It’s All Inclusive
Palm trees shade the green lawn in front of colorful resort buildings with thatched-roof structures at Club Med Punta Cana.
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The resort that built a city, and an airport

Punta Cana began as a private parcel in 1969, and the developers built the airport themselves.

Photo: Club Med Punta Cana
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Punta Cana was not a town that added hotels. Ten cabins came first, then Club Med, then a privately built airport.

Frank Rainieri named it for the cana palm. The coast sold under that name is several places, not one beach.

How Punta Cana was built

The years the founders, Club Med, and the airport already give.

From Drunkard's Point to the private airport.
WhenWhat happened
1969Theodore Kheel and investors buy the parcel: jungle, coconut groves, a few fishing and farming communities, and about five miles of coast. No proper road. The land is known as Yauya, or Punta Borrachón.
About 1970Frank Rainieri, who joined the project, renames it for the cana palm used for thatch. Punta Cana means, more or less, point of the cana palms.
24 October 1971Punta Cana Club opens. Ten cabins, about 20 rooms, a kitchen, a bar, a dining room, a laundry, and a dirt airstrip.
1976The developers reach an agreement with Club Méditerranée.
1981Club Med Punta Cana opens on roughly 40 hectares. It is the first all-inclusive in the Dominican Republic. The hotel and the runway were planned together, which is why the resort still sits about ten minutes from the terminal.
December 1983Punta Cana International Airport opens after an eight-year effort across three governments. It is widely identified as the first privately owned airport built for international commercial service. Oscar Imbert's first terminal was open-air and roofed in cana palm. It is now the busiest airport in the Dominican Republic, with more than ten million passengers a year, and the company that built it still owns it.
1985Barceló opens at Bávaro.
1991RIU reaches Punta Cana.
Around 1992What is now Grand Palladium Punta Cana was running under Fiesta names. The year is about 1992, not a sharper date.
1993Iberostar opens at Bávaro. Bahia Principe, Meliá, and the rest followed.
1997Oscar de la Renta and Julio Iglesias invest and build homes. De la Renta goes on to design Tortuga Bay.

1969

What happened
Theodore Kheel and investors buy the parcel: jungle, coconut groves, a few fishing and farming communities, and about five miles of coast. No proper road. The land is known as Yauya, or Punta Borrachón.

About 1970

What happened
Frank Rainieri, who joined the project, renames it for the cana palm used for thatch. Punta Cana means, more or less, point of the cana palms.

24 October 1971

What happened
Punta Cana Club opens. Ten cabins, about 20 rooms, a kitchen, a bar, a dining room, a laundry, and a dirt airstrip.

1976

What happened
The developers reach an agreement with Club Méditerranée.

1981

What happened
Club Med Punta Cana opens on roughly 40 hectares. It is the first all-inclusive in the Dominican Republic. The hotel and the runway were planned together, which is why the resort still sits about ten minutes from the terminal.

December 1983

What happened
Punta Cana International Airport opens after an eight-year effort across three governments. It is widely identified as the first privately owned airport built for international commercial service. Oscar Imbert's first terminal was open-air and roofed in cana palm. It is now the busiest airport in the Dominican Republic, with more than ten million passengers a year, and the company that built it still owns it.

1985

What happened
Barceló opens at Bávaro.

1991

What happened
RIU reaches Punta Cana.

Around 1992

What happened
What is now Grand Palladium Punta Cana was running under Fiesta names. The year is about 1992, not a sharper date.

1993

What happened
Iberostar opens at Bávaro. Bahia Principe, Meliá, and the rest followed.

1997

What happened
Oscar de la Renta and Julio Iglesias invest and build homes. De la Renta goes on to design Tortuga Bay.

From Drunkard's Point to the private airport.

Punta Cana resorts

Place, plan, adults only, and From price, one row per open stay.

Place, plan, adults only, and From price.
Modern resort entrance with thatched roof structure, white columns, and brick building under blue sky with clouds.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

Punta CanaIncludedNoFrom $122
BávaroIncludedYesFrom $87
Oceanfront dining terrace with wicker chairs and blue-topped tables overlooking turquoise water, palm trees, and rocky outcroppings at Barceló Bávaro Palace.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

BávaroIncludedNoFrom $92
High view of the long rectangular pool with grey loungers, a waterfall platform, submerged lounge chairs and orange and white buildings.

Breathless Punta Cana Resort & Spa, via Apple Leisure Group Vault

Uvero AltoIncludedYesFrom $142
Palm trees shade the green lawn in front of colorful resort buildings with thatched-roof structures at Club Med Punta Cana.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

Punta CanaIncludedNoFrom $255
Aerial view of Dreams Macao Beach Punta Cana with two turquoise pools, white loungers, black pergolas, palm trees, and ocean beyond white resort buildings.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

Playa MacaoIncludedNoFrom $134
White multi-story resort building with pool, loungers, umbrellas, and palm trees on manicured lawn at Excellence El Carmen.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

Uvero AltoIncludedYesFrom $201
Excellence Punta Cana pool and beach with turquoise water, palm trees, thatched umbrellas, and ocean beyond.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

Uvero AltoIncludedYesFrom $182
Illuminated dining pavilions with peaked roofs sit over water at dusk, flanked by palm trees and string lights along wooden walkways at Grand Bávaro Princess.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

BávaroIncludedNoFrom $117
A golf cart passes a cream-colored resort building with red tile roof surrounded by palm trees and tropical landscaping under clear blue sky.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

BávaroIncludedNoFrom $159
Palm trees rise from turquoise pool water at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana, with loungers and white umbrellas lining the deck beyond.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

MacaoIncludedNoFrom $202
Hotel Riu Palace Punta Cana

RIU Hotels & Resorts, via RIU Brand Center

BávaroIncludedNoFrom $141
Aerial view of Hyatt Zilara Cap Cana beachfront with multi-story hotel buildings, palm trees, lounge chairs, and turquoise Caribbean water.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

Punta CanaIncludedYesFrom $363
Large curved pool with tiled edge, wooden-roofed palapa bar, palm trees, and white resort buildings under clear blue sky.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

Cap CanaIncludedNoFrom $278
Wicker chairs and a small table on a balcony overlook palm trees, manicured grounds, and the ocean at JOIA Bávaro by Iberostar.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

BávaroIncludedYesFrom $292
Modern resort building with turquoise pool, palm trees, and ocean view under clear blue sky at Live Aqua Beach Resort Punta Cana.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

Uvero AltoIncludedYesFrom $214
Punta CanaIncludedNoFrom $188
BávaroIncludedNoFrom $212
Majestic Colonial Punta Cana's cream-colored building with red-trimmed balconies overlooks a blue pool, manicured lawn, and palm trees under clear sky.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

Punta CanaIncludedNoFrom $168
Punta CanaIncludedYesFrom $90
Punta CanaIncludedNoFrom $290
White bungalow with pergola shading a patio, lounge chair on lawn, palm trees and resort buildings visible under blue sky.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

BávaroIncludedNoFrom $64
Large illuminated resort buildings with lit windows reflected in a calm blue pool at dusk, palm trees scattered throughout the grounds.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

BávaroIncludedNoFrom $132
Aerial view of Paradisus Grand Cana resort showing white multi-story buildings, turquoise pools, manicured lawns, and Caribbean Sea beyond palm-filled coastline.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

BávaroIncludedNoFrom $189
BávaroIncludedNoFrom $139
Pelicano Resort courtyard with round pool, white buildings, palm trees, and blue archway under clear sky.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

BávaroIncludedNoFrom $40
Colorful beachfront shops with red roofs and pastel walls line a sandy courtyard dotted with palm trees at Punta Cana Princess.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

BávaroIncludedYesFrom $89
Blue lagoon-style pool with white pergola bar, palm trees, and white resort building under clear sky.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

Punta CanaIncludedNoFrom $130
Luxury bathroom at Sanctuary Cap Cana with soaking tub, dual sinks, travertine walls, and ocean view through tall window.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

Cap CanaIncludedYesFrom $252
Beachfront bar with a thatched palapa roof, white columns, and wooden counter on the sand at Secrets Cap Cana Resort & Spa.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

Cap CanaIncludedYesFrom $457
Modern lounge area with white seating, hanging chairs, and infinity pool overlooking palm trees and tropical beach at Secrets Royal Beach Punta Cana.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

Punta CanaIncludedYesFrom $226
BávaroIncludedNoFrom $85
W Punta Cana's illuminated courtyard at dusk with string lights, lounge seating, fire pits, and palm trees surrounding a modern building.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

Uvero AltoIncludedYesFrom $261
Punta CanaIncludedNoFrom $151
Thatched-roof bungalow with wooden walls lit at dusk beside an illuminated pool, palm trees, and ocean view at Zoëtry Agua Punta Cana.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

Punta CanaIncludedNoFrom $255
Palm trees shade the green lawn in front of colorful resort buildings with thatched-roof structures at Club Med Punta Cana.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

Place
Punta Cana
Plan
Included
Adults only
No
From
From $255
Large curved pool with tiled edge, wooden-roofed palapa bar, palm trees, and white resort buildings under clear blue sky.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

Place
Cap Cana
Plan
Included
Adults only
No
From
From $278
Large illuminated resort buildings with lit windows reflected in a calm blue pool at dusk, palm trees scattered throughout the grounds.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

Place
Bávaro
Plan
Included
Adults only
No
From
From $132
Blue lagoon-style pool with white pergola bar, palm trees, and white resort building under clear sky.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

Place
Punta Cana
Plan
Included
Adults only
No
From
From $130
Luxury bathroom at Sanctuary Cap Cana with soaking tub, dual sinks, travertine walls, and ocean view through tall window.

Photo: It's All Inclusive

Place
Cap Cana
Plan
Included
Adults only
Yes
From
From $252

Good to know

A few points that keep the name from meaning one beach.

  • In the early years there was nowhere else to eat or spend an evening, and a hotel had to make its own water, power, and entertainment. One price was how a holiday could run there at all.
  • Bávaro began as housing for the people building and running the hotels, and grew into the commercial centre. A holiday sold as Punta Cana may be in Bávaro, Arena Gorda, or Uvero Alto.
  • A charter from Manchester or Montreal could land people 30 minutes from their room instead of a haul from Santo Domingo. That was the package the runway made possible.
  • Grupo Puntacana set aside about 1,500 acres for the Ojos Indígenas Ecological Reserve, forest and freshwater springs the area calls ojos.
  • The Spanish chains had spent about twenty years on Mallorca and in the Canaries. Barceló arrived in 1985, and RIU, Iberostar, Bahia Principe, Meliá, and Palladium followed.

Fair questions

Why is Punta Cana called Punta Cana?

Frank Rainieri named it in about 1970 after the cana palm growing there, whose leaves are used for thatch. The area had been known as Yauya or Punta Borrachón, roughly Drunkard's Point, which was not going to sell holidays. The name was invented for a private development and ended up naming the whole coast.

Is Punta Cana airport really privately owned?

Yes. Grupo Puntacana built it after the government declined to, opened it in December 1983, and still owns and runs it. It is widely identified as the first privately owned airport built for international commercial service in the world, and it is now the busiest airport in the Dominican Republic.

Which was the first resort in Punta Cana?

The Punta Cana Club, ten cabins and about 20 rooms, opened in 1971. The first large international resort was Club Med Punta Cana in 1981, which was also the first all-inclusive in the Dominican Republic. The Spanish chains arrived from 1985.

Is Bávaro the same as Punta Cana?

Not quite. Bávaro is a district north of Punta Cana proper, and it holds the largest concentration of established all-inclusive resorts, so a great many holidays sold as Punta Cana actually happen in Bávaro, Arena Gorda or Uvero Alto. It grew up as the community serving the resorts and is now the area's commercial centre.

Why are so many Punta Cana resorts Spanish?

Because the Spanish chains had spent twenty years perfecting the large beachfront package resort on Mallorca and in the Canaries, and the eastern Dominican coast offered the same conditions with year-round sun and far more space. Barceló arrived in 1985 and RIU, Iberostar, Bahia Principe, Meliá and Palladium followed.

What we read

Grupo Puntacana: the group's history (opens in a new tab)Puntacana Resort & Club: about (opens in a new tab)Punta Cana International Airport: history (opens in a new tab)Club Med corporate: Club Med Punta Cana (opens in a new tab)Fundación Grupo Puntacana: the Ojos Indígenas reserve (opens in a new tab)Barceló Group: history (opens in a new tab)
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Modern resort entrance with thatched roof structure, white columns, and brick building under blue sky with clouds.
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