Hello I wish the best in your adventure to the DR. I also relocated to DR for a hotel job and escaped . First of all, unless the job that awaits is a one of the 5 or 6 management jobs at the hotel its not worth it. Unless the job includes a generous housing and car allowance its not worth it. Unless the job pays London wages its not worth it. The quality life in Dr is very low compared to London, its a third world countryvacationing there a week and laying on the beach is alot different from living there. In sum here are the warnings you shoushld know: Not sure whats going on at the hard rock these days but after they took over from the previous owners it was mismanaged by mostly Mexicans. Anytime you want to recieve a simple piece of mail or a shipment of something online you will pay dearly in taxes. anything that comes in is going to cost you. Its not worth shipping your furniture etc. even if the hotel pays for it. Just rent a furnished place. The customs fees to import anything of value is a very high. For examlple I ordered $100 barbecue grill online from an american store. Ended up paying $350 after shipping and custom fees. I opened one of those mail forwarding mailboxes and recieved a big cataloue as junk mail and had to pay $30 bucks for it. The roads are really bad and loaded with bad/drunk drivers, pethere is no smog laws so most vehicles emitt major amounts of pollution so make sure your car windows are always up and therefore your air is working. Is oppresively ot and humid 10 months out of the year. the DR land is mostly rock and there is alot of dust in the air from construction, you need to shower after any errand in town. Cocotal is your best option as they have a decent clean water system most other places use wells that often have sewer leaks The pool at cocotal is the best part of it. Very nice. The golf course is decent too. But cocotal has problems too. The electriciy is very expensive there, you are subsidizing alot of poorer neighbors that dont pay for it. And the speed bumps are ridiculous, one trip around cocotal has at least 40 speed bumps. The back gate is closed mostly at night so plan on driving an extra 3 miles to get home after dark. And going over the 30 speed bumps in front of the hotels in bavaro. The electricity didnt go out much in cocotal but goes out in bavaro alot. Then you can't buy gas. The gas truckers went on strike and there was no gas for sale in bavaro for 2 weeks. We had to buy gas ouof beer bottles on the street and pay like 10 bucks for 16 ounces. Gasoline for a car is very expensive.Cars are very expensive becuase the government charges about 50% import tax. if you dont bring anything of quality with you will pay double to ship it there because of taxes and shipping. As far as the schools there is one good gringo school in the area, Veron I believe, and its about 30 minutes from Bavaro. Home school would be better perhaps. be prepared to overpay for food and hopefully you are a vegetarian. I do not recommend relocating to the DR if you have children. The local DR cow meat is from cows that are only grass fed and do not have any flavor because of lack of fat. You pay triple for imported beef. Beware of the fish, most sit on boat in the sun for 4-8 hours caught and is bacteria prone, nstead of being put on ice and treated properly. Almost every expat I know had gastrointestional desease at one time, such as parasites after moving Bring lots of toilet paper. I assume your or hubby speaks spanish if not you wont be able to communiate with most people.
