spending this winter in DR

potatohead

New member
May 10, 2012
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A guy over at Lonely Planet told me about this forum. Glad he did. I have so many questions. Need to know how hard it is to get visa extensions. I want to stay about 6 months. Want to buy me one of those little 150 motos to get around on. cheap hotels........ect..............hi....i'm potatohead from Washington state
 

TStroman3

New member
Sep 11, 2011
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Welcome- you have found a place with a wealth of "REAL" information and quite an entertaining group!
 

windeguy

Platinum
Jul 10, 2004
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Where will you be staying while in the DR?

Most people just pay the exit penalty fees for overstaying a visitors visa when they depart rather than trying to extend the stay ahead of time which can only be done in Santo Domingo.
 

Ken

Platinum
Jan 1, 2002
13,884
495
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A guy over at Lonely Planet told me about this forum. Glad he did. I have so many questions. Need to know how hard it is to get visa extensions. I want to stay about 6 months. Want to buy me one of those little 150 motos to get around on. cheap hotels........ect..............hi....i'm potatohead from Washington state

Welcome to dr1.

Re visa extension, I assume you are talking about the tourist card that you either buy from your airline or when you get here. There have been many questions about this, which you will find if you search the archives.

But basically, you will discover that most people don't worry about getting an extension. Rather, they pay a small fine when they leave the country. There are many on the board that live here year around our part of the year and have never gotten residency. They just get the tourist card when they arrive and pay the fine when they leave.

This may be tightened in the future, but as far as I know, there is still no need to be concerned if you stay longer than provided on the tourist card. The fine is not large and the amount is based on how long you over stayed.
 

Tom F.

Bronze
Jan 1, 2002
699
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A guy over at Lonely Planet told me about this forum. Glad he did. I have so many questions. Need to know how hard it is to get visa extensions. I want to stay about 6 months. Want to buy me one of those little 150 motos to get around on. cheap hotels........ect..............hi....i'm potatohead from Washington state

I bought a Chinese model Rooble, 150cc two summers ago for a little over US$1,000. The Yamama 125 enduros were about $2,200. There are used bikes available but then you need a trusted mechanic. I have used the bike for a month for each of the last two summers and have to spend money on maintenance after bouncing around in the campos too much.

I end up buying a year insurance policy to make myself feel better for less than $20 a year and having a helmet is key so the police do not mess you. I have been trying to get a license plate for the stupid thing, but always an excuse. The police do not seem to care as much about plates as they do helmets. I leave it with trusted family members who have it waiting for me again this summer.

Also, if you are going to take short day trips during the summer months, I get rained on almost every afternoon and the plastic rain coat is necessary.