Playa Cabarete
Overview
Cabarete is a curving bay on the Dominican Republic's north coast in Puerto Plata province, and it is the country's watersports capital by some distance. Steady afternoon trade winds and a reef that breaks the incoming swell have made it a world-renowned windsurfing and kitesurfing destination, and it has hosted international competitions for decades, among them the Professional Windsurfing World Cup and the Master of the Ocean, which held its 21st edition in September 2026.
The town runs along a single road behind the beach, with restaurants and bars set directly on the sand and the schools and rental operations between them. It is compact, walkable and considerably more informal than the resort coasts of the east and south-east.
The bay has a rhythm to the day that visitors should understand before booking: mornings are usually calm and good for swimming, the wind builds through the afternoon, and by mid-afternoon the water belongs to the kites.
Our current condition score for this beach is .
Photo summary of last month
Each photograph is published unedited and in date order, and is replaced as newer submissions arrive, so what appears here is the most recent view of the beach rather than a promotional photograph.
Position relative to the Atlantic sargassum belt
Sargassum travels west across the tropical Atlantic in the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, and the east coast of Hispaniola faces the direction from which it arrives. Cabarete is on the north coast and faces north, so it does not meet the belt head-on in the same way, although sargassum can still reach the bay when the wind and current bring it in.
A reef across the mouth of the bay breaks the swell, which is what creates the sailing conditions here.
The sargassum season
The amount of sargassum varies a great deal from one year to the next, so a visit is better planned around a live check than around an average.
We do not yet have a Dominican-specific season article; the reasons the belt has grown are set out in why sargassum is increasing.
Swimming conditions and safety
Mornings are usually the calmest time to swim, before the trade wind builds in the early afternoon and the bay fills with kites and boards. Kite lines are the specific hazard and are hard to see in the water, so stay inside the marked swimming areas and out of the launch zones on the sand.
Kite lines are the specific hazard, and they are effectively invisible in the water. Stay inside the marked swimming zone, which the schools respect, and out of the launch corridors on the sand.
Playa Encuentro, about five kilometres west, is the surf beach, with several reef breaks and rock underfoot in places.
On sargassum: fresh weed in the water is harmless, if unpleasant to swim through. The sulphurous smell some visitors associate with it comes from material that has decomposed on hot sand for a day or more and is releasing hydrogen sulphide, so a strong smell indicates old weed rather than a fresh arrival.
Choosing a hotel on this stretch
Cabarete is small hotels, apartments and guesthouses rather than all-inclusive resorts, most of them within walking distance of the beach and the town's single main road. It suits independent travellers.
The choice is between the bay itself, which is central and livelier at night; Kite Beach, about two and a half kilometres west, which is quieter and where most of the kiting happens; and the stretch toward Playa Encuentro, the surf beach.
For visitors comparing coasts, the north is the compromise between the exposed east and the sheltered south-east around Bayahíbe, with the added draw of the wind. Puerto Plata airport is close, which makes it easy to reach.
Access and getting there
Puerto Plata's Gregorio Luperón International Airport is about 25 to 30 minutes by road, which makes Cabarete one of the easiest beaches in the country to reach. Most visitors arrive by transfer or taxi.
Guaguas, the shared minibuses, run continuously along the coast road between Puerto Plata, Sosúa and Cabarete and are the cheap local option. Within the town everything is walkable.
We do not publish a car park for Cabarete, because there is no verified public lot. Parking is informal street space along the main road and private ground at the hotels and beach businesses, so it is best settled on the spot rather than taken from any page.
Check live conditions before you go
The north coast sits on the flank of the sargassum route rather than at its face, and Cabarete's afternoon wind breaks up what does arrive. On the live map we track it with dated photographs and a current condition score, so you can compare the north coast against Punta Cana and the sheltered south-east before deciding where to stay.
See live conditions, photos & cams →