Two questions about my first DR trip

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sam5935

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Oct 11, 2004
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Hey there!

I am a 31 year old male from San Francisco, Ca. who is about to book his trip to DR. I have two questions for the folks on this board.


1. I would like to stick to under $65(us) a day for a budget. I'm looking for a cheap but decent hotel, the occasional taxi ride,simple meals and nightlife. Does this seem reasonable?

2. I have next to no spanish skills. However, I would love to meet locals and try to spend some time with them. I would also love to meet any non-working girls as well. Are there places where the locals speak any english at all?


Thanks for your help. Any advice is most welcome!!

Shayne
 
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carina

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Mar 13, 2005
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Hi, and welcome to DR!
Where are you planning to go in DR?
You would manage on your budget if you choose very plain hotels, and they are located outside any All-inclusive resort.

As for meeting locals and/or girls, that can be the least of your concern!
People are very openhearted and warm, and you would have no problem meeting with locals.
Just hold your wallet, there are many freeloaders out there too!
 
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rellosk

Silver
Mar 18, 2002
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You are going to have a difficult (not impossible) time making it on $65 per day; even if you are excluding the cost of hotel in the $65. Meeting locals won't be a problem, however communicating with them will be a problem since you speak almost no Spanish and most Dominicans speak very little English.

What area of the DR are you thinking of visiting? There tends to be more English speaking locals on the North Coast.
 
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Malibook

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Jan 23, 2002
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www.yourtraveltickets.com
sam5935 said:
1. I would like to stick to under $65(us) a day for a budget. I'm looking for a cheap but decent hotel, the occasional taxi ride,simple meals and nightlife. Does this seem reasonable?
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$65US a day including a decent hotel?

IMO this is not even close to being enough.

Of course you could get by if you have no other choice but I would hope you will have access to more cash should you need it.
I wouldn't want to be on holiday and have to be so frugal and pinch pesos.
 
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ricktoronto

Grande Pollo en Boca Chica
Jan 9, 2002
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sam5935 said:
Hey there!

I am a 31 year old male from San Francisco, Ca. who is about to book his trip to DR. I have two questions for the folks on this board.


1. I would like to stick to under $65(us) a day for a budget. I'm looking for a cheap but decent hotel, the occasional taxi ride,simple meals and nightlife. Does this seem reasonable?

2. I have next to no spanish skills. However, I would love to meet locals and try to spend some time with them. I would also love to meet any non-working girls as well. Are there places where the locals speak any english at all?


Thanks for your help. Any advice is most welcome!!

Shayne
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If you only spoke Urdu or Hungarian, how well would you do with the English speaking girls where you live? Lousy. So local non-working girls would find it as tedious to "meet" you for a "date" as your local gals would with Hasim or Vlasic (the pickle magnate might do OK as he'd be rich)

Your budget is woefully inadequate - a reasonable hotel is at least US$40 + their usurious taxes, and with the peso of late US$25 a day to eat and drink wouldn't work. And if you really secretly mean you'd like to meet some street girls then the $65 alone would not be enough. Especially for a first-timer without language skills.

You did not say where in the DR but the hotels unless they are coldwater flats would be pretty consistent in the $40+ range in the main spots.
 
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sam5935

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Oct 11, 2004
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Well, I'm glad I wrote. However, I'm a little confused. All over this board are people telling about their $30 hotel rooms and their $4 plates of food and their $6 bus rides across the country. I don't see where the extra expense is?

I've been told that DR is a little bit, but not a lot more expensive than many other independent backpacker destinations such as Thailand, Costa Rica, Turkey, etc....No?
 
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Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
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If you're really going to travel as a budget traveller, you can restrict yourself to basic accommodation and comedores populares everywhere you go, $65 a day is more than enough. In fact, you might be able to splurge one night in three and treat yourself to a stay in a more salubrious hotel. It is precisely hotels that will present the greatest challenge. In some places cheap accommodation is worse than dire, if it is available at all.

Eating in local 'plato del dia' comedores is certainly cheap ($3-4 for a plato del dia of rice, beans, meat and sometimes veg), and those are to be found in most places. Public transport is indeed cheap and good.

You will have to do a lot of leg work, but if it is a true backpacking experience you're after, that's part of it. And certainly, eating in comedores, taking public transport and staying in the cheaper hostels will bring you into contact with local people in a way that sticking to the 'gringo trail' could never do.
 
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ricktoronto

Grande Pollo en Boca Chica
Jan 9, 2002
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sam5935 said:
Well, I'm glad I wrote. However, I'm a little confused. All over this board are people telling about their $30 hotel rooms and their $4 plates of food and their $6 bus rides across the country. I don't see where the extra expense is?

I've been told that DR is a little bit, but not a lot more expensive than many other independent backpacker destinations such as Thailand, Costa Rica, Turkey, etc....No?
Click to expand...

It was like that when the peso was 50:1 , even before that at 35:1 , now that it has gained value vs. the US$ the response is to make everything more expensive vs. less and also tax the hell out of everyone.

You can find $10 hotel rooms , bring RAID and a few mousetraps. The bus rides are still under $5 though, maybe sleep on them and use wet-naps to shower?

You don't have enough budget, simple. Get more dough, spend less time or go somewhere cheaper. Hostel life and eating beans and rice everyday would work if that's your bag. But you did not ask for backpacker budget advice you asked for tourist in a hotel advice.

The DR is similar to visiting the USA or Canada, smaller urban centres.

And bone up on your espanol before you go, really, it is quite hard to communicate and hang out with people when you are doing the Tower of Babel thing.
 
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sam5935

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Oct 11, 2004
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Hmm...there is an interesting divide here because I posted the same question on lonely planet and have had an overwhelming response that $65, excluding airfare is plenty. Let me clarify.

Staying in a "backpacker" type hotel is fine. When I say this, I mean a small room in a safe neighborhood with possibly a shared bath. I don't need cable TV, I don't need a pool, I don't need an in hotel restaurant. Eating rice and beans is fine. Only having a couple of drinks here and there is fine.

Maybe this will help give an idea of what I have in mind. I want to avoid the AI's and the Hiltonesque hotels like the plague.I can get that here in the states. Thanks!
 
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Chirimoya

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Dec 9, 2002
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The thing is, there are very few 'backpacker' hotels in the usual sense. Cheap hotels are generally very basic, sometimes downright seedy hostels catering for locals. More often than not you will be the only foreigner there.

There are exceptions. A couple of places on Calle Danae in Gazcue (Santo Domingo) fall into that category. The Colonial in Santiago sounds like good value, in fact I think I stayed there once myself. The rest of the country is hit and miss. In tourist areas you will have to pay higher prices - quelle surprise - and in some towns off the beaten track there might be nothing at all.

Anyway, see what the LP guide has to say - that's a good start, providing it's an up to date edition. Prices - and the exchange rate - have changed dramatically over the last year or two.
 
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sam5935

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My LP guide is from 2002. It says that there are ample clean,safe rroms in every area I've checked for $20-30(us). This is with an exchange rate of $1:17. Today it's 1:29. As well, the 2005 Footprint guide lists many (supposedly)clean,safe hotels all over the country for the same price and the listed exchange rate verying from 1:20-1:27.

So, I hate to be difficult but where are all these hotels? Obviously I'm inclined to agree with those of you on this board that are/have been there but I don't know why both of these guides would give such disparate information.

Thanks for all the continuing help!!

Shayne
 
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ricktoronto

Grande Pollo en Boca Chica
Jan 9, 2002
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I would not bet my entire travel plans on Lonely Planet Guides to be honest with you.

In Boca Chica as an example there are good clean non AI hotels for around $40 plus tax. Maybe $35 for a couple. Then there are hovels for about $10 that have no hot water and transients living in them. No hostels, no $20 basic hotels, no nothing. And food is dear other than maybe at a handful of places that the locals would frequent (and after 6 years of going there I still won't).

You either pay or you live like a hobo. And frankly the whole country is going the way of the AI's as far as I am concerned.

If this guide lists some then name some and where they are as we are not mind readers and you are the guy with the book. I am sure you can get some honest opinions on their value.
 
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Chirimoya

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Dec 9, 2002
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Places that cost $20-30 in 2002 will cost quite a bit more now - I use as my reference point the most basic tourist caba?as in Las Galeras, Samana.

Another example would be Cotui. There is one 'nice' place - El Rancho del Lago - a couple of kms out of town. It used to be about RD$1000 per night, now probably quite a bit more. In the centre of Cotui there are three or four cheap places which my colleague there memorably placed in the "cockroaches and condoms" category.

In the nicer places there will be some fluctuation according to season, but I never can work out what is high/low season here or why,

As a former backpacker myself (who once managed to stick to a budget of US$12 a day for a couple, mind you, this was back in 1988, and we were being masochistically frugal) I know you have to be prepared to endure basic conditions, but it gets to the point where you are so focused on saving money that you lose sight of the bigger picture.

My point is - take the LP Guide with a pinch of salt, draw up an approximate itinerary, search the boards on this site for RECENT posts with accommodation information - and if you still need some answers, try us.
 
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carina

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Mar 13, 2005
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I don?t at all think you have divided responses... More than anything it depends on where you travel, what cities or areas you visit.

In Puerto Plata, where I live, you have no problems to live on that budget.
There are hotels, that are both cheap and clean, from 5 US/night up to
much more. Castilla and Sams Bar is one example. Clean, cheap, but of course with shower down the hall. They are in the LP book.
There are other as well for this money, Hotel Hans is one example. Very clean nice little house, shower and WC in the room.
 
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rellosk

Silver
Mar 18, 2002
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ricktoronto said:
If this guide lists some then name some and where they are as we are not mind readers and you are the guy with the book. I am sure you can get some honest opinions on their value.
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Ricktoronto makes sense. Post the names of some of the hotels and their location and I'm sure some of the DR1'ers will give you their opinion.

Another thing to consider is back in 2002 many hotels didn't charge tax if you paid with cash. Now, all but a few charge the 24% tax.
 
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sam5935

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Oct 11, 2004
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So here are the places in Boca Chica listed in the 2004 footprints guide.

1.Villa Don $20-60
2.Costalunga $30-40
3.La Belle $20-40
4.Don Paco $20 or below
5.Pension Alemania $20 or below

Anyone know these places?
 
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ricktoronto

Grande Pollo en Boca Chica
Jan 9, 2002
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sam5935 said:
So here are the places in Boca Chica listed in the 2004 footprints guide.

1.Villa Don $20-60
2.Costalunga $30-40
3.La Belle $20-40
4.Don Paco $20 or below
5.Pension Alemania $20 or below

Anyone know these places?
Click to expand...

1. Not sure if this even exists
2. $40 plus 15%
3.4. Not sure I have even heard of them
5. Dump
 
J

john cast

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Oct 3, 2004
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sam5935 said:
Hey there!

I am a 31 year old male from San Francisco, Ca. who is about to book his trip to DR. I have two questions for the folks on this board.


1. I would like to stick to under $65(us) a day for a budget. I'm looking for a cheap but decent hotel, the occasional taxi ride,simple meals and nightlife. Does this seem reasonable?

2. I have next to no spanish skills. However, I would love to meet locals and try to spend some time with them. I would also love to meet any non-working girls as well. Are there places where the locals speak any english at all?


Thanks for your help. Any advice is most welcome!!

Shayne
Click to expand...
i have a condo in cabarte ocean front i would be happy too rent for 40.00
usd a night 1 bedrm nice place don,t let people scare you give me a pm and
i will call you if you wish or call me at my security co in ny 631 53 2606
 
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