Christmas in Sosúa: Lovely Beaches and Great Restaurants

When my parents told me they had chosen Sosúa as their destination in the Dominican Republic, I wasn’t sure they had made the best decision. For me, Sosúa was most famous for its dubious fame as a sex tourism hot spot. I soon, however, learned that Sosúa is actually a great place for a family vacation.

First of all, unless you go out to bars at night, you barely notice the prostitution. For me, with three kids sure to wake up at the crack of dawn, hanging out until late at the bars was not a viable option. So, I never went. As I did not engage in the night time revelry, I did not experience any of the problems that one might think are associated with a Caribbean sex tourism destination.

Instead, we spent our days on Sosúa’s lovely beaches and our nights at its great restaurants. We stayed at an apartment hotel near the center of town called Perla de Sosúa. This was a great option for us, as the apartment hotel had two bedrooms, a dining room, and a kitchen. That way, we could prepare food and relax as if we were at home when we were not inclined to leave the hotel. It also had a small swimming pool, which the girls used to cool off in when we weren’t at the beach.

There are two beaches in Sosúa – Playa Alicia and Playa Sosúa. Playa Alicia is smaller, with a lovely rock cliff at one end. It does not have much natural shade, but has the advantage of having less people and fewer vendors asking you to purchase things than Playa Sosúa. Playa Alicia is a gorgeous yellow-sand beach with a quite strong surf. The kids had a ball getting knocked over by the waves.

Playa Sosúa is at least twice as long as Playa Alicia, and is very well-shaded. There is natural vegetation all along the beach. Nearly all of the sand is taken up by lawn chairs which you can rent. Or, you can park yourself between them for free on the few pieces of open sand. There are over 150 stalls along the beach. When we were there, that meant there were more vendors than beachgoers. Despite that, the vendors were not particularly aggressive, and allowed us to chill on the beach once it became apparent that we did not plan to purchase anything.

After a day relaxing on the beach, there are plenty of good dining options in Sosúa. The two best restaurants we went to were Bailey’s and Orchidee. We had Christmas dinner at Bailey’s. I had a fabulous steak dish. I was impressed with the quality of the meat and the richness of the sauces. Everyone enjoyed their meals, and the girls’ pizza was unusually good. Also, for a nice restaurant, it is remarkably kid-friendly. There is a metal playground right next to the dining room. Orchidee is a bit less expensive, and the food is also good. It is much smaller than Bailey’s and has a nice homey feel to it. There, I had a gyro, which was reasonably tasty, although I definitely was disappointed that it didn’t come with pita bread. My mother said her breaded fish platter was excellent.

Aside from eating and going to the beach, we didn’t do much else in Sosúa; it was a beach vacation, after all. We did walk around town a bit, and the vendors can be somewhat insistent. It is hard to blame then when there are so many shops and so few tourists. I did notice that nearly all of the vendors are Haitian. That made negotiating with them a bit complicated, as they tended to speak English better than Spanish, and my first reaction is always to speak in the local language. However, they soon came to recognize me, and stopped asking me to buy trinkets or to braid my hair when they realized that I kept saying “no.”

In sum, we had a lovely winter holiday in Sosúa, and I am glad we went there instead of one of the expensive all-inclusive resorts, which are the only option in many parts of the island.