From Zoetry to Breathless in Punta Cana

My daughter Sam and I woke up to the warm sunshine of the Dominican Republic at Zoetry Aqua Punta Cana.

We were told that a special breakfast was being planned for us, but we certainly didn’t dream of what it was.

Our waiter appeared and set up an amazing array of food for us, along with champagne, fruit, coffee, and juice.

I had just finished Pilates and Sam was still in the Jacuzzi while he set up. She was amazed when she came out to the balcony and saw the spread. We had a long, leisurely, delicious breakfast, consuming breads, croissants, eggs, Dominican Sausage, and potatoes.

After breakfast, we met with Yarenis Nunez, Executive Assistant to the General Manager, and toured the property.

Despite the fact that they were at full capacity, the place was quiet and the guests had plenty of room to spread out.

We talked about weddings on the property for a destination wedding series I’m working on and saw the beautiful marble gazebo they use for ceremonies, which has a window that looks out to the beach.

Sam and I had some time to chill at one of the pools before bidding farewell to the resort.  It was hard to leave the tranquility of Zoetry Punta Cana. I definitely need to plan a longer visit at one of these properties someday.

Our ride came to take us to our next stop, Breathless. This was a new concept of adult all-inclusives by AMResorts for more active adults who didn’t want to sacrifice luxury.

Sam’s boyfriend, Matt, was flying in and meeting us there to join us for the balance of the trip.

When we arrived we were brought right into the lounge of the Exhale Club at Breathless. In addition to the many amenities offered by this resort (including free phone calls to the U.S. and Canada), the Exhale Club guests had even more.

There was an additional lounge with food and drinks all day long at Exhale. There was also a pool just for guests of those rooms that was right off the beach and always had waitresses available to bring you food and drinks, and the mini-bars in the room were stocked with more amenities.

Our room wasn’t quite ready yet so when Matt arrived our VIP Host, Steve, took us to lunch was at the Strip Grill. Matt and I had the burgers and Sam enjoyed the Tuna Tartare Strip.  We finished at about the same time Steve came to take us back to the lounge.

Our rooms were next door from each other and just steps from the beach, which we could see from the lounge chairs on our ground floor patios.

The rooms were quite spacious and each had a separate living room area, where bottles of champagne awaited us. My only complaint was that the rooms were near the entrance where the housekeeping and landscaping staff would come in so it was a bit noisy at times. (We were offered a change of rooms, but really liked the beach view of these.)

We made plans to meet for dinner and I didn’t take long to put on my bathing suit and head out. I started my beach time with a Blue Hawaiian. I enjoyed it on my lounge after a walk along the equally blue water. The beach at Breathless is one of the best I've seen in Punta Cana.

We decided to have dinner at Spumante, the Italian restaurant. To be honest, it wasn’t a good choice. When you go to a new resort there are always growing pains and there were a lot in this restaurant, from the organization, to the service, to the food.

I did speak to management about the problems at Spumante and was told that they were not only aware of them, but changes were already in the works.

It had been a long day and we skipped dessert at the restaurant and went straight to our rooms.  We would have four days to explore the day and nightlife of Breathless Punta Cana and were ready to get a good night’s sleep and get started.