Cabarete

Cabarete works because of a daily pattern: mornings are calm and glassy, and from late morning the trade wind fills in and blows steadily onshore across the bay, reliably enough that the town built an entire economy on it. Cabarete Bay is where windsurfers and beginners work, while Kite Beach a little west is given over to kitesurfing and fills each afternoon with hundreds of kites. Surfers use Encuentro just along the coast, which breaks best in the winter swell. The town itself is a single road of beach bars with tables set on the sand, and the scene is young, international and informal. Behind it, the Damajagua waterfalls and the El Choco caves are short trips inland.

History

Cabarete was founded in 1835 by the merchant Zephaniah Kingsley as part of his Mayorasgo de Koka estate, when the island was under Jean-Pierre Boyer's administration; he moved here with his mixed-race family and 53 people he had freed from slavery on his Florida plantations. Anna Kingsley had a beach cottage by the harbour, and descendants of the Kingsleys and of the freed slaves still live in the area (Wikipedia, Cabarete).

What's there

• Kite Beach - hundreds of kites filling the afternoon sky.
• Cabarete Bay - the windsurfing bay and beginner lessons.
• Encuentro - the surf break along the coast, best in winter swell.
• Tables on the sand - the beachfront where the town eats after the wind drops.

When to go

The wind is most reliable from about June to September, which is the kitesurfing peak; December to March brings the north swell for surfers and is the busier tourist season. Mornings are calm everywhere, so lessons for beginners are scheduled early.

What to expect

The afternoon wind that makes the town also makes the beach itself unpleasant for lounging, with sand blowing across it; the mornings are for swimming. Learning to kite properly takes several days and a course, not an afternoon. It is a party town at night and the main road is noisy. Ordinary caution applies after dark away from the strip.

Nearby

Sosúa is fifteen minutes west; Damajagua's waterfalls are inland from Puerto Plata.