Well I can only speak for the POP province, but as a few have already mentioned.Please help me understand what is wrong with NC? I realize that some posters here, living in NC, constantly complain, but perhaps that does not equal everyone's experience? Also good to point out that I don't know the whole NC, only really POP and Cabarete, but those are unfortunately included when people say that NC is s**t or something else...
- Lack of supplies, you can prepare a list of groceries you want to buy and very often you can go to several "supermarkets" and they don't have the products for months.
- Lack of health providers, there are a few good doctors, but they all come from either STI or SD, and they only come here like 1 or 2 a week. If you want to have good medical care you have to go to either STI or better yet SD. There are a few private clinics, but in general they are not reliable to give you the assistance you need. I have too many stories to count. For example, a few years back I had "some" stomach issues, after about 1 week of every day going to the bathroom about every hour, I went to one of those clinics, they ran some test, couldn't find anything. The DR told me to just go home and relax, maintain hydrated. For about 1 more week of the same, I decided to go to STI instead, and there they did basically the same tests, and they found that I had amoeba and salmonella. Interesting that the clinic in POP didn't found that.
- Horrible traffic. This is a problem that you find all over the country, however the big difference between for example POP and STI and SD, is that there are only a few main roads or only one. For example, to go from Cab to POP there is ONLY 1 main road. So if something happens with that road, well then you're out of luck and you're basically stuck. That was what happened in 2022-2023 when the main bridge between POP and the airport had to be replaced, that was a REAL s**tshow. And from the looks of it, although the population is increasing in all the areas, there doesn't seem to be any REAL plans of any increase in the underlying infrastructure. So probably in a couple of years we'll have half a million to 1 million residents sharing the same road.
- Constant water and electrical issues. For the past I guess year or so, there are DAILY outtages, be it only between a few minutes to maybe an hour each time. But you still need to be aware of it. And then for the water, no need to go there, there are already multiple threads about that.
- General boredom. Depending on what you are looking for in general, if you think laying on the beach 24/7 is fun, then this is a GREAT area to be in with a lot of beaches that are just to die for. But if you feel like life is about more than just laying on the beach sippin piña coladas, then this area is quite boring. There are a few good restaurants, but in general food is overpriced and quality is lacking.
So yes, if you don't HAVE to live on the NC (or at least in POP province, although from what I've heard these problems are basically all over the NC), I would vote against it. I'm basically only here because my wife's entire family is living here and I have hard time convincing here it's time to move, but who knows, soon enough.