We have gone to the Dominican Republic the last 3 years. It is awesome and the people are fantastic.
For $4-7k you can get a very nice room at a good brand of resorts (this is important). I really think the DR has the best value for what you get.
We have been to:
- Excellence Punta Cana
- Breathless Punta Cana
- Excellence El Carmen (last week for a short trip)
All three were great. Breathless is a little more "party". Food was really good at all three. The two Excellence resorts were very nice, and similar in quality. Staff is awesome and very friendly, and they really take care of you. Beach servers will just keep bringing you whatever you want at your chair under your palapa. Want a full bottle of champagne in an ice bucket on the beach? No problem. Plenty of pool areas and swim up bar service. If you want to participate, the entertainment staff are good people and will do some fun stuff. The nighttime shows are fun. Got to see Queen with Dominican Freddy Mercury last week which was awesome and hilarious. The night club/dance club wasn't open last week but we had fun doing that our first two trips as well.
Couple food pictures from our trip last week. Pizza/burger bar right on the water. Lobster House restaurant overlooking the ocean with a nice filet and shrimp that tasted like lobster.
Cannot recommend the Excellence brand enough and can point you to more resources if needed. This trip they even included private transport in a badass Suburban with roadie beers. Can't beat it.
Edited to add - we got an ocean view room for our trip last week for less than $400 a night. Three years ago we had an absolutely amazing room at
Excellence Punta Cana, upper floor ocean front with a giant terrace that had a private plunge pool for less than $500 a night.