Airport
Updated 22 September 2026. Written by TripTap for this site.
What to do after you land at PUJ: where authorized taxis and hotel transfers wait, how Bávaro and Cap Cana sit relative to the airport, and what not to pay from an old rate sheet.
Where you actually are
Punta Cana International Airport uses the code PUJ. TripTap does not run the airport, the taxis, or your hotel shuttle. This is the sequence to follow when you land and the person you expected is not holding a sign.
On the airport’s own arrivals pages, Terminal A arrivals includes rent-a-car and authorized taxis, and both terminals point travelers to a tour-operator desk for transfers after customs. Those are the counters to use. A person who offers a car while you are still in immigration, or beside the baggage belt, is not that desk.
The order after the aircraft door opens
You clear immigration, collect checked bags, and clear customs before a legitimate driver can take you. A message that says the driver is “at the door” before you have your bags is early. Drivers who are allowed to work the airport wait on the public side, after customs.
If a company or your hotel already sold you a seat, walk to the tour-operator counters with the voucher, not with a story. If nobody sold you a transfer, use the authorized taxi desk. If you reserved a car, the rental counters are in the same arrivals area. The airport’s public arrivals instructions do not list a city bus that drops you at a resort door. We are not going to invent one.
The airport’s public site, checked for this page on 22 September 2026, listed 809-959-2376 and a toll-free number from the USA and Canada, 888-442-2262. That is the airport switchboard, not TripTap. If a number fails, use the number printed on the airport site that day. Phone numbers move.
Which direction your hotel sits
Cap Cana is the resort area south of the airport, toward the marina and Juanillo. Bávaro is the long hotel coast north of the airport. Uvero Alto is farther north than the main Bávaro cluster. A Cap Cana hotel is usually the shorter ride. A hotel at the north end of the strip takes longer. We are not printing minutes as a timetable. An evening arrival, rain, and the exact gate of the hotel all change the ride.
“Bávaro” is a strip, not a door. “Punta Cana” on a booking is not a zone. Say the hotel’s full name at the desk and make the clerk repeat it. If the hotel sits inside Cap Cana’s controlled entrance, ask whether that driver is allowed up to the lobby or only to a gate.
What to do about the fare
We do not publish a 2026 airport price list. The airport website still hosts a PDF whose file name is taxis-rate-2015.pdf. The year is in the file name. Treat that sheet as historical. Do not pay a number you remember from an old article, and do not pay a number a stranger quotes in the terminal hallway.
At the authorized desk, wait for three answers before you walk to a car. Is the fare for the whole car or for each person? Is it in US dollars or Dominican pesos? Does it end at the hotel gate you named, or only on the main road? Write the amount down. If the driver names a higher number at the car, go back to the desk instead of arguing on the curb.
A shuttle you already paid for is a different product from a taxi. If the representative is missing, call the phone on the voucher before you pay a second time. Paying twice for the same arrival is the expensive mistake on day one.
What to avoid on arrival day
Do not hand your passport to a driver as a deposit. Do not change a large amount of cash with someone who approaches you in the hall. Torn or heavily marked US bills are often refused later; small clean bills are easier for the first ride. We are not quoting an exchange rate.
Bayahíbe, La Romana, and Santo Domingo are not the same ride as a Bávaro hotel. If a boat day starts in Bayahíbe the next morning, arrange that transfer before you land, in daylight, with the hotel name written down. Do not invent it at midnight with a driver you just met.