This is a beautiful development well in harmony with the surroundings.
Certainly one of the best in the whole Caribbean.
It is much more impressive in actuality when you experience the ambiance of this special location than in the photos and web site that don't really do it justice.
It is appealing strongly to the most discerning clientele who value harmonious surroundings and the minimal intrusion into the natural beauty of this ares.
It is a showpiece for the best the DR, with the support of and international team, can accomplish.
S.

why did i know that the first reply to this article would have come from ABC, the Samana Shill?

I think Leo made it a point to get the Guinness of ribbon-cutting before he retires.

His lifetime achievement.

yes...one of our posters here refers to him as Edward Scissorhands.

My wife and her friends hate this place. I love it, but you have these old euro trash guys with money treating the local women like they are the last women in the caribbean. It's the arrogance that they display that pisses her off. But I tell her, at the end of the day, they have to take that guagua back to limon.....

Las Terrenas has become what Torremolinos was in the 1990s. Eurotrash alright.

A big tourist trap, overpriced, overrated, contaminated, polluted, full of hos pimps and pushers, dangerous at night unless you stay in your new USD$4,000/sq. meter condo.

The only thing missing are the gypsies.

easy now, Walter. you do not want to offend the Samana Shill, ABC, who believes that Las Terrenas is some wondrous paradise. as i always said, it is an overpriced, overrated, etc, etc....

I dont understand the need for the president of the country to be the one in every ribbon cutting ceremony. And whats with all the ribbon cutting anyway , if they were to cut ribbons at every project in the states I wonder what will happen .... Las terrenas is nothing more than a neglected paradise, beautiful water and crappy streets and the europeans are not only rude but dirty in many cases. IMHO

What's not to understand? President Photo Op at his finest.

Well, let them all come to pay up to 1,000$/sqm of beach sand and then privatise it and make it off-limits to the people of Las Terrenas. They will pay the price somehow later.... and crime is high already. But there is good news, too: Drugs are in good supply.
m'frog

I discovered Las Terrenas in 1984. I stopped going a long long time ago.

If Mr ABC hasn´t gone back since 1984, I can understand he'd still be under the spell.

Or else, he's really the Shill..unmasked by Dread!

Rainman, the ribbon cutting by Leonel is part of his initiative to remind the Dominican populace that he is the one and only Grand Poobah, from whom all blessings flow. without him, nothing happens. i cannot remember seeing George Bush or Obama running hither , thither, and yon, wielding a pair of scissors at the inauguration of every shopping center. this is paternalism of the highest caliber, and par for the course in a country wherein political leaders double as parents.

Las Terranas the meeting place of dirty smelly pedophiles and criminals from Europe.

another ribbon cutting and yet another unnessesary funding for a worthless project.. that Imf money is sure being put to good use.

What a lot of ignorant people have commented here. Balcones del Atlantico has very little to do with Las Terrenas. It was built without permission but mucho bribery to corrupt politicians. A piece of beach has been appropriated at gunpoint against the law. It is an all inclusive therefore its inmates have very little to do with Las Terrenas and do very little to help the town community. I for one applaud the people fleecing them, if they are stupid enough to go to a place like that they deserve all they get. The rest of Las Terrenas is a pleasant welcoming place and anybody can have a good holiday here.

It's not AI - there is a restaurant on site but many people come to restaurants and shopping for self catering.in LT.
Beach issues are difficult - if there's no beach maintenance its no good. Fortunately there are many other stretches of beach where everyone can and does party; including cooking food etc.
The tourist police zone the beach - near restaurants on the shore some activities are restricted ; hawking, playing loud music; rum parties. Out of town this takes place. I hope rock resorts do look after the beach and stop for example spear fishing.
S.

@ABC from United Kingdom

In 1984, Las Terrenas was authentic, Tropic Banana or El Portillo was OK to stay at $50.00 a night, so it was not cheap for what it was. And if I'd wanted Monaco, I would have gone there.

It was about Dominican fishermen, campesinos, a few educated people, when you could walk the street at night without getting mugged. And unspoiled natural beauty. Not unlike Bahia de las Aguilas nowadays. Authentic Dominican people. Not white trash privando en buenos.

There were no Americans around, except maybe for the local Samana resident Peace Corps/CIA source that asked a lot of questions. A few Frenchmen, Canadians, Italians, no more that 20 altogether.

I wouldn't trade my house in Bayardo POP for 5 condos of those. And I'd rather sleep in a tent in Bahia de las Aguilas that in a penthouse in LT.

Matter of taste, I guess.

i am in complete agreement with that statement, Walter. i have been there once, just to see what the hubbub is all about. i saw it, and i will not return, not even on a bet.

What happened to you, Mr. President? You shouldn't sacrifice your prestige or ethics, and you don't have to brown nose small-timers.

Really he was there to pick up the keys for the thanks for all the illegal permits and looking the other way condo. Just in time for the Easter vacation.

Leonel must be a great costurero!

It's amusing to see all these US people act 'holier than thou' ; after all the whole of Vagas, a major resort in the US was built round a web of corruption and crime.

The Mafia in Las Vegas by Krysta Cardinale
Las Vegas and the Mob during the 1950s and 1960s
While gambling has been legal in Nevada since the 1930s, the mob didn?t catch onto the moneymaking potential of Las Vegas until after World War II. Al Capone eyed the empty desert in the mid-?30s, but never forged ahead with his plans of turning it into a hotel and gambling haven.

Las Vegas remained mob free until Lucky Luciano?s partner and confidant, Meyer Lansky. He decided to capitalize on the ?cash cow? that Sin City could become.

And the rest of the story:
http://www.encyclomedia.com/mafia_in_las_vegas.html

It is to be hoped that, whatever happened in construction, RockResorts take care of nature, and run a good operation.
S,

ABC, when the site becomes USAToday.com, we will discuss matters there. for now, we talk about things here. maybe you might want to start your own site, so you can vent incessantly about the Evil Empire? i would really like to be a fly on the wall of your past, to see why it is that you have this boring antipathy towards the USA. deportation, perhaps?

Dread is part of the US mafia?
The fact is that many resorts in all parts of the World have corrupt past.
All us mortals can do is hope for a better future and that those now in charge of the resorts respect the environment and serve their clients with integrity.
Certainly I am impressed with Ba of A; it is simply stunning ; but each should form his own opinion based on perhaps a visit and detailed research.
The sun is shining in the DR - maybe not in your part of the World.
S.

the sun does shine in my part of the world. i live on an island which is 17 degrees north latitude, so the sun does not customarily shine at 12 midnight.

Rock Resorts is a shadow of its former grand hotel status ....when the Rockefellers owned Rock Resorts they would have shunned a cheesy product like this.....alas times change and a bucks a buck at least they did not allow the land swindlers to close the beach road......Believe you me this is no Caneel Bay or Little Dix Bay....... The Rockefeller brothers are spinning in their graves