Closest Airport to Bayahíbe and La Romana: LRM, Punta Cana or Santo Domingo?

The three airports in play

Bayahíbe has no airport of its own. The village, the Dominicus hotel zone beside it and the resorts along this stretch of the south-east coast are all reached by road from one of three airports: La Romana Casa de Campo (LRM), Punta Cana International (PUJ) or Santo Domingo Las Américas (SDQ). Which airport is closest and which is the best one to fly into are two different questions, and the answer to the second usually comes down to where your flights go.

The drive times in this guide are our dispatch planning figures for the Bayahíbe/Dominicus zone: 31 minutes (26 km) from LRM, 58 minutes (71 km) from PUJ and 94 minutes (121 km) from SDQ. They are the figures we schedule chauffeurs against, and they apply across the whole zone rather than to any one hotel. Traffic, weather and the time of day can move them in either direction.

The passenger numbers tell the flight story. In 2025, Punta Cana handled 11,005,690 passengers, Santo Domingo Las Américas 5,217,140 and La Romana roughly 243,000, according to the National Statistics Office (ONE), Anuario de Estadísticas Económicas 2025, reported by Diario Libre, 25 Sep 2026. La Romana is the nearest runway by a wide margin, but Punta Cana carries more than forty times its traffic, which is why most visitors to Bayahíbe land there.

If you are searching for Hilton La Romana, that is the same property: it carried the Hilton name between 2020 and 2025 and has since reverted to Dreams La Romana Resort & Spa. The airport choice is the same for every address in the zone, so this guide stays at the area level. For the destination itself, see our Bayahíbe transportation guide.

Flying into La Romana (LRM)

LRM is the closest airport to Bayahíbe, Dominicus and Casa de Campo, about 31 minutes by road to the Bayahíbe/Dominicus zone. It is small enough that you are usually through the terminal quickly, and the walk from the aircraft to your chauffeur is short.

The limitation is availability. Roughly 243,000 passengers passed through LRM in 2025, so scheduled routes are few and some operate only in certain seasons; private and charter flights use it regularly. If your dates happen to line up with an LRM route, it is the easiest arrival in the region. If they don't, it is rarely worth adding a connection just to shorten the drive.

See La Romana airport (LRM) transfers and LRM to Casa de Campo. From La Romana airport we also serve the Cap Cana resorts: Eden Roc Cap Cana, Hyatt Ziva & Zilara Cap Cana, Sanctuary Cap Cana and St. Regis Cap Cana.

Flying through Punta Cana (PUJ)

• Punta Cana is where the flights are: 11,005,690 passengers in 2025, the busiest airport in the country by far.
• The wide route network means you are much more likely to find a direct flight from an airport near you, with more airlines and more departure times to choose from.
• The ground transfer to Bayahíbe takes roughly 50–60 minutes; our dispatch figure for the Bayahíbe/Dominicus zone is 58 minutes (71 km), west along the coastal highway.
• It is a busy resort airport: the arrival feels tropical, but immigration and customs lines can be long in high season, so allow for that when you plan your first evening.

More on Punta Cana airport (PUJ) transfers.

Flying through Santo Domingo (SDQ)

• SDQ is the capital's international gateway and the country's second-busiest airport, with 5,217,140 passengers in 2025.
• It has good coverage from major US hubs, including JFK, Miami, Newark, Fort Lauderdale and Atlanta, plus seasonal Canadian service from Toronto and Montreal, so it can open up flight times that PUJ does not offer.
• As a city airport rather than a resort airport, it is less crowded at peak resort arrival times, and immigration and customs lines are often shorter.
• The trade-off is drive time: 94 minutes (121 km) to the Bayahíbe/Dominicus zone, against 58 minutes from PUJ.

More on Santo Domingo airport (SDQ) transfers.

Samaná El Catey (AZS) sometimes appears in flight searches too, but at 190 minutes (236 km) from the zone it only makes sense if you are combining the Samaná peninsula with the south coast. For every airport in the country side by side, see our Dominican Republic airports guide. Arriving by sea instead? Passengers docking at the La Romana cruise terminal are covered on our La Romana cruise transfers page.

So which should you book?

Start with the flights, not the map. If a route into LRM fits your dates, take it: 31 minutes is the shortest arrival available. If it doesn't, and for most travellers it won't, PUJ is the practical default, with the widest choice of flights and a drive of about an hour. SDQ is worth checking when its schedule suits you better; you are trading a longer drive for a calmer city airport.

Whichever you land at, we monitor the flight, meet you at the terminal exit with your name on a tablet, and drive you straight to your address in Bayahíbe, Dominicus or La Romana, in one private vehicle that is exclusively yours.