SDO to PUJ: Expreso Punta Cana?

[DR fan1990]

So apparently there is a new bus line that brings you from Santo Domingo all the way to Punta Cana Airport (PUJ): Expreso Punta Cana.

Expreso Punta Cana – Transporte Santo Domingo – Punta Cana, Verón, Friusa, Bávaro

expresopuntacana.com

1. Does anyone know the price of a ticket (SDO to PUJ)?

2.And can you buy the ticket in advance (say a day ahead, just to guarantee yourself a seat) or do you absolutely need to buy your ticket on the same day you're boarding the bus?

I've been texting them on whatsapp but no one is replying.

 

[SKY]

Not a new bus line. It is the same one they just changed the name from Expreso Bavaro to Expreso Punta Cana. They figure the name Punta Cana is better than Bavaro................

You can only buy a ticket on the day of your trip. But you can buy it for any time that day. The price has been 400 rd for some time. If it does change it is only for 50 pesos more or less. It is a good line................

 

[aarhus]

Not a new bus line. It is the same one they just changed the name from Expreso Bavaro to Expreso Punta Cana. They figure the name Punta Cana is better than Bavaro................

You can only buy a ticket on the day of your trip. But you can buy it for any time that day. The price has been 400 rd for some time. If it does change it is only for 50 pesos more or less. It is a good line................

It works very well when you are going to the airport from SD but not other way around as it doesn’t leave from the airport.

 

[El Hijo de Manolo]

It works very well when you are going to the airport from SD but not other way around as it doesn’t leave from the airport.

Morning Aarhus

 

[SKY]

It works very well when you are going to the airport from SD but not other way around as it doesn’t leave from the airport.

This is correct IF you are going from SD to PUJ. However many people in Punta Cana with means that have a car prefer the bus. Much more convenient for a 2 or 3 day business trip than having to drive in the obscene traffic and aggravation associated with SD. Just take taxis and leave the same way..........................

 

[NanSanPedro]

Before I bought the car, we would take a taxi to their station in Bavaro. Then the bus would take us directy to Boca Chica. Very easy.

 

[DR fan1990]

Today I flew out of PUJ and when I landed in Toronto, a CBSA agent (Canada's border police) asked me where I came from. When I said from the DR, he wanted to know in what part of the DR I actually stayed.
When I said Santo Domingo, he asked for the length and the purpose of my trip ("Do you have a girlfriend over there"?).

Agent also asked me if I was carrying "party pills or other illicit drugs" in my checked luggage.
I saw another agent send a fellow traveler (male) to secondary inspection.

Haha! So basically if you're a male traveling alone and flying from the Dominican Republic, border patrol agents always think you've been up to no good! They tend to think you did something sketchy/suspicious in the DR, because obviously normal people always vacation in families and always stay in AI resorts for 7 days.
I mean "party pills"?? That's a new one. 🤣

 

[johne]

Today I flew out of PUJ and when I landed in Toronto, a CBSA agent (Canada's border police) asked me where I came from. When I said from the DR, he wanted to know in what part of the DR I actually stayed.
When I said Santo Domingo, he asked for the length and the purpose of my trip ("Do you have a girlfriend over there"?).

Agent also asked me if I was carrying "party pills or other illicit drugs" in my checked luggage.
I saw another agent send a fellow traveler (male) to secondary inspection.

Haha! So basically if you're a male traveling alone and flying from the Dominican Republic, border patrol agents always think you've been up to no good! They tend to think you did something sketchy/suspicious in the DR, because obviously normal people always vacation in families and always stay in AI resorts for 7 days.
I mean "party pills"?? That's a new one. 🤣

Nothing really new about that practice of lone male traveller to JFK. The asking about "party pills" is out of line of course. The happens at the baggage exit. Some agents are still developing ther profiling skills.OTOH I have great conversations with the passport agents at JFK when I arrive and it's snowing and 20 degrees and I quikly answer that I have an apartment there... the past month was like paradise. Invariably he sits back in his chair and wants to talk for 2-3 minutes. It is what it is.

 

[Peterj]

Today I flew out of PUJ and when I landed in Toronto, a CBSA agent (Canada's border police) asked me where I came from. When I said from the DR, he wanted to know in what part of the DR I actually stayed.
When I said Santo Domingo, he asked for the length and the purpose of my trip ("Do you have a girlfriend over there"?).

Agent also asked me if I was carrying "party pills or other illicit drugs" in my checked luggage.
I saw another agent send a fellow traveler (male) to secondary inspection.

Haha! So basically if you're a male traveling alone and flying from the Dominican Republic, border patrol agents always think you've been up to no good! They tend to think you did something sketchy/suspicious in the DR, because obviously normal people always vacation in families and always stay in AI resorts for 7 days.
I mean "party pills"?? That's a new one. 🤣

Just jealous

 

[SKY]

When occasionally asked what I was doing in the DR by US Customs I only have to say I live there and I am out the door..................

 

[Kricke87]

Not a new bus line. It is the same one they just changed the name from Expreso Bavaro to Expreso Punta Cana. They figure the name Punta Cana is better than Bavaro................

You can only buy a ticket on the day of your trip. But you can buy it for any time that day. The price has been 400 rd for some time. If it does change it is only for 50 pesos more or less. It is a good line................

Can you really confirm that this in fact not a different company? Because doing a quick search on Google and Google Maps, they seem to be 2 competing bus companies. In Verón one has their office in Plaza Velero and the other one a couple of hundred yards up the same street. So then if someone could really confirm that it has to do with the same company, just that they changed their name, or if in fact, they are two separate companies?
Also then, which is best?
And for those who have taken that bus, how long does it take to get to Santo Domingo and where do they stop?
I'm heading back to DR next Saturday, but I'll be arriving in Punta Cana and have to get back to Sosúa the following day.
So I wanted to plan my trip back to see when I'll be arriving in Sosúa on Sunday.

 

[SKY]

First off there is only ONE Expreso PC or Bavaro, or whatever you want to call it. Any other transport to from PC to SD has NOTHING to do with the above company and should be so avoided if you want a smooth journey.

As for stops it leaves from Fruisa at the terminal and stops in Veron. Then there are two stops in SD. Takes about 3 hours give or take depending on the usual traffic. One of my employees goes to Sosua from Fruisa a lot. She leaves on the 9 or 10 bus. Takes a taxi to Caribe Tours and gets into Sosua about 5:30 PM...................And I noticed you are traveling on a Sunday. That will get you to Sosua in better time. Also it you can get the Express bus to Sosua it does not stop in La Vega and some other places. But to wait a long time for the Express bus could negate that.............

 

[MariaRubia]

When occasionally asked what I was doing in the DR by US Customs I only have to say I live there and I am out the door..................

I must admit they never ever stop me going back home. Occasionally I am stopped when I arrive but as soon as I tell them I run a business here and the name, they just wave me on.

 

[MariaRubia]

First off there is only ONE Expreso PC or Bavaro, or whatever you want to call it. Any other transport to from PC to SD has NOTHING to do with the above company and should be so avoided if you want a smooth journey.

As for stops it leaves from Fruisa at the terminal and stops in Veron. Then there are two stops in SD. Takes about 3 hours give or take depending on the usual traffic. One of my employees goes to Sosua from Fruisa a lot. She leaves on the 9 or 10 bus. Takes a taxi to Caribe Tours and gets into Sosua about 5:30 PM...................And I noticed you are traveling on a Sunday. That will get you to Sosua in better time. Also it you can get the Express bus to Sosua it does not stop in La Vega and some other places. But to wait a long time for the Express bus could negate that.............

Sorry SKY but you're wrong here. There used to be only one, called Expreso Bavaro. Then they had an internal argument and some of them split out, and set up a new company which is called Expreso Punta Cana. It's based in the office next to the old company in Maximo Gomez. And then the old service just rebranded to be Aptpra. So basically there are two, they compete with each other. The buses that leave Gomez leave 20 minutes apart, they take it in turns to go earliest, so one week the Aptpra leaves at 11am and the Expreso Punta Cana at 11.20am (and similarly every hour) and then the following week they switch. The Aptpra buses are nicer, in my opinion, they are normally double-deck and the drivers seem to drive nice and steadily. The Expreso Punta Cana is slightly cheaper, I think one is RD$ 450 and one is RD$ 400, it's not much difference. The Aptpra buses are silver with blue logos, and the Expreso Punta Cana are white buses with a red and black logo.

If you go to the Maximo Gomez base in Santo Domingo there are guys on the street who try to get you to get on their bus, so there really is competition.

 

[SKY]

So explain how the "new" company still operates out of the SAME office in Fruisa.............Nothing changed here but the name and color of the bus..............

 

[NanSanPedro]

There´s no question there are 2 companies. But the problem is they don´t all go the same place. For example, from Sabana Larga in SDEste, you can use Expreso Punta Cana to go to PC-Bavaro-Veron, but you have to go into the capital at Parque Enriquillo to get to the same destination with APTRA

 

[SKY]

There´s no question there are 2 companies. But the problem is they don´t all go the same place. For example, from Sabana Larga in SDEste, you can use Expreso Punta Cana to go to PC-Bavaro-Veron, but you have to go into the capital at Parque Enriquillo to get to the same destination with APTRA

The way I see it Expreso Punta Cana is the SAME company they have always been. They have the same office in Fruisa, same buses, go the same route, etc. APTRA looks like a NEW company trying to compete. If so, they will lose the war.....................

 

[NanSanPedro]

The way I see it Expreso Punta Cana is the SAME company they have always been. They have the same office in Fruisa, same buses, go the same route, etc. APTRA looks like a NEW company trying to compete. If so, they will lose the war.....................

APTRA is not new. We have been taking them to PC for close to 3 years now. I would just prefer not to have to go to Parque Enriquillo.

 

[SKY]

APTRA is not new. We have been taking them to PC for close to 3 years now. I would just prefer not to have to go to Parque Enriquillo.

Expreso Company is here 13 years that I know of. Where does APTRA leave from in Bavaro if you know?

 

[NanSanPedro]

Expreso Company is here 13 years that I know of. Where does APTRA leave from in Bavaro if you know?

I don't know. We have been there many times and I think it's actually Veron, but I don't know the street name.