Cigars in Paradise 2026: The Dominican Republic's First-Ever Cigar, Rum and Golf Festival Is Here
The Cigars in Paradise Cigar and Rum Festival 2026 at Casa de Campo Resort and Villas in La Romana, Dominican Republic is that moment turned into four extraordinary days.
Running from Thursday, June 25 to Sunday, June 28, 2026, this inaugural event is officially the first-ever dedicated cigar, rum, and golf festival in the Caribbean. It brings together 20 of the world's most celebrated premium cigar brands, rare Dominican rum experiences, championship golf, world-class culinary pairings, and an intimate guest list of just 150 people, all at a resort that is already considered one of the finest in the Western Hemisphere. If you have ever wanted to attend the kind of event where everything is exactly right, this is the one.
Why the Dominican Republic Is the Only Place This Festival Could Exist
The Tobacco Capital of the World
The Dominican Republic is, by any honest measure, the global capital of premium cigar production. More premium cigars are produced in the Dominican Republic than in any other country on earth, with the Cibao Valley in the island's interior serving as the agricultural heart of an industry that supplies the finest tobacconists and cigar lounges in New York, London, Dubai, and Tokyo.
The names that define premium cigar culture globally are Dominican names. Arturo Fuente, Davidoff, La Aurora, La Flor Dominicana, Quesada, Vega Fina. The tobacco fields, fermentation rooms, rolling rooms, and aging warehouses that produce these cigars are within hours of Casa de Campo. When the founders of Cigars in Paradise described this as a "long-overlooked opportunity," they were not being hyperbolic. The Dominican Republic should have had a cigar festival of this calibre for years. It has one now.
"The Dominican Republic should have had a cigar festival of this calibre for years. It has one now."
Dominican Rum: Underrated and Extraordinary
The Dominican Republic's rum heritage is equally impressive, and equally underappreciated by the broader world. Spanish-style Dominican rums, characterised by their smooth, light, and dry profiles and their emphasis on long barrel aging, represent a completely distinct category within Caribbean rum culture.
Brands like Brugal, founded in Puerto Plata in 1888, have been producing world-class spirits on this island for nearly 140 years. The Casa Brugal distillery in San Pedro de Macorís is one of the most historic rum-making facilities in the Caribbean, and it forms a central part of the Cigars in Paradise experience. When you pair a 12-year-old aged Dominican rum with a hand-rolled Fuente cigar in the same country where both were made, you are tasting the full story of an island.
The Full Cigars in Paradise Experience: Day by Day
The four-day programme is meticulously curated to balance education, indulgence, activity, and relaxation, ensuring that every single day offers something genuinely memorable alongside the core festival events.
Thursday, June 25: Welcome to Paradise
The festival opens with guest arrivals, event registration, and room check-in from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM, giving attendees time to settle into the resort and orient themselves before the celebrations begin.
- 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM: Welcome Cigar and Cocktail Reception and Dinner at the Minitas Pool Bar, with the resort's beach club providing a stunning open-air setting for first introductions between guests, brand representatives, and cigar makers.
- 9:00 PM to 11:00 PM: Complimentary Dominican Cigar and Rum Gathering at the La Caña Bar and Poolside, carrying the welcome evening into a more relaxed late-night mode with premium Dominican products flowing freely.
Friday, June 26: The Grand Tasting Begins
The first full festival day opens the core programming:
- Morning: Championship golf available on the resort's legendary Pete Dye courses for those taking the optional golf package, with Teeth of the Dog and Dye Fore among the most spectacular golf experiences anywhere in the Caribbean.
- 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM: Cigar Seminars hosted by renowned cigar educators Erik Calvino and George Brightman at the Flamboyan Conference Center, offering expert-led deep dives into tobacco cultivation, blend development, and the art of reading a well-constructed cigar.
- 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM: Cigars in Paradise Grand Festival at the Marina Riverside, where the Grand Tasting Pavilion opens with 20 premium cigar brands and premium rum houses side by side in an open-air waterfront setting. Chocolate pairings, Dominican coffees, liqueurs, and exclusive culinary accompaniments round out what is designed to be a discovery experience rather than a standard tasting format.
Saturday, June 27: The Heart of the Festival
- 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM: Cigar Breakfast at Lago, the resort's lakeside restaurant, starting the day with handcrafted Dominicans and the kind of Caribbean morning that makes everything feel unhurried.
- Morning: Second round of championship golf for those on the golf package.
- 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM: Second round of Cigar Seminars at the Flamboyan Conference Center, with Erik Calvino and George Brightman covering different aspects of the craft from Friday's session.
- 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM: Cigars in Paradise Grand Festival, Night Two at the Marina Riverside, the second and final main festival session, building on Friday's energy with the full brand pavilion open again and live music accompanying the evening's pairings.
Sunday, June 28: Farewell Morning
- 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM: Farewell Cigar Breakfast at Lago, a final morning together before departures.
The Brands and the Experts
Twenty Premium Brands from Three Countries
The confirmed brand lineup for Cigars in Paradise 2026 represents a cross-section of the very best that Dominican, Nicaraguan, and Honduran premium tobacco has to offer. Participating brands include:
- Arturo Fuente (Dominican Republic), legendary family dynasty and producer of the iconic Fuente Fuente OpusX.
- Davidoff (Dominican Republic), the Swiss-founded prestige house whose Dominican expressions are among the finest in their portfolio.
- La Aurora (Dominican Republic), the island's oldest continuously operating cigar manufacturer, founded in 1903.
- La Flor Dominicana (Dominican Republic), known for full-bodied, complex blends that have developed a devoted following among serious aficionados.
- Vega Fina (Dominican Republic).
- Quesada (Dominican Republic), a family-run manufacturer with decades of expertise in traditional Canarian-influenced blends.
- La Galera (Dominican Republic).
- AJ Fernandez (Nicaragua), one of the most celebrated master blenders working anywhere in the industry today.
- Oliva (Nicaragua), producing world-class Nicaraguan puro cigars with consistent critical acclaim.
- Drew Estate (Nicaragua), home of the Liga Privada line and one of the most innovative and commercially successful brands in modern cigar culture.
- Plasencia (Nicaragua/Honduras), a vertically integrated grower and manufacturer with tobacco fields across Central America.
- Ashton, CLE, Crowned Heads, Gran Habano, La Palina, OZ Family Cigars.
The Festival's Cigar Educators
The seminar programme is led by two figures who bring genuine credibility to the educational side of the event:
- Erik Calvino, a well-known cigar educator and brand ambassador with deep knowledge of Dominican tobacco history and production.
- George Brightman, a respected figure in the premium cigar industry whose expertise spans both retail and production sides of the trade.
Their seminars are designed to serve both seasoned aficionados looking to deepen their technical understanding and newcomers who want a guided introduction to why premium cigars are worth taking seriously.
The Private Rum Distillery Experience: Casa Brugal
One of the most extraordinary inclusions in the Cigars in Paradise package is a private tour and tasting at the Casa Brugal rum distillery in San Pedro de Macorís.
Brugal is one of the oldest and most storied rum houses in the Dominican Republic, founded in Puerto Plata in 1888 and now operating one of the most historically significant distilleries in the Caribbean. A private group tour at Casa Brugal, going behind the scenes of a production facility that has been making Dominican rum for nearly 140 years, is the kind of access that money cannot normally buy outside of an event like this.
The tasting that accompanies the tour offers the opportunity to taste expressions across the Brugal portfolio, from the accessible everyday rums to the rare aged and premium releases that rarely leave the island in meaningful quantities. Paired with cigars from the festival's brand partners, the distillery experience is one of the highlights that separates Cigars in Paradise from any generic luxury resort weekend.
Golf at the World's Greatest Courses
For attendees taking the optional golf package, Cigars in Paradise offers something that golf travellers have been booking trips to the Dominican Republic for decades to experience: rounds on Pete Dye's masterpieces at Casa de Campo.
- Teeth of the Dog, consistently ranked as the finest golf course in the Caribbean and one of the top courses in the world, with seven holes directly along the Caribbean Sea coastline.
- Dye Fore, another Pete Dye design at Casa de Campo, featuring dramatic elevation changes and views of the Chavón River, the Caribbean Sea, and the resort beyond that are genuinely unlike anything else in golf.
Golf packages are available as an optional addition to the core festival experience, with two rounds included across the festival days for those who book them.
Casa de Campo: The Resort That Makes Everything Better
The choice of Casa de Campo as the home of this inaugural festival is not incidental. It is the foundation on which the entire experience is built.
Spread across a dramatic private estate on the southeastern coast of the Dominican Republic, Casa de Campo is one of the most comprehensive luxury resort experiences in the Western Hemisphere. Every element of the Cigars in Paradise experience connects to a specific, exceptional resort amenity:
- Marina Riverside Center: The Grand Tasting Pavilion sits directly at the waterfront of the resort's own marina, creating an evening atmosphere that is genuinely one of the most beautiful settings imaginable for an outdoor festival.
- Minitas Beach Club: The resort's private beach facility on a calm, sheltered bay, used for the Welcome Reception on Thursday evening.
- La Caña Bar and Lounge: The resort's signature cigar lounge and cocktail bar, offering an indoor-outdoor space designed specifically for the kind of slow, appreciative enjoyment that cigars and rum demand.
- Lago Restaurant: The lakeside restaurant where morning cigar breakfasts take place, overlooking the resort's ornamental lake as the Caribbean morning light builds.
- Altos de Chavón: The resort's extraordinary recreation of a 16th-century Mediterranean hilltop village, just minutes from the main resort facilities, housing galleries, restaurants, and one of the most unusual and beautiful spaces in the Caribbean.
- The Spa, Shooting Range, and full resort facilities: All included complimentarily for Cigars in Paradise guests.
The resort is also home to the Cigar Country smoking lounge, one of the finest dedicated cigar spaces in the Caribbean, with an on-site walk-in humidor stocked with Dominican and international premium cigars and a patio designed for exactly the kind of unhurried, savoured enjoyment this festival celebrates.
Practical Information for Attendees
Limited to 150 Guests
This is a fundamentally intimate event. The festival is capped at 150 guests from the United States, and the organisers have been consistent in their description of the atmosphere they are creating: personal, unhurried, and genuinely accessible to the people and products being celebrated. When 150 people share a Grand Tasting Pavilion with 20 of the world's finest cigar brands and premium rum houses, the level of access and conversation available is categorically different from a large public convention.
Early booking is strongly advised. An event of this calibre at this price point, limited to 150 guests, will sell out.
What Is Included in the Package
The three-night all-inclusive package at Cigars in Paradise covers:
- All accommodation at Casa de Campo Resort and Villas (choice of three lodging categories).
- Breakfast, lunch, and dinner throughout the stay.
- Unlimited premium drinks across all festival events.
- All festival event access including both Grand Tasting Pavilion evenings and cigar seminars.
- Complimentary cigars at festival events.
- Private tour and tasting at Casa Brugal rum distillery, San Pedro de Macorís.
- Access to the Cigar Country smoking lounge.
- Complimentary use of the Spa and Shooting Range.
- Optional two-day golf packages including rounds at Teeth of the Dog and Dye Fore (available as an add-on).
- Airport-to-hotel transportation.
Getting There
- La Romana International Airport (LRM): Approximately five minutes from Casa de Campo, handling charter and private flights, ideal for US travellers who can access it directly.
- Las Américas International Airport (SDQ), Santo Domingo: Approximately 90 minutes from Casa de Campo, with daily direct commercial service from New York, Miami, Atlanta, and other major US cities.
- Punta Cana International Airport (PUJ): Approximately 75 minutes from the resort, one of the most connected Caribbean airports with direct routes from across the United States, Canada, and Europe.
Booking
Reservations are handled through the official festival website at cigarsinparadise.com and through the Casa de Campo resort directly at casadecampo.com.do. Given the 150-person cap, prospective attendees should not wait on this one.
A First Edition That Is Already Making History
The genesis of Cigars in Paradise is rooted in something genuinely passionate. The organisers have spoken about seeing a "long-overlooked opportunity" on an island that is the undisputed capital of premium cigar production, and deciding to do something about it. The result is an event that brings the world's great cigar makers home, to the island that shaped so many of them, and invites 150 guests to join the celebration in one of the most beautiful resort settings on earth.
There is a poetry to that. Tasting an Arturo Fuente at a waterfront pavilion 20 minutes from where the tobacco was grown. Sipping a Brugal rum aged for 15 years in barrels stored just down the coast. Rolling a post-sunset cigar on the terrace of Alt
