Higher altitude communities

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cmagor

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I am planning on visiting the DR with my wife early next year for about 3 months, with a view to making this a regular thing. It is likely that we will at some point find a community that we like well enough to return to regularly, but for our first trip we would like to spend several weeks in a few different places to get a "feel" for the options that are available to us.

As a starting point we have decided on the north coast, so will be looking to stay in a couple of places along the coast, but we would also like to visit at least one town away from the coast, higher in altitude, so a few degrees cooler. We will be looking to rent a furnished apartment for about a month and the "obvious" place seems to be Jarabacoa, where there certainly seem to be some lovely places available to rent. It seems to me that there are probably other, perhaps smaller communities in the upland areas that might also be suitable, but my research abilities seem to be letting me down as I am having trouble finding them, so I thought "why not ask the people who know?"!

So what are some of the other communities that I should be looking at?
 
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cmagor

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Thanks for these. I had wondered about Costanza, but the other two weren't even on my radar!

Are there any others you guys think I should check out?
 
Garyexpat

Garyexpat

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I would add San Jose de Ocoa. The only thing that I think might be a problem outside of Jarabacoa and Constanza is finding furnished apartments for a month. I could be wrong but those other destinations are not really tourist areas. Of course you would have the option of a small hotel OR if you feel adventurous you could always try Cabanas.
 
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Matilda

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Garyexpat said:
I would add San Jose de Ocoa. The only thing that I think might be a problem outside of Jarabacoa and Constanza is finding furnished apartments for a month. I could be wrong but those other destinations are not really tourist areas. Of course you would have the option of a small hotel OR if you feel adventurous you could always try Cabanas.
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Correct re accommodation. In Moncion there is a little guest house which does longer term accommodation and you would basically take it over as it only has two rooms. https://www.casadelasanas.com/ Rental properties pretty much impossible to find.

Matilda
 
bob saunders

bob saunders

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Garyexpat said:
I would add San Jose de Ocoa. The only thing that I think might be a problem outside of Jarabacoa and Constanza is finding furnished apartments for a month. I could be wrong but those other destinations are not really tourist areas. Of course you would have the option of a small hotel OR if you feel adventurous you could always try Cabanas.
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https://www.tripadvisor.com/Vacatio...ince_Dominican_Republic-Vacation_Rentals.html
There rentals in San Jose de las Matas. Many more on ther sites.
 
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DesdeSantiago

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I agree with Garyexpat, Jarabacoa would the most "touristic" of all mentioned, more accommodations, more choices, lots of mountain and river organised sports activities. Perhaps consider also your Spanish, is it fair, good? I'd go to Jarabacoa this first time. From there you can go and return the same day to Manabao and Constanza, maybe stretching it a little bit to San Jose de Ocoa. You could also get from Jarabacoa to Juncalito to San José de las Matas to Monción without going thru Santiago, staying in the mountains, all those towns part of the same mountain range, we call it "Cordillera Central". Monción and El Mamey are kind of close to each other, but El Mamey is on the "Cordillera Septentrional" or northern mountain range, closer to the north coast. Good luck!
 
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Matilda

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It all depends what the OP wants. If you want good supermarkets and restaurants, lots of accommodation choices and activities then you are better off with Jarabacoa I think. You are also reasonably close to Santiago for culture. However, if you want to live in the areas with none or few expats then you can conside San Jose de las Matas or Moncion. I live in a campo about 11 kms to Moncion. We have no supermarkets, one restaurant which only serves goat and is famous for it. Every Sunday important and rich people arrive in their helicopters just to eat goat! Moncion has one semi decent restaurant. But there are no taxis, no motoconchos so life is pretty laid back. As DesdeSantiago said you can easily drive from Moncion to San Jose - takes about 25 minutes so you could stay in a few different mountain towns.

Matilda
 
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cmagor

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Wow! There are some great suggestions here!

Not really looking for tourist/cultural activities or fancy restaurants, just somewhere to "live" for a few weeks, but as suggested, day trips to some of the other nearby communities to check them out will be in order. My idea of a good time is people-watching and we like to stay home at night. I have no intention of driving in the DR, so groceries would need to be rest walking distance out there needs to be transportation of some kind readily available. My Spanish is petty rudimentary - "enough to get into trouble", so I know there are situations where I'm going to be taken advantage of, but I take care to anticipate possible problems and stay away from them.

What I am finding to be a problem is our intention to bring our dog - not an enormous number of places to start with, reduced dramatically when you look for "pet-friendly". Another issue seems to be the size of places, especially in Jarabacoa where 4-6 bedrooms accommodating 12-20 guests seem to be popular! In really just looking for a1 or 2 bedroom apartment.
 
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windeguy

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Doing such a tour with a dog will be much more difficult. Far more difficult if you move around. Much better to find one or two pet friendly places and just make short side trips using public transportation and a trusted private taxi.
 
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DesdeSantiago

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windeguy said:
Doing such a tour with a dog will be much more difficult. Far more difficult if you move around. Much better to find one or two pet friendly places and just make short side trips using public transportation and a trusted private taxi.
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I was going to write something very similar to this + the "no intention to drive in the DR" makes the trip with a pet almost imposible. With a rented car would be another story though.
 
bob saunders

bob saunders

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cmagor said:
Wow! There are some great suggestions here!

Not really looking for tourist/cultural activities or fancy restaurants, just somewhere to "live" for a few weeks, but as suggested, day trips to some of the other nearby communities to check them out will be in order. My idea of a good time is people-watching and we like to stay home at night. I have no intention of driving in the DR, so groceries would need to be rest walking distance out there needs to be transportation of some kind readily available. My Spanish is petty rudimentary - "enough to get into trouble", so I know there are situations where I'm going to be taken advantage of, but I take care to anticipate possible problems and stay away from them.

What I am finding to be a problem is our intention to bring our dog - not an enormous number of places to start with, reduced dramatically when you look for "pet-friendly". Another issue seems to be the size of places, especially in Jarabacoa where 4-6 bedrooms accommodating 12-20 guests seem to be popular! In really just looking for a1 or 2 bedroom apartment.
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There are plenty of smaller places available near Jarabacoa, like this https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/271620...minican Republic&adults=2&guests=1&toddlers=0
This place is about a 15-20 minute drive from Jarabacoa
 
C

cmagor

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Mar 2, 2019
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windeguy said:
Doing such a tour with a dog will be much more difficult. Far more difficult if you move around. Much better to find one or two pet friendly places and just make short side trips using public transportation and a trusted private taxi.
Click to expand...

Yes, my wife and I are quickly coming to the same conclusion!
 
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