Too many tourists! (No offense)

bachatony1

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Aug 8, 2008
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I'm moving soon to DR and I'm very excited about it, however, I would really like to move to an area that is not too touristy. I want to experience the country as is. It's not that I have anything against tourists, I just want to get completely away from U.S. life even if I stay in a small pueblo. I'll be working in the Industrial Zone in SD. What's the closest non-touristy pueblo to that? If not, what about near Bonao?
 
May 12, 2005
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Just stay right in Santo Domingo. Everything you need will be close by and there are many parts of the city where you won't run into tourists.
 

AZB

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Jan 2, 2002
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If you stay away from coastal resort town, you will be pretty much in real DR. Touristy towns are boca chica, juan dolio, sosua, puerto plata, cabarete and parts of semana etc. Remember, tourists love to live near beach, so find a town without a beach and you are all set.
AZB
 

Matilda

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Sep 13, 2006
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To be serious, whilst I applaud your desire to live away from tourist areas I think you should be aware of some of the inconveniences. Here in Juan Dolio which is apparantly a tourist area, we have 24/7 electricity. You will not get that in non tourist areas. We have access to San Pedro which has good (ish) supermarkets. We have constant water supply (if you have a well), and some OK restaurants. Having said that I live with a Dominican, my visitors are mostly Dominican, I shop in Dominican colmados, have spanish TV, and speak spanish all day long. Juan Dolio is not an endless strip of bars, in fact at this end of town there are only two, and as I mentioned you see very few tourists. Be aware that living in a Dominican only town you may miss things like internet in your home, the type of food you like, electricity, and possibly water.

You can still experience the country and the people without depriving yourself of everything.

Matilda
 

beeza

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Nov 2, 2006
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Quite a lot of tourists here on the North coast stay in their all-inclusive resorts, especially the British ones.

I have heard that some of them are told by their tour reps not to venture out of their complexes because the DR is dangerous!

A complete load of tosh, but if it keeps the chavs out of sight then it's not such a bad thing!
 
S

sokitoumi

Guest
it seems we are all tourists wherever we go

1 : one that makes a tour for pleasure or culture
 

Ezequiel

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Jun 4, 2008
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Be aware that living in a Dominican only town you may miss things like internet in your home, the type of food you like, electricity, and possibly water.

That's only if you live in a Campo, the Barrios in Santiago are mostly Dominican only, and they have internet connection, electricity and water, and good food too.

That's depend where you live, of course if you live in "El Peno" Barahona you won't have internet connection or water.
 

demi56

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Jun 2, 2007
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I would suggest to stay in Santo Domingo, as few people said here, you can find many areas there where tourists won't go. We lived in Cabarete for 2 years (very small tourist town) and where we lived tourist didn't come, yet we had all the advantages of having power, water and internet
 

AZB

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Jan 2, 2002
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Be aware that living in a Dominican only town you may miss things like internet in your home, the type of food you like, electricity, and possibly water
Matilda

You must be talking about kabul, afghanistan. No wait, they have internet now.
I live in a all dominican town, santiago and we have everything here, even better restaurants than juan dolio. We have real estate property owned by dominicans which would make property in juan dolio look like wooden beach shacks.
I have internet wifi, all in perfectly working condition which almost never goes down. The phone system is also great. Lights go out for like 30 mins / day but I have inverter so I don't feel the difference. We are going to have HDTV in a few months and super high speed internet. Let me remind you again, I live in a dominican town.
AZB
 
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sokitoumi

Guest
what does the above comment mean please- I think matilda knows what she is talking about (not sure about me though)
 

Matilda

RIP Lindsay
Sep 13, 2006
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I thought the poster needed to live near Santo Domingo and perhaps Santiago is a little far for a daily commute. San Pedro is a dominican town and the lights go off there twice a day for 4 hours each time. I have a farm in Barahona and the electric in Barahona goes off too at least once a day for 4 hours. In Juan Dolio it only rarely goes off - maybe once a month. Could be something to do with the President having a house here. I just wanted to make the point that you do not have to live in a Barrio to experience living in this country.

And I know you AZB have experienced living in a tourist area and for whatever reason decided to go to a Dominican town, and I live both in a former tourist area and have a farm in a very Dominican part of the country, and I love them both for different reasons.

No idea what the blood comment meant. probably very unnecessary I hope.

Matilda
 

AK74

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Jun 18, 2007
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The only obvious thing I wanted to say was that the phenom of tourism has two distinct sides. It is desperately needed to business owners because tourists bring and spend money here.

And it is horrible for regular retirees/fixed-income expats as it degrades the environment and nature, attracts crime, push up all prices and takes away beautiful lands and beaches.

It is obvious and easily comprehensiable so why to be angry? There is no such things in existence that is good for EVERYONE. The law of indestructibility of matter ( in human life as well).
 
Feb 7, 2007
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I thought the poster needed to live near Santo Domingo and perhaps Santiago is a little far for a daily commute. San Pedro is a dominican town and the lights go off there twice a day for 4 hours each time. I have a farm in Barahona and the electric in Barahona goes off too at least once a day for 4 hours. In Juan Dolio it only rarely goes off - maybe once a month. Could be something to do with the President having a house here. I just wanted to make the point that you do not have to live in a Barrio to experience living in this country.

It all depends on what area you live in. In hIguey, there are 8 circuits. 3 have power 24/7. 2 have power 21 hours (one 3-hour outage early in the morning) 1 has power 18 hours (two 3-hour outages) and 2 have power like 12 hours a day. If you live in a poor barrio on PRA system where nobody pays for power and all connections are illegal, you will be lucky to get 12 hours a day. If you live in a middle class sector where everybody has meters and almost everybody pays you will have 21 or 24 hours of power.

Internet is also available citywide and also cable. Oh... we do not have water aquaduct in Higuey and we have to haul it in trucks. Something about LF not being very popular there....
 

AZB

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Jan 2, 2002
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I am sure matilda lives very well in juan dolio but speaking of some people who come here, get married to poor domincians (almost always the case 98% of times), then they visit their dominican mate's family in poor barrios and campos and draw the conclusion that dominicans live in rat holes. This is such a misconception and misinformation given to visitors about dominicans in general. I live in santiago which doesn't even compare to santo domingo in class or size. We have electricity here in good residential areas most of the day, water almost all day (lately water has been scarce in some areas), we have steady, rock solid, fast internet service, 3 cable companies and satellite TV company, the people live in nice houses in many areas of this city and most have nice cars and suv's. We have american style super markets (grocery store) and 3 movie theaters. the restaurants vary from sushi to dominican style to TGI fridays and etc. We are only talking about santiago, in capital its a whole new world. These are all dominican towns and cities. So please folks, get out of little tourist bubbles and see the real country for a change. Get to know dominicans who run this country.
AZB