resort or hotel recommendations for singles

Me and my friend are going to go to DR in march.

As of right now we're trying to decide whether to stay in a hotel or a resort. We've been looking at resorts but the main problem is that the ones that we can afford all seem family oriented. We're going to stay in seperate rooms and want a place where we can meet the ladies (my friend wants to meet a single german tourist chick for some reason) and I have no preference whether she's tourist or local. I know about the sankie girls and the games they play so that's no biggie. We're both somewhat fluent in spanish (we're hispanic and can speak and listen it mostly fluently but dont ask us to write a college thesis in spanish).

As of right now I've been looking at the riu merengue resort (because i can get a good deal on it) in puerto plata but trip advisor says it's mostly families and people on honeymoons that go there. Worse comes to worse i know there are some clubs in sosua and santiago but i have no idea in terms of the geography if it's within close proximity. I also know that if i were to meet a girl in a club or whatever there's no way to take her back to the AI and i would have to rent a cabana or something right?

Before I forget, The main reason why we're going to DR is because my friend is dominican and has never been there and wants to go to the beaches.

Can anyone here give any recommendations?

I've been away from this site for a while and must thank everybody here for all the responses. The only thing is that based upon your responses I have a whole mess of questions to ask.

how far are sosua and cabarete from each other?

are they within walking distance?

Do I need to rent a car while i'm down there?

Are there any casinos around and are they close to cabarete and sosua?

Are there regular taxi's around or is it all motoconcho?

I've heard a few recommendations about the sosua europa but I've also read a few things on other posts saying that it was kinda sleazy. Thier site also says it comes out to about $65 a night if you were to bring a guest ($40 + 26% in fees + $15 guest fee?). Is the hotel clean? (compared to el candil in boca chica?)

What are hotels that are guest friendly in cabarete like? I know sosua is where most of the 'action' is but I prefer something along the lines where I can get the best of both worlds. Or in other words, I want to be able to go to a 'normal' bar or dance club and not a putafest like what I found in boca chica night clubs on duarte but dont want that stuff to be too far away either . Then again I guess if we stay in europa in sosua and hang out in cabarete on occasion if we luck out with the euro tourist chicks we can take them back to thier room? :cheeky: (assuming they'll let us into the ai's? or do they stay in cheapo hotels too that allow guests?)

Do they have beach chairs you can rent and some dude who will bring you presidentes on the beach in both sosua and cabarete.

I'm guessing the scenario is the same on the north coast as it was in BC where under no circumstances should you ever drink anything but bottled water.

Can you walk around drinking beer everywhere you go like in boca chica?

Most importantly are the sandfleas as bad as they were in boca chica? I still have nightmares from those damned sandflea bites. :angry: Anybody recommend any thing to prevent those damned things from biting me. I know that the ai's rake the sand to get rid of those pests but i doubt that anybody rakes the sand if on the beach if you dont stay in an ai.

Last time I went to DR the prices were pretty cheap but then again I was getting 50 pesos to the dollar. Now that it's like 30, is stuff still cheap as it was before? ($1 USD for a presidente in boca chica in 04, $2.50 for a big presidente delivered to you on the beach or in the nightclub by the highway)

before I forget, my friend wants to go jetskiing, any good places for that? Also, how much does it cost?

I just want to take a moment to thank you all for all your help, you guys have really helped out alot and have made it so that I can avoid potential mistakes which I was planning on commiting due to lack of knowledge of the area. I took a look at some of the places in cabarete but they seemed more expensive ($80?) I booked the trip and it looks like i'm going to be staying at the europa because although it may be a bit sleazy it seems to be reasonably priced. I made a reservation to stay a week. The way I figure if worse comes to worse and I dont like it much I can always just switch hotels and it shouldnt be any biggie right? (the last time I was in DR I reserved one hotel room in one place but wound up staying in another because I missed my flight and couldnt find the hotel at 2am and when i called the hotel I originally reserved a room to apologize (cuz the place I was staying at was cheaper) they said it was no biggie).

Question Time:

Anybody know how much food is going to cost on average in sosua and cabarete? Are there cheap places to eat like little sandwhich shops and stuff (ie: $1-$3 or 30-90 peso meals), or is it more like macdonalds prices? (ie:$5-$6 or 150-200 peso) or is it going to be like (i hope not) american restaurant prices? (ie:$12-$16 or 360 to 480 peso)? How much are AI day passes typically? I'm trying to figure out a food budget to see if it's cheaper to eat lunch and dinner and drink in an ai during the day to night, and then party outside of an ai latenight.

How much do mixed drinks cost? (cuba libre, rum and coke, etc.)

Is sosua and cabarete going to be super full during mid march?

I'm going to bring an unlocked cellphone or two to get an orange card, how much do they cost and where do i need to go?

What's the best (read: cheapest) place to go to get souveniers to bring back to the states (ie: tourist trinkets, bottles of rum, cigars etc.)

Also, if you were to go to sosua and/or cabarete how much money would you bring to spend per day? (aside from hotel, airfare, etc.)

I hope I dont sound like i'm being too cheap but my friend is kind of on a limited budget and I need to know if I'll be needing to take extra money in case what he has is not enough. It would suck to be on a vacation where I'm the only one having a good time.