The DR is in

Certain regions of the world call attention to themselves just by the way they’re shaped. If Italy gets noticed by flashing a little leg, then you could say Samana is a thumb of beach, mountains and forest sticking out of the northern part of the Dominican Republic, urging you to stop and take it for a ride.

And there are good new reasons to head down and check out Samana’s resorts, which, at least in one case, doubles as real estate.

Balcones del Atlantico has been in the works since 2008, an 80-acre project consisting of 174 villa-like condos (35 of which are part of the hotel pool) set along a half-mile of beachfront. It had its first move-ins in the summer of 2009 for vacationers wary of the more well-trod spots in the DR.

“Out of 174 units, we’ve sold 159,” says Maximo Bisono of the Bisono Group, which developed the project.

They range from $245,000 for a one-bedroom up to $1.8 million for a five-bedroom villa. (The units in the hotel pool go anywhere from $500 to $2,000 a night in high season, down to $300 to $800 per night in the off season.)

And these units are roomy inside and out — a three-bedroom penthouse suite also includes a good 500 square feet or so of terrace, overlooking Balcones’ manicured hedges and swimming pools (some with wooden footpaths constructed over them, evoking a Japanese garden). Inside, owners get a Viking kitchen, en-suite stone bathrooms and open living rooms.

And the region got more tempting for New Yorkers when JetBlue started Wednesday and Saturday flights to Samana late last year. (One-way flights start at $175 including tax, if purchased before April 24.) JetBlue also has plans to add more flights as demand increases.

“It’s been great for us,” says Bisono. “Guys from the Northeast part of the States — New York, Boston, Connecticut — have been flying in from New York. It used to be, you had to go to [Santo Domingo] and take a two-hour ride to come. Now it’s incredible — it’s a 20-minute drive coming in” from the airport.

This should make Bisono and others even more confident about expanding Balcones — which is exactly what he’s doing.

“We have 160 more units to come,” says Bisono. “The first phase [of 80 units] will be in the next eight to 10 months.”

Of course, at less than 4 years old, Balcones is a lot newer, and a lot more under-the-radar than the Dominican Republic’s other resorts like, say, the 7,000-acre Casa de Campo destination — in La Romana on the DR’s southeast coast — that underwent a $42 million renovation a few years back. But it has the hallmarks of a luxury resort: a restaurant on the beach called Porto serves up grilled steaks and fish; a small spa, also on the beach, offers massages; frozen drinks are served to sun bathers; hot tubs bubble away in select rooms; hotel staff travel around the resort via golf cart.

And while Las Terrenas, the coastal town nearby Balcones (about a $10 to $15 cab ride, depending on how good your negotiating skills are), is a crowded tourist town that skews more European than American and boasts several dozen restaurants, including fairly decent Italian on the beach (Le Tre Caravelle), fancier places with tasting menus (Mi Corazon) and so on, one gets the feeling that you don’t visit Samana because of the food scene.

Rather, one goes for the liberating/worrying feeling of being in a place where you hear little English being spoken; where one can relax without the frenetic activity many people come to expect on vacation. (Although there’s plenty of eco-tourism options nearby, if that’s your bag.) And for the solitude of sitting on a beach that isn’t crammed with umbrellas.