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Punta Where? Americans Discover New Caribbean Hot Spot (ARA) - Vacationers looking for an affordable alternative to the Bahamas, Jamaica, Grand Cayman and other Caribbean destinations are beginning to discover the newest and hottest spot is Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. Although Europeans and Canadians have been flocking there for years, Punta Cana has just begun to attract U.S. travelers due in part to the availability of reasonably priced vacation packages offered by some tour operators. All-inclusive resort rates in Punta Cana are often half the price of rates at comparable resorts in places like Jamaica. Besides affordability, there is also the lure of more than 20 miles of pearl-white beaches, sapphire blue waters, and mountainous terrain. Off the beach, just a day trip away, is Santa Domingo, the oldest European city in the New World. During the Columbus rule Santo Domingo was the center of colonial administration and the launching point for Spanish conquests of Mexico, South and Central America and the rest of the Caribbean. After five centuries, the palace of the Columbus family can still be found here, as well as the city's sixteenth-century cathedral, the oldest in the New World. Besides historical sites and beautiful beaches, Punta Cana, according to Dominican Republic One (www.dr1.com), a Web resource for information on the Dominican Republic, there is a wider range of sports in the Dominican Republic than on any other Caribbean Island. There is golf, tennis, polo, scuba diving, snorkeling, horseback riding, skeet and clays shooting, deep-sea fishing, sailing, bicycling, bowling and parasailing. Adventurers may go trekking, hiking, rafting, tubing, canyoning, caving, mountain biking, camping, paragliding and cascading. Baseball is the national sport and passion. The Dominican Republic outnumbered all other Latin American nations with the most ballplayers (over 50) playing in the North American Major League last season. For more information on Punta Cana, contact a travel agent or check your newspaper's travel section for advertised package rates. Worry-free MLT Vacations, one of the top vacation wholesalers in the country, offers Punta Cana air and hotel packages from Detroit, Memphis, and Minneapolis/St. Paul. The operator has flight schedules, rates and hotel information available at www.worryfreevacations.com. * Hotel rates as printed in tour operator worry-free MLT Vacations' Winter 2000 - spring 2001 Caribbean brochure. Courtesy of ARA Content, www.aracontent.com, e-mail: info@aracontent.com

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