*need* to bring?

Mosquito repellent with deet, sun screen with highest spf that you can find, clothes and swim suit, personal stuff, passport, ticket, money and credit cards!

With such a light travel bag, add in some school supplies to drop off at a charity of your choice.

Enjoy!

indeed...keep the bug spray near your bed at night!!! I also bring my own clock...i have noticed that most hotels in DR dont include a clock in the room! not that i live by any sort of real schedule when on holiday..but its nice to know if it 7am or 1pm.

Moisturizer as well as the sun screen. A good book for the beach, Perhaps a deck of cards for the evening. I also bring lots of the sample size lotions and shampoos and stuff for the maids.

I also bring clothes for my friends and toys for their kids.

Snorkle and Mask...so you dont have to ask on the beach or your hotel. Swimming shoes for some of the rocky swimming spots. Maalox (just in case), some advil PM, bacetracian cream as well as cortizone cream...perhaps a jar of aloe vera. Talcum powder (it is very humid and private areas can get kind of tender after long walks).

and most importantly...the past few trips i have taken my own big fluffy pillow with me! I swear..this has helped me get a good nights sleep as the pillows at even some of the better places are rather flimsy.

I usualy pack along some bandaids as well....as my sandles always give me blisters.

IF you plan on spending any time in either Santo Domingo or Santiago, bring one pair of long pants and dress shoes.

and of course a camera...as well as my regular digi camera...i always buy one of those disposable water proof cameras.

well...that is what i can come up with off the top of my head. I guess it all depends what you are planning on doing for activities.

OH!!! i also bring bags of individual candies. Rather than give a kid a couple of pesos on the street or beach...i reach in and give them a treat...and they are very happy.

jrzyguy said:

OH!!! i also bring bags of individual candies. Rather than give a kid a couple of pesos on the street or beach...i reach in and give them a treat...and they are very happy.

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Correction, please buy the kids a fruit from the fruit stand. Many of the street kids have no dental care. Please don't give them candies.

Sorry jrzyguy - mother and grandmother speaking!

i KNEW i was gonna get slapped for that one! but for real. I cant imagine the kids are gobbling up candy all day long...so i dont think a small piece of candy is going to ruin their teeth.

also..if i buy a complete breakfast....i usualy only eat half of it (and am quite full)..and then usualy let a kid finish off my plate...and i leave them some of the good stuff...not just the potatoes. Same thing when i buy a fruit plate on the beach.

I am not also sure if it is correct to bring toys for my friends kids (rather than clothes...i try to bring both)...but the kids are pretty well dressed...so i like to bring something that the family normaly wouldnt buy them.

If you go onto the www.debbiesdominicantravel.com site, there is some good information under "what-to-expect". I would also include immodium, an umbrella (when it rains, it rains!), and certainly all personal toiletries including all your suntan lotions (things are very expensive to purchase in the DR) . . . .

I am going to suggest you bring a good pair of real CROCS. No kidding! they are outstandingly great. They are better than flipflops, never cause blisters, can be worn with socks like shoes.
And maybe one pair of long pants, a short sleeved collared shirt, for the guy and a nice skirt, sexy top and shoes for the lady. For that special night out at a nice restaurant..

I cannot emphasize enough the need for good bug repellant and sun screen/block. I found some spf 60 at a Wal Mart and later found a 70.

I play golf and normally use 50, and I have a "golfer's tan" (akin to a farmer's tan but more expensive to get and keep--hehe)

Sure you want to prove you've been to the tropics, but a bad burn can ruin it, and wrinkles note even Oil of Olay can help are not nice at 30+...

HB

Woo-Hoo- have fun!

I?m so excited for you!
If you are going to hike or be in nature much (you won't be sorry) , you will probably encounter these little ?blood sucker bugs" (not to throw around the technical jargon:cheeky: ). They leave nasty little itchy welts with a tiny red dot in the middle. They are no fun to have?plus they look kind of nasty. The only thing I have found to work for these is some form of oil. Skin-so-soft, by Avon works well, but is a little expensive. I have used baby oil and even suntan oil and have had great results. These little guys don?t seem to care if you have bug spray, but the oil suffocates them?you may have little tiny bug carcasses on your legs (yummy), but at least those wash off?the little blood sucker welts will be with you for weeks.
I know you will LOVE the country and the culture. It is the most beautiful place with the best people ever. Have the time of your life!

Anyone else?

Has anyone else encountered these little blood suckers? I haven't read anything from others, but--man--every time I go they feast on me! I am usually up in the mountains though--not so much in the beaches. Just wondering.

i am not sure if they are the same blood suckers that i have encountered. But i must say...every time i go to DR...my ankles and elbows and fingers itch like crazy for the first couple of days. Usualy a late night shower with a cream mixture of regular body cream mixed with the aforementioned bacetracion and cortizone and maybe a little aloe does the trick.

after 2 days the itchies go away. Not sure if it is something in the water...or just the skeeter getting me at night.

Which trick?

This does the trick to keep them away, or to treat the itchy/ugliness of it all? I get em' in the ankle too. My Dominican friends insist they love "carne' blanca". Cute...One day, I hadn't "slathered up" and walked through just a little tall grass--(like from the back of the truck to the front)--I had like 26 bites! Again, this was in a rural part of the mountain. Where do you go when you are there?

aren't they called sand fleas or chiggers ? i only get them when i put on lotion. so it's better to be ashy than to have 50 red marks on my legs at the beach :laugh:

remember to bring your own soap !! the hotel provides it but it's not like your own and it's very small soap....

the wonder of benydril

I wondered if they were at the beaches resort too, or just in the more rural spots. Chiggers, huh?

Oh, last trip a friend had a little tube-like container of topical liquid benydril. It was like a little roll-on thing, so you could just dab it on the spots that itch. It seems to dry them out faster. You have to be careful, though because he said to topical acts the same as the drug, so if you take a benydril (I know I'm spelling that wrong, sorry), or a tylenol PM or anything like that you could end up extra drowsy. Benydril is a good thing to have, though, because it helps with anything you get into that you could be allergic too, and helps you fall asleep if you have trouble in a different place.

These are called, depending upon just where your are, "me-mes" (mi-mis?) or ge-genes" and in the English - speaking Caribbean they are known as the "no see 'ems" ..
In the US we call them biting gnats. Mean little suckers.

The problem is solved with oily rubs, like Skin - so - soft, or any of the body lotions or sun screens. Also, a Dominican product called "Deporte", an insect repellent, is quite effective against these d@!mn thingsss...and it is dirt cheap and available at most drugstores and mercados along the coast.

Do enjoy and know that most of the resorts do not have a lot of these nasties. BUT, if you go into town or out in the countryside....oh man..new meat!!!

So, go prepared......and, after all they are a lot less worse than fire ants or Brazilian honey bees...

HB comforting the timid visitor....

I second HB's recommendation for Crocs! The wonderful thing about Crocs is they don't slip on wet tile floors. I keep a pair at my front door for going out in the rain! They are also very light weight and are the new "in" thing to wear.....

Mosquitto spray - make sure it has at least 22% deet or it is useless!

I've not found skin so soft to work at all. But maybe that is just me..... I do like it in the bath though....

I recommend Avon Skin So Soft bugspray with Bug Guard. It works really well for me and is ok for kids too. You can order it through Amazon and will usually arrive in a week.

Hats are a must as well. I wouldn't reccomend lying out in the direct sunlight too much either. Fortunately there are typically palm trees not too far from the shore line that offer good shade. The good thing about doing this is that you can keep coming back and keep that nice complexion! I feel so sorry for the gringo tourists that come back year after year and burn themselves to a crisp just to go back and brag at the local water fountain. It is never long before they really regret it.

Also, bring a phrase book of Spanish phrases if you don't have one and don't speak Spanish and have some fun when ordering food and the like.

Finally, don't carry too much cash when you are out and be sure to bring a couple of different credit cards unless something happens to one of them.

A sarong is a great multi-purpose item - as well as its main function you can use it to lie on when on the beach, and it can also double up as a shawl for cool evenings, heavily air-conditioned buildings (like banks) or vehicles.

helenb said:

thanks for all the help. i would never have thought of the talc and the dh always gets a little chafed in humidity. I always like to be prepared when i go someplace new and it helps to ask people who have been what worked for them. again, thanks very much


helen

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Indeed..the talc is a must! I walked around the capital for about 6 hrs a couple of weeks ago...and was quite tender and could barely walk that night (dancing was definitely out). but the talc soon solved everything. same thing with swimming in big waves too.

and remember to keep that bug repellent by your bedside at night! (you will thank me when one of those dang skeeters starts buzzing in your ear at 3am).

I second kyle on the brining your own soap. They tend to give you those little bitty hotel bars...that are pretty generic. I would say bring some soap with some aloe in it.

oh...and i always bring an extra pair of sunglasses! i tend to brake or lose mine...and they are quite pricey in the tourist areas (obviously).

interesting info on the chiggers tho. Never seen anything bite me....but always always always...the first two nights i itch like crazy. A late night shower and a mixture of the becatracian (sp) and cortizone creams did the trick tho (one is an anti bacterial..the other an anti itch).