Hi all..
We would like to share our trip with you - and maybe at the same time give a few suggestions and "look out for"-stuff as well..
Me and my girlfriend went for a "semi-budget-trip" to the DR.
We thought that 130 USD (~ 4200 RD$) would be enough per day for both of us. I will come back to discuss the budget in a while..
We arrived to Punta Cana International Airport the 9th of July, around 8pm. We had already booked a room for the first two nights in the little village Bayahibe as we didn't find any interesting options in Punta Cana or Bavaro except for all the "All Inclusive" resorts.
We still didn't know anything about price ranges or anything, but my girlfriend have been to India, and really knows how to handle the always-too-expensive-fares etc... Lucky me!! ;o)
Anyhow.. As the ride to Bayahibe from Punta Cana Airport is about 1? hour drive, and there are only buses to Higuey and the resorts, we got hold of a taxi - which thought 120 USD would be a great price for us. We ended up with no choices but managed to not spend more than 85 USD on the trip. We know now - after travelling the country - never to pay that much for a short trip like that again..
The first hotel was called Villa Iguana, and is in the center of Bayahibe. We paid 39 USD per night for two ppl.
The town is VERY VERY quiet.. Loads of small restaurants, but NO PEOPLE anywhere - except for the locals.. One at each and every street corner! Funny little village. There is a nice little beach, where the sand is very nice.. It's clean, and the water is so perfect in every aspect!!
If you feel like relaxing for a few days, come here.. The food is very cheap (ranging from 80 RD$ to 400 RD$ for a full meal including 16% tax and 10% + 10% tip)
There are excursions for those who likes to dive, sail, and also go to a very nice little island a boat trip away with beautiful beaches. We didn't go to any of this because of the interest from all the AI resorts. We tried to AVOID all of that!!
A few days later we took a gua-gua (small buss or minivan) to the near by town - La Romana. After spending just about 30 minutes in the center of La Romana, we felt that this was NOT a place for us!! The city in it self smells from the factories, and the traffic is very hard (which makes it smell even worse). We soon found our selves on a gua-gua to the next town in line; Boca Chica.
The gua-gua for TWO people from Bayahibe --> La Romana --> Boca Chica, was only 270 RD$ total!!!! (About 4 USD per person).
In Boca Chica we stayed in a hotel called La Cachella.
It was 1000 RD$ (~ 31 USD) per night for the room. Not a single hotel charged us anything other than PER ROOM.. except for the LAST hotel which charged PER PERSON PER NIGHT...
Boca Chica has got ONE active street. It's very tourist-oriented, but there's not a single tourist in the little town... Well.. That's a lie, but.. There were VERY FEW tourist by the time we were there! Mostly locals.
The beaches are nice - not GREAT... Nice is the word!!
)
One thing we met here - was the first anger.. Yep!!
Sorry to say, but.. We didn't expect people to lie without no reason when already living at the place. We asked if there were "agua caliente" (hot water), and the lady assured us that this was the case.. Hours and hours went past and no hot water in any room. (We crashed a few empty rooms just to find out!) There would have been no disappointment if the lady just told us.. "No!" We would have been okey, and our expectations wouldn't have been - "HOT water".. It's so frustrating to have to even bother with the disappointment. That's one day with less happiness than expected!!(
This was repeated by MANY hotels around the country and we were more okey with it later, but it took a while to get used to being lied to - right up in your face!!
Anyhow.. The food was great in Boca Chica (try "Mero ? la plancha" - Grilled Seabass if you?re going to the DR. You'll find it everywhere basically)..
A few days later we went to Santo Domingo - the capital.
The gua-gua was only 50 RD$ per person.
As we didn't know where to go, we thougt that two NICE nights at a great hotel with HOT water would be lovely - so we checked in to a hotel in the Colonial Zone. Can't remember the name of the hotel, but we paid a nice little fee of about 2800 RD$ per night for the room (which included continental breakfast). (About 90 USD per night that is)..
Well.. As we were in the big city we knew that even though we paid more than half our days budget on the hotel - we would not spend much more as we could walk everywhere... Everywhere we wanted that is..
We tried a dominican kitchen for once as well. It was basically someones apartment that were supposed to be a restaurant. It was really nice actually! The tables almost fell apart, and everything looked... well... not really up to date.. But.. We wanted the REAL experience.. Not a fancy table with dishes found in Europe or any other country. We wanted the Dominican food, and the same thing everybody else eats. We ate chicken (pollo), rice (arroz) and a sauce I don't know the name of with beans... Basically found everywhere in the DR.
We had a great meal for just 100 RD$ (~3 USD per person including taxes and tip)...
The second evening in Santo Domingo, we went out for the hunt of what we really came to the island for... DANCE!!! We do dance Salsa, and we also enjoy Bachata as well. But - we came to see the origin.. How people dance it in the Dominican Republic. Not the bachata found anywhere else in Europe or North America.
We took a taxi to a Club-street somewhere (we really don't know where) in Santo Domingo. The taxi driver left us at a club where we saw Bachata danced by Dominicans for the first time in our lives. We were REALLY happy to finally have found the dance danced by locals!!
After an hour we decided to go to the next place. Guacara Ta?na it was called. It's a bat cave which have been "renovated" to a club that holds 2,000 people.. VERY nice experience - even though there only were 20 tourists there that night, trying some obscene dancing with eachother.. Almost like a sex ritual or something... ???
Anyhow.. It was NICE!!!
But.. We have to tell you about the ride from the first club to the second.
We waved in a taxi at the first club. Or.. the other way around.. He waved in us.. Well.. After jumping in to the taxi, the driver put his left hand out the window, and made a quick turn (over the flower arrangements in the middle of the road) to the other lanes taking us the other direction.. Oh well.. Not really that big of a deal... Yet!!!
After a couple of hundred meters the street lights were no longer available, and not until THEN we realized that the driver had no headlights!! Oh well.. Let's just hope that he knows what he?s doing.. :S
Soon the road turned into a not so straight road, and for the first time, I was actually worried about driving in 50-60mph (85-100 kph) in the middle of the night.. And - by the way - with a broken window, so you had to lean towards the window to be able to see outside the car - in broad daylight!!! So - this experience was a bit scary - at night!!
Well.. Not just that, but.. after a while we came to a crossing.. aparantly, as the driver honked the horn as much as possible, just to let other crossing cars to know that he?s coming (without light - or vision for that matter), and you'd better stay out!!!P
And... By the way... Green, Red.. What's the difference???
He didn't stop for ANY red lights.. at all!!!
And.. After driving us half the way, he suddenly stopped and said. "I don't drive further. You will have to go with another driver".. Jumped out of the car, and waved in another taxi for us...
Strange, but.. We managed without scratches and finally came to Guacara Ta?na.))
The taxi fares in Santo Domingo is usually never more than 150-200 RD$ - wherever you want to go.. But.. At night.. the little devil comes to play, and some of the drivers tries in their worst manner to con another 100 RD$ from you for driving another 50 meters - if they find an opportunity!
Next - we went to Bonao.
Bonao is a small village in the center of the country. Not much to do or see... We visited Rancho Wendy (Adventures in the Dominican Republic hiking, biking, horseback riding. Cheap Accommodations, Waterfront Rooms starting at $10.00 USD. Rancho Wendy offers basic accommodation for a very affordable price. Excellent location for hiking, biking, golf, ho).. Don't EVER go there!!!!!!!! We had rats in our room, we were told that we were going for nice trekking to waterfalls, but my shower at home spills more water.. and the food... Oh my God, the food!!! Yuck!!!! We arrived when a group of tourists from the Virgin Islands just were leaving. The first they told us, was: "He?s a jerk!" We didn't know what to think, or why - but - now we know!!!
After one night we went to Jarabacoa, which according to rumors had ACTUAL waterfalls and river rafting as well...
The Jarabacoa stay was one of the most memorable. We had lots of them, but we really liked this little village. It's high up in the mountain - which makes the temperature fall a bit, and it's not that humid either. We spent 4 nights at a hotel charging 900 RD$ per night!
We saw the waterfalls (went with a guide and paid 1000 RD$ (31 USD) total to go there by car), and we did the River Rafting which was 1650 RD$ (50 USD) per person.
After Jarabacoa we jumped another gua-gua and went to Monte Cristi - via Santiago.
Monte Cristi is on the north coast. The town is very small. Nothing to do IN the town, so we just went to the best hotel we could find. Now everything started to get irritating...!!! From Monte Cristi and forward, 80% of our rides with gua-gua tried to con us for more money than the locals paid. But as my girlfriend is half portugues, she knows spanish quite well, and could easily overhear conversations and also find out the REAL prices.
They also tell you that the ride is 8km when it is in fact not more than 1,5km and so forth... Just annoying!
Anyhow.. The hotel we stayed at (can't remember the name) was in the middle of the desert, it felt like.. But still just a few hundred meters from the shore. The NOT so great thing with the hotel, was that the restaurant closed by 7pm, and even before that - didn't cook anything but rice and chicken. And - after 7pm - you couldn't get ANYTHING to eat as there were no stores or anything in the proximity.
The next morning we went by gua-gua to see the big market in Dajabon by the Haitian border. Not very much to see... Just something that we really wanted to see - just to KNOW what it was like!!) Very crowded!!! Indeed!
After this, we went back to Santiago to be able to go to Puerto Plata.
In Puerto Plata we stayed at a Guesthouse quite near the beachwalk. Can't remember the name of that one either. It was pink, and we paid only 550 RD$ per night for a room with Air Condition. No hot water - of course. Clean room.. But.. The standard otherwise is as expected for that price! And - we wanted just THAT.. So we were more than happy to be there!
Puerto Plata is a nice town with Ocean World as one of the main attractions for visitors. We had the shark encounter (had a shark in the lap and fed it with fish), stingray encounter, dolphin encounter, and went to all the shows with sea lions, dolphins etc. It was a full day!! Really - it was!!
The next day we met PLANNER from this forum. I had been in contact with her earlier for some help to go out dancing bachata and merengue. Planner was what made our stay in Puerto Plata the MOST memorable during our entire stay in the DR. She took us out dancing two nights, and introduced us to some locals. The next few days when we walked the streets people waved to us, and made dancing moves - followed by a thumb up in the air!!)) Really cool feeling to be recognized out of nowhere!
Planner also took us to the nicest beach WE saw during our stay in the DR. The Sosua Beach (Playa Sos?a) was just stunning!!! Sooooo beautiful, and even though not in the middle of nowhere, or anything like that... just a GORGEOUS beach!! And CRYSTAL CLEAR water! I bet there are more beaches like this, but - this was the BEST beach for US!
We went there the next day as well, by our selves - but on the way back to Puerto Plata the gua-gua driver ran over a dog - on purpose!!!!!!! The dog probably died on the spot... This was the killer of that day. We couldn't even bare to speak to eachother - my girlfriend and I... We felt sick.. It was just awfull, and I can't really remember anything from that day except that event!
We also got our laundry done in Puerto Plata, but it was over charged - as many other things. We paid 890 RD$ for 25pcs of cloathing... Outrageous!
After Puerto Plata, we went to Rio San Juan one night, and went on a boat trip to see mangrooves and a few nice beaches... Not much to say. Slept at a nice hotel by the sea. Costed 1000 RD$ for one night. Canadian owner - I think it was! Old sweet lady at the reception!
From Rio San Juan, we went to Samana, where we just spent a night in the wait to go by the ferry from Samana to Sabana de la mar, and further by gua-gua to the small town Hato Mayor, and then to Higuey, and finally ending up after 6 hours in Bavaro.
The post continues (as this forum only allows 15000 chars per post)...
We would like to share our trip with you - and maybe at the same time give a few suggestions and "look out for"-stuff as well..
Me and my girlfriend went for a "semi-budget-trip" to the DR.
We thought that 130 USD (~ 4200 RD$) would be enough per day for both of us. I will come back to discuss the budget in a while..
We arrived to Punta Cana International Airport the 9th of July, around 8pm. We had already booked a room for the first two nights in the little village Bayahibe as we didn't find any interesting options in Punta Cana or Bavaro except for all the "All Inclusive" resorts.
We still didn't know anything about price ranges or anything, but my girlfriend have been to India, and really knows how to handle the always-too-expensive-fares etc... Lucky me!! ;o)
Anyhow.. As the ride to Bayahibe from Punta Cana Airport is about 1? hour drive, and there are only buses to Higuey and the resorts, we got hold of a taxi - which thought 120 USD would be a great price for us. We ended up with no choices but managed to not spend more than 85 USD on the trip. We know now - after travelling the country - never to pay that much for a short trip like that again..
The first hotel was called Villa Iguana, and is in the center of Bayahibe. We paid 39 USD per night for two ppl.
The town is VERY VERY quiet.. Loads of small restaurants, but NO PEOPLE anywhere - except for the locals.. One at each and every street corner! Funny little village. There is a nice little beach, where the sand is very nice.. It's clean, and the water is so perfect in every aspect!!
If you feel like relaxing for a few days, come here.. The food is very cheap (ranging from 80 RD$ to 400 RD$ for a full meal including 16% tax and 10% + 10% tip)
There are excursions for those who likes to dive, sail, and also go to a very nice little island a boat trip away with beautiful beaches. We didn't go to any of this because of the interest from all the AI resorts. We tried to AVOID all of that!!
A few days later we took a gua-gua (small buss or minivan) to the near by town - La Romana. After spending just about 30 minutes in the center of La Romana, we felt that this was NOT a place for us!! The city in it self smells from the factories, and the traffic is very hard (which makes it smell even worse). We soon found our selves on a gua-gua to the next town in line; Boca Chica.
The gua-gua for TWO people from Bayahibe --> La Romana --> Boca Chica, was only 270 RD$ total!!!! (About 4 USD per person).
In Boca Chica we stayed in a hotel called La Cachella.
It was 1000 RD$ (~ 31 USD) per night for the room. Not a single hotel charged us anything other than PER ROOM.. except for the LAST hotel which charged PER PERSON PER NIGHT...
Boca Chica has got ONE active street. It's very tourist-oriented, but there's not a single tourist in the little town... Well.. That's a lie, but.. There were VERY FEW tourist by the time we were there! Mostly locals.
The beaches are nice - not GREAT... Nice is the word!!
)One thing we met here - was the first anger.. Yep!!
Sorry to say, but.. We didn't expect people to lie without no reason when already living at the place. We asked if there were "agua caliente" (hot water), and the lady assured us that this was the case.. Hours and hours went past and no hot water in any room. (We crashed a few empty rooms just to find out!) There would have been no disappointment if the lady just told us.. "No!" We would have been okey, and our expectations wouldn't have been - "HOT water".. It's so frustrating to have to even bother with the disappointment. That's one day with less happiness than expected!!
(This was repeated by MANY hotels around the country and we were more okey with it later, but it took a while to get used to being lied to - right up in your face!!
Anyhow.. The food was great in Boca Chica (try "Mero ? la plancha" - Grilled Seabass if you?re going to the DR. You'll find it everywhere basically)..
A few days later we went to Santo Domingo - the capital.
The gua-gua was only 50 RD$ per person.
As we didn't know where to go, we thougt that two NICE nights at a great hotel with HOT water would be lovely - so we checked in to a hotel in the Colonial Zone. Can't remember the name of the hotel, but we paid a nice little fee of about 2800 RD$ per night for the room (which included continental breakfast). (About 90 USD per night that is)..
Well.. As we were in the big city we knew that even though we paid more than half our days budget on the hotel - we would not spend much more as we could walk everywhere... Everywhere we wanted that is..
We tried a dominican kitchen for once as well. It was basically someones apartment that were supposed to be a restaurant. It was really nice actually! The tables almost fell apart, and everything looked... well... not really up to date.. But.. We wanted the REAL experience.. Not a fancy table with dishes found in Europe or any other country. We wanted the Dominican food, and the same thing everybody else eats. We ate chicken (pollo), rice (arroz) and a sauce I don't know the name of with beans... Basically found everywhere in the DR.
We had a great meal for just 100 RD$ (~3 USD per person including taxes and tip)...
The second evening in Santo Domingo, we went out for the hunt of what we really came to the island for... DANCE!!! We do dance Salsa, and we also enjoy Bachata as well. But - we came to see the origin.. How people dance it in the Dominican Republic. Not the bachata found anywhere else in Europe or North America.
We took a taxi to a Club-street somewhere (we really don't know where) in Santo Domingo. The taxi driver left us at a club where we saw Bachata danced by Dominicans for the first time in our lives. We were REALLY happy to finally have found the dance danced by locals!!
After an hour we decided to go to the next place. Guacara Ta?na it was called. It's a bat cave which have been "renovated" to a club that holds 2,000 people.. VERY nice experience - even though there only were 20 tourists there that night, trying some obscene dancing with eachother.. Almost like a sex ritual or something... ???
Anyhow.. It was NICE!!!
But.. We have to tell you about the ride from the first club to the second.
We waved in a taxi at the first club. Or.. the other way around.. He waved in us.. Well.. After jumping in to the taxi, the driver put his left hand out the window, and made a quick turn (over the flower arrangements in the middle of the road) to the other lanes taking us the other direction.. Oh well.. Not really that big of a deal... Yet!!!
After a couple of hundred meters the street lights were no longer available, and not until THEN we realized that the driver had no headlights!! Oh well.. Let's just hope that he knows what he?s doing.. :S
Soon the road turned into a not so straight road, and for the first time, I was actually worried about driving in 50-60mph (85-100 kph) in the middle of the night.. And - by the way - with a broken window, so you had to lean towards the window to be able to see outside the car - in broad daylight!!! So - this experience was a bit scary - at night!!
Well.. Not just that, but.. after a while we came to a crossing.. aparantly, as the driver honked the horn as much as possible, just to let other crossing cars to know that he?s coming (without light - or vision for that matter), and you'd better stay out!!!
PAnd... By the way... Green, Red.. What's the difference???
He didn't stop for ANY red lights.. at all!!!
And.. After driving us half the way, he suddenly stopped and said. "I don't drive further. You will have to go with another driver".. Jumped out of the car, and waved in another taxi for us...
Strange, but.. We managed without scratches and finally came to Guacara Ta?na.
))The taxi fares in Santo Domingo is usually never more than 150-200 RD$ - wherever you want to go.. But.. At night.. the little devil comes to play, and some of the drivers tries in their worst manner to con another 100 RD$ from you for driving another 50 meters - if they find an opportunity!
Next - we went to Bonao.
Bonao is a small village in the center of the country. Not much to do or see... We visited Rancho Wendy (Adventures in the Dominican Republic hiking, biking, horseback riding. Cheap Accommodations, Waterfront Rooms starting at $10.00 USD. Rancho Wendy offers basic accommodation for a very affordable price. Excellent location for hiking, biking, golf, ho).. Don't EVER go there!!!!!!!! We had rats in our room, we were told that we were going for nice trekking to waterfalls, but my shower at home spills more water.. and the food... Oh my God, the food!!! Yuck!!!! We arrived when a group of tourists from the Virgin Islands just were leaving. The first they told us, was: "He?s a jerk!" We didn't know what to think, or why - but - now we know!!!
After one night we went to Jarabacoa, which according to rumors had ACTUAL waterfalls and river rafting as well...
The Jarabacoa stay was one of the most memorable. We had lots of them, but we really liked this little village. It's high up in the mountain - which makes the temperature fall a bit, and it's not that humid either. We spent 4 nights at a hotel charging 900 RD$ per night!
We saw the waterfalls (went with a guide and paid 1000 RD$ (31 USD) total to go there by car), and we did the River Rafting which was 1650 RD$ (50 USD) per person.
After Jarabacoa we jumped another gua-gua and went to Monte Cristi - via Santiago.
Monte Cristi is on the north coast. The town is very small. Nothing to do IN the town, so we just went to the best hotel we could find. Now everything started to get irritating...!!! From Monte Cristi and forward, 80% of our rides with gua-gua tried to con us for more money than the locals paid. But as my girlfriend is half portugues, she knows spanish quite well, and could easily overhear conversations and also find out the REAL prices.
They also tell you that the ride is 8km when it is in fact not more than 1,5km and so forth... Just annoying!
Anyhow.. The hotel we stayed at (can't remember the name) was in the middle of the desert, it felt like.. But still just a few hundred meters from the shore. The NOT so great thing with the hotel, was that the restaurant closed by 7pm, and even before that - didn't cook anything but rice and chicken. And - after 7pm - you couldn't get ANYTHING to eat as there were no stores or anything in the proximity.
The next morning we went by gua-gua to see the big market in Dajabon by the Haitian border. Not very much to see... Just something that we really wanted to see - just to KNOW what it was like!!
) Very crowded!!! Indeed!After this, we went back to Santiago to be able to go to Puerto Plata.
In Puerto Plata we stayed at a Guesthouse quite near the beachwalk. Can't remember the name of that one either. It was pink, and we paid only 550 RD$ per night for a room with Air Condition. No hot water - of course. Clean room.. But.. The standard otherwise is as expected for that price! And - we wanted just THAT.. So we were more than happy to be there!
Puerto Plata is a nice town with Ocean World as one of the main attractions for visitors. We had the shark encounter (had a shark in the lap and fed it with fish), stingray encounter, dolphin encounter, and went to all the shows with sea lions, dolphins etc. It was a full day!! Really - it was!!
The next day we met PLANNER from this forum. I had been in contact with her earlier for some help to go out dancing bachata and merengue. Planner was what made our stay in Puerto Plata the MOST memorable during our entire stay in the DR. She took us out dancing two nights, and introduced us to some locals. The next few days when we walked the streets people waved to us, and made dancing moves - followed by a thumb up in the air!!
)) Really cool feeling to be recognized out of nowhere!Planner also took us to the nicest beach WE saw during our stay in the DR. The Sosua Beach (Playa Sos?a) was just stunning!!! Sooooo beautiful, and even though not in the middle of nowhere, or anything like that... just a GORGEOUS beach!! And CRYSTAL CLEAR water! I bet there are more beaches like this, but - this was the BEST beach for US!
We went there the next day as well, by our selves - but on the way back to Puerto Plata the gua-gua driver ran over a dog - on purpose!!!!!!! The dog probably died on the spot... This was the killer of that day. We couldn't even bare to speak to eachother - my girlfriend and I... We felt sick.. It was just awfull, and I can't really remember anything from that day except that event!
We also got our laundry done in Puerto Plata, but it was over charged - as many other things. We paid 890 RD$ for 25pcs of cloathing... Outrageous!
After Puerto Plata, we went to Rio San Juan one night, and went on a boat trip to see mangrooves and a few nice beaches... Not much to say. Slept at a nice hotel by the sea. Costed 1000 RD$ for one night. Canadian owner - I think it was! Old sweet lady at the reception!
From Rio San Juan, we went to Samana, where we just spent a night in the wait to go by the ferry from Samana to Sabana de la mar, and further by gua-gua to the small town Hato Mayor, and then to Higuey, and finally ending up after 6 hours in Bavaro.
The post continues (as this forum only allows 15000 chars per post)...
