My husband and I just returned from a 9- day trip to the Dominican Republic. This board was so helpful to us when researching previous trips to the BVI's and the Grenadines, but the Dominican Republic doesn't come up much, so I thought our experience might be of interest to some. We love the Caribbean, and especially love to find low-key, relaxing places off the beaten track. We’re not “big resort” people, so for our Dominican Republic trip, we focused on the Samana Peninsula in the northeast part of the country where there is sun, sea, and a variety of good options for independent travelers. The first night we spent in Santo Domingo and the last in Las Terrenas, and the time in between we rented a house on the water in Las Galeras. We loved our trip. The beaches were beautiful and uncrowded, the food was good, it was pretty inexpensive and best of all, Dominican people were so nice. We heard a lot of comments before we left for the trip that we should “be really, really careful” and “not leave our resort” (oops, already too late for that). People were definitely poor; we were struck by that in our drives around the countryside, but not once in the week we were there did I feel threatened or ill at ease in any way. On the contrary, all the Dominicans we met seemed down-to-earth, friendly, and very family-oriented. My husband speaks Spanish and while we could easily have gotten by without it, we got into so many random and interesting conversations that I was glad we could communicate. We had all kinds of adventures I left out of the report in the interest of space, so if you want to know more about anything please just ask, or PM me through my profile.

Santo Domingo – we stayed at the Hotel Conde de Penalba in the Zona Colonial for our first night in the country, and headed to Las Galeras the next day. Our interior room (re: no window) was $65/night. It was pretty nice, although a little bit loud. There were AC units in all the rooms so when the family that shared the rest of our floor was running around and banging doors at 2 AM, we could just turn on the AC and drown them out. The hotel was worth it just for the location, right in the Zona Colonial on Parque Colon next to the Catedral Primada de las Americas, which is the oldest functioning cathedral in the new world. We got in too late in the day to visit it, but were able to walk over to the Fortaleza Ozama, which was worth visiting. You can hire a guy to give you a tour, but since it was already early evening when we got there we opted to pay a small entrance fee and wander around on our own. They did give us an English-language brochure so we could tell what we were looking at (and climbing on). The hotel Conde de Penalba is right above a restaurant called El Conde, which has a very popular outdoor patio, which was a great place to have dinner, drink a grande Presidente (good Dominican-brewed beer – definitely have one!), and people-watch. Across the street there is also a kind of street-fair with vendors and food stands. It closed down pretty early since we were there on a Thursday night, but looked like it would be fun to explore. The area of the Zona Colonial that we saw was really interesting, with impressive colonial architecture and a lot of history. You could easily spend a couple days exploring it.

Getting to Samana Peninsula – we flew into Santo Domingo, stayed one night, and flew to El Portillo airport on an Aerodomca flight the next morning. El Portillo is near Las Terrenas and is the only airport on the peninsula that receives regular flights. You can also take a first-class, air conditioned bus for about $7 from Santo Domingo, but in the interest of getting there quicker, we opted to fly. Tickets were $60 per person each way and the flight is about half an hour on a small plane. If you fly, take note that international flights come into the Las Americas airport and the flights to El Portillo leave from a different airport, Isabela. They are about 45 minutes away from each other by cab.

Driving Around - At El Portillo airport, which is really just an airstrip and a couple shacks, we met Papo from Adventure Rent-a-Car, who had our Suzuki Grand Vitara SUV. It was expensive, $60/day. I would recommend Adventure, although it made me nervous that the car didn’t have a spare tire. You may want to request this when you make your reservation; I had assumed they all came with spares after hearing about the potholes and rough roads. Luckily we didn’t need it but I would have been a lot less nervous on some of the dirt roads if we’d had a spare. We enjoyed having the car this trip, especially because we flew across the country instead of taking the bus and missed seeing some of the local towns along the way. With the car we were able to explore independently and check out the countryside. However, you could easily do the trip without it and take cabs, boats, and buses. Driving from Portillo to Samana was about 45 minutes on a pretty good road. From Samana to Las Galeras is another 45 minutes on a slightly less good road (just more potholes to be alert for). The driving was really not bad. The biggest thing we had to adjust to was the variety of things in the road. Motorcycles are the dominant method of transportation and the Dominicans are fearless on them. You have to be alert for horses, dogs, chickens, cows, and people in the road, plus potholes.

Las Galeras – Las Galeras is a small village right on the beach on the northeastern side of the peninsula. During the day there is a small bustle of tourists and locals along the main road, and there were enough decent dinner options, but things quieted down quickly after about 9 PM. There are a couple discos, but we didn’t check them out, preferring to hang out at our rental house or go for a walk along the beach path. We really liked Las Galeras and were glad we chose to base ourselves here. For us, it was the right combination of tourist amenities and peace and quiet, and it’s a good jumping-off place for exploring the beaches, which is always our priority.

Sleeping:
We rented a house called El Castillo, which is one of Juan and Lolo’s rental bungalows. They have a number of options, and El Castillo was $45/night without AC. If you use the window unit that is embedded in the stone wall of the house, it’s $60/night. The house is right on the water and catches a nice breeze, so we had no need for the AC. It comes with a mosquito net, which we used for the last half of our stay when the wind had died down a little. El Castillo is one large room with queen bed, kitchen table/seating area, and kitchen, quite nice with stone walls and a tile floor. The layout is a tad odd, as you come in the front door and pass through the bathroom before getting to the main house. The best part is the two big double doors opening up to a balcony with an ocean view, where you can have your morning coffee while watching for the “garbage truck” …that is, a guy on a horse...to come pick up the trash. We spent a lot of time out on that balcony. We really liked the house – it was close to everything in town, but far enough from the road where you mostly just heard wind and waves.

Eating:
Groceries – there are two grocery stores in town, Supermercado #1 and another right before it, both on the left side of the main road. There is a produce truck that comes around twice a week that I heard was the best place to buy fruit & veg, but we missed it. Both supermercados have some produce and basic items – frozen meat, bread, rum, beer, crackers, paper towels, etc. There’s also a deli owned by a French couple on the same road as El Castillo that has cheese and deli meat, frozen fish and meat, and good bread (and Presidente…are you getting the sense yet how much Presidente we drank?:) If you want to buy fresh, whole fish to cook yourself for dinner, ask at El Kiosko, the beach restaurant at the end of the main road. Supposedly there is a French bakery in town, but it was not open the week we were there.

El Kiosko – this restaurant is right at the beach on the left side of the main road. It has fish, chicken, pork, lambi (conch), lobster, and other things, Dominican-style. Meals come with rice and beans, salad, and tostones (fried plantains). You will have to fend off Las Galeras’ only beach vendors here; there are only about 3 of them. If you don’t feel like buying just say “no gracias” and they will move on.

Gri Gri – this place is right at the town’s one intersection, painted pink. We went here because we heard they served goat, a local specialty, but it wasn’t on the menu. The food was very good anyway and it’s another good place to watch the comings and goings of the town.

Rubi’s – the restaurant at the Paradiso Bungalows had a large, pleasant outdoor dining area under a thatched roof. We ate here twice because the food was good and we liked the atmosphere.

El Marinique – “Andy and Nicole’s place” is right next door to El Castillo so it was easy to run over for a quick dinner our first night when we didn’t feel like cooking. According to Andy this was the first piece of beachfront property developed in Las Galeras in the 1980’s. Food was great and served on a nice outdoor patio.

Beaching:
Playita – this is the beach closest to town. You can drive there, or walk in about 15 minutes. We walked to it, which was an adventure – you head east on the road that passes El Castillo, turn to the right at the end of the road, and take a left past the hotel. Keep following the path, passing some new construction going up. You will get to a gate which is sometimes open – if it’s closed, climb over the wall (there’s barbed wire around the gate but if you follow the wall down the wire ends, and its easy to get over). You’ll get to another barbed-wire gate where the wire has been pushed down so you can get past, and shortly after you are at a lovely beach with lovely palm trees, and a little fish shack where they will fry you up some lunch.

Playa Rincon – this is the beach many come to Las Galeras to visit, and it is pretty spectacular. It’s beautiful and great for swimming, but it’s the vastness of it that is amazing. You don’t see too many beaches like that in the Caribbean anymore that are not cluttered with people and hotels. There are a few beach huts at both ends of the beach that serve lunch and cold drinks. We went two different days, driving once and taking a boat from Las Galeras once. The boat was fun and certainly easier, and at only $10 per person, well worth it. They took us out there with some other people at 10 and picked us up at 4. Driving was fascinating too, to see the way people live and the landscape, but it took longer. The road was not bad until the last kilometer, when it was pretty rough. You will definitely want a four-wheel-drive vehicle. To get to Rincon by land drive out of Las Galeras on the main road, and turn right at the “Playa Rincon” sign. Follow the signs until you get to the beach. The drive is about 45 minutes from Las Galeras.

Playa Fronton – This beach was beautiful – we thought it rivaled Rincon. You can hike from Las Galeras or from Boca del Diablo, and I think you can take a boat from Las Galeras as well. To get to Boca del Diablo head out of Las Galeras on the main road and turn left immediately after the turnoff to Playa Rincon. Drive until the road turns to a dirt road, and keep going maybe 1 km more until you see a huge black rock in front of you and Boca del Diablo to your right. You can park here and look at the blowhole, and if you follow the path to the left of the large black rock it will lead you to Fronton. It’s a nice flat walk of about an hour. Odds are a small boy will appear when you park your car and offer to watch it for you, so make sure you have some small change in pesos with you to pay (he wanted 10 pesos). There is a beach bar at Fronton which serves beer and lunch, run by a very nice guy named Jose. It’s supposed to be a good beach for snorkeling, but water shoes are recommended. Be careful as there are some rocks and sea urchins in the water. Sometimes you can see whales here as they pass by offshore.

Casa Marina Bay Beach – this is the beach of the all-inclusive resort in Las Galeras. It’s public, so we went to take a dip one evening since it was nearby and good for swimming. It’s nice for a quick swim but (obviously) crowded with resort guests.

Whale Watching: Humpback whales migrate south to mate in the bay of Samana from mid-January to mid-March. If you are in the area during that time, you should definitely go for a whale watching trip. We went with Kim Beddall of Victoria Marine in Samana, a Canadian who has been whale watching in the bay for many years. In Las Galeras and Las Terrenas you will find plenty of people trying to sell you whale watching trips. We heard that some of these trips just take you on a boat ride and if you see a whale, its only coincidence. Kim’s tours actually take you out in the bay to look for and follow the whales. I would recommend her tour – she’s extremely knowledgeable, the boat was large and comfortable, and had a multi-lingual translator as well. The experience was pretty amazing. Right out of the dock we found a “surface active group”, which was a group of 4 males competing for the attention of 1 female. Late in the season any male whales that haven’t mated can get desperate, so you can sometimes see a lot of activity around this time. They are beautiful (and huge!) animals and so worth seeing if you are there during the season.

Las Terrenas: We spent our last day in Las Terrenas to drop off the rental car and be close to El Portillo airport for our flight back to Santo Domingo in the morning. After what I had read about Las Terrenas as opposed to Las Galeras, I expected it to be loud and insanely busy, but it was really pleasant. There’s certainly more hustle and bustle, but not as much as I expected. Its still a laid-back little beach town. It definitely felt a bit less “Dominican” to me, as many of the hotels and restaurants are owned by European ex-pats, and there’s a real European flavor. If we had stayed the week here, I think we would have stayed at Playa Bonita, which is very nearby but supposed to be quieter (plus a beautiful beach). We stayed at the Casa Larimar hotel ($45/night). It’s set back off the road a bit so the moto noise wasn’t too loud. However, the hotel has an outdoor bar on the top floor which, while cool and fun at 9 PM, played loud meringue till 2 in the morning. Our ceiling fan didn’t work so we weren’t able to drown out the noise with anything. And of course, after a peaceful hour, the neighborhood rooster let out with a loud crow at 3 AM (and continued periodically until dawn, wretched bird!). On the good side the room was pleasant and spotlessly clean, and had a good central location for wandering around the town. We had really good paella at El Cayuco in Pueblo los Pescadores, where there are many good restaurants, for our last night.

Please ask or PM me through my profile if you have any questions at all!

Good Resources:
Lonely Planet www.lonelyplanet.com
DR1 Travel Forums www.dr1.com
Debbie’s Dominican Travel www.debbiesdominicantravel.com
Brigsy’s Trip Reports www.freewebs.com/brigsy1
Juan y Lolo’s Rental Bungalows in Las Galeras www.juanylolo.com
Aerodomca Airline www.aerodomca.com