Where to stay in Punta Cana: the best areas and resorts

Bávaro is the Punta Cana of the brochures: a long, gently curving beach of powdery white sand, shaded by coconut palms and lined almost end to end with resorts. The water is calm and shallow, the resorts are large and buzzing, and the choice runs from good-value family all-inclusives to polished five-stars with golf on the doorstep.

It is the most sociable part of the coast. The little fishing village of El Cortecito and the beach bars of Los Corales give you somewhere to go beyond the resort gates, and there are shops, restaurants and a few clubs nearby. Most hotels are around half an hour from the airport.

North of Bávaro, the same beach carries on as Playa Arena Gorda, but the resorts here are more widely spaced and the sand feels emptier. It is home to some of Punta Cana's best-known adults-only and family resorts side by side, many of them part of large complexes with golf courses and shopping centres close by.

Further north again, Macao Beach is wilder and wavier, popular with surfers and day-trippers on buggy tours, with only a few big resorts nearby. Arena Gorda suits couples who want an adults-only resort without the full remoteness of Uvero Alto, and families who like space. The airport is about half an hour away.

Uvero Alto is where Punta Cana goes quiet. The road runs out of towns, the beaches get longer and emptier, and the resorts, many of them adults-only, spread out among the palms with swim-up suites and private terraces. There is nothing much to do outside the gates, which is precisely why honeymooners love it.

Further north still, Miches is the new frontier, a wild stretch of coast backed by green hills, where the first resorts sit on the empty sands of Playa Esmeralda. Expect a transfer of the best part of an hour or more from the airport, and plan to stay put.

Cabeza de Toro is a small headland and bay between Bávaro and Cap Cana, with a short, palm-studded beach, a few low-key resorts and a fishing village feel. The water is calm and the crowds are thinner than in Bávaro, which suits couples and young families who want to keep things simple.

You are close enough to Bávaro's beach bars and the airport to have the best of both worlds, without the scale of the big resort strips. Hotels here are mostly mid-sized all-inclusives right on the sand, including suite-only resorts, and it is a good choice for a first trip if the giant resorts of Bávaro feel like too much.

The southern end of the coast is Punta Cana at its most exclusive. Cap Cana is a vast gated community of villas, a marina full of sport-fishing boats and clifftop golf courses, fronted by Juanillo Beach, a curve of sugar-white sand that is one of the prettiest in the country. Next door, the Puntacana Resort has its own golf courses and a laid-back village by the airport.

This is where to come for luxury, golf and privacy rather than a buzzing beach scene. Hotels are few and smart, Cap Cana's adventure park has a cenote-like blue swimming hole, and the marina restaurants make a change from resort dining. The airport is a short drive away.