Cabarete kite-beach studio

Cabarete is the wind sports capital of the Caribbean, and this 45-square-metre studio sits one row back from the sand in the heart of it. The unit is simple — polished concrete floor, tiled bathroom, a small kitchenette, and shutters that open onto a shared palm-shaded courtyard. It's built for a life spent outside on the water.

The beach starts as flat morning water perfect for a stand-up paddle or beginner windsurf, and by lunchtime the trade winds build to a reliable side-shore breeze that has trained a generation of world-class kite and wind sports athletes. Kite Beach, one kilometre west, is where the freestyle scene lives; Encuentro, three kilometres east, hosts the daily surf.

Cabarete's international community is one of the most tightly knit in the region — schools, coworking spaces, a farmers' market, and yoga studios all a short walk from the sand. Puerto Plata's Gregorio Luperón International Airport (POP) is a thirty-minute taxi and has good North American connections. Foreigners buy freehold as they would at home.

Day-to-day, groceries come from the small Janet's supermarket on the highway; the beach road is lined with Argentinian steakhouses, Dominican fish shacks, wood-fired pizza and open-air smoothie bars. Life here happens in board shorts and a rash vest — which is exactly the point.