There are very beautiful places near Puerto Plata!!

Puerto Plata itself has been hit with a little bit of a depression, but can be a very beautiful place itself.

Samaná is close by (not whale watching time though), as well as Cabarete.

There is an excellent restaurant Casa Valeria (if I remember correctly)

http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/Hotel-Casa-Valeria/Sosua/26589

You could also try: Los Charcos de Damajagua…

Ocean World is also pretty nice.

Samana , Cayo Levantado is beautiful

Also, the 27 waterfalls, very fun!!!

There is a dolphin place nearby , where you can closely interact with them and learn a lot about them .

There’s the “teleferico de Puerto Plata” which takes you to a statue of God on a very high elevation almost right next to the clouds, the temperature drops significantly once you get up there.

and yeah Cabarete is fun .

make sure you pick a good all-inclusive hotel, you will spend most of your time there.

Ok so we just got back from the D.R. and we stayed in many places, one was where your going to be staying, but our favorite place ever was the beach called Playa Grande, it’s about a 40 minute drive from Cabarete which is a little drive from where your staying.Cabarete itself was really cool, the best part about Cabarete was at night walking the beach because there are really cool places to sit on the beach and order food and get drinks! Please don’t leave without visiting Playa Grande, you won’t regret it! Oh and is an awesome excursion based in Cabarete but they will pick you up in Puerta Plata, it’s called Iguana Mama and choose the 27 waterfalls excursion. You litterally jump and slide down 27 waterfalls, it was amazing!