Beach Yoga at Dreams Royal Beach, Dominican Republic
Beach Yoga at Dreams Royal Beach Highlights
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In another her healthy passport blog article, I describe the process by which I hooked up with Fit Bodies Inc. to go on one-week stints teaching beach yoga at all-inclusive resorts in exchange for full guest privileges.
For my second beach yoga teaching vacation, I took my two kids to Dreams Royal Beach, Punta Cana Dominican Republic, in April 2022. Dreams Royal Beach is part of the AM Resorts collection, which offers some of the one-week fitness teaching vacations. As I learned from many months during my pandemic downtime of stalking the Fit Bodes website and Facebook membership groups, the teaching spots at the new AM Resorts are snatched up by teachers far in advance – in some cases, one to one and a half years in advance. I booked the teaching trip at Dreams Royal only a few months beforehand to use up flight credits on American Airlines. Between the conspicuously late availability of the teaching spot and the fact that my first teaching experience at Dreams Tulum had been a magical whirlwind — which I sensed I could not replicate — I maintained skeptical cautious about the quality of the resort as our plans neared.
Arrival
The Dreams Resorts are all well staffed – one of its signature features – so we were greeted warmly upon arrival. When checking in, a guest instructor is required to disclose our status and provide written proof of our teaching agreement. The staff member at the reception desk seemed miffed by my “free-bee” status as a guest instructor and begrudgingly checked me in; he struck me as perhaps inexperienced and unaware of guest instructors. The lobby at Dreams Royal Beach wasn’t as grand as that of Dreams Tulum, but artfully arranged with several seating areas, and a cafe on the far end. The courtyard area past the lobby evoked Polynesia, with a canopy-style roof, tiki poles and basket-weave chairs.
The kids and I were struck by the heavy weight of heat and humidity in the air, and immediately found our way to a bathroom, where we changed into swim gear. Then we hit up the buffet for lunch.
Teaching Beach Yoga
The resort offers one beach yoga class daily in the morning in a shady stretch of sand right past the main pool. The resort catered almost exclusively to families with younger kids – at least during the first week in April when we visited. So the yoga class attendees were all young mothers or couples. The lessons had 2-8 attendees each day. I chatted comfortably with all of the students before and after class, which was perhaps the most memorable and enriching aspect of the experience. Everyday, I encouraged attendees to come back, but never felt pressured to recruit guests or attract regulars. Since guests appeared distracted by family obligations, I didn’t have a group of dedicated regulars as I did in Tulum. I forced my teenager to attend one class to keep me company but ended up having a nice group of 5 or 6 attendees that day.
Type of Beach Yoga
Inability to speak Spanish did prove to be challenging at times. One guest –a young woman from Spain – didn’t understand a word of English and expressed obvious but good-willed frustration with my rapid instructions in English. Of course, I demonstrated all of the asanas (positions) clearly and stuck with the class format from my Tulum experience of guiding everyone through an easy-to-follow beginner-level flow. I mixed things up day by day with variations of the same flow but didn’t need to in this case because most attendees were different each day.
Best Beach Yoga Class
The highlight of the beach yoga experience occurred on my fourth day of teaching. A cozy group of 5 women in their 30s from Western Europe and the US gathered for class and introduced themselves to me. I greeted them warmly, then queued all of the asanas, being sure – as always – to emphasize extending the spine, breathing deeply and encouraging mindfulness with a short meditation during savasana (final resting pose). I received enthusiastic applause at the end of class. It was a touching moment.
The Pools, Rooms and Beach
The pools and landscape were gorgeous, with a winding loop of crisp, cool water that led to a compact main swimming area with a swim-up bar with plenty of mocktail options for children and non-drinkers. My kids got a kick out of drinking the Miami Vice — a two-toned smoothie served in a plastic cocktail glass made of a blend of strawberry and coconut puree. Archways led over the pools in multiple directions. Another shallow pool framed by lush palms and leafy taro plants was situated near the front of the resort behind the main courtyard. The resort was compact, with most of the restaurants, grills and bars clustered at the far end of the next to the main pool and beach.
Size of the Suites
For a compact resort, I was impressed by the large size of the suites. The husband ended up joining us for three nights, and we booked a separate room for those nights, but would have been perfectly comfortable sharing one suite with our kids. Our room had one king-sized bed, a cot that we had requested, a separate seating area, and deck overlooking a section of the winding pool. The suite hadn’t been built or remodeled recently, and the jet pool on the deck was out of order, but the overall quality of the suite was decent and spacious.
Book Yout Stay at Dreams Royal Beach Here
Water Activities
The pool-centered activities appeared to appeal to many of the guests –aqua zumba, pool volleyball, and even an aqua spin class. My kids took a complimentary scuba diving class in the pool, which culminated in a short, beginner-level supervised scuba diving trip. We took advantage of the game room, which was equipped with pool and foosball tables. The beach itself was bizarrely windy and wrought with sargassum, so I didn’t feel drawn to it, and my kids took very little interest in the beach activities. We took a few nice walks on the beach at sunset and goofed around on iron swings positioned on the beach between this resort and the sister adult-only resort next door, Secrets Royal Beach.
The Food
The food at the restaurants and room service was hit or miss at best. The buffet, while on the smaller side, seemed comparable to that of Dreams Tulum, with plenty plant-based options: raw and cooked vegetables, at least one bean dish daily, and grains, including rice and corn. The menu at the Japanese restaurant was a tough sell for my kids, who are used to New-York style plump avocado rolls made with authentic sushi rice. We managed with vegetable spring rolls and fried rice. We fared better at the Italian restaurant, which, as a baseline, had make-your-own pasta with a choice of noodle and sauce. Overall, I did feel like I was scraping by for plant-based food options.
Final Thoughts
Dreams Royal Beach wouldn’t be my first location choice for a Fit Bodies beach yoga teaching vacation, mainly due to the relatively unappealing beach, smaller size and lack of variety for plant-based meals. But there’s never a bad time in life to connect with strangers through one’s yoga practice at a pretty resort in a tropical place. I’ve absorbed the week into my repertoire of life experience and am –as always –infinitely enriched by it.
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