Doing very little for two weeks

A gift to myself for my 40th birthday, this trip was one of the laziest 2 weeks I had ever had, me and my buddy 'H' did nothing but sunbathe, eat and drink for two weeks, oh.. there was a helicopter trip.

We stayed at the Iberostar Hotel Dominicana, a 5 star hotel of excellent standards, it was my 40th birthday present to myself afterall. The trip nearly didn't happen, we were staying at the Britannia Country House hotel near Manchester airport the night before the early flight to Punta Cana. We decided to stay near to the airport the night before the flight due to some bad weather reports, the last thing we needed was to be snowbound in Yorkshire and not make the airport. After checking in at the airport hotel we tried out the hotels leisure facilities, pool and fitness centre activities before grabbing a snack at the hotel bar.

Our intention was to have a quiet night but things turned out quite the opposite. Lets face it, I was with my buddy of almost 25 years, many trips abroad, we were both coming up to our 40th birthdays, the girlfriends had been left at home, we were in a hotel the night before a trip to the Carribean.. no the night was not going to be a quiet one.

The problem started when the hotel bar closed around 11ish, we had finished our drinks but were not ready to retire for the night, it needed one of us to suggest having a look at the hotel night club, I think we simultaneously suggested the nigtht club, we were always thinking the same thing at the same time, a best mate thing I suppose. We hit the night club, it was happy night, reduced bar prices, one thing lead to another and before we knew it, it was 3am and we were shitfaced.

How we got up and made the flight I stiil don't know and cannot remember to this day getting from the hotel to the airport. The fun started all over again once on the flight, we were in premium cabin and the drinks were complimentary, alas we arrived at Punta Cana airport 9 hours later in a similar condition to the one the night before.

The Iberostar Dminicana Hotel made this trip for me, normally when I travel the hotel is just somewhere to crash, however this was different. Two weeks of doing nothing but enjoying the fine food, drink, service and facilities of the hotel was just fine. The hotel kept me and 'H' fully entertained from start to finish, day and night, food and drink available 24 hrs a day, time became irrelavent, I was loving it.

Not all was lost though, we took a helicopter trip down the coast of Bavaro, splendid experience, though I am a little nervy about helicopters and now after a least having a joy ride in one I will never go within 100 mtrs of another one.

Sunbathing and drinking by day, and enjoying the varied entertainment of the hotel by night just about sums this trip up, a little bit doing nothing and forgetting any worries I can recommend to anyone, the sights of the Dom Rep can be seen another day, this was the "Big 40th birthday chill" (pissup.. to be honest)