Ideal City in DR?

I am an exhausted, 35yo American in Seattle in the final stages of closing my business and selling my house and everything I own. I need a new life and my research into the Caribbean and Latin America has me thinking a lot about DR. In particular, I need a beach town for about six months of solid R&R with the following features:

1. I can live comfortably on about $1200-$1800 USD/mo.
2. Good nightlife and romantic possibilities
3. I can swim daily in a clean, calm sea for exercise
4. There are cybercafe's and tasty restaurants in walking range

Would this be Santo Domingo? Could anyone please recommend any other beach towns and confirm whether or not my budget will suffice? Thanks in advance!

Santo Domingo is not considered a "beach town" as we are about a 45 minute drive to the beach at Boca Chica.
The high roller tourist areas are probably not in your budget range. I might suggest:
Boca Chica
Sosoua
San Cristobal
Barahona area

I am sure there are others that people will recommend.

No beach in Santo Domingo.
See www.BocaChicaBeach.net. It matches your criteria perfectly, except I would budget a little bit more money. Expect to live about as comfortable as you would in Seattle on that same budget.

Barahona in the SW - except for the calm sea...

...several rivers run into the ocean along the coast from Barahona to Los Patos, providing you with safe areas to swim and exercise. But the ocean per se is usually pretty rough. Money range would allow you to live nicely. Night clubs abound, as well as beautiful people. Codetel offers Internet connectivity at about $30RD pesos/hr (less than $2), but speed is slow, and not a cyber cafe. Although there may be one that I'm not yet aware of. Numerous restaurants are available. Good luck to you! Email me if you're interested in seeing some pictures of the area.

Re: Sosua is best for You

I would agree with Hlywud that this is your best location to start from and explore the other options on the North Coast. We were on the north coast last week at Cabarete and enjoyed riding the waves in a tube. Good luck as you close a chapter and open an adventure.

Re: Sosua is best for You

The problem is, he asked for calm water. The water is rather rough along most of the north coast.

hola Joe,
in my openion Costambar/Puerto Plata is the best. Because POP is a natural grown city with best nightlife and close by.
Costambar has beach, Cybercafe, and its a save Gringo area, with even private rooms. The money you think about will be alright even there..any question? I don't do any bus. its just to give a idea, you can figure out in the inet.

cu/charly.....(who thinks Sosua is the worse place in RD)

Sounds like there is no consensus and I'll need to check out several places to see for myself. Thanks for the replies.

Sosua is great!

Sosua is great. We were there last november and we had such a great time. From here you can go to Cabarete, Nagua, Puerto Plata, ect. Sosua has got a beautiful sea, great beach, internet-cafe, good restaurants etc. I think you will like it a lot!

Re: Sosua is great!

I couldn't agree with you more. Professional travel writers also agree the best beaches in the Dominican Republic are on the north coast. Sosua is ideally located for easy day trips to most of them. One you didn't mention is Playa Grande, absolutely stunning! You will find many photos of Sosua and the area on the Yahoo Sosua club, a non-commercial site.

Sosua is not a city. It is a tourist infested village. It is about as Dominican as Coney Island.

Santo Domingo is a city with all the expected problems. Sky high housing prices, pollution, traffic, crime, etc. It has great restaurants and cultural centers. Bring lots of money unless you want to go "poor native".

Santiago has most of the problems of Santo Domingo with few of the advantages.

Puerto Plata is a small city (about 100,000) with lots of expats and the tourists mostly stay in their concentration camp called Playa Dorada, which, thank God, is 3 miles outside the city. It is my favorite.

Cabarete, Boca Chica, Juan Dolio and Las Terenas are tourist villages like Sosua. OK for a vacation, but boring to live in unless you come from a small town and love to meet tourists.

San Pedro and San Francisco de Macorix, San Cristobal, La Vega, and so on are medium sized Dominican cities with few attractions for expats unless you really want to go native. Good luck.

Any other cities or villages that you would like to know about?

Re: Sosua sounds like the place

you will find a 31/2 equipped appartment owned by canadian at las rocas near costambar and puerto plata.. a good rest on the site and you can walk a lot at costambar or cofresi beach..swim etc.. you will pay around 5000 pesos so 325 us around. you will be able to cook and evereything.. puerto plata about 5 minutes car from there will give you cyber cafe etc.
i agree with the people who said sosua is great but not for leaving, just 2 weeks it is perfect.. it is also depending on what you are looking for....