Firstly, I would like to thank the DR1 community for assisting with our trip planning.
Thanks to those that assisted with hotel recomendations in LG.
Thank you to Ken for being kind enough to get the posted taxi rates from Sosua to LG and thank you to Whirleybird for negotiating $60 US off of the posted rate for me before my arrival.
The Trip
14 days in total ,the first 11 days in LG , final 3 days in Sosua.
Arrival
We arrived to POP at 1:30PM and our driver Wilson was there waiting to take us to LG. We had used Wilson before. He is always early and very proessional. I highly recomend Wilson to anyone that needs a driver in the DR. He is actually a lawyer now in addition to doing some cab work. PM me if you wish to have Wilson's contact info.
The first thing we did was grab 2 Grande Fria Presidente, then we hit the road.
The drive to LG took about 3.5 hours but we had quite a few stops. The first Presidente was so damn good we required several more along the way :squareeye .
The 3.5 hour drive was an absoloute blast. My wife had never been past Sabeneta and I had never been past Playa Grande. We enjoyed every second of the drive. Seeing towns like Gasper Hernandez, Nagua and Samana City was so cool.
The cost of the drive was $220 each way. Expensive but we enjoyed it, so worth the money.
Las Galeras
We arrived to Las Galeras and checked into Hotel Todo Blanco. Todo Blanco is a small 8 room hotel on the beach. Every room is ocean view with a nice balcony. The rooms are very basic but well worth the $81 / night.
Las Galeras was exactly what I was hoping for. It was a VERY LAID BACK little beach town. One can easily walk to all amenities in town. Our hotel which was right on the beach was less than a 5 minute walk to stores and restaurants.
There is a very nice assortment of about 6-10 restaurants owned by ex pats. The entire ex pat community seemed to be French or Italian. English is not spoken at all in the LG ex pat community from what I could tell in 11 days.
We never had a bad meal in the 11 days. The average dinner seemed to be about 1400RD to 1600RD which I thought was very good value. The Canadian dollar had gone from 32:1 last year to 39:1 this trip. I really noticed the increased purchasing power this year.
We had breakfast almost every day at the French bakery and it was about 500RD daily. The bread
was the BEST I have ever had. I highly recomend this place for breakfast. Try the Croque Madam. I had not idea what it was when I ordered it as the owner does not speak English and my French is poor at best. Anyway, it is a ham sandwich with a fried egg on top of the sandwich. Different, but so good on that fresh bread.
The one restaurant that I have to single out as a MUST in LG is El Cabito. It is not just a meal, it is an experience. It is the most expensive restaurant in LG but it is worth is for the outstanding views, the great good and the overall great family atmosphere. El Cabito is in the middle of nowhere. The owner will arrange to pick you up and if you spend enough on dinner he will also arrange for your transport back to LG.
In addition to eating at El Cabito you can cliff dive.
They also have a sleep tent with hammocks that they rent out for about 200RD per night. There were kids from all over the world staying there. We met young people from Germany, Sweden and the US staying in the El Cabito hammocks. It isn't for me but great for the 20 something crowd where money is a bit tighter.
Our first meal was about 1800RD but the experience was so great that we arranged to be picked up again in two days from our hotel.
This time the bill was 4000 RD but we had a blast. After dinner we drank with the owner Jon. He is Swiss and he is a character. We partied with Jon and an assortment of young Europeans until the wee hours of the morning. Worth every penny of the 4000 RD.
El Cabito
Whale Watching
This cost about $60 US per person. It was a great day and we did see two whales. It was my first time ever seeing a whale in person so it was well worth it.
My only caution is that the boats are not huge for ocean travel so the ride can be pretty rough when the ocean is angry.
Sit near the front of the boat if possible. I found out that much like the old saying "sh!t flows downhill", "vomit flows down wind". There were a lot of people getting sea sick. I will leave the rest to your imagination.
Overall LG
Great little town and I would go back for sure. It is small, safe. Tourists are not hounded. I think there is some nightlife in town but we really did not look into that aspect.
One querky little thing about the town is that for 3 of our 11 days we could not buy an ice cube in he ENTIRE town. My wife likes ice in her Cuba Libre and there was not a cube to be found anywhere. Anytime I asked at the Calmado they just smiled and said, nada....manana....
On March 2nd Wilson arrived right on time to deliver us back to Sosua, we said goodbye to LG :disappoin
Sosua
I love this little town. I know many don't like it but I hope to move here some day. It had been two years since we were last in Sosua and I could not be more pleasantly surprised with what I found. I was last in Sosua after the earth quake. At that point Sosua was in bad shape. There were little kids sleeping all over the streets and the town just did not feel safe any more.
This time around Sosua had really cleaned up. There were a lot of new resteraunts in the area accross from Britania. I thought the town really looked great compared to 2 years ago. The downside is that many of the nice new restaurants seemed to be empty.
The eary thing about Sosua's clean up is that it is like a martian space ship came down and sucked all the Hatians out of Sousa. I have a feeling I know what happened to them and it makes me sad. I know I am speaking out of both sides of my mouth here, as on one hand I am saying the town is cleaner and feels safer, and on the other hand it makes me sad to think about the tough life of these poor people.
Our last day of vacation was spent at one of my favorite places in the world. Sousa Beach. We had a great breakfast at the Scandanavian Bar with some friends. Great place for breakfast. The rest of the day was fun and sun at Palya Sosua. It was a Sunday and I have never seen Sosua beach so quiet on a Sunday. The beach chair vendors said that is the norm lately. Too bad.
The next day Wilson collected us and we said good bye to Sosua and the DR :disappoin
Thanks to those that assisted with hotel recomendations in LG.
Thank you to Ken for being kind enough to get the posted taxi rates from Sosua to LG and thank you to Whirleybird for negotiating $60 US off of the posted rate for me before my arrival.
The Trip
14 days in total ,the first 11 days in LG , final 3 days in Sosua.
Arrival
We arrived to POP at 1:30PM and our driver Wilson was there waiting to take us to LG. We had used Wilson before. He is always early and very proessional. I highly recomend Wilson to anyone that needs a driver in the DR. He is actually a lawyer now in addition to doing some cab work. PM me if you wish to have Wilson's contact info.
The first thing we did was grab 2 Grande Fria Presidente, then we hit the road.
The drive to LG took about 3.5 hours but we had quite a few stops. The first Presidente was so damn good we required several more along the way :squareeye .
The 3.5 hour drive was an absoloute blast. My wife had never been past Sabeneta and I had never been past Playa Grande. We enjoyed every second of the drive. Seeing towns like Gasper Hernandez, Nagua and Samana City was so cool.
The cost of the drive was $220 each way. Expensive but we enjoyed it, so worth the money.
Las Galeras
We arrived to Las Galeras and checked into Hotel Todo Blanco. Todo Blanco is a small 8 room hotel on the beach. Every room is ocean view with a nice balcony. The rooms are very basic but well worth the $81 / night.
Las Galeras was exactly what I was hoping for. It was a VERY LAID BACK little beach town. One can easily walk to all amenities in town. Our hotel which was right on the beach was less than a 5 minute walk to stores and restaurants.
There is a very nice assortment of about 6-10 restaurants owned by ex pats. The entire ex pat community seemed to be French or Italian. English is not spoken at all in the LG ex pat community from what I could tell in 11 days.
We never had a bad meal in the 11 days. The average dinner seemed to be about 1400RD to 1600RD which I thought was very good value. The Canadian dollar had gone from 32:1 last year to 39:1 this trip. I really noticed the increased purchasing power this year.
We had breakfast almost every day at the French bakery and it was about 500RD daily. The bread
was the BEST I have ever had. I highly recomend this place for breakfast. Try the Croque Madam. I had not idea what it was when I ordered it as the owner does not speak English and my French is poor at best. Anyway, it is a ham sandwich with a fried egg on top of the sandwich. Different, but so good on that fresh bread.
The one restaurant that I have to single out as a MUST in LG is El Cabito. It is not just a meal, it is an experience. It is the most expensive restaurant in LG but it is worth is for the outstanding views, the great good and the overall great family atmosphere. El Cabito is in the middle of nowhere. The owner will arrange to pick you up and if you spend enough on dinner he will also arrange for your transport back to LG.
In addition to eating at El Cabito you can cliff dive.
They also have a sleep tent with hammocks that they rent out for about 200RD per night. There were kids from all over the world staying there. We met young people from Germany, Sweden and the US staying in the El Cabito hammocks. It isn't for me but great for the 20 something crowd where money is a bit tighter.
Our first meal was about 1800RD but the experience was so great that we arranged to be picked up again in two days from our hotel.
This time the bill was 4000 RD but we had a blast. After dinner we drank with the owner Jon. He is Swiss and he is a character. We partied with Jon and an assortment of young Europeans until the wee hours of the morning. Worth every penny of the 4000 RD.
El Cabito
Whale Watching
This cost about $60 US per person. It was a great day and we did see two whales. It was my first time ever seeing a whale in person so it was well worth it.
My only caution is that the boats are not huge for ocean travel so the ride can be pretty rough when the ocean is angry.
Sit near the front of the boat if possible. I found out that much like the old saying "sh!t flows downhill", "vomit flows down wind". There were a lot of people getting sea sick. I will leave the rest to your imagination.
Overall LG
Great little town and I would go back for sure. It is small, safe. Tourists are not hounded. I think there is some nightlife in town but we really did not look into that aspect.
One querky little thing about the town is that for 3 of our 11 days we could not buy an ice cube in he ENTIRE town. My wife likes ice in her Cuba Libre and there was not a cube to be found anywhere. Anytime I asked at the Calmado they just smiled and said, nada....manana....
On March 2nd Wilson arrived right on time to deliver us back to Sosua, we said goodbye to LG :disappoin
Sosua
I love this little town. I know many don't like it but I hope to move here some day. It had been two years since we were last in Sosua and I could not be more pleasantly surprised with what I found. I was last in Sosua after the earth quake. At that point Sosua was in bad shape. There were little kids sleeping all over the streets and the town just did not feel safe any more.
This time around Sosua had really cleaned up. There were a lot of new resteraunts in the area accross from Britania. I thought the town really looked great compared to 2 years ago. The downside is that many of the nice new restaurants seemed to be empty.
The eary thing about Sosua's clean up is that it is like a martian space ship came down and sucked all the Hatians out of Sousa. I have a feeling I know what happened to them and it makes me sad. I know I am speaking out of both sides of my mouth here, as on one hand I am saying the town is cleaner and feels safer, and on the other hand it makes me sad to think about the tough life of these poor people.
Our last day of vacation was spent at one of my favorite places in the world. Sousa Beach. We had a great breakfast at the Scandanavian Bar with some friends. Great place for breakfast. The rest of the day was fun and sun at Palya Sosua. It was a Sunday and I have never seen Sosua beach so quiet on a Sunday. The beach chair vendors said that is the norm lately. Too bad.
The next day Wilson collected us and we said good bye to Sosua and the DR :disappoin
