Cayo Levantado (Bacardi island), Dominican Republic

While I am writing this blog post I am sitting in my living room in the cloudy, chilly and rainy Amsterdam.

You can imagine how much I crave for the warm and sunny Dominican Republic that my boyfriend and I had visited a few weeks ago.

Only by remembering and cherishing those moments of happiness, and watching those photos I captured there I am already feeling warmer.

As I mentioned in my previous blog posts, we stayed only 5 days in Dominican Republic, but for each day of our stay we had planned one activity or adventure.

This particular blog post can be taken as a continuation of the previous one El Limmon waterfall.  Because is the second part of the day tour that we booked with Runners Adventures. We booked the tour through the Viator. If you wish to book the same tour, you can find the link by pressing the word Viator.

If you like to take glimpse of the rest of our adventures that I already described in the past few days, you can check the following blog posts: Punta Cana, Zip lining in Dominican Republic, Coffee, cacao and coconut farm, Monkey Land, and El Limon waterfall as I previously mentioned.

So, after our visit to the El Limon waterfall, with horse riding through the rain forest and incredible lunch, we were taken by 4×4 truck back to the Samana bay.

From there they transferred us with catamaran to the paradise on earth.

I have been in so many places in my life but this place was the most beautiful I have ever visited.

The island name is Cayo Levantado, but is also known as Bacardy island.

It is a small island on the coast of the Dominican Republic.

It is located in the bay of Samaná, which belongs administratively to the Province of Samana.

This is one hotel-one island concept, so there is only one 5 star hotel on the island.

 

It is called Luxury Bahia Principe Cayo Levantado.

If you wish to book this hotel, please check the link on Booking.com website, that will take you directly to this property without searching for it. So you can be able to check the price, availability, pictures, details  and reviews.

There are two private beaches exclusively for the hotel guests.

But there is also one big public beach.

There you can relax, swim, enjoy the drinks and cocktails or do your shopping at the stalls.

The landscapes can easily be described as heaven on earth.

So much blue, in all of its shades.

Here in this case I don’t have to write much, because it is not necessary.

I will let the photos speak for themselves.

When we saw it for the first time we were totally speechless.

At the main bar our Piña Colada cocktails were already waiting for us.

They made them inside of the pineapple shells, in the natural way, without adding any rum.

Our guide was standing next to the bar, with a bottle of rum in his hand, and he was adding rum into our cocktails as much rum as anybody wanted, without any measurement cup.

Being in this magical place and drinking the Pina Colada from the pineapple shell was an amazing experience. I had the Pina Colada before, but this one was something else.

The way it was served, and all these incredible surrounding made this experience very special.

After finishing our cocktails we took some photos around, and then we jumped into the crystal clear turquoise water.

I don’t have words to describe this feeling.

It felt like a dream come true.

The thing is that I had seen this place on the TV commercial many many years ago.

The Bacardi TV advertisement is the reason why this place became famous and the reason why people call this island Bacardi island.

The entire world got to know this place thanks to the Bacardi rum TV commercial in the early eighties. At that time the advertisements of alcohol beverages were still allowed on TV everywhere.

The song from this advertisement also became very popular at the time.

It was going something like: ”Be what you wanna be, taking things the way they come, nothing is as nice as finding paradise and Sippin’ on Bacardi Rum..” But besides the song everybody who watched this advertisement were wondering where this beautiful place is. I searched the advertisement on YouTube, and I found it. Here you can take a look.

By watching this advertisement so many years later, my childhood memories are coming back to me. I was a kid back then when this advertisement made its first appearance on TV. I remember myself dancing with the rhythm of the song in front of the TV in my living room and singing along. I suggest you to press play button and let the music play while you are reading the rest of the blog post.

I was also dreaming of traveling myself in that beautiful place one day.

And finally my dream came true so many years later.

I got a chance to take a photo next to the very same twisted by the wind coconut palm tree from the advertisement.

Exactly the same palm tree I was drawing on my sketch block very often when I was a kid being inspired by the Bacardi advertisement.

We stayed there for several hours, but it was not enough from me.

I wish that I could have the opportunity to go there at least one more time in my life and to stay for several days and do nothing, just swim, and relax and enjoy this paradise on earth.

Being there is like entering an entire different, magical world.

There you will forget all about your problems and everything that stresses you in your every day life will disappear by the magic, at least during the time you stay there.

I can describe the Cayo Levantado as a world of calmness, harmony and stunning landscapes.

I suggest you to visit this place while in Dominican Republic.

You are not going to regret it.

People who know me and all my blog followers knows that when it comes to writing I am an avalanche. This is the reason why all of my blog posts are so long.

This blog post is maybe one of the shorter I have ever written, but in my opinion in the same time the most beautiful one.

If you liked this blog post stay tuned, follow my blog so you can find out about the rest of our adventures. Put a smile on your face and sing along with me: ”La la la Bacardi Rum, la la la Bacardi Rum, nothing is as cool as drifting in the sun light, Sippin’ on Bacardi Rum.”

In my next blog post I will describe our trip to the second most beautiful island in Dominican Republic, the Catalina island, where we went for snorkeling, diving and swimming on the most famous coral wall.