[Yeti]

I spent six weeks in the Dominican Republic on business, focusing on the north coast region (Cabarete, Cabrera, Nagua, and Santiago), with all of their beautiful beaches and places to have fun.



I know that there is already a surfeit of DR datasheets on the forum but this one is different as it focuses on an area heretofore mostly brushed over on the forum, the north coast. The north coast is beautiful, cheap, and worth visiting, especially given its attraction for the traveling man of business and industry who can work remotely. On the north coast, you can live cheaply, surf and swim in some of the most beautiful beaches you'll encounter, mack on good-looking Dominican girls, and learn Spanish. I found it to be really a special place, ever after having traveled extensively in my time. I will definitely return.

From what I hear, the south coast and east coast of the DR are both pretty well-known to the gringo crowd and thus you can find gringo towns and all of that on the south coast and east coast, if that is your thing. The north coast seems less discovered. It consists of, among other places, Puerto Plata, Sosua, Cabarete, Gaspar Hernandez, Rio San Juan, Cabrera, and Nagua.

About my trip. I speak fluent Spanish. If I didn't, I would have gotten around with no major problems as Dominicans are pretty good at communication. But it would have been difficult to really connect with people, as not many speak English.

Flying in

You can fly in to Santiago or Puerto Plata. Santiago has cheaper flights, usually about the same price as flying into Santo Domingo, but Puerto Plata is a couple hours closer to the north coast beaches. Puerto Plata is actually part of the north coast but it's a city and I didn't spend any time there. Even though Santiago is a small-ish city, there are numerous flights from Miami and New York.

From Santiago airport you generally have to take a taxi to the city center, which costs about 600-800 pesos ($14-18). I asked and was told that there isn't really any public transport from the airport to the city.

From Santiago to the north coast, you can take frequent buses to Sosua (see below) via Caribe Tours or Metro, and from Sosua take a local guagua to the north coast towns and beaches. You may also be able to take a guagua directly to Nagua from Santiago via Reyes Tours, which takes three hours and should save a lot of trouble. But there isn't much information on this option, so please contribute if you find out more.

All told, taking public transport from Santiago airport to some of the northern coast towns will take at least three hours, maybe five or more, depending on transfers. A taxi should cost about $100 or more to Cabarete and more for towns farther along the coast. If you go by public transport, Santiago to Sosua costs 195 pesos (less than $5) via Metro and 160 pesos ($4) via Caribe Tours. From Sosua the guaguas are pretty cheap too, about 40 pesos ($1) from Sosua to Cabarete for example. Transport is really cheap in the DR when you do not go by taxi. The Caribe Tours and Metro buses have their terminus at Sosua so you have to take a guagua or taxi to continue on to the northern coast towns.

Now that logistics are out of the way, let's start with some of the fun places along the DR north coast.

Cabarete

A beach town, and very beautiful - the beaches in Cabarete are ideal for swimming and surfing (to an extent), but especially for kitesurfing or windsurfing. Cabarete is full of gringos and Dominicans who cater to them, and a lot of the Dominicans that you'll see teaching water sports speak English and are much more Westernized. They seemed to all have pot bellies and drink a lot of beer.

I did not particularly enjoy Cabarete but there is lots of good stuff here. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I had stayed longer and made my mission solely to kitesurf or windsurf.







Kitesurfing is like windsurfing, labeled an extreme sport. However, Cabarete is a pretty safe place to learn how to kitesurf as the winds in the morning and sometimes early afternoon are not too strong.

Cabarete is considered one of the world's top kitesurfing destinations. The conditions, so they say, are close to ideal, and the climate is hot and sunny, but being by the ocean, cooled by nice ocean breezes. Kitesurfing in Cabarete is cheap - it can cost about 40 dollars per hour to learn if you get a package, whereas in Miami, for example, it will cost about 100 dollars per hour. Pick a good school, though. You want instructors who take their time to make sure that you get it right, because it is not a very intuitive sport to learn for landlubbers.

Cabarete has lots of good places to eat, a lot of international cuisine. But, there are a lot of old gringo couples - whales, mostly. Stick to the beaches and particularly the kitesurfing or windsurfing schools to find the best-looking girls, of which there are very many. Girls seemed to be mostly North American or European. No Asians. The Dominican girls were nonexistent, or not attractive.

Though I did not spend a lot of time in Cabarete, my overall impression as far as the girls goes is that you would do best to stick to the beaches during the day and avoid town, where you will run into more married whales.

One great thing about Cabarete is that people are really relaxed and everyone has time. Game is easier in some ways, really straightforward and not very stressful like in cities. I was eating dinner by the beach after kitesurfing one day. I start talking to the server, who was Haitian (I met a lot of Haitians in the DR), and she starts touching my hands and arms. I asked her where I could find a place to stay for the night and she said that she could show me when she got off work at 10 that night, and gave me her number.

As the Bluths might say, that was a freebie.

Cabrera

Cabrera is where I spent most of my time along the north coast, attracted by its potential as a place to buy some land and a house for not very much, and enjoy a good, low stress life.





Cabrera is basically a farming town located in a beach bum paradise. It has maybe 30,000 people who rely mostly on agriculture and its related industries. As such, people are self-sufficient and do not see foreigners as a group to exploit, as they might in Cabarete. For example: in Cabarete, every motobike driver who passed by honked at me to see if I wanted to pay for a ride. In Cabrera, no one honked at me or tried to sell me stuff. People even gave me free stuff sometimes, very rarely though.

In Cabrera, you will find amazing beaches and some pretty girls. I came by guagua from Cabarete and told the driver that I was going to Cabrera. I paid him the 250 pesos fare (about $6) and enjoyed the ride of about an hour and 15 minutes. However, he never made the announcement for Cabrera, so I finally jumped off about a five-minute walk from town and started making my way back. To make sure that I was in the right place, I stopped at a roadside coffee hut and the first thing that I said to everyone was, are we in Cabrera? They smiled and nodded - it's just that kind of a place, blink and you'll miss it. I made friends with one of the guys on staff and he took me out to the beaches and other areas the next day on his motobike. As in Cabarete, things are really relaxed in Cabrera and everyone has time.

The girls in Cabrera, on average, were fitter and healthier than Dominican girls generally. People seemed pretty healthy and thin. There were no stunners but a lot of really nice-looking girls next door. You can probably find your feminine 7 but it will be tough hooking her as this is a very small town and people stick together - you can seriously play a dangerous game if you fuck the wrong girl.

Places to stay - Hotel Julissa offered rooms for 600 pesos, about 14 dollars. You get a shower, TV, hot water, and air conditioner. A room without air conditioning can cost 350 pesos, about 8 dollars. Hotel La Catalina is meant to be a truly high class place to stay.

Internet - there is an Internet center on the corner of Independencia and Jose Fernandez, on the second floor. Go up the stairs and you will find some guys who speak English and have lived in the U.S.

Places to eat or drink - there are a million places all around town, all serving pretty much the same Dominican fare. There is not much variety. I had heard that Manny's was a good bar so I went. It has a pristine location along the beach but I found the staff to be a bit dumb and antisocial. It was dead when I went. They also charged a lot for my drink when it cost about half as much elsewhere. But, the reviews are stellar so it may have been an off night.

There are plenty of grocery stores around Cabrera that stock a lot of the stuff that you would otherwise miss of life in the West. A bottle of Chilean wine can cost under 10 dollars, sometimes about seven.

Around Cabrera

These are the best places to visit near Cabrera that I found.

Playa Grande

One of the most beautiful beaches in the world, and you can surf. They have restaurants and a small bar off from the beach, and you can buy a good fish meal. Good for swimming too.



Playa Diamante

Another beach maybe five or 10 minutes from Cabrera that is also pretty nice-looking, but Playa Grande is better. The shore was muddy when I visited. We bailed and headed to Playa Arroyo Salado.



Playa Arroyo Salado

This was far nicer. The sea itself was dangerous when we went and I would advise not swimming there. But there is an inlet with tranquil, still water that is also clean and clear. There are some shops selling beer and other goods so this is a great place to hang out with friends.



Rio San Juan

I never actually visited Rio San Juan, a small town, but people told me that it is bigger than Cabrera with more gringos. Cabrera is basically a backwater, albeit a beautiful one, with few gringos. In Cabrera I once climbed up into the hills riparian to the town and saw a herd of cows or bulls being directed by a kid on a motobike and his dog, all the way through town. Haha. I'll say it again, this is a really remote and rural place, but it's incredibly beautiful and relaxing.

Dudu

The guy from the coffee shop took me on his motobike to a place called the Dudu. I joked with him about how that sounds in English. Dudu sounds a lot like someone is about to go take a dump.



In Cabrera anyway, it means the blue lagoon. This place is beautiful. You can jump from at least 20 meters above and it's safe. The water lives up to its name, blue, crisp, and clear. There were about half Dominicans there and half gringos. You can supposedly also zip-line into the water but I did not see anyone do this.

Honestly people there did not seem too happy to see me. My motobike friend tried to get me in for free but the sentry at the gate was having none of it, and in the end I gladly paid the 150 pesos, about $3.50. This is probably a great place to take your girl and some friends. I asked my friend and he said that there would not be any problem with bringing alcohol in.

Go around down the back of the Dudu to find a cave, La Cueva, also very beautiful.

As I said, people did not seem very happy to see me. There were some Dominican-Americans who were pretty out of shape, and guarding their girls. They were not too happy to see me.

Intermission - A note on the sinews of small town Dominican life

Like I said, the north coast of the DR is a really special place, but it can be pretty Kafkaesque and weird. I talked with a married foreign couple who live in Cabrera and they say that you cannot trust anyone. The man seemed red pill and was sharing all sorts of good wisdom. He advised me to never get into a business deal there. Check it with the lawyers in Santo Domingo, especially real estate. There is no law in the DR, he said, at least it is never enforced, especially when it is your word against a Dominican's.

Furthermore, Cabrera locals stick together, everyone knows everyone, and you do not mess with them. If someone in Cabrera believes that you have wronged them, the locals will come together to act against you. You cannot win. He recommended this place in Santo Domingo to go over contracts and deals, Bienes Nacionales.

Furthermore, he said, don't marry a Dominican girl unless you get an agreement in writing that everything that is yours will stay yours after the marriage. Basically a pre-nup. He may not have known how to say that in English. Probably better to do this in a Western country.

In my experience, this guy is right, at least about the girls. Those country girls are typically uneducated and really, a bit stupid. They will love you for a few years and then, when the money starts hitting her directly, she will take what she can.

I have met a lot of Dominican girls who are in, say, their early to mid 20s, with a kid or two from a previous relationship. Not even necessarily a previous marriage. Then they meet some Dominican-American who can get them and their child a green card. This is not love, and the only one who thinks that it is is the poor guy in America or Canada who will probably be divorced and paying alimony in less than 10 years. I have met guys in the DR who had become citizens or permanent residents in America or Canada who say that their girl up and left them for another guy. You really have to be careful with Dominican girls - in my experience, they are sly like foxes in some regards, very different from girls in other countries in Latin America. Maybe there's something in the water.

When you think about what this guy said, it makes sense. People in the DR are generally poor, uneducated, and lazy. A lot of them are pretty nice and chilled out, but to me it only seems par for the course for poor, dumb girls generally that they would marry guys for money or for a better life abroad.

If you are looking for love or for a long-term relationship in the DR, stick to the girls with a university education, who don't feel that visceral need in their bones to escape for a better life. Be their lover, not their provider.

Real estate and owning a business along the north coast

My impression, and I would love if other guys could confirm or deny, is that there are good, inexpensive real estate opportunities available along the DR north coast. Land may be available with views that compare to Southern California or Western Australia.

If so, be careful and, as stated above, make sure to clear the deal with Bienes Nacionales in Santo Domingo, and also a lawyer in Santo Domingo, as I was told that you cannot really trust the local attorneys along the north coast.

If looking into real estate, from what I saw of the north coast (and I scoped the place out intentionally with an eye toward real estate), it's best to not place too much importance on the exact location of the property, so long as it is along the shore with a good ocean view, and from which you can hear the tide. In fact, it may even be better to locate your property a few kilometers or more from the towns, as you will have better views of the stars at night with lower light pollution, and you can play music louder, though that was never really an issue with Dominicans, haha. They are a noisy bunch.

This page gives a good idea of real estate in Cabrera.

I am not sure of the numbers, but Dominican Watchdog presents the case that there is actually a significant amount of murders of foreigners in the DR, often by people with whom the gringo was acquainted, as indicated by the murders that take place inside the gringo's own home. The gringo let the person in. As such, you may want to look into barbed wire or electric fences, dogs, and guns.

Santiago

I also spent time in Santiago, which is in the northern part of the DR, a couple hours from the north shore. A gringo whom I met described it as a fairly boring city where people live their lives without much fanfare, with no particular interest in gringos or in the outside world, but with no particular aversion either. That is to say, in Santiago you are just another guy most of the time, though of course a lot of girls will be drawn to your exotic features, even if it is something as simple as the way that you walk as a Westerner.

Santiago is pretty boring, but I like it quite a bit. It's a small city where people are just living their lives. Nothing really happens. But there are good places to go out drinking, and people are pretty nice. There are a lot of good-looking, friendly girls, especially middle-class university students or university graduates working in air-conditioned offices. I never met anyone averse to sharing a few words or even a half-hour of conversation.

If we are using the 1 to 4 scale, I would say that you will see a bangable 3 every minute or two, walking down a typical street, especially around the PCMM (Pucamaima University) or Utesa University areas. La Pucamaima is a great university and attracts the brightest girls in Santiago at least, and probably from around the northern and central DR.

Nightlife in Santiago. Migas was packed, maybe more than 200 people, on a Friday or Saturday night. It is located in the Bella Terra mall. They play house, hip-hop, and popular Dominican and American music. There are a lot of tables... so it is more of a place where you go with people whom you know beforehand. However, the bar area is good for talking to girls just milling about, waiting in line, etc.

Ahi is maybe half the size but also very crowded, at least when I went. They played Dominican dance music. Drinks are standard. Again, this is a place where you want to know people beforehand ideally, because there are lots of tables and it can be tough to meet people when they are all seated.

One of the best places to drink and meet people in Santiago is the colmado by the park near E. L. Eikman Street. Dominican men come here to drink and play dominoes. Presidente beers come with rock-bottom prices, maybe a dollar or so. Not many girls here though. The park name is Parque Metropolitano De Los Jardines.

Food in Santiago. The food is pretty good, and you can get basic Dominican dishes for three dollars, or at higher-end places for about 10 dollars. I had good food at Al Pesto in central Santiago. You can get good and healthy, balanced meals for about six dollars. Good meat, some moro (rice and beans with protein), and a salad and coffee.

I was meant to meet up with Dantes in Santiago or Cabarete when he was there but it never worked out.

Overall

My overall impression of life on the north shore of the DR as a gringo was that it would be a good place to spend a month or two each year, or more, and unwind. Go swimming and surfing at Playa Grande, go kitesurfing and windsurfing in Cabarete. Eat good and cheap food in Cabrera or Rio San Juan. Meet other long-term gringos and take things easy. I got into better shape during my six weeks in the DR. Life is just less stressful and the food, if you do it right, can have lots of protein. Meat and vegetables.

But, there is a reason that the DR is still poor. People are poorly-educated. Do not expect to have great conversations on a regular basis. It is a place to enjoy life and make friends, with little stress and for very cheap. You may even import one of their women and corrupt her back home. There is still a lot of corruption, in government, but also in everyday people's hearts, but it depends on where you go.