As the new year hits, so do the cravings to book a holiday - well, we need something to look forward to. It's also most probably a triggered response from one of the hundreds of thousands of 2022 recap reels, *sigh*.
So, if you’re trying to choose your next bucket-list destination, but you’re also trying to avoid any guilt about your carbon footprint when it comes to travelling, you really need to take a look at the Iberostar Dominican Republic.
Iberostar Group is a global hotel group founded in Spain in 1956 and their industry-leading sustainability efforts are not to be dismissed lightly. They’re making an incredible effort worldwide to reach impactful sustainability goals and they’re hoping to encourage other businesses to follow suit with their pioneering movement, Wave of Change. In 2020, they eliminated all single-use plastic from all its hotels and operations, they’re globally aiming to be free of landfill-bound waste by 2025, offer 100% responsible fish (already at 70%) and be carbon neutral by 2030.
We travelled to the Dominican Republic to check-out the sustainability efforts at Iberostar Grand Bávaro for ourselves and we were not disappointed. The hotel is obviously breathtakingly beautiful, being in the Caribbean, but we’ll come onto aesthetics later.
Iberostar in the Dominican Republic is specifically outstanding as it has a land-based Coral Lab and the Bayahibe coral nursery out at sea, just 262 feet from the coast. It’s reported that within the next century, we can expect to see 90% of the world’s coral reefs ruined due to climate change. The hotel is working with scientists and biologists to study the behaviour and adaptability of the coral to climate change aiming to help protect them from bleaching, diseases and hurricanes long-term.
We saw the hotel’s epic recycling centre, committed to recycling everything from plastics, papers, woods, plants, glass and food. Iberostar is also working with UK-based food waste solutions company Winnow Solutions using AI to allow kitchens to automatically track food waste daily in order to reach recycling targets. The food waste is then transformed into organic waste to compost the gardens around the hotel. Iberostar really has thought of everything when it comes to its carbon footprint, they’ve left no stone unturned. Reduce, reuse and recycle is the mantra of every single member of staff and it’s super impressive to see the whole Iberostar community so conscious of it.
Iberostar Grand Bávaro is one of five hotels at the Punta Cana site in the Dominican Republic. It is a five-star adult-only deluxe hotel set on one of the most beautiful beaches in the whole Caribbean, with powder white sand, palm tree lined shores and the bluest ocean you’ll ever see. Architecturally, the hotel is so vast and interesting, with beautiful well-kept gardens encircling three huge ocean-view swimming pools.
The whole island of Dominican Republic is culturally rich, there’s plenty to see and do outside the hotel. The colonial city of Santo Domingo is just over an hour drive away from Punta Cana. It was the first permanent settlement of the ‘New World’, the capital of the West Indies, being the place of departure for the spread of European culture across the continent. Just a short day-trip from Punta Cana is Saona Island. It's everything that you’d picture of tropical paradise. Being a National Park, it’s protected, therefore left in all its natural beauty. You’ll pass pools of native star-fish along the way in a catamaran, then sip spiced rum from a freshly-fallen coconut in the turquoise blue shallow waters.
Back at the hotel, the dining options are truly sublime. Pick from one of seven on-site restaurants, from Japanese, to Surf and Turf, to Mediterranean. There’s a cuisine for any palette, you’ll just wish you had extra time to try each place at-least twice. If you like a cocktail or a Caribbean-fave spiced rum and cola, you can pick from one of the hotel’s amazing bars inside, their lively swim-up pool bar during the day or the unique bar set within a full-scale sailing ship. Spoiler alert - you will become addicted to the piña coladas, you’ve been warned.
Just some of the other stand-out features at this hotel are the eighteen hole golf course, diving facilities, three-story fitness centre, cigar room complete with cigar sommelier, exclusive butler service and the healing spa offering Caribbean ritual baths with milk and honey.
Fancy a discreet rose-petal bath, in your hotel room, while looking out to the ocean, drinking a bottle of champagne? Your private butler has got you. Whether you’re being mindful of your carbon footprint or just after a week of luxury and great food, Iberostar Grand Bávaro in the Dominican Republic has got to be a contender. The most popular months to visit the Dominican Republic are between December and April, but it's sunny pretty much all year round. Your future tan is begging you to book now.
For more from British Glamour's Senior Visual Editor Chelsea Hughes, follow her on Instagram @chelshughes92.ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qLjApqauqp2WtKLGyKecZ5ufY8Kse8Crq6KbnJp8qq7Eq6asrJGneqW7zKKlopuRo3qzsc%2BumaWhk2K1sMDEpWSrnaaesrg%3D