Like Boca Chica, Juan Dolio is a story of boom and bust. The resort area began life as a pristine beach and developed into the place for capitaleños to go on the Southeast Coast for sun and sea. When the Europeans discovered it, the all-inclusive resorts started springing up. In the early 1990s it was a pioneer in the all-inclusive concept, which caught on immediately, and no sooner was the blaze ignited than North Americans started to jump on it as well. But as soon as Punta Cana became the newer hot spot, the turistas started to abandon Juan Dolio for its newer, more luxurious AIs and long expanses of palm-studded beach—with white sand, at that.
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