Hiring a driver?!

sarahhope said:

Cost of hiring a car and a driver and how to go about it?
Having been persuaded in this forum not to drive myself and advised to hire a car and driver, can anyone tell me how to do this and most importantly approx. cost of any or all of these legs:
1) cabarete to jarabacoa = US Dollars $ 120.
2) jarabacoa to las galeras = US--------190.
3) las galeras to rio san juan -----------150.
4) rio san juan to POP------------------100.
!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks!

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The fees are suggested to the tourist areas you will be visiting ( tourist taxi unions), it doesn't means that are not aloud to hire a driver for less than that.

JJ

Those are real tourist prices. I took a cab from STG airport to Sosua and they paid the guy $30 and I gave him another $15 tip. If you want an air-conditioned car you will pay a lot more, but you can usually hire drivers by the day. For $50/day plus gas you should have no prob finding someone.

PeterInBrat said:

Those are real tourist prices. I took a cab from STG airport to Sosua and they paid the guy $30 and I gave him another $15 tip. If you want an air-conditioned car you will pay a lot more, but you can usually hire drivers by the day. For $50/day plus gas you should have no prob finding someone.

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Yes, but the problem will be the long distance from one point to the other. It won't be worthy for the driver at least he hire a different driver for each location.

JJ

Oh by the way the rate from STI to Sosua is US $90. I don't know what you mean when say they paid $ 30. and tip 15. if some one hired a friend to pick up that doesn't mean that other people will be so lucky as you are. Any local taxi company will charge over the 50 bucks for this trip and I'm talking about fees for local customers no for gringos.

JJ

I am sure she can make a deal with a driver for less than it cost to rent a car. If she tells the driver: "Look, for the next three or four days I want to use you all day long for, 50 dollars plus gasoline and food" I am betting that there will be takers.

I would hope so or this place is getting just too expensive.

HB

And accommodations or does the poor guy sleep in the vehicle???

I have the same question... Where/how do you find that driver ???

You ask for referrals I sent the OP a PM with a recommendation.

bachata said:

Oh by the way the rate from STI to Sosua is US $90. I don't know what you mean when say they paid $ 30. and tip 15. if some one hired a friend to pick up that doesn't mean that other people will be so lucky as you are. Any local taxi company will charge over the 50 bucks for this trip and I'm talking about fees for local customers no for gringos.

JJ

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I was diverted from POP to STI when I missed my connecting flight so the airline paid for the taxi to take me to Sosua. They had some kind of ongoing contract with some taxi drivers where they paid a set fee to taxis to bring people to their hotel when they were diverted. About 12 other people on the flight were taken to POP in a van and it was just the driver's bad luck that I was the only one going to Sosua. At 8 or 9PM he wasn't going to be making much more on incoming flights for the day.

I'm not surprized at all though that it was under a "normal" price. It also depends a lot on what you mean by "taxi." Mine was a beat up publico and I was afraid we weren't going to make it driving the back way on dirt roads in the rain. I can see someone charging $90 for a nice taxi that only caters to All Inclusives esp if they stayed on the highways where it would be a few more miles. If I knew the trip was going to be that bad, I would gone to POP with the others and stayed the night there. I had been in transit for 18 hours and showing up at my hotel at 11PM instead of 4PM didn't give me much leverage to negotiate price. Not that I'm bitter...

Sent you a PM DMV