I have been to Punta Cana several times now. the Island itself is great, but many of the locals are hustlers, you walk outside the resort and everyone tries to sell you cocaine and hookers. We stayed at 4 or 5 star resorts each time and the service etc was decent. People are friendly, but you can tell quite a few of them are pretty hard up. They really need their job. compare this to Mexico where the standard of living is better and you see the difference in how people act and how easy i is to get around or even holiday away form a resort. I would not recommend coming here unless you go to an all inclusive resort. Even being able to speak Spanish, I find this place frustrating every time I go.