Dominican Republic - Like a perfect margarita, sweet and sour and salty, this small town is a blend of pleasant extremes, where vacationers party all night, then shake off hangovers to rise with the sun and play hard all day. It's a beach town for tourists who think that just lying on a beach all day and reading a book is boring. That's what I love about Cabarete. It's the young, hip version of a Caribbean vacation. No activities directors, aerobics classes or plastic bracelets to differentiate paying guests from others.
People come here to find their own fun.
Catching a wave is popular at Playa El Encuentro, about 185 miles north of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Ten years ago, this was a quiet little fishing village just being discovered by windsurfers. Today, Cabarete's population of 15,000 is swelled by about 30,000 visitors a year. Now, the British magazine Boards calls it one of the top 10 windsurfing beaches in the world. It has hosted five Professional Windsurfing Association World Cups and has an amateur windsurfing competition every June that attracts about 2,000 people.