Beach vendors

Hi!

We're going to the Flamenco in August. A lot of people complain about the beach vendors. Aren't the hotel staff and other organizers aware of this problem? Is it legal at all? What are the Dominicans doing trying to stop this? It's pretty bad, PR wise.

Matt

I am not aware of the problems with the beach vendors at the Flamenco but we stayed at the Hacienda Resorts on Cofresi and never really had any problems with the vendors there. Yes,they probably can be aggressive-but that is their source of income.Sometimes we visited them and sometimes we didn't when we took our walk on the beach every day. They didn't come up to us and grab or speak ignorantly to us.They simply asked us to come and see what they had.If we weren't interested we simply said"Not today Thanks".They didn't get mad and stomp off,they said ok and said to have a great day! We bought most of our souveniers from them and they did give us better prices than what we could have paid in PP. Anyhow-just be nice and they will more than likely be nice back! Have a great trip!

People have to make a living. Some have to sell things on the beach to feed their families. Keep that in mind when you say smile and say 'No Thank You'. That's really all it takes... Be nice when you say no and they will go away without any problems. Enjoy your trip.

To my knowledge, beach vendors were not allowed on our resort beach. We would walk down the beach to the beach vendors and actually enjoyed it. We're not bartering folks and felt we needed to be fair without being ripped off. They expect you to pay 50% of what they ask for (we were told this by the locals). We started off by telling them that we wanted to give them a fair price and didn't want to cheat them. They were so kind and appreciative of this honesty and then gave us a rock bottom price that was reasonable. As far as I'm concerned, no one in the DR gets paid enough that works on the beach or at resorts. One of the beach employees at the resort told us that the landscaping crew (who probably work the hardest of them all!) get paid about $US100 per month!

A quote from a review of the Flamenco Resort on Debbie's travel page:

"There are many, many vendors on the beach and the resorts had better get a handle on it soon. It is impossible to relax and drift off to sleep with someone at you every five to ten minutes. And it is not an exaggeration."

Matt

I have not been at that particular beach. But I have been to many other beaches in DR with many vendors. I have never (!) had a problem 'drifting off' and I have never had someone being unpleasant, pushy or even interrupting me in what I was doing. That being reading, tanning or playing games. So don't worry. Maybe the person who wrote the review is wrong? In any case you'll only know when you get there. Enjoy the trip. You're going to a great country.

What do they sell? Can you get cigars, rum, jewelry, and other contraband from them?