General Info

Hi,

I have been through the entire DR portion of the site. City by City. WSG provides great detail which is much appreciated.

But I still have some questions and could really use some answers. The only mongering I have to compare against was my trip to st. maartin last year. I had a FANTASTIC time there that I don't think can be matched, but I'm going to try :)

I am 99% sure that I will be staying in punta cana b/c that is where my friend has a time share. it looks as if my options if i stay in pc are limited to traveling to bavaro and hiruengo (sp?) which i am not sure if that would be more costly than just staying closer to the action. do you agree?

I am still not sure, after reading everyone's posts, whether this is a smart move since i will be focused on relaxing mostly, but also mongering daily. should i just abandon the all-inclusive deal i have at my buddy's place which will average, with food included, @$90US per day to stay in SD instead? I could really use some help here. i am a single, 32yo male traveling solo (woohoo!). Please help me out by answering my questions below and adding in any advice you have for me. i need your help with this decision which is primarily safety, cost and comfort based.

Bottom line: From a daily $$$ perspective, i am trying to compare option (A): The cost of this all-incl punta cana hotel ($90US per day hwich includes three meals) plus mongering travel (taxi each way to 'meet and greet' girls if i stay in Punta cana) and 'enjoyment costs' (fees, cover charges, etc.) with option (B): Any alternative to Punta Cana you can tell me about where i might find a safe, quality guest friendly hotel (pls. suggest 2-3 hotel names and approx. daily prices) in SD or elsewhere in DR with lower girl 'meet and greet' costs (i.e., not the actual fee, but also transportation and accomodation costs.....Are there safe, guest friendly places i could consider WALKING to from a hotel that meets the safe and clean and girl friendly criteria that is also close enough to a beautiful beach? I may be asking for to much, but any help you can provide is really appreciated.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

btzkey

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Bretszky,

You were reading this site?

"I have been through the entire DR portion of the site. I am 99% sure that I will be staying in Punta Cana"

[QUOTE=Helpmann]Bretszky,

You were reading this site?

"I have been through the entire DR portion of the site. I am 99% sure that I will be staying in Punta Cana"[/QUOTE]

You can say that again. Methinks he has a white cane and a guide dog (with some DR girls not so bad an affliction really) , even then you can have the pages read to you by computer so I suspect the lure of a cheap stay in a dumb town is overruling a low cost stay in a town where you can actually do something.

Punta Cana - What a total time-wating destination, and frankly, Bretzky, for the first time Santo Domingo is not the best choice either. For low cost high volume first time mongering go to Boca Chica, you won't need $90 a day for room, food and drink even with the horrible peso currently.

The only thing holding me back from going to DR is the fact that I don't know how to speak spanish. Is this really a problem or should I go anyway? If I do go where is the best place to go for a fat white guy with no spanish go?

I usually go to Jamaica and have no problems there but need a change, everyone knows me there now.

Bonao,

Is there any mongering action in this town or area?

I read internet webpages of local newspapers almost daily. For what I read crime has grew a lot in the recent weeks. I read articles about murders, at least five daily, in average. Lots of robbery, bank and stores assaults across the country. My girlfriend get robbed near el Conde yesterday, at noon. A country that looks for safe for me in recent times now looks like a dangerous place.

[QUOTE=boricuaonline]I read internet webpages of local newspapers almost daily. For what I read crime has grew a lot in the recent weeks. I read articles about murders, at least five daily, in average. Lots of robbery, bank and stores assaults across the country. My girlfriend get robbed near el Conde yesterday, at noon. A country that looks for safe for me in recent times now looks like a dangerous place.[/QUOTE]

I thought the Dominican Republic was a high crime area in any case. Its probably full of desperate people. Yet Ive known people who have gone there, and none were attacked. Yet, a good friend of mine was robbed and beaten at a train station in Connecticut. Go figure.

Anybody know what the deal with cell phones is in DR? for the life of me i couldnt get mine to work (i use cingular) if i go back i would like to be able to have cell phone comunication since Blackbeards has no phones.

[QUOTE=Reality]Anybody know what the deal with cell phones is in DR? for the life of me i couldnt get mine to work (i use cingular) if i go back i would like to be able to have cell phone comunication since Blackbeards has no phones.[/QUOTE]

It is a bit of a gamble with roaming to say nothing of costing a mint.

Buy an Orange or Verizon/Codetel phone and use calling cards - they are available new as cheap as RD$600-900, and the cards start at RD$100. You will have the advantage of a local # the chicas can call as well and when the card runs out you still receive calls for free. If you are a frequent visitor they hold the number for the 50-70 days a card is good for plus at least 90 on top of that so a trip every 5 or 6 months you should be OK.

You can get a phone from the US but you need to make sure that it is not locked into a network and that it accepts a sim card. Once in DR you just go to a phone store and have them change the chip to an orange chip (make sure that the guy gives you back your original chip). All Nokia phones are good for this. Also, European phones are easier to use in the DR because they are not locked. You can buy phones to use in the DR on ebay. Also, there is the issue of the roaming charges for phones that use US service but from what I hear as more and more international service is being introduced the price should go down but this will be a while. I've talked to many workers on the job and the international service is becoming more of an option. I talked to John at Blackbeards about the phones and he said that it would be very expensive to install and the pbx system is a pain in the ass.

Thanks for the info guys, hey do any of you guys know if there is a hotel like Black Beards in the Santo Domingo area? I live in Puerto Rico and for some reason its cheeper for me to fly to Santo Domingo (120 to 200 bucks round trip) than it is for me to fly to Puerto Plata (300 cheapest i could find). What hotels do you recomend? and what are the premo spots for mongering? be it economical and quality.

Boy, it seems like a million years ago (but it was only 4 months) when on July 6th I recieved an exchange rate of 53rdp to 1usd in a casa de cambio on Ave Tiradentes in Santo Domingo.

Now (11/12) the RD Peso has dropped below 30 to 1 and continues to fall. Incredibly, the DR1 reported yesterday that steps are now being taken by the government to try to artificially "deflate" the strentgh of the dollar because of a sudden shortage of pesos in circulation! Did you ever believe you'd live to see the day?

I think the govenrment is correct to get involved - if the peso if permitted to sink to a level of 20-22 to 1 it will kill tourism, and push us "hobbyists" to other countries in search of value.

Cheers,
FORD

Hey guy,

Me and 2 of my friends are going to the DR in March of 05. We are a little green on which hotels allow girls or have girls there. We are looking at staying at a 3 or 4 star place if possible. Also, we will be renting a car while we are there and was wondering how is the driving scene down there? WE are from the Virgin Islands so we are familiar with narrow roads, just need to know how crazy the drivers are. :) Would like to know where most of the sexiest chicks are so we don't have to be chasing back and forth for the pussy.

Any help is very much welcomed.

Thanks,

Jahcool

You might want to narrow it down a bit in your question to other than the entire country. There are not many 4 star places that are guest friendly other than the Jaragua and certainly non of the all inclusive resorts are period.

We want to be Santo Domingo. To be honest, I really don't care what hotel we stay at, as long as there is running water and its pretty clean. My friends are the ones who are particular, but can be talked out of that. As long asI am near the beach I will be cool. :)

Thanks again.