Family left gutted by Caribbean paradise trip after paying £5000 to find the sea was orange and foul
A FAMILY paid £5,000 for a holiday — to find the sea was orange and stinking.
Angie Brown, 52, booked the Caribbean trip for her 30th wedding anniversary to Mark.
But when they, son Ryan, 21, and daughter Paige, 16, got to the Dominican Republic they found the normally blue sea looked polluted, was full of dead fish and reeked of eggs.
The beach at TUI resort Catalonia Bavaro was also infested with stinking seaweed.
Secretary Angie, of Crowland, Lincs, said: “We picked the location because we are beach people and we were told the Dominican Republic had the best beaches in the Caribbean.
“So we dumped our cases and took the kids down to the beach to show them how beautiful it was.”
Unfortunately, said Angie, when they reached the beach, it was: “covered in seaweed and the sea was a horrible orange colour and not blue at all.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. It was a continuous mat over the beach and metres and metres long.
“If you put your feet in the water and moved your toes this awful rotting smell wafted up.
“We asked if we could go to the other side of the island if TUI could arrange something but they refused.
“They just left us high and dry. We saved so hard for that holiday – it was so, so disappointing. Their attitude was disgusting.”
The smelly seaweed which turns the sea orange has been plaguing the Caribbean since 2011. Last month Barbados declared a state of emergency with troops clearing beaches.
A TUI spokesman said of last month’s holiday hell for Angie and engineer hubby Mark: “We are working with our hotel partners to try and clear the beaches every day and to minimise any disruption, although as this is a natural occurrence it’s unfortunately beyond our control.
“While we can confirm that customers are still able to swim in the sea, we hope to have the seaweed cleared very soon.”
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