Hotel Casa Hemingway ★★★★★

A Colonial Hacienda Facing the Juan Dolio Sand

Juan Dolio is the coast Santo Domingo goes to, a long ribbon of beach on the south side of the island that never acquired the scale or the wristbands of the east. Casa Hemingway sits on its boulevard, low and shuttered, built in the register of the old West Indies haciendas: thick walls, deep shade, courtyards that do the cooling. It is small for what it offers, with thirty-odd suites rather than hundreds of rooms, and it opens straight onto a private stretch of sand. The name is not decoration either. The house sits beside Club Hemingway, and guests have the run of it.

Why It Works

Most Dominican beach hotels ask you to choose between space and service. This one does not. Every unit here is a suite with one or two bedrooms, which means a family or two couples travelling together get separate sleeping and a living room, and still get a restaurant, room service, a concierge and a twenty-four hour desk. What convinced us is the second half of the equation: the club next door adds tennis, squash and horses at no extra cost, and the golf at Guavaberry is minutes away. Few hotels of this size carry that much behind them.

Why This Location

The south coast is the practical half of the Dominican Republic. Las Americas airport is around forty-five minutes by road, colonial Santo Domingo under an hour, and La Romana and the Casa de Campo country sit the other way along the same highway. That puts the cathedral, the Alcazar and the restaurants of the Zona Colonial inside a comfortable day trip, and it makes the transfer at each end of a holiday short rather than punishing. Locally, the beach is at the door, the Guavaberry course is within a few minutes, and the boulevard has the shops and the roadside fish places that Juan Dolio does well. The water here faces east, so the sunrise is the show.

Fast Facts

• Price: Luxe

• Vibe: Colonial, low-rise, family-easy, beach-facing

• Rooms: Around thirty units, all of them one or two-bedroom studio suites with garden views

• Best For: Families, two couples travelling together, golfers, and anyone combining beach days with Santo Domingo

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: Complimentary run of Club Hemingway next door, tennis courts, squash and stables included

• Dining: On-site restaurant, bar and pool bar, snack bar, room service, breakfast in the room, barbecue facilities and themed dinner nights

• Amenities: Private beach area, outdoor pool open all year with a pool bar and solarium, fitness centre, tennis court, games room, children playground and indoor play area, babysitting, chapel, temporary art gallery, free private parking, pets accepted

• Attractions: Juan Dolio beach (at the door), Guavaberry golf (within a few minutes), colonial Santo Domingo (under an hour by road), Las Americas airport (about forty-five minutes)

Suites, Not Rooms

The accommodation is the argument here. Studio suites in one and two-bedroom layouts, drawn from the plan of a colonial house rather than a hotel corridor, with garden views and enough living space to make a rainy afternoon bearable. For families this solves the problem that ruins most beach holidays, which is four people and one room. For couples it means the bedroom stays a bedroom. The register is warm and traditional, dark timber against pale plaster, and nobody has tried to make it look like somewhere else.

The Club, the Beach and the Rest of the Day

Club Hemingway is what lifts this above a good beach hotel. Tennis and squash courts, horses, and the space to use them, all included for guests. On the hotel side there is a fitness centre, a pool that runs the length of the terrace with a bar at one end and a solarium above it, a games room, a playground and an indoor play area, and babysitting when the adults want an evening. There is even a small chapel and a gallery that rotates its shows. Two things to weigh. This is a beach hotel with a family bias, so it is lively in school holidays. And Juan Dolio is a strip, not a town, so evenings are on the boulevard or in the restaurant rather than in an old quarter.