Dominican republic

Mihangel

anyone been any comments? thinking about going end of May for 2 weeks.
thanks
mike

jennake

been 5 times to the dominican the south has calmer seas and nicer beaches the north is also nice the seas a bit rougher the best resort for me is bayhibe its got a beautiful beach

pianeet

depends on what you like doing,

if you just like lying on beautiful beaches then it is a great place,when we went it was the first time we had been on an all inclusive holiday and i hated it,
we stopped at peurta plata and it was awful,food ,entertainment,accomadation,it was the only time i have wished we had only booked a week instead of two..

on the other hand my sister in law has been four times and thinks it great,

it really does depend on what you want from a holiday

LittleTinker

It depends on you, what you like, what type of person you are......etc etc

There are reasons why the Dominican Republic is quite a lot cheaper than other Caribbean Islands.

angelfire

i've been twice, once to the North and once to the South and wouldn't hesitate in recommending either!
I stayed at The Bahia Principe in the North and loved it, the beach was dark but the food, service, rooms, etc were all fab..

the second time i went to Sunscape Casa del mar in the south west I think it is and again, the hotel, food, etc was faultless i loved it. We did an excursion to the beach used for the bounty ads years ago, that was nice and my boyfriend went diving.

One thing I will say about the DR is that an awful lot of people claim to have gotten food poisoning while out there - well this never happened to me or any of my family. I'd suggest that it's more a case of people over-undulging on foods they wouldn't normally eat and ending up poorly as a result...

vixarooni

all i know about the dom republic is that it has a child sex industry.

i think thats what little tinker might have been implying

lynzpower

I travelled independently in the DR, and although parts of it were lovely ( i really liked the capital SD) I wasnt overkeen on much of it.

I flew into puerta plata
travelled all around the place, a few days hiking in the interior which was fabulous, ( around la vega/ jarabacoa)

Liked SD, colonial architecture, shopping, castle & forts some museums etc
Not as good as other carrbbean capitals tho IMHO

Stayed in cabarete for a while which I wouldnt recommend, very noisy ( v late bars on the beach, almost 18-30s atmostphere) but stayed in a cracking little place with loads of independents who were kite surfing, and we went for a drive out to possibly higuey, where we went whale watching. which was excellent.

I didnt think the beaches were all that, but I think Ive been a bit spoiled.

I do remember the food & drink being excellent everywhere I ate though- cocktails :drool:

I got a shed load of grief as a single woman traveller, and although it was "well intentioned" ( ie not violent) it certainly put me off travelling solo there again.

kaza

I have stayed there loads of times as cabin crew, depends what you want really. Its become quite commercialised but mainly hotel based really. Wouldnt recommend for kids, stay in a hotel 4* or above, also stay ai which most of them are anyway. Locals usually very friendly, just use common sense and remember its a 3rd world country. Although some of the hotels are really nice.

LittleTinker

vixarooni wrote:

all i know about the dom republic is that it has a child sex industry.

i think thats what little tinker might have been implying

No it isn't......that isn't something I was aware of.

Its cheaper because of its reputation for crime and bad hygiene standards.....as another poster pointed out, food poisoning is quite common (not overindulgence)......and its the 'Costa del Sol' of the Caribbean...lots of so called 'lager louts'.....but things are improving. Millions of dollars are being invested into the tourism sector to help sort out these areas.

The people are friendly in the hotels though.

across

i went a decade ago my bad experience was definately not due to "overindulgence" as one poster put it, i stayed in sosua and it was a red light district with lots of women (little huts with them in and a very dodgy nightclub) saying "me ok!" to my husband! there were rats round the pool area and after complaining they became dead rats round pool area through rat poisoning and eventually scooped up with a dustpan and brush rats round the pool area, there was no medically trained staff ie,a man had a heart attack and died in the pool area and none of the staff knew how to help at all they only picked him up and rubbed each foot and hand to try and get his circulation going then he was left for five hours in the baking sun by the pool under a sheet waiting for the doctor to certify him dead, the cleaners had no sense of hygeine they used the mop bucket to collect glasses from apartment whether it had a toilet brush in it or not(i had photos of all this) so no wonder we were all very ill and all the cups tasted of very strong detergent unrinsed ,the balconies were very coroded(rusted up from bottom of bars leaving a gap) and rocked if you touched them, the electical wires hung out of the wall on the air conditioning and hubby got electic shock when switching it on,the building was still being built ie, no roof on yet so it flooded the apartment with termites when we had a storm i thought we were going to die in never seen lightening like it ever,there was a floor above like a building site stairs up to plumbing for bathrooms ,scaffolding etc,the entertainment was the same young lad in day and night he only had a twin cassette radio and did bingo using corn niblets to cover numbers and showed you how to merengie, the food was the same brought out dinner and tea until it was used up and reheated only by the hot water on the buffet table(eg if you got there when it started chicken was cold but if you got there after an hoour or so chicken had warmed up with the hot water so we never realised until we came at different times you wouldnt realise if you went at same time every day! everybody cottoned on but by then you had a bad tummy), you could be having a shower and the power would just go off leaving you full of shampoo in the dark because they only had there own little generator and a bloke would then go into a shed while everyone watched on balcony and you see puff,puff of smoke from a chimmey and let there be light!!! hurray everyone cheered! candles in the night very often were normal there,chickens,cats and dogs round your feet while you ate your breakfast in an outdoor under straw restaraunt and the kitchen was so dirty when we peeped in,we also had a lizard that lived in our apartment we couldnt catch him so just got used to him he loved to sit on the sewage pipe on the toilet and run behind the fridge, the list is endless but could we go home? NO the rep said noone could get on any flights as there were no available seats so we had to sleep on top of the bed using a sarong for cover for two weeks as it was so filthy and mattress full of holes with straw like inner coming out,this was meant to be three star and i do not recommend three star all inclusive to anyone BE CAREFUL and dont for one minute blame it on overindulgance it is more like bad luck all my holidays have been brilliant and i never complain but i suppose when i compare to the ordeal above things are luxury!(the beach was lovely the sea was crystal with little fishes swimming round and crabs crawling on the silvery white sand if i remember but it was a matter of can you strap the loo too you and go! the cramps in tummy kept you at the hotel whether it was ideal or not)i went ten years ago and like to hope its changed but never for me again when i left the poor entertainment lad wanted our flip flops, my cap, shampoo, and any toiletries we had the hotal itself was run by americans and that is why i cannot understand why it was so bad and why did they not serve chips or ice cream even for the children? did we get compensation? if i remember it was about a quarter or a third back not very much because i cant see how worse a holiday could ever get! my hubbys family are from jamaica so why we even thought we'd go dom rep instaed i dont know what came over us but i have heard many many stories of very enjoyable holidays in dom rep but go 5 star cos thatll be like our three star!(ps the way to get home if you end up like this is to plug yourself with imodium for the 9 hour flight! i never needed the loo once so imodium really does work!)hubby just said it was an endurance test and we survived!!just!!!