General Info

[QUOTE=Jaosousa]I usually rent with Alamo. Third Party Liability insurance is an extra 5 dollars per day. I also get the tire and windshield protection for an extra 3.75 per day.

I have attached some photos of some roads from my recent trip. Saw two accidents on the highway that connects Santo Domingo with Santiago. One involving 4 trucks. The second accident was on the way from Santiago, heading towards Santo Domingo. I think I saw in the news afterwards, that 4-5 people were killed. I saw two of the dead bodies hanging out of one vehicle. About twenty minutes after passing the accident with fatalities, the front right tire on my rental car went bad. The outer part of the tire separated completely along the sidewalls. Some guys on the side of the highway changed it for me and I gave them ten dollars.[/QUOTE]

I have had good experiences with Budget, although I have usually rented out of the POP airport.
Also, check your credit cards to see if any offer rental car in surance.
If so, use the credit card insurance to cover the rental vehicle, and pay for the extra insurance to cover third parties. It IS worth it.
I had an accident once, the credit card company did indeed cover it for me.
Drive very defensively. This is the only place I have seen where a damned motorbike will cut off a car and practically dare you to kill him. Make all turns or lane changes gradually, so the idiot passing on the wrong side or in some other
blind spot has time to react and get out the way.

In general, stick with the large national rental agencies, as you can count on some kind of service and you can take up any problems if any, with the company HQ when you get back. Can't do that with a local.

I am coming back to the North Coast in a couple months and I would like to stay in an apartment complete with bedrooms and a working kitchen for about 3 days. It would be just for the 2 of us, me and my novia as she wants our privacy and for me to experience some of her homtown Domimican cooking. I will be doing my usual playing the first few days of the trip by myself prior to ourgetting together at the apartment and then those last three days with her.

If anyone can point me to a resonable apartment to rent, complete with kitchen in the North Coast area (Confresi to Costambar to Puerto Plata to Sosua to Cabarette) I would greatly appreciate itl And so will the Novia. And when Mamma's happy, I am happy.

[QUOTE=Ponderosa]I am coming back to the North Coast in a couple months and I would like to stay in an apartment complete with bedrooms and a working kitchen for about 3 days. It would be just for the 2 of us, me and my novia as she wants our privacy and for me to experience some of her homtown Domimican cooking. I will be doing my usual playing the first few days of the trip by myself prior to ourgetting together at the apartment and then those last three days with her.

If anyone can point me to a resonable apartment to rent, complete with kitchen in the North Coast area (Confresi to Costambar to Puerto Plata to Sosua to Cabarette) I would greatly appreciate itl And so will the Novia. And when Mamma's happy, I am happy.[/QUOTE]Ola Del Sol is in Costambar, about a block and a half from Blackbeards. You can find the web pagr by surfing. I stayed there for a month and had no problems and it is chica friendly.

One bit of advice I would offer is, maybe you don't want to rent an apartment in an area very close, to where you have mongered in the past. Walking around or being in a bar or restaurant with your current girlfriend and you might come across other chicas who you slept with on prior trips. If your current dominican girlfriend is freaky in sex, then it might not be a bad thing to stay very close to a mongering destination, where you could find another chica to do a threesome, hahaha (wishful thinking). Depends too, what you want to expose your dominican girlfriend to, while she is with you. If you go out at night with a normal dominican chica to classicos in Sosua, there is no doubt the normal dominican chica will figure out quickly what the scene is for in Sosua (pay for play), (not necessarily a problem, just depends on what you want to expose her to, while she is with you). I have taken "normal" (non-hardcore working chicas) dominican chicas to Classicos and had fun. Cabarete is more low key and many normal dominican chicas like cabarete.

I don't know cofresi or costambar. In Sosua, El Neptuno apartments are nice. Cabarete has several condominium complexes.

[QUOTE=Ponderosa]I am coming back to the North Coast in a couple months and I would like to stay in an apartment complete with bedrooms and a working kitchen for about 3 days. It would be just for the 2 of us, me and my novia as she wants our privacy and for me to experience some of her homtown Domimican cooking. I will be doing my usual playing the first few days of the trip by myself prior to ourgetting together at the apartment and then those last three days with her.

If anyone can point me to a resonable apartment to rent, complete with kitchen in the North Coast area (Confresi to Costambar to Puerto Plata to Sosua to Cabarette) I would greatly appreciate itl And so will the Novia. And when Mamma's happy, I am happy.[/QUOTE]

This place looks very nice in Cabarete, caro (expensive) 90 dollars per night for a studio, low season: [url]http://www.oceandreamcabarete.com/[/url]

[QUOTE=Ponderosa] If anyone can point me to a resonable apartment to rent, complete with kitchen in the North Coast area (Confresi to Costambar to Puerto Plata to Sosua to Cabarette) I would greatly appreciate itl And so will the Novia. And when Mamma's happy, I am happy.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Ponderosa]I am coming back to the North Coast in a couple months and I would like to stay in an apartment complete with bedrooms and a working kitchen for about 3 days. It would be just for the 2 of us, me and my novia as she wants our privacy and for me to experience some of her homtown Domimican cooking. I will be doing my usual playing the first few days of the trip by myself prior to ourgetting together at the apartment and then those last three days with her.

If anyone can point me to a resonable apartment to rent, complete with kitchen in the North Coast area (Confresi to Costambar to Puerto Plata to Sosua to Cabarette) I would greatly appreciate itl And so will the Novia. And when Mamma's happy, I am happy.[/QUOTE]

Since you are checking in with her up front you are free from needing a "Guest friendly" place and can stay anywhere. My favorite for pure location is Blue Bayou condos right in the heart of Sosua. On the cliff, with a beautiful pool, stairs cut into the coral rock down to the beach, spectacular ocean views west from your large balcony. Blue Bayou is down the dead end street next to Banco Popular. About $100 a night. Inverters only so BR AC goes out in apagons.

[QUOTE=Ponderosa]I am coming back to the North Coast in a couple months and I would like to stay in an apartment complete with bedrooms and a working kitchen for about 3 days. It would be just for the 2 of us, me and my novia as she wants our privacy and for me to experience some of her homtown Domimican cooking. I will be doing my usual playing the first few days of the trip by myself prior to ourgetting together at the apartment and then those last three days with her.

If anyone can point me to a resonable apartment to rent, complete with kitchen in the North Coast area (Confresi to Costambar to Puerto Plata to Sosua to Cabarette) I would greatly appreciate itl And so will the Novia. And when Mamma's happy, I am happy.[/QUOTE]

Hey Homey, if your girl would find the ambience in Sosua a little hard to deal with, I saw a really good review of the Portofino in Puerto Plata. It appeared to be a very nice place in a web check.

Also, if a small short-term condo rental in Sosua sounds good, contact me and I will pass you the name of a lady who manages a lot of short term condo rentals at a very reasonable rate.

Your posts have given me much to mull over and some nice ideas for my next trip. I am hoping to firm things up in the next month or so and November is starting to make the most sense for my next excusion to my beloved island.

Any other input is always welcome, and I have received some good advice through pm's also.

Thanks for the help.

P

Caution ATM SCAM in Caberette
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I was in Caberette the other night and went to Banco populars ATM but it was out of money, just then a jeep pulls up(young guy and girl) and tells me not to worry Banco Santa Cruz across the street has money, so I drive over to Banco Santa Cruz (Not really thinking why would people who know Banco Santa Cruz's machine is working be at Banco popular????) I proceed to attempt to withdraw money and my card is withheld, There is a sign on atm to call a phone number, I call this number and I'm told that I could pick up my card at the bank on Monday morning,but i would have to leave the person on the other end of the phone my pin number,so they could deactivate my account. I realize this is now a scam and look down the road and guess who is parked in the dark???yes,same jeep who told me to goto this bank). I then hung up phone and beat the crap out of the machine till I was able to retrieve my card. Just a heads up to everyone out there.

I then hung up phone and beat the crap out of the machine till I was able to retrieve my card. Just a heads up to everyone out there.[/QUOTE]Thank you this is good info!!

I had a good experience recently with a US cell phone rental company.
Going overseas and need connectivity to the States/Europe/Canada?
For $20 US per week plus nominal per minute fee, they will rent you a cel phone with a US area code for those who need one.

A $20 startup fee includes return postage.
For those who need a number where they can be reached that shows a US area code and make calls back to the US/wherever, a very good deal.

All I know is that it served my purposes and was reasonably priced.
Its called cellhire.com.

[QUOTE=Bigup]Caution ATM SCAM in Caberette
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I was in Caberette the other night and went to Banco populars ATM but it was out of money, just then a jeep pulls up(young guy and girl) and tells me not to worry Banco Santa Cruz across the street has money, so I drive over to Banco Santa Cruz (Not really thinking why would people who know Banco Santa Cruz's machine is working be at Banco popular????) I proceed to attempt to withdraw money and my card is withheld, There is a sign on atm to call a phone number, I call this number and I'm told that I could pick up my card at the bank on Monday morning,but i would have to leave the person on the other end of the phone my pin number,so they could deactivate my account. I realize this is now a scam and look down the road and guess who is parked in the dark???yes,same jeep who told me to goto this bank). I then hung up phone and beat the crap out of the machine till I was able to retrieve my card. Just a heads up to everyone out there.[/QUOTE]

Every ATM with money has a 24 h watchman with a shotgun. If your card is withheld go retrieve it when the branch is open. "beat the crap out of the machine"? - total BS. By the way one has to attempt a withdrawal only when a branch is open.

Thieves play with the ATM machines, they do it here in the states too. My bad experiences with ATM machines in the Dominican Republic, occurred when the machines gave me less money, than I requested, which forced me to try again, thus netting more transaction fees, for the banks involved. In my eyes this seemed more like a white collar crime, the banks programmed certain machines to give less than the requested amount.

What happened to me at several ATM machines is, when I put my card in the machine, entered my password and requested withdrawal, a screen pops up with 4 or 5 different amounts of money to withdraw ( for example: 500, 1000, 2000, 3000 pesos), on a few occasions I pressed the button adjacent to the amount for 2000 pesos and thereafter the machine gave me 200 pesos. Transaction fees are at least 4 dollars, so in that case I spent 4 dollars to receive less than six dollars. On another machine I pushed the button next to the amount for 2,500 pesos and the machine gave me 500 pesos. This happened to me in santo domingo and in moca.

What I do now is click other amount and I type in the amount I want. Usually if I type in the amount myself, the machine has given me the correct amount. I showed various Dominicans the problem with one ATM machine, including a guard and he said he could do nothing. Maybe some banks are programmed to do this only when a foreigner requests a withdrawal, I don't know.

[QUOTE=Questner]Every ATM with money has a 24 h watchman with a shotgun. If your card is withheld go retrieve it when the branch is open. "beat the crap out of the machine"? - total BS. By the way one has to attempt a withdrawal only when a branch is open.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Questner]Every ATM with money has a 24 h watchman with a shotgun. If your card is withheld go retrieve it when the branch is open. "beat the crap out of the machine"? - total BS. By the way one has to attempt a withdrawal only when a branch is open.[/QUOTE]

This info is provided by travel.state.gov webpage,`a webpage from the US government to american citizens:

Travelers are also advised to minimize the use of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), which are present throughout Santo Domingo and other major cities. One local ATM fraud scheme involves sticking photographic film or pieces of paper in the card feeder of the ATM so that an inserted card becomes jammed. Once the card owner has concluded the card is irretrievable, the thieves extract both the jamming material and the card, which they then use. There are other ATM scams as well. Exercise caution and be aware of your surroundings when using an ATM card.

1. Always use ATM's during daylight Banking Hours (9am - 4pm; M-F)
2. Only use ATM's that are "Attached" to a Bank Branch (NO "Free-standing" Machines)
3. Use recognized names like: Scotia Bank, Banco Popular, Banc Reservas
4. In tourist areas (Sosua, Boca Chica, Punta Cana), always make sure that you see an armed Watchee Man (and that he sees you too)
5. Withdraw the Maximum Transaction Amount (generally RD$10,000+) to avoid excessive transaction fees
6. Avoid using ATM's on Weekends and on DR Holidays, because of higher rates, less available cash, and the higher chance of machine tampering
7. Be very aware of your surroundings and keep transaction time to a minimum (1 minute)
8. If you have the time, just walk-in and conduct your transaction with a bank teller. With a teller, you can specify the peso denominations (much better than getting stuck with 5 RD$2,000 notes)

-Helpmann :)