Westin Punta Cana Hotel Review

For the first part of our nearly month long honeymoon we flew south from Indianapolis to the incredibly beautiful and peaceful Westin Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. We just wrapped up celebrating our wedding day a couple days before so we were looking for pure relaxation and the Westin did not disappoint. We nearly had the entire resort to ourselves! It was off-season in June but we had amazing weather the entire time. Also no car was required, further reducing stress thanks to the free shuttle that goes to the Punta Cana Village, Ecological Park, and some other restaurants. Remember we booked this resort on points, only 10,000 points per night plus the fifth night for free for a total of 40,000 Starwood points. This was our first stay on our nearly month long honeymoon thanks to airline miles and hotel points!

To start we arranged a shuttle pick up from the hotel from the airport. It was a steep $20 for the 10 minute ride but there is no way around it. Taxis are expensive in Punta Cana to begin with and I estimated that the taxi fare would be about the same anyway. The driver was there promptly within 5 minutes from when we landed and we scooted our way to the resort.

Upon checking in to the hotel they noted we had been upgraded to a room with a better view thanks to my Starwood gold status. No mention by the front desk worker of our honeymoon but not a big deal. Our room was on the highest floor (4^th) near the end of the southern wing. Nearly all the rooms have a balcony that face inward towards the pool but ours also was on jut in the building so it also faced the Caribbean sea. Absolutely beautiful.

Our Honeymoon

Beth and I just finished up celebrating our wedding day with our loving family and friends just a couple days ago and we have now embarked on our 24 day honeymoon visiting the Dominican Republic, Italy, and Croatia! Before we get to our honeymoon a special thanks to all of our friends and family who support us and made our wedding day a truly amazing day.

As for our honeymoon many of our friends did not really understand how we can an afford such a long honeymoon across the world, let alone why we chose those three locations, Dominican Republic, Italy, and Croatia. Haha. A combination of relaxation, exploration, and culturalization! Well thanks to my airline miles and points hobby we are able to stay at places we could not afford and fly nearly anywhere in the world for free. For this trip nearly all the flights are free minus some taxes and fees and we are flying business class to Europe! On the accommodation side of things, all hotels are free thanks to points minus some Airbnbs that we are staying at in Italy. We still got a great deal on those thanks to the Airbnb Amex offer a couple months ago.

Beth and I just finished up our amazing trip to Australia and New Zealand! Our journey took us to Melbourne where Beth student taught at and made some wonderful friends. From there we tried driving on the left side on the amazing Great Ocean Road. On a final stint we hiked and explored Queenstown, New Zealand, the adventure capital of the world. We also somehow managed to squeeze in a night in Sydney and 5 hours in Wellington. More on our adventures in future posts but first I would like to detail out how we got there!

While we’re still in the midst of summer I have just booked my yearly ski trip and this time I am heading to Banff and Lake Louise up in Canada! The best part is that I was able get my myself and my dad to Calgary (YYC) for nearly free thanks to Delta award miles. While Delta runs a great airline I am not too keen on their frequent flyer program which means I limit my flying on them. For example, Delta has been trimming away their value of their miles for years and now they don’t even publish an award chart anymore… with more devaluation on the way for 2016 it was time to burn the miles I had left with them. In general it is really hard to find saver award space on Delta flights but we lucked out and both roundtrips were only 25k miles for MLK weekend with nearly perfect times (I only had 27k so it worked!). We also ended up on the same flights for both of the legs between Minneapolis (MSP) and Calgary (YYC). Flights to Calgary are usually in the $500 range so this ends being a great redemption of 1.74 cpm after backing out the $65 in taxes, so there can be some value to Delta miles!

For this year’s spring trip my girlfriend and I will be venturing to Costa Rica and El Salvador for a week long adventure! This will include 6 nights in Costa Rica and 2 nights in El Salvador! While we haven’t ventured to Central America yet we both think it fits our travel style of nature, hiking, adventures, and beaches. Plus it will great to get some much needed sun and relaxation! Our trip is broken down into 3 separate parts. The first part will be consist of adventures in the mountainous region of the Rincón de la Vieja National Park. From there we will venture forth to the peaceful Culebra Bay with a stay at the luxurious Andaz Peninsula Papagayo. The final part will be in El Salvador which is typically not a tourist destination but I am excited to explore the country.  Below are the basic details of my trip and I cannot wait to share my experiences!