To chill in the sun

By Diane Daniel, 3/10/2002

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Thirty minutes before Shoshana Savitz and Mark Rosenberg were to leave for the airport, her phone rang. It was Rosenberg. He had been up all night, sick to his stomach and with a high fever. He was feeling better, but was weak.

"What should I do?" he said. They decided that Rosenberg, 41, an educational consultant in Brighton, could as well recuperate on a beach in warm and sunny Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic as on a couch in dreary Boston. Plus, he and Savitz, 35, a social worker living in Brookline, were used to helping each other out; before November, they had been roommates for 31/2 years. Neither of their significant others was free to take a winter getaway, so they were going together.

Rosenberg was looking for a "retreat," while Savitz "wanted to go somewhere warm and pretty." They chose Punta Cana at the recommendation of a travel agent and because it was the most affordable island escape they found. They went knowing nothing about the region and returned big fans.

"It's a very beautiful resort area that Europeans have been going to for a long time," Savitz said. "It's Spanish-speaking, and a lot of people, even in the resort, don't speak English. In the past five years, more Americans and Canadians have been going."

They went in January, and the all-inclusive TNT Vacations package cost them about $800 each. On the TNT bus from the airport to the hotel, " We were told we were being upgraded," Savitz said. Because the fourstar hotel they'd reserved at the Riu resort complex had been overbooked, they were bumped up to the five-star Riu Bambu. Their room didn't have a water view, but " There were palm trees everywhere," Savitz said. "It was very green and lush and manicured. We were two minutes from the beach."

The beach was partly shaded with palm trees, the sand was "soft and powdery," and the water was "Caribbean blue," said Rosenberg, who started to feel well again after a couple of days of relaxation. A highlight of each day was a massage, he said. "We each paid $90 for five massages, and we got one almost every day" from a hut set up on the beach. He noted the European influence among his fellow tourists: topless bathers and smokers.

They had the use of nonmotorized boats, such as sailboards and kayaks, and there were motorboats for rent. Savitz played beach and water volleyball, and Rosenberg took scuba lessons. There was a cybercafe where they spent some time "to say hi to everybody and make them jealous," Savitz said. "There was also a casino and a little disco" that they checked out.

Meals were buffet style. "The first couple days we ate everything. Then we started to figure out what we really liked," Savitz said. "They had really nice tropical fruit."

One day they took a group trip by catamaran and speedboat to Sanoa Island.

"It was sunny when we left ... beautiful until a huge gray cloud came and it poured. We were soaked. It rained a couple times, and then would clear up in minutes," Savitz said.

Only on the last day did Savitz get too much sun - on purpose. "I couldn't go home without any tan," she said.

As for Rosenberg, he didn't want to go home at all. "A week just wasn't enough," he said. "I was just starting to settle in."

Send suggestions for "Where they went" to ddaniel@globe.com.