and vibrant coral reefs just offshore.

Saona Island is found off the southeastern tip of the Dominican Republic and forms part of the East National Park which is known for its mangroves coral reefs and palm-fringed beaches.

In the waters around the island, visitors can expect to see sea turtles, dolphins and even humpback whales.

For more on the Caribbean, check out the island where one writer travelled to that has world-best beaches and floating bars.

And discover the ‘true gem’ resort town on one of the Caribbean’s most popular islands.

Before becoming a global phenomenon in the 2000s thanks to artists like Aventura, Monchy y Alexandra and Prince Royce, and before being declared an “intangible cultural heritage of humanity” by UNESCO in 2019, bachata was — and continues to be — the soundtrack of the Dominican Republic.

The importance of the genre to the people of the Caribbean nation is at the heart of “Agridulce,” a music documentary that had its world premiere at this month’s South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. Filmed over the course of five years, the feature follows four young students at Academia de Bachata, a music conservatory in the beachside resort town of Cabarete. It’s the only school of its kind in the world.

Academia de Bachata was founded in 2013 by music producer Benjamin De Menil. After traveling to the Dominican Republic to record for nearly three decades, De Menil says he wanted to create something that would ensure that the next generation continues the traditions of bachata.

“One of the things I loved about the bachata musicians I was working with early on is that they were such natural musicians. There was never any sheet music, so whenever we were going to record I would say, ‘Let’s do this song and it goes like this,’ and they would listen to it for a little bit before they figured it out and they were playing it,” he said. “I thought that we could somehow harness that energy in a more organized and educational format and make a school where we’re helping young children become professional musicians within this genre that has a lot of opportunity.”

De Menil partnered with DREAM Project, a nonprofit organization that did work in Cabarete, and launched Academia de Bachata in 2013. Since then, the school has provided hundreds of children with a free musical education.

“There were a lot of things we were trying to figure out along the way about what the best way to teach this music was because this wasn’t your typical conservatory. We were focusing on the traditions passed on rather than some style of music that there are already textbooks for.”

To make “Agridulce,” De Menil, who produced the film, reached out to Frank Pavich, director of the 2013 “Jodorowsky’s Dune,” the cult classic documentary about avant-garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s quixotic and failed attempt to adapt Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi novel “Dune.” It didn’t take much to bring him on onboard.

“Ben contacted me and told me about the project. I responded with what’s Bachata?,” the Croatian American director said. “I had never even heard of the musical genre. And then he sent me some music. He sent me footage that he had shot of [Cabarete] and of the school. And it was unlike anything I’d ever seen. It was so colorful and so incredible that I just wanted to jump on right away. I was like, ‘Great, when can we go down there and start shooting? It was really that fast.”

Pavich says now he hears bachata everywhere.

“I live between Switzerland and Croatia and now that I know how to pick it up, I hear it in cars passing by a cafe in Geneva and in Croatia,” he said. “It’s everywhere, it’s infiltrated everything in the best way possible.”

“Agridulce” is an ethnomusicological documentary — it captures the music of a specific place and people and shows how the tradition is kept alive — that also doubles as a coming of age story. The film follows students of varying ages — Edickson, Frandy, Orianny and Yerian — out of the classroom, showing us moments of intimacy with their families and friends while also giving us a slice of quotidian life in Cabarete.

As such, “Agridulce” doesn’t shy away from the political tensions of the beachside resort. Much like in the U.S., immigration is a contentious topic in the Dominican Republic — the country shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, which has seen an exodus of its people over the decade.

De Menil and Pavich said that nearly a third of Academia de Bachata’s student body is of Haitian descent, and that they would have had to go out of their way to not include one of them in the film.

This tension plays out in the storyline of Frendy, a magnetic student of Haitian descent who uses bachata to fit in.

“Many young people are in that position of being made to feel they don’t belong at that time in life when a person most wants to find their place,” De Menil said. “We see that music can help kids, particularly immigrant kids, find belonging.”

“The film ultimately speaks to the way that culture and shared history contribute to the development of authentic, lived creativity,” said South by Southwest consulting programmer Jim Kolmar. “It’s something innate and inevitable, and ‘Agridulce’ really explores that beautifully. Obviously it’s full of incredible music, but the deeper cultural context is essential, and seeing it through the perspective of the students at Academia de Bachata helps us connect the dots.”

MIAMI — Venezuela won the World Baseball Classic for the first time, rebounding from a blown eighth-inning lead to beat the United States 3-2 Tuesday night on Eugenio Suárez’s tiebreaking double in the ninth.

Maikel Garcia’s third-inning sacrifice fly and Wilyer Abreu’s fifth-inning homer off rookie Nolan McLean built a 2-0 lead before a roaring pro-Latin America crowd. Meanwhile, left-hander Eduardo Rodríguez and lights-out relievers limited the Americans to two hits through the seventh.

Bobby Witt Jr. walked with two outs in the eighth and Bryce Harper drove the second straight changeup from Andrés Machado over the center-field fence for a two-run homer that tied it. Harper slowly trotted around the bases and took time at third to salute coach Dino Ebel.

Luis Arraez walked against Garrett Whitlock starting the ninth. Pinch-runner Javier Sanoja stole second just ahead of catcher Will Smith’s throw and came home when Suárez doubled to the left-center gap. Suárez spread his arms wide and pointed to the sky at second base while teammates streamed from the dugout to greet Sanoja at the plate.

Daniel Palencia struck out two in a perfect bottom half to finish a three-hitter and get his third save of the WBC, striking out Roman Anthony to end the game. Venezuelans ran onto the infield to celebrate as the Americans stared while leaning on their dugout railing.

“Nobody believed in Venezuela but now we win the championship,” Suárez said. “This is a celebration for all the Venezuelan country.”

Despite a heralded roster of stars led by Aaron Judge, Harper and Paul Skenes, the U.S. lost its second straight final of baseball’s premier international event and remained without a title since 2017.

Venezuela celebrates its victory.

(Lynne Sladky / Associated Press)

Judge was 0 for 4 with three strikeouts in the championship game and hit .222 with five RBIs in the tournament, while Harper batted .214 with three RBIs and Alex Bregman .143 with four RBIs. The U.S. scored nine runs in the three knockout-round games while batting .188.

Ahead of a matchup with political overtones, players and coaches avoided discussing the government turmoil between the nations, heightened when the U.S. military captured Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in January. The sellout crowd of 36,190 at LoanDepot Park was heavily pro-Venezuela, with some booing American players during the introductions.

Venezuela became the second Latin American nation to win the WBC, after the Dominican Republic in 2013. The U.S. took the title in 2017 and lost the 2023 final to three-time champion Japan on this same field.

While the U.S., Japan and the Dominican Republic got much of the attention ahead of the sixth edition of the 20-nation event, Venezuela’s success was not that surprising. Sixty-three players born in Venezuela appeared on Major League Baseball opening-day rosters last year, second-most from outside the U.S. behind the Dominican Republic’s 100.

Venezuela went ahead in the third inning against McLean, getting the start because Tarik Skubal and the Detroit Tigers decided the two-time Cy Young Award winner would make only a first-round appearance.

Salvador Perez sliced a first-pitch single and Ronald Acuña Jr. walked with one out. The runners advanced when McLean bounced a curveball, and Garcia followed with a sac fly to center.

Abreu doubled the lead when he drove a fastball 414 feet to center. His helmet fell off when he rounded second and he hopped in excitement as he neared the plate, where he was greeted by a line of teammates.

Rodriguez gave up one hit in 4 1/3 innings before Venezuela turned to its bullpen.

U.S. players had arrived at LoanDepot Park in game-worn U.S. Olympic hockey jerseys coordinated by outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong and Jack Hughes, who scored the gold medal-winning goal against Canada last month.

In a darkened ballpark filled by fans wearing wristbands with festive blinking lights, Judge and Arraez led the teams down the foul lines for the introductions while carrying their nation’s flags.

MIAMI — Gunnar Henderson and Roman Anthony homered and the United States limited the Dominican Republic’s electric offense to win a thrilling semifinal 2-1 on Sunday and move one win from capturing its second World Baseball Classic championship.

The loaded American roster, led by National League Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes and featuring stars Bryce Harper and Aaron Judge, reached its third straight WBC title game after winning in 2017 and falling to Shohei Ohtani and Japan in 2023. The Americans will face the winner of Monday’s semifinal between Italy and Venezuela in Tuesday’s title game.

The Dominicans reached the semifinals for the first time since winning the WBC title in 2013, but missing the championship was not the goal for a roster that featured six players who finished among the top 10 in MVP voting last year and cruised through the early rounds of this WBC.

They faced their biggest test of the tournament against Skenes (2-0), who gave up one run on six hits through 4 ⅓ innings, and the U.S. bullpen, which held the Dominicans scoreless the rest of the way.

The Dominican Republic threatened in the ninth when Julio Rodríguez drew a walk and advanced to third against Mason Miller. With two outs, Miller struck out Geraldo Perdomo for his second save.

Junior Caminero hit a solo drive off Skenes in the second to give the Dominicans a record 15 homers in the tournament, surpassing the mark set by Mexico in 2009. He finished the tournament hitting .350.

The matchup between the two star-studded lineups didn’t fail to deliver big moments, especially on defense.

Judge got it started in the third with a 95.7-mph laser from right field to get Fernando Tatis Jr. at third. The Yankees’ All-Star then found himself on the other side of a huge defensive play in the fifth when Rodríguez — an inning after being hit on the wrist by a 98-mph fastball from Skenes — scaled the center-field wall to rob Judge of a home run.

Henderson, starting at third base over Alex Bregman, homered off Luis Severino to tie it in the fourth before Anthony hit the go-ahead homer, connecting on a 3-2 sinker from loser Gregory Soto.