Eco-Friendly Hotels in Cabarete — Your 2026 Guide to Sustainable Stays

Why Cabarete is a Natural Fit for Eco Travel

Few Caribbean towns have earned their sustainable credentials as organically as Cabarete. The trade winds that barrel in off the Atlantic from June through August — strong enough to lift a 12-metre kite and a grown adult — have made motor-powered watersports largely redundant here. Kitesurfing, windsurfing, and surfing at Encuentro Beach all harness wind or wave energy, leaving the water clean and quiet. That's the foundation everything else is built on.

The local community has built on that foundation deliberately. The main beach strip features composting programmes run by independent restaurants, reef-safe sunscreen is sold (and required) at dive shops, and the town sits on the edge of El Choco National Park — a protected reserve of underground caves, mangrove lagoons, and secondary forest that local guides lead small-group tours through daily. Staying in Cabarete means your holiday footprint is inherently lighter than most Caribbean alternatives.

Where to Stay

Accommodation ranges from beachfront hostels popular with budget kitesurfers to boutique eco-lodges tucked into the hills above town. Cabarete Beach itself hosts most of the action — hotels here are steps from the kite zone and the main restaurant strip. For quieter stays, Encuentro Beach (a 10-minute walk west) has several surf-camp style lodges surrounded by palm groves, popular with families and digital nomads who want slower mornings. The hills above the D5 highway hide a handful of forest retreats with solar power and plunge pools.

Getting There and Around Cabarete Sustainably

Puerto Plata International Airport (POP) is 45 minutes west — easily reachable by shared guagua (minibus) for about $3, or a private transfer for $25–30. Santiago Airport (STI) is 90 minutes south and often offers cheaper international connections from North America and Europe. Avoid flying directly into Punta Cana if you're heading to Cabarete — the extra road journey wipes out any fare savings and adds three hours of carbon.

Within Cabarete, everything is walkable. The town stretches for about 1.5 km along the main coastal road, with virtually all hotels, restaurants, and watersports schools within easy reach on foot. Bicycles and e-scooters are available for rent, and the shared guagua system connects Cabarete to Sosúa (10 minutes east) and Puerto Plata for a few pesos. Avoid tourist taxis for short trips — they're expensive and the guagua network is excellent.

Seasonal Guide

• June–August: Peak kite season — strongest winds, most action, highest hotel demand. Book 6+ weeks ahead.
• November–February: Dry season; excellent swimming and snorkelling; calmer seas; ideal for families.
• March–May: Surf season peaks at Encuentro Beach; quieter than summer; shoulder-season hotel rates.
• September–October: Hurricane season — possible storms but also lowest prices and fewest crowds.

Sustainable Dining and Local Experiences in Cabarete

The food scene in Cabarete punches well above its size. The beach strip hosts everything from fresh-catch ceviche served in plastic-free bamboo bowls to wood-fired pizza with local produce, and the number of plant-based options has grown sharply in recent years as the kitesurfing community — which skews young and eco-conscious — has put pressure on restaurants to source responsibly. Look for places displaying the green "Proveedores Locales" sign indicating locally sourced ingredients.

Beyond the beach, the inland mountains of the Cordillera Septentrional offer some of the DR's most rewarding eco-experiences. Organic cacao farms around Yasica Norte welcome visitors for bean-to-bar chocolate tours. The Damajagua waterfall canyoning excursion — a series of 27 limestone falls and natural pools — is run entirely by a local community cooperative, with revenues funding school scholarships and reforestation. It's an afternoon well spent, and probably one of the best-value adventure experiences in the Caribbean.

How IMPT Makes Your Cabarete Stay Carbon-Negative

Here's the maths. An average hotel night produces roughly 35 kg of CO₂ — from air conditioning, laundry, lighting, and food service. When you book any Cabarete hotel through IMPT, we retire 1,000 kg of UN-verified carbon removal credits. That's 28 times what your stay produces. Not carbon-neutral — carbon-negative.

The cost to you? Zero. IMPT funds the removal from its booking commission. You pay the standard nightly rate — in fact, IMPT is consistently up to competitively priced than Booking.com on the same room. The carbon credits are tokenised on Ethereum, retired against a named project, with a public retire code anyone can verify. No double-counting. No greenwashing. Just verified carbon removal, every night.

• €5 free credit when you sign up — applied to your first Cabarete booking
• 5% back on every stay — 3% funds carbon projects, 2% as travel credit
• 8M+ hotels worldwide, 195 countries — Cabarete is just the start
• Free cancellation on most rates, typically up to 48 hours before check-in

Beyond Hotels — More Ways IMPT Works in Cabarete

Shop through IMPT's 25,000+ retail partners for cashback on purchases that also offset carbon. Send someone a trip credit gift to visit Cabarete — IMPT plants trees with named farmers, GPS-tagged and photo-verified.

For business travel, IMPT's B2B Corporate Travel platform gives you exclusive rates, automatic ESG reporting, and a single dashboard tracking every booking's carbon impact. Companies with CSRD compliance needs get automated sustainability reporting out of the box.

Interested in running IMPT in the Dominican Republic? Country Ownership offers 50% revenue share on every transaction from DR-registered users, with 8% APY staking yield. Book a call →