Not to me but I guess beauty is in the eye...
There is some construction being done although I don't know the name of the cross street. Nonetheless, I enjoy going down there once or twice a month.
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Uber to Santo Domingo to Las Terrenas
There is some construction being done although I don't know the name of the cross street. Nonetheless, I enjoy going down there once or twice a month.
It’s always been quaint. I used to like it. Now it looks dirty. But there was a lot of hype some years ago and it was going to become upscale. Maybe some other posters know more.
I don't see it that much, JD. Of course, you may have walked by when I was eating there.
I agree that the Conde is now desperately in need of the remodelling that has been promised for years and years and years. The only street that is currently being remodelled is Mercedes, and "oh what a surprise" the section that is being remodelled is in front of the new hotel that is part-owned by a very important politician. I agree that the Conde itself is now looking very sad, pretty much all of it. The streets like Isabel La Catolica and Meriño are not in bad shape and have some nice businesses, but the Conde itself has a majority of empty shops, a big building site in the middle where they are knocking down the car park, bad lighting, bad paving, and it is very sad indeed. The reality is that the Colonial Zone is still booming though, it does attract a lot of visitors because they like a lot of the businesses in the area - the hotels, the restaurants, the nightclubs - and they also like the cultural things like the art galleries, museums and ancient sites. Even though it does look sad, it's still a better area for visitors than being stuck in a cookie-cutter hotel in Piantini for example, at least in my opinion.
That end of the Conde is indeed very sad. The whole area around Independence Square and a lot of Ciudad Nueva is looking sad to be honest. None of the businesses there did well in the pandemic (other than Paco's of course), the trucks constantly stream by making a horrible noise, it's often badly lit and scary at night. Nothing much to welcome visitors there.
That's usually the case when you're going out of the city. Within SD they usually just accept the fare, no questions. But as soon as you go to, say, Boca Chica or San Cristobal, then they want to go off-piste. I think the main reason is that they also struggle to get a fare coming back, whereas anywhere in the city they know that they will get a fare after you get out.
That rules out most contractors in Dom Rep in my experience. Especially if you live somewhere nice, they quote one price on the phone and then when they arrive and see you have money it's "oh, you do realise that price is per-hour / per unit / per something else" that means they can double it.
Wait untill you come back from Denemark.
Nowadays I go once or two a year to the DR, it is always a shock to see the dirt and mess.
Once you stay there longer you get used to it.
It’s like a new aftershave, the first days you enjoy the fragance and after a while sometimes someone asks which brand you use and you don’t even remember the fragance of it.
That happens if you don't know the price range of the job to begin with or if you didn't use a recommended vendor from someone you know. Besides you can always show them the door. Plenty of vendors around. I threw two ebanistas out before I found the right one. (Shows me solid wood one day and then shows up with the quote and a piece of laminated composition).What good are phone quotes anyway?
Oh yes, of course I always tell them to take a jump. I'm having a pitched battle this week with a professional who agreed a price and then decided to do the work and demand a higher price. Happens most weeks, I'm so tired of dealing with this nonsense though.
I was in the Colonial Zone a week ago and I am in the DR now visiting. It’s over a year ago I moved back to Denmark. Maybe that is why it looked worse to me than before. It’s disappointing as they were supposedly fixing it up.