Samaná is a peninsula on the northeast coast, four hours from Punta Cana and a different country in feel: forested hills dropping into the sea, the El Limón waterfall inland, and Cayo Levantado offshore.
From mid-January to mid-March, humpback whales come into the bay to breed, and the whale-watching trips out of Samaná town are among the most reliable in the Caribbean. Outside those months the draw is the waterfall, the beaches at Las Galeras and Rincón, and how few people are on them.