Don Lucas Cigars Punta Cana
Located in the heart of Bávaro, Punta Cana, Don Lucas Cigars is an authentic factory of Dominican cigars established from 1992 in the Punta Cana. Don Lucas Cigars remains one of the highest quality, small-scale hand rolled cigar makers in the Dominican Republic. Recently Golf & Travel magazine ranked Don Lucas Cigars in the top 12 brands to be found in the Dominican Republic.
During the tour you will see and learn all about the manufacturing process of Don Lucas cigars, with a great number of cigar artisans producing 14 different cigar sizes with 5 different strengths, including mild, medium and full-body. Also you can sample products in any variety that are produced in Don Lucas Cigars factory.
Don Lucas’ cigars have won multiple awards over the years. An on-site shop is the ideal place to pick up a box to take home. Personnel speaks Spanish, English, and allegedly French, German and Russian.
Among their many varieties, Don Lucas is most known for it’s H.S. Series, a medium-bodied cigar that mixes a slightly floral flavor from a sumatra wrapper with the spicy taste of pure Dominican filler and binder. It’s a favorite amongst visitors to the factory and can be purchased individually or by box from their large, walk-in humidor.
Located in downtown Punta Cana’s Mundo Auténtico shopping complex, free tours are available to the small Don Lucas Cigars factory (the only true cigar factory in the area), where you can watch and learn the hand rolling process, before tasting a puro of your choosing.
Mundo Autentico (Authentic World) is small shopping place for the visitors in search of authentic and genuine products of the Dominican Republic - Larimar, Amber, Crafts, Paintings, Coffee, Cocoa, Rum, Mamajuana and other typical products of the island. The Mundo Autentico facility is open and available to people staying at resorts in the Punta Cana area. In most cases, they will provide free transportation from your resort as well as free return transportation to your resort. (Be aware of several bad reviews qualifying Mundo Autentico as a tourist trap and experiences such as waiting for transport back much longer than 2 hours, overpriced items, rude staff in shops, guard that doesn't allow to go out to nearby shopping places to purchase same items for less money, etc. It is not bad service in general, but apparently it happens.)
Though the Dominican Republic is known for sending tourists home in droves with many of the larger cigar brands like Macanudo or La Aurora, Don Lucas is an excellent boutique brand favored by the in-the-know locals of Punta Cana and the Dominican Republic, who know it’s a well-kept secret in terms quality and taste and is generally affordable. Don Lucas can be found in popular retailers like Holts and Cigars International as well as in many trusted tobacconists across North American and Europe.
With an embargo between the United States and Cuba that has persisted since 1958, the Dominican Republic has served as one of the largest exporters of premium cigars to the U.S., shipping over 118.5 million cigars in 2017 alone according to Cigar Aficianado, just shortly behind Nigaragua. Since the embargo, which made it illegal for U.S. corporations to do business with Cuba, many major Cuban cigar makers like La Aurora, Arturo Fuente and Montecristo chose to leave and reestablish themselves in places like Miami, Honduras, Nicaragua or the Dominican Republic throughout the 1960’s. Today the Dominican Republic has become the world’s largest producer of handmade cigars.
Today, tobacco remains as much a part of Dominican history as ever, largely due to it’s fresh and consistently warm, humid tropical climate that boasts a rich, fertile soil that is ideal for growing the some of the best tobacco in the world.
Reviews
Nice Side Trip
This is a great side trip to spend a couple of hours away from the resort, get some shopping done, and see a nice cigar operation. They provide free transportation to and from your resort. The cigar operation is the hook. Very interesting and I would recommend asking all sorts of questions. The staff is very knowledgeable and helpful.
Smoking a nice cigar while touring the facility is a nice touch. Some items are overpriced, but others are well priced. Just have a good idea of what is reasonable. Don't miss the huge humidor for all the hand rolled cigars. Once we finished the cigars we were just moved through the rum, chocolate, and coffee areas. Side note; if you like what they have in the bar area, buy it. They only have Brugal and limited Barcelo in the airport.
Matt W
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Nice, secluded and very personal
We hired a driver for the day and one of our stops was at Don Lucas. Behind the guarded front gate is a beautiful building housing a small cigar factory where two rollers were toiling away. I was offered my choice of a cigar for tasting and toured the factory and grounds while enjoying a nice full bodied cigar that went well with the nice lunch we just finished.
My wife was enthralled with the jewellery shop that was well appointed and offered a wide variety of some remarkable pieces. She selected a nice bracelet that was reasonably priced as we moved onto the large humidor located in an adjacent building loaded with all types of wares on its first floor.
The humidor selection is extensive and intriguing and after sampling a few more cigars we purchased two bundles for our humidor at home.
All in all a beautiful store with knowledgeable and friendly staff and everything I found was at a very reasonable price point. Really enjoyed the free cigars that were included with my purchase. Certainly happy to have found Don Lucas.
Sandcastler
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Excellent experience and tour
We took a local taxi from our hotel (Hardrock) to visit the shop. We were greeted upon arrival by Andres Bock, who immediately asked us our cigar preferences (3 out of 4 in our group smoked) and set us up with free cigars. He then spent the better part of the next hour or so giving us a tour of the site showing us how the cigars were hand rolled, the types of cigars and basically what went into making them.
The walk-in humidor was impressive, the aging room with 450k cigars sitting there. He then took us over to the shop where we had the chance to purchase cigars and from there over to the bar where we were able to sample and purchase some pretty nice rum. We then were able to get a ride from the shop back to our hotel. All in all, it was an awesome experience.
ChristopherK2208
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Don Lucas Cigar Tour
My wife and I visited Don Lucas just over 2 weeks ago. A fantastic experience we were picked up from our hotel and met by Flavio who showed us around the cigar facility. He explained all the making and storing processes as well as offering free cigars to sample.
After the cigar experience, we visited the shop for our various purchases jewellery, cigars and then free rum sampling a great 2-hour tour. We were then returned to our hotel all free transport. Also, they do accept credit cards. Cigars are excellent quality, Cuban cigars are also available but the Don Lucas is excellent and much cheaper. 10/10
CarolineM47
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Great gift shopping and authentic rum and cigars
Short 10 min drive by shuttle from the Now Larimar resort. Greeted by Flavio who made us feel welcome. Watched Two gentlemen rolling cigars and had a sample! Rum tasting afterwards and shopping for some locally made souvenirs. Fair prices. Must check this place out.
Bart G
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Free samples, great souvenirs
Great mini-excursion that allowed us to experience a little of the D.R. without having to devote an entire day. Totally free and they provided transportation from and back to our resort. Met in the cigar shop where we were offered a free cigar while our guide explained what workers were doing to make cigars.
Then on to the bar for samples of 5 different types of rum. More samples in the coffee shop and the chocolate shop. All that, plus a pretty nice souvenir shop. We definitely spent enough on cigars, rum and chocolate to make the transportation worthwhile, and it looked like others did, as well. Happy with all our purchases, too!
AmyK2169
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Great place to get some excellent cigars, coffee and rum!
The Don Lucas Cigar factory tour was an excellent way to get high quality cigars, rum, coffee and chocolate. They provide free round trip transportation from your hotel (have your hotel concierge help you set this up if you are comfortable doing it yourself).
They give you a free cigar upon arrival, and then take you through the cigar making process. After you are free to do rum, coffee and chocolate tastings, which are also free. All in all it was a great and easy experience.
nsb218
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Excellent Excursion
Had so much fun at Don Lucas Cigars. They pick you up at your resort and return when you want to return. There is not a timetable -- loved that. The cigar rolling was interesting and fun to watch. They had several shops that you could browse at your leisure without all the harassing "come see my shop" you get everywhere else.
The humidor was interesting, they had a gift shop, coffee/tea shop, rum, jewelry if you wished to have tastings at the rum, coffee/tea shop they had a lot of varieties. No pressure to buy either. Great experience and prices were very reasonable. Would definitely recommend you put this one on your list when visiting Punta Cana.
KimFKimF
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Outstanding Tour
I have been to Punta Cana approximately twelve times and except for a couple of years, each trip included a trip to the Don Lucas cigar factory. I find the tour guides very informative about cigars and they were more than willing to answer any question I asked them about cigars. The shops are filled with great cigars, rum, vanilla, chocolate and they provide samples of most of their products.
I have spent quite a bit of money on cigars when I visit and have never been disappointed by my purchases. Their is never any pressure by anyone at Don Lucas to purchase any of their products. A great tour, especially if you like cigars, that I would highly recommend to anyone visiting Punta Cana.
Saurkrut
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