Tourist Attractions in Dominican Republic

almost everybody who goes to DR and like all travel sites, recuerdos is one thing that we like to buy.
paintings are very "eye ketchy". and i bought one.
and bring one is a very good experience when yu have to argue the best price for it and try to achive the best price... be prepared to a "hard fight" with local vendors!
i´ll be back!

Unique Suggestions: ask the price.
offer 1/3.
and buy for half.
in the end yu still feel like yu 've donne a good bargain.
and i garantee, so do they....

If you go to the hotel beach you will probably be visited by some local trying to sell coconut water, recuerdos, whatever! They all seem to be selling the same artefacts, from morning till the end of the afternoon.

Hotels usually refer in their brochures "private beach". It means that locals don't go to the beach to sunbath, but apparently it doesn’t apply to sales persons. Sometimes it can be a little bit annoying, but there's no harm in it, they are only trying to make a living.

During my stay in 1995 I spent with friends a weekend in Sosua. I remember Sosua as the most terrible place on the entire Island. It was very touristic with these terrible German beer bars at the beach. Don't want to imagine how Sosua looks nowaday. And a question what I really asked myself several times: Why is everywhere rubbish in the streets? Not only in Sosua!

Unique Suggestions: Make as much trips as possible to see many other place on the island!!!

Fun Alternatives: Lots of other beautiful places can be visited.

Folks inside compounds are taught to fear what is outside the grounds.

This is a ploy to control 100% of your tourist dollars!

They don'y even want you to buy tours from outside agents...so they create fear tactics to keep you from even talking to outside "locals"

You really miss the true joys of travel, when staying in a "staged controled environment".

The growth of All Inclusives is probably why I can stay oceanfront, at a "mom and pop" local hotel or guest house, for as little as $10 a night!

So can you...if you choose to travel independently!

Be aware of the cost of a taxi from the hotels to any location. For this example I will use Punta Cana.

My husband and I stayed in Punta Cana for a week, we needed to get to the town of Higuey which is the closest town one hour away.

The taxi driver quoted us 65 USD return, his big "seller" was the fact it was air-conditioned, and safer.

NOTE: Travel on the local bus (gua-gua) to Higuey cost us about 4 USD for two of us return. It is SAFE to travel on the local buses which are run by a specific company. There is a driver and a person who collects the money on the gua-gua and they both wear uniforms and are quite respectful. The ride is bumpy but it is a great way of mixing with the locals.

Unique Suggestions: If you do have to take a taxi, gather up a group and SHARE the taxi. That makes plain economic sense.

Fun Alternatives: You can rent a car but be aware driving in the towns itself are crazy. There are a lot of mopeds or scooters and it seems that traffic signs are not readily obeyed.

Sometimes, locals on the beach will offer to braid your hair for money. Someone offered to braid hair extentions into my hair (I had short hair at the time) with beads for 600 pesos, but I didn't do it. It's possible to haggle the price, but sometimes if you get to know some local people outside the beach, they might braid your hair for free.

Unique Suggestions: Haggle the price if you want your hair braided at the beach.

Fun Alternatives: If you get to know some friendly locals outside the beach and touristy areas, they might do it for free.

At the airport, those friendly people waiting to take your bags don't take no for an answer, both when trying to take your bags to carry them, & when trying to get a tip! Now I'm not against tipping at all, I realise alot of them rely on that for money - but give me a chance to get my money out first - 'tip, tip', lol :)

Unique Suggestions: Have some Dominican currency at the ready!

Fun Alternatives: Just let them take your bags - it's a whole lot easier than saying no! Plus...it is hard work in that heat.....so I was going to tip...he just didn't give me a chance before he started asking!!!

What came as a big surprise to us when we arrived the Puerto Plata airport was the men who were too `helpful` with our luggage. We didn`t bring more than we could handle ourselves, so we really would like to handle it to the buses ourselves. The problem was that you had to physically `sit` on the luggage to prevent the luggage-men from taking it. And even worse; just arriving the Dominican republic, we didn`t have any pesos to pay them with, so we had to give them dollars, and that was a bad deal for us, I can assure... When we left for home it was even worse. This time we were prepared for it, but now they were even more pushy.