A Table at La Palapa, and the Dog Comes Too: Eden Roc Cap Cana

Eden Roc Cap Cana prints its rules for dogs as a short numbered list, and the first line is the one that tells you what kind of place this is: pets are welcome in all food and beverage outlets. All of them. The fine dining room, the grill with its cigar cellar, the restaurant out on its oceanfront point, the piano bar. The dog does not wait in the suite while you eat. It comes to dinner, and it comes to dinner at the country's only Relais & Châteaux member, the first hotel in the Dominican Republic awarded Two MICHELIN Keys.

The Setting

Cap Cana is a private enclave at the eastern tip of the Dominican Republic, past Punta Cana, where the island runs out into the Caribbean. The hotel sits secluded inside that community, and its guests arrive by private transfer from Punta Cana International Airport. The hotel puts it plainly: an exclusive enclave on the white sand shores of the Dominican Republic.

The resort is really two places, 300 metres apart. Inland sit the stand-alone suites and villas, set among gardens and lagoon-style pools. On the shore is the Eden Roc Beach Club, with its private beach, which holds Blue Flag certification and is kept for guests, a main pool a few steps from the shore, a Beach Bar and a Gelato Bar serving artisan flavours to anyone coming in from a swim.

The Hotel Itself

Eden Roc set out to bring a touch of the Italian and French Rivieras to the Caribbean, and the founding line on its dining page puts it neatly: European inspiration, perfected in the Caribbean. The accommodation is built for privacy rather than numbers. There are 34 stand-alone pool suites, each with its own swimming pool, a covered gazebo, an outdoor rain shower and a coral stone bathtub inside; 26 Beachfront Suites with ocean-view terraces; the Oceanfront Bungalows, with an oceanfront terrace and an infinity pool or jacuzzi; and five villas of three to eleven bedrooms. Every one comes with butler service and a personal concierge, and the pool suites and bungalows come with their own golf cart.

Beyond the rooms, the spa and wellness facilities, home to the Eden Roc Spa by Natura Bissé, run to nearly 3,000 square metres and 12 treatment rooms, with yoga on the beach and kayaking among the classes. Children have the Koko Kids Club, built like a tree house on the lagoon. Golfers have Punta Espada, the Jack Nicklaus course where all 18 holes look out to sea. And the guest experience team will set up anything from a scuba lesson to a catamaran out at sunset.

The Welcome

The dog arrives to a programme with a name, VIPaws, and a room already set up for it. Most of the suites take dogs, and inside there is a bed of its own, food and water bowls and toys, along with the hotel's own guide to walking paths, playgrounds and pet services. Staff are trained to look after canine guests, and the resort puts on dog friendly activities and events, so a dog here has a calendar as well as a bed.

What makes the stay is how far the welcome reaches. The dog can come with you to the bar, the restaurants, the terrace, the lounge and the gardens, which on a resort built around outdoor living covers almost every hour of the day. There is a dog wash area for the sandy return from a walk, grooming on site, and a dog sitting service for the excursion where the dog cannot follow. The hotel keeps an emergency vet number to hand. You can leave the dog in the suite when you need to. And through its partnership with Hospetality, a pet care centre inside Cap Cana a few minutes from the hotel, the concierge can book grooming, a pet day spa or a play date with other dogs. Cats are welcome too, with their own bed, litter box, toys and bowls.

Four Tables, All Open to the Dog

The kitchens are run by Executive Chef and Culinary Director Adriano Venturini, who came up through luxury and Michelin-starred restaurants and cooks with a sustainability brief: ethical fishing, responsible farming and head to tail, zero waste menus. The dog has a menu of its own, the chef-designed VIPaws Menu, part of the resort's Pampered Pets Program.

The best seat in the house is at La Palapa, on an oceanfront point surrounded by the sea, serving globally inspired food from fresh local ingredients from noon until eleven at night. Mediterraneo is the fine dining room, Mediterranean cooking with a local accent, open each evening from six. BLUE has a show kitchen where the chefs turn the sea's freshest catch and the best cuts of meat into grilled dishes, a poolside rotisserie, a wine showcase and a cigar cellar. And then there is Riva Bar, named for the Riva Aquarama speedboat of 1960s Monte Carlo and finished in warm wood and leather, with live piano, a view over the main pool and the gardens, and cocktails until midnight. Every one of them is open to the dog. Breakfast is served at Mediterraneo or BLUE, and in-suite dining runs around the clock.

A Day Here With Your Dog

Start early on the paths. The hotel hands every dog guest its guide to the walking routes and playgrounds of Cap Cana, and the gardens between the suites make a first lap before the day warms up. Come back for breakfast at BLUE, with the dog under the table.

Mid-morning is yours. Book a treatment at the spa, and let the concierge send the dog to Hospetality for a groom or a play date a few minutes down the road, or leave it with the hotel's dog sitter. Golfers can take the same window for a round at Punta Espada. Lunch is the long one: a table at La Palapa, out on the point, with the dog beside you.

The afternoon belongs to the suite and its private pool, with the dog stretched out on its own bed indoors. Before dinner, a rinse at the dog wash, then Riva Bar for a cocktail and the piano. Dinner at Mediterraneo, with the dog along, and back to the suite through the gardens.

Why It Matters

Plenty of beautiful beach resorts will take a dog. Eden Roc Cap Cana wrote into its rules that the dog comes to dinner. It is a Relais & Châteaux house with Two MICHELIN Keys, private pool suites, a Blue Flag beach and a chef with a Michelin pedigree, and it decided the dog belongs at every table it has, with its own bed, its own menu and its own spa day down the road. For anyone who has ever flown somewhere warm and left the dog at home, this is the answer. Book it, and bring the dog.

Good to Know

Dogs up to 30 lb are welcome, two to a room, at $50 per pet per day, with a refundable damage deposit of $50 per day; the hotel also charges a supplement of one night's rate if there is damage. Dogs stay on a leash at all times, and the spa and fitness facilities are kept for people, which Hospetality's day spa takes care of. Flying in from the United States, the dog needs a rabies vaccination given at least 30 days before travel and a vet-signed international health certificate endorsed by the USDA, as set out on the USDA's Dominican Republic page. The Dominican Republic is on the CDC's high-risk list for dog rabies, so get the CDC rabies vaccination form completed and USDA-endorsed before you leave, because the dog needs it to come back into the United States.

Eden Roc Cap Cana scored a Roch Rank of A+. Read the official Roch Dog review or visit the hotel's website.