BootsnAll Travel Community

Ok, so salmo asked me to type up a blurb about my recent trip. Here goes...

I used the LP Dominican Republic guidebook and traveled con mi amiga who used the Rough Guide.

I flew on the cheap JetBlue flight from JFK to STI (Santiago, DR). The total cost with taxes, etc was $274. Know that these flights, while cheap, are red-eyes and bring you into the country at around 3am bc of the 1 hour time change. Having said that, the airport is a typical open air tropical airport set-up and plenty of people wait it out there until the morning bc it's totally safe, then catch a taxi to the bus station. The benches are without arms, which facilitates a decent few hours of sleep if necessary.

You have to purchase a tourist card for $10USD. You can either do this in the US airport or the DR one.

The cost of a taxi from the airport into town should be between $16USD and $20USD depending on your espanol. And this is per car, not per person. You definitely need to have a grasp on the basics of spanish or you'll be screwed left, right and sideways.

The exchange rate is currently between $30-$32pesos for $1USD. The exchange counter at the airport is not open at that time of night, but the taxi drivers will accept USD. Although, there is a 24 hour ATM there for those with debit cards.

FYI: the Dominicans like to clap upon touchdown.....every time. It threw me for a loop the 1st time.

On my flight, it was about 90% Dominican and the rest were spring breakers from Dartmouth. I was undecided if I should stay at the airport and chill or get a taxi into town and stay at a hotel. The situation resolved itself when all the Dominicans left and there were about 7 white people left. I walked up to them and asked what they were doing. Long story-short, we shared a taxi at a cost of $5USD/person. Half the group got dropped off at a hotel in town. The rest of us had heard that there was a 24 supermercado/restaurant across from the Caribe bus station. So that's where we went.

They have a decent set up including a baggage check. The front part is a regular grocery store and in the back, is the restaurant. Talk about a local experience. They were happy to exchange our USD at $31 at the baggage check counter. There are even bathrooms upstairs.

At 6am, we all walked over to the bus station. One girl was heading down south to Santo Domingo and her bus left early. Ours didn't leave until 8:30am. We took the bus to Sosua on the north coast. The cost was $90pesos. It took close to 2 hours.

In the 2 hours of waiting at the bus station, we lost power twice. At the end of the day, we'd lost power 4 times, then not again until 5 days later.

This is a regular coach with air conditioning, etc. But it's not a tourist bus. The vast majority of people are locals. In addition to Caribe, there's Metro Bus. They're all long distance bus services. And the Caribe bus company has 2 locations in Santiago...remember that. It's important so that you don't get lost. From Santiago to Sosua, we made one stop in Puerto Plata.

In Sosua, they drop you off at this taxi stand where you're swarmed by drivers. The cost for a taxi ride to your hotel should be $150pesos per car.

I stayed at Rocky's Bar. He was in the back and despite what his website says, his day staff does NOT speak a form of English...night staff, yes. But just mention his name (Marco) and eventually he'll stroll out (island time and all). He's an ex-pat Canadian.

FYI: don't flush your toilet paper. don't flush your toilet paper, I mean it!

There are a few beach options in Sosua. They're dominated by locals as the non-Dominicans usually go to the all-inclusives on the island.

We paid $22USD for the room. It had 2 beds and since there were 2 of us, it was $11 per person...cash, no credit cards. The room had AC, but we never used it and also satellite TV. He has a reasonably priced restaurant there as well. Internet is $10pesos for 15 minutes. There's a small grocery store right next door, but it's limited and more expensive than the supermercado on route 5 (tha main road) at the traffic signal. There's also a decent bakery across the street from this grocery store.

The prices in the grocery store were pretty comparable to US prices. The produce was slightly cheaper. The American type food (Doritos, Frosted Flakes) was more expensive. Just keep in mind that you're on an island. Don't drink the water...buy bottled.

Prostitution is a huge problem in Sosua. The number of old white dudes to young Dominicanas is vast. And mujeres don't get off easy either. You basically will be hit on no matter who you are and what you look like. Sex tourism is an unfortunate part of the economy of the DR.

The dances of the DR are merengue and bachata with reggaeton creeping in. There are plenty of places to dance, just follow la musica.

The Dartmouth crew was going to go to Puerto Plata, but they decided to follow me to Sosua. Rocky's was sold out, but Marco took us all in his car up the street to the Hotel Waterfront where he got them a great room for $25USD. The hotel was right on the water and also had a pool...no TV or AC though.

FYI: the gas station is called 'la bomba'.

It's best at this point to start asking the locals how much the Dominican price is. They'll be honest with you and that's what you should pay.

I'm a huge fan of public transportation. So from here on, we took what are called gua-guas...mini-buses (pronounced gwa-gwa) and carritos (non-taxi taxis). Basically, don't ever get in a car that says 'taxi' or you'll probably pay 10x or more what you should. The carritos will have red or blue signs on top of the car telling where they go, but it will NOT say taxi.

For $20pesos, we took the 20 minute ride to the next town east, Cabarete for a day trip. When you take public transportation, it's very public. You will probably have 8 people crammed into the car with you and elbows & other various body parts will be in places you'd never envisioned. But it's a great way to meet people and they're all very friendly. And really, it's about 66 cents, so don't complain.

Cabarete is much more of a touristy town bc of the windsurfing/kitesurfing activities there. I personally liked the beaches of Sosua better. We stayed there on the way back at one of the dozen or so hotels called Sans Souci. It was $12USD/person/night...fan, kitchenette, satellite TV.

We were told that the gua-gua ride from Sosua to Puerto Plata was $25pesos and that's what we paid. It took about half an hour to get there. There are a couple of amber museums, if you're into that...also larimar, another stone.

FYI: mosquitoes are a big nuisance. I didn't take malaria medication, but malaria outbreaks aren't uncommon.

From Sosua, we decided to take the gua-guas all the way to the Samana peninsula (pronounced SAH-mah-nah). We kept getting laughed at bc they said it would take us forever or we might not be able to make it at all.

We were in no rush, so we went for it. To get there, we had to gua-gua/carrito our way to Rio San Juan. I think it was $50pesos. We ended up paying extra for our luggage at a cost of an extra person. This was fine bc we were taking up a lot of space and the cars/vans were full. Ironically though, when we worked our way back the same way, we didn't once pay for luggage.

We started off at noon, got to Rio San Juan just fine, then they wanted us to pay way, way more for the next leg of the trip. You're going to draw attention to yourself no matter what, so just choose whom you can trust. Turns out this US born Dominican guy came up to us and helped us out. We finally got the gua-gua for the correct price: $60pesos for the trip to Nagua.

This is very, very important...the gua-gua stop in Nagua to Sanchez is NOT in the same spot as where you get dropped off. It's about 2k away, not even on the same street. We did not know this, nor did anybody try to tell us this. So we were walking around aimlessly until we asked this guy with a little girl what the deal was. Turns out his friend was driving down the street, stopped, picked us up and dropped us off...gratis. Although, we gave him a tip.

Then the fun came, by this time, it was dark and most gua-guas stop running around 6pm-ish. That meant that when we arrived in Sanchez, there were no more gua-guas that night. However, there was a Haitian man on our gua-gua from Nagua who was headed to where we were......Las Terrenas. He was practicing his English (we think) and told us after much time spent trying to figure out what he said and about half an hour standing on the road, that local people who are traveling up the mountain would pick you up.

The first of such people with pickups wanted to charge us $200pesos a person and I think more for luggage. Then we had a crowd form. My friend, who is fluent in Spanish was working the crowd with her bargaining skills while I had some guys come up to me with their i-pods asking if I liked their music. I am a dancer and ended up dancing my way into a good deal...$150pesos for both of us and all of our crap. I wouldn't have traded all that confusion for anything bc the trip in the back of the pickup, while freezing bc we were in the mountains, was the most beautiful night drive I've ever had. There were millions of stars out.

Las Terrenas was our favorite spot. We were walking and walking and walking that night and planned on staying at Papagayo, but ended up stopping just short of that at a hotel called Las Palmerias. It was $25USD for a double bed, satellite TV, fan. The hotel was beautiful with a restaurant as well. It is positioned directly across from a cemetery. The cemetery is right on the beach, go figure. There was also a latin beach club to the left of the cemetery, which was booming music til all hours of the night. But you get used to that.

We hiked along the coast all the way up to Playa Bonita. Everybody's helpful in general, especially if you attempt their language.

We took a day trip to El Limon where there is a waterfall. The gua-gua was $50pesos and if you ask, they'll drop you off at an entrance to la cascada. Almost all people who go, do a package deal for $25USD for a starving horse and guide up the mountain. We did it for $5pesos, which was the entrance fee right at the mountain. You don't have to pay the fee if you don't want to see the waterfall from the front, but honestly...it's about a dime in US currency.

On the way back, although we could've taken a motoconcho (the other dominant vehicle of the DR) back to El Limon, but we decided to hoof it. Several kilometers later, we were picked up by 5 guys in a pickup who worked for the equivalent of Habitat for Humanity. They drove us, not only back to El Limon, but all the way back to Las Terrenas. And they wouldn't accept any $$. We all had a great time speaking in English and Spanish.

We also took a gua-gua from El Limon to Las Galeras. It gets less and less populated the further out you go. I believe it was also $50pesos. From Las Galeras, you can take a boat out to Playa Rincon, which is popular. We did not do that though.

In addition to less people, there are less resources like supermercados. And things like the internet get more expensive as well.

Also, the further east you go, the more European influence you'll run into. There are tons of Germans and French. You can buy schnitzel and speak french just about anywhere if you so chose.

On the way back, we re-traced our steps, it was cheaper bc we didn't have to pay for luggage, it was less crowded and faster in general. The taxi ride to the airport would've been $500pesos, but I only had $473 and he accepted it. He didn't want any USD, which was fine with me. I got rid of the rest of the pesos without having to exchange anything.

There wasn't much I didn't love...the pollution and litter were probably my only pet peeves. But regardless, I can't wait to get back. It reminded me so much of Cuba (if I'd broken the law and gone, that is).

Thanks for posting this. I logged on today specifically looking for stuff on the Domenican Republic. I'm considering taking a Spanish & Salsa class in either Santo Domingo or Sosua. Which would you suggest?

Thanks for the trip report, UG. Interesting. How would you compare this to other Caribbean destinations and would you go back? The prices sure seem like a great deal...

So sorry it took me so long to respond. I have been traveling non-stop for work.

Outlaw: Salsa is not a dance of the DR. It's a PR one, though. In DR, you will find merengue and bachata...and you will have no problems finding them.

I did not go to Santo Domingo, so I cannot comment. Sosua is ok. I preferred the towns the further north and east I went. Las Terrenas will always be my favorite.

Definitely go!

99: I would absolutely go back in a heartbeat and plan to be back in the future without a doubt!! I would love to be an ex-pat there.

I am a lover of latin culture. So I'm naturally biased towards Spanish-speaking countries. Since that trip, I've been to PR, which I also enjoyed. It's obviously much more expensive, but there's salsa there...which is important to me.

But I'm going to Great Exuma on Monday. So maybe I'll have a different opinion on Tuesday. Who knows.

Thank you for writing this!! I'm spending 3 months on a volunteer project in santa domingo from the begining ofdecember and have found it really difficult to find useful information. As I'm planning to spend the first month travelling around the dominican this gave me a little info on what to expect (costs = stress).

You are most welcome.

I lived in DR for 12 years and have family still there.

First hospital, university and cathedral of the new world....

Whales up north
white sands down on the carib side

get use to power cuts, get a candle, power generators are annoying

mosquitoes, tarantulas (wait till you see a full adult, wow) centipedes... not the video game.

Rum, the dark kind (Not Bacardi) Try Barcelo, Bermudez and Brugal (Añejo)

Ketchup is sweeter...

Pan sobao and pan de agua are THE local breads (good stuff)

Plantain or rice, 2-3 a day is the norm, expect lots of double starches... like rice AND potato (yum)

Meet the locals... learn a bit of spanish it goes a long way

go to... Higuey (province) Basilica de la Altagracia the patron virgen (remember it is a CATHOLIC country)

The botanical gardens are better than the zoo, the aquarium is pretty cool

mmmm, what else?

Baseball... pick a team, don't switch!

If you have any questions, just ask me or mail me or something.