What cultural etiquette should I know for Punta Cana?

The mistake first-timers make most in Punta Cana is opening with the question. Walk up to the front desk at a Bávaro resort, or into a colmado in Verón, and start with "where's the bathroom?" and you have skipped a step every Dominican expects. Greet first (the phrases are below), wait for the reply, then ask; two seconds, and it changes the whole exchange. Dominicans greet the whole room, too. Step onto a guagua, the shared minibus on the Verón to Bávaro road, and you will hear passengers greet strangers as they board. Punta Cana also runs on a slower clock than the resort brochures suggest. "Ahorita" might mean five minutes or an hour, and pushing a waiter at a Los Corales beach shack tends to make your plate arrive later, not sooner.

Most visitors never leave the resort strip between Cap Cana and Uvero Alto, and inside it the rules feel American. Outside it they change. The Friusa neighbourhood of Bávaro, the supermarkets near Downtown Punta Cana, and the town of Higüey are where resort staff live and shop. Walking into a supermarket there in a wet swimsuit or bare-chested draws stares, and some shops will stop you at the door. Men should pack at least one pair of long trousers. At 1am on 20 October it was still 27.2°C and felt like 31.5°C, which is nobody's idea of trouser weather, but many all-inclusive à la carte restaurants in Bávaro turn away men in shorts or sleeveless shirts at dinner.

Beach vendors on Playa Bávaro and El Cortecito work on commission and will circle back three or four times. A firm "no, gracias" with no eye contact ends it; a polite "maybe later" guarantees they come back. At the craft stalls around El Cortecito, haggling is expected, so open at about half the first price and expect to settle near 60 to 70 percent. Ask before you photograph anyone in Verón or Higüey, the coconut sellers included. Some will want 50 to 100 pesos for a posed picture, roughly US$0.80 to US$1.60 at the 19 October rate of about 61.5 pesos to the dollar.

Two topics need care. The Dominican Republic shares Hispaniola with Haiti, and relations between the two countries are tense; many of the farm and construction workers you pass around Verón are Haitian, and a visitor's offhand joke on the subject lands badly with both groups. Same-sex couples will find staff at the big Bávaro resorts professional, but holding hands in Higüey or on a guagua tends to draw comments. One last thing: if a colmado owner purses their lips toward the door after you ask for directions, they are pointing, which is the everyday Dominican gesture for 'over there'.