Santo Domingo

[Jaosousa]

I think that is what he is talking about, taking the coastal road from Sosua to Nagua and then the new highway to SDQ.

What is this chit chat about building a new road from Samana airport to Las Terrenas. Only thing I saw last trip was repair and resurfacing of the existing road.

There is also a lot of much needed repair being done on the road over the mountains to Las Terrenas. No way in this world would I drive on that road at night, no way.

When I drove to Samana, about two years ago, I took the new highway and about 3/4 of the way to Samana, the highway was not finished. Nothing blocking the finished part of the highway from the unfinished part. I was driving at night, I drove on the unfinished part for about 50 feet and made a U-turn and then drove back to a local road where I made a left turn turn, and it was all local roads to Las Terrenas from there. I arrived at the hotel in Las Terrenas around 11pm. I was so happy when I saw the hotel, it was not an enjoyable drive at night on the local roads (especially after not sleeping for 24 hours and arriving that day into DR from the States).

When you drove to Samana was the highway completely finished?

Koki did Santo Domingo to Sosua in 2 1/2 hours, that is great time. Should be noted that the new highway to Samana has about 20 dollars in tolls and I don't recall seeing any gas stations on that highway.

Nagua is up by Samana.

[Chris Five]

Can you rent a car at the Sdq Airport? If so, what is the going price a day. Can you drive from Sdq to Pop? If so, how long is the drive and is it easy to get to.

You can also rent cars from Payless Car Rental, I've rented with them a bunch of times and never had any problems. Their prices start at $19 per day for a picanto without insurance, of course if you want insurance that'll probably go up to $35 or so per day and their credit card hold is only about $250-450 around there.

I also read some guys asking about cell phones? I tried to purchase an Orange sim card and NO they won't sell to foreigners, I also tried 2 stores and NO! I bought a sim with Claro and they had no problem selling me a card, of course I had to show them my passport.

I have one question, can I buy another SIM card with Claro since the first one that I bought was lost somewhere in the plane coming back? They won't give me a hard time about me having a SIM card already?

[Bq Ribs]

Did you take the new highway that goes to Samana to get to Nagua?

I think that is what he is talking about, taking the coastal road from Sosua to Nagua and then the new highway to SDQ.

What is this chit chat about building a new road from Samana airport to Las Terrenas. Only thing I saw last trip was repair and resurfacing of the existing road.

There is also a lot of much needed repair being done on the road over the mountains to Las Terrenas. No way in this world would I drive on that road at night, no way.

[Jaosousa]

Just last Sunday drove from Sosua to SDQ on the new highway thru Nagua. 2 1/2 hours without hurrying.

Did you take the new highway that goes to Samana to get to Nagua?

[Jaosousa]

I received this flyer by mail.

Now with outcalls, you should make reservations the day before using their girls catalog or visit the place. the have grills ,happy hours, you can celebrate your bachelor party there, striptease.

Venus De Milo in El Milion, one block off of Avenida Nunez de Carceres?

Gracias.

[Koki9290]

Does anybody knows how long the drive from Santo Domingo to Sosua and also the bus ride?

Thanks

Just last Sunday drove from Sosua to SDQ on the new highway thru Nagua. 2 1/2 hours without hurrying.

[BoricuaOnline]

I received this flyer by mail.

Now with outcalls, you should make reservations the day before using their girls catalog or visit the place. the have grills ,happy hours, you can celebrate your bachelor party there, striptease.

[Jaosousa]

Jaosousa,

Thanks alot for the info and directions. Does GPS Navigation system works in the DR?

I have been told that GPS works in DR. I have not used GPS in DR. Recently another member posted a link to a site where you can buy Dominican Republic maps for Garmin GPS.

[Stebo419]

Jaosousa,

Thanks alot for the info and directions. Does GPS Navigation system works in the DR?

[Jaosousa]

When I drive into Santo Domingo from the airport, I get off of Las Americas highway and take Avenida Espana to the small pontoon bridge that puts me on the malecon near zona colonial. A person wanting to get to Sosua from SDQ airport, there is no point in taking that route.

When I am in Zona Colonial and I want to drive to Santiago, I take Avenida 30 de Marzo, near park independencia, to Avenida San Martin, which will put me onto Avenida Kennedy. If I am near the Hotel Melia or Hotel Jaragua, I will take the Malecon (also known as Avenida George Washington) west, until I get to Avenida Luperon, I will make a right on Luperon and take Avenida Luperon north until I reach Autopista Duarte, then go left on autopista duarte for santiago.

When you enter into Santiago, there are different ways can you go. In Santiago you will be on local roads with traffic lights for about 20-30 minutes, until you reach the highway again.

I have taken the mountain road from Santiago, several times, to get to Sosua. That mountain road is not for the faint of heart. It is a narrow road, sometimes with one lane washed out, with 500 foot drops to the side of the road. Lots of turns on that road. It is a very scenic road. That road will take you near to the town of Montellano, where you will make a right to take the highway into Sosua.

Probably the easiest route to take through Santiago is to get on Avenida Estrella Sadhalla going north. When driving from Santo Domingo, you will know that you have entered Santiago when you start to see a bunch of Cabanas. The highway will then turn into a local road with traffic lights. There will be signs for Avenida Estrella Sadhalla, follow those signs and once you are on Avenida Estrella Sadhalla going north, you will go straight and that road will eventually become autopista duarte, which will take you to another road that will lead to Puerto Plata.

If you miss the turn for Avenida Estrella Sadhalla, don't worry, just keep going straight, you will eventually get to a round about, stay towards the right at that round about and you will pass Hotel Matum (in front of the Monument). Keep going straight on that road. From the google map that road will become Avenida Imbert. Which will run parallel with Avenida 27 de Febrero in Santiago. You want to get onto Avenida 27 Febrero going north. Avenida Imbert crosses Avenida 27 de Febrero, there you can make a left onto Avenida 27 de Febrero. Avenida 27 de Febrero will take you north to Autopista Duarte, when you reach Autopista Duarte you will go left onto Autopista Duarte.

Autopista Duarte is known as highway 1. You can take that highway until you see a sign for Puerto Plata, you will make a right onto highway 5 (canada bonita) and take that road north to Puerto Plata.

It is a fairly easy drive. If you are lost, the people are very nice about giving directions. If your Spanish is not great, just ask " Por Puerto Plata?" or "Direccion por Puerto Plata, porfavor", porfavor is please.

Highway 5 will take you right into Puerto Plata. The main road in Puerto Plata was redone about 4-5 years ago, with new street lights and new asphalt. You will take that main road through Puerto Plata, depending on traffic, you will be through Puerto Plata in 20 minutes.

At the end of the main road you will go right. Soon after you go right, you will see the Brugal factory on your left. Just go straight on that road for 35-40 minutes and you will enter into Sosua.

Sosua has two parts, separated by Playa (beach) Sousa. The first part of Sosua that you will see when coming from Puerto Plata is Charamicos (kind of like the slummy part of Sosua), after about 5 minutes you will enter into the El Batey part of Sosua.

If you want to take the mountain road, from Avenida Estrella Sadahalla going north, you will make a right onto Avenida Bartolome Colon, where you make the right you will see a tall building with "HACHE" written on the building near the roof (that is Plaza Hache). Just go straight on Avenida Bartolome Colon and that road will become the mountain road.

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[Jaosousa]

Thanks for the Info. Do you have a good Map. Does a Naviation system works in th DR. I woluld like for you to give me some good pointers. I never been to Sdq but i did went to Sosua and was of the chain. In your opinon which city do you like better out of Boca Chica and Sosua.

Sosua is better than Boca Chica. However, if you want to fly into SDQ, then Boca Chica is 15 minutes from the SDQ airport.

Driving to Sosua from SDQ airport. Less traffic late at night, but the roads are dark, as a first time driver in DR, I would not recommend driving at night from SDQ to Sosua (I did it my first time driving there, but it was a long drive).

Best time to travel is in the middle part of the day after morning rush hour traffic and before evening rush hour, especially in Santo Domingo. On the weekends there is usually less traffic.

If you rent a car at SDQ airport, when you exit the airport parking lot you will make a right onto a road that has two lanes of traffic for both directions of travel (you will pass a Texaco gas station on the right, that is where I usually fill up the car, before returning the car to the rental company). After less than 5 minutes the road you are on, will split. To the left the road will elevate and that will put you onto Las Americas Highway for Santo Domingo. The other part of the road goes toward the right in the direction of Boca Chica.

Heading into Santo Domingo on Las Americas you will pass a toll plaza that has rounded things embedded into the asphalt, as a way to make cars slow down. Going towards Santo Domingo, there is no toll there. When returning to SDQ airport you will have to pay a 30 peso toll.

Keep going straight on the highway Las Americas. After about 30 minutes you will come upon the Juan Bosch bridge (puente Juan Bosch), it is a big modern bridge. When you have gotten over the bridge you will have three choices. Going to the left will bring you toward Zona Colonial, you don't want that. Going to the right will put you underneath Avenida 27 de Febrero for local traffic (you could go that way). If you go straight after the bridge you will go up onto the elevated portion of Avenida 27 de Febrero. If you take the elevated part, eventually you will need to make a right turn off of Avenida 27 Febrero onto a major street and head north to Avenida Kennedy. Several large streets cross avenida 27 de febrero, where you could make the right turn.

Might be best to take the local route (non-express) after the bridge. You need to get on Avenida Kennedy. I haven't been on Ave 27 de Febrero after the bridge in a while. Only problem with taking the express elevated part is that I am not 100% sure you can make a right onto Avenida Maximo Gomez to head towards Avenida Kennedy. (there are parts of the express part of Avenida 27 de Febrero that go below ground). Ave 27 de Febrero and Kennedy are somewhat close to each other near Avenida Maximo Gomez. The further west you travel on Avenida 27 de Febrero the distance between 27 de febrero and kennedy becomes greater. Easiest for you would probably to make the right onto Ave. Maximo Gomez and take maximo gomez to kennedy, where you will make a left on kennedy.

Once you reach Avenida Kennedy make a left. Just go straight on Avenida Kennedy and it will become Autopista Duarte. Keep going straight, after about 30 minutes there will be a 30 peso toll. Once you are outside of Santo Domingo it is a good 4 lane highway (2 lanes for each direction), you will stay on this road going straight, after about 2 hours (depending how fast you drive) the highway will enter into Santiago.

I'll continue after a short break.

Caribe Tours and Metro bus service both go to Sosua from Santo Domingo for about ten dollars.

Boricua online's google map:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0...mid=1246199584

[Bq Ribs]

Does anybody knows how long the drive from Santo Domingo to Sosua and also the bus ride?

Thanks

It is a 3 +/- hour drive from SD to Sosua all depending on traffic in Santo Domingo and Santiago. Quite naturally the bus is a little longer because of the stops. You can take either Caribe Tours or Metro to Sosua, both are modern comfortable buses.

[Bq Ribs]

Large bottle of Presidente beer at the Colmado is 75 pesos. Small bottle of Presidente at the Jaragua casino bar, where the live music is, around 200 pesos. The waitresses there are not overly friendly. The Jaragua is constructing something that fronts the malecon, I don't know what it is.

Maybe that is why I like plastic chair and table service. It is much cheaper! At the right colmado you can have a great time watching the local chicas dance while sipping your Prez and you have a much better chance of picking up one of them chicas.

It looks like they are just adding a street entrance to the casino so you won't have to walk thru the hotel lobby. A new entrance directly from the malecon with bright lights should draw a larger crowd and at the same time the lobby and restaurant areas will be quieter.

[Stebo419]

Another member has posted that he paid about 40 dollars per day, paying cash, with adventure rent a car in DR.

There are numerous car rental companies at the airport in Santo Domingo. Alamo/National are partners in Dom Rep. Alamo is open 24/7 at the Santo Domingo airport.

One advantage to using a credit card for a car rental in DR is that most credit card companies will provide coverage for collision/loss damage. If you were to purchase the collision/loss damage insurance from the car rental company, they usually charge about 20 dollars per day for that coverage.

My past trip I used my credit card to rent a car with Alamo and to pay for a room at the Hotel Palacio in Santo Domingo.

I looked at my bank statement online yesterday and there were charges from Mexico (I haven't been in Mexico in over 20 years). Just about every time when I travel to Dom Rep and use my credit card, soon thereafter there are bogus-fraud charges on my credit card. Seems to me that someone in Dom Rep is selling my credit card information to thieves in Mexico, who make a clone of the credit card. Several times charges have appeared for travel expenses, seems the thieves tried to book airline tickets. To me it should be very easy to catch them, because they have to give their real name when they want to buy airline tickets. My bank cancels the card and takes the charges off of my account. But you have to be vigilant about checking your bank statements after visiting the DR.

The drive to Puerto Plata is fairly easy, about 4 hours from Santo Domingo airport, depending on the day of the week and the time of day.

The first time I drove in Dom Rep, I rented a car at SDQ airport and drove to Sosua. (American Airlines had jammed me, by not holding their 40 seat American Eagle turboprop airplane in San Juan for a flight that was less than an hour late coming from Newark. The 40 seat airplane would have taken me to Puerto Plata, instead American flew me into Santo Domingo around 5pm and they left my luggage in San Juan). I rented a mitsubishi small car, around 5pm for the drive to Sosua.

I got lost in Santo Domingo and in Santiago. I finally arrived at the hotel in Sosua around midnight. If you do decide to drive from sdq to pop, study the map and let me know and I will give you some pointers as to make the drive easier.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I would suggest that the author or another Forum Member consider posting a link to this report in the Reports of Distinction thread. Please Click Here for more information.

Thanks for the Info. Do you have a good Map. Does a Naviation system works in th DR. I woluld like for you to give me some good pointers. I never been to Sdq but i did went to Sosua and was of the chain. In your opinon which city do you like better out of Boca Chica and Sosua.

[Stebo419]

Does anybody knows how long the drive from Santo Domingo to Sosua and also the bus ride?

Thanks