Need help on deciding where to look for housing

Hello All,
Thanks for creating and posting so much valuable content to this forum.
My wife and I along with our two kids visit DR at least once a year.  We have always stayed at an all inclusive in Punta Cana as it works great for the kids and allows a completely free schedule and easy meals.
We do try to venture out to other areas every time we come and we have made some friends with locals over time.  We really love the island and the people that live there.  Maybe we are spoiled a bit as we were tourists and people seemed to be friendly, but we actually ask them a lot of questions about them and that seems to get us more friendships.
I'm looking for your advice on two to three areas that we should be looking in for our next visit.  We will stay in Punta Cana and work with a Realtor to view properties while visiting.  There is just so much information and so many opinions, I'm not sure where to look. 
I don't know that Punta Cana is the right fight for us when we move here, I've heard Sosua is the best.  I'm just not sure.  We'd be looking at a ocean front community or as close to the beach as we can get.

We would of course be looking to rent first, but I really just want to go see the different neighborhoods and what type of housing we could afford in those areas.

Any advice on top two or three areas to look at for us would be great. 

Thanks in advance for your help.