Need help with travel within DR

You should start your trip in SDQ, that way you leave the big city rush behind and enjoy the natural splendor during the last leg of your "Dominican journey".

You should buy tickets for the Metro or Caribe Tour Buses heading into Puerto Plata. Not sure if any of those two stop in Cabarete, though. Anyways, these buses have a/c, movies, comfy seats, elevated to give fabulous views out the window, soft music, etc. In short, its a joy to ride these buses.

Once you reach Puerto Plata, take a Taxi to Cabarete (approx. 30 to 40 minutes east of Puerto Plata). When its time to head back to SDQ for your outbound flight, retrace your footsteps (ie. buy tickets for Puerto Plata-SDQ buses, etc).

Cabarete is about 4:30 to 5 hours away from SDQ, taking into account my traveling suggestion above. Considering that it takes about 3:30 to 4 hours to reach Puerto Plata from SDQ, then it takes another :30 to :40 minutes to reach Cabarete from Puerto Plata, that should equal about 4.5 to 5 hour trip.

You can always arrange a quick flight from SDQ to Puerto Plata (30 minutes flight) and then take a taxi from Puerto Plata Airport to Cabarete (30 minutes ride).

Yes, you can make it, but it will be a long day. I assume you are landing at the Santo Domingo airport. As soon as you clear customs, get one of the taxis waiting outside the terminal and go to the Caribe Tours bus terminal in the city. Caribe Tours has buses leaving for Sosua at 5, 6 and 7pm. It is about a 4 hour trip at night with a "rest" stop in Santiago and a stop in Puerto Plata to let off passengers. The taxi stand in Sosua is where the bus terminal is, so there should be a taxi available to take you to Cabarete.

To go back to Santo Domingo, reverse teh process. Buses leave all day from Sosua for Santo Domingo at 20 minutes past every hour. During the work day the trip takes about 4.5 hours.