Originally Posted by
HammerMike
My report about the place Punta Cana / Bavaro from my personal experience:
Punta Cana / Bavaro is a clear tourist destination, some of then of the high end so it attracts lots of abusadoras (barracudas) and Sanki-Pankis / tigueres (middlemen providers) and it is by no means an easy place to cheap monguering as in Sosua or Santo Domingo
First and well know place for contacting is Steve's Corner / Bar de los Alemanes / Bar de la Esquina, during daytime is a nice venue for booze (international beers) with the plus of free WIFI with the drinks and beautiful bartenders, the owner Stefan is quite welcoming and there is a good atmosfere of regular customers. Since 16h / 17h when the light start to dim it is the time when many freelancers are about to arrive. However note that althought some quite beautiful some of then tend to be very pushy and rush you to the hostel (those are the not adviceable) , all in all as it is a popular indulging EU / American / Canadian place the prices asked are very high and difficult to bargain down successfully. Good to know the ropes of eye contacting and resisting assaults but not really for picking up a girl. It is fairly common that even having negotiated in detail, time, price and services once you step into the hostel they try to change conditions, me myself had to wave goodbye to two of them for this reason and had to make additional picking at Bar de la Plaza / Sacaleches.
There is also Rincon Criollo / Sirenitas / Rincon de la Salsa place, located inbetween a beauty saloon and a gift shop, once you pass the first row of tourist shops way up Steve's, there's is a plastic roof and stools for sitting and the music is latino salsa and bachata. The owner is Berthys or something like that. The place which is a bar with some bartenders include many working girls inside the main building and a swimming pool. They go to and fro contacting the clients at the bar. As usual lock your eyes on one's and if she does so, you have made your choice. The place include freelancers and in-house SW. Bar fine for in house SW is 500 pesos since 17h till 00 h when the girls move to discos cool, imagine, mangú or to the open air big bar in front of it called Bar de la Plaza / Sacaleches. Here your mileage may vary. However the pressure from berthys to make money and the fact that most of them do not stay many days would result in high chances of lacklustre performance, reducing the time agreed or even stealing you while on shower, etc (happened to my wingman). Consider that this place is very expensive for all and they thing they DESERVE all your money, because you are rich and they have needs. However none consider wether she has earned it or not. If you make a picking you have to move to a cabaña, Flamboyan, Hotel Sosa or Cayacoa.
The "best" deals can be found in Bar de la Plaza / Sacaleches, right in the middle of Plaza Bavaro, it becomes hight after 00h where all the girls that have no money / resources to go to expensive discos go there for a late hunt. From September onwards is open 24/7 but normally till 04h. The girls here can be very pushy and some of them frankly average in looks. The point in here is not to rush, study the girls around, leave them note you are not a fresher and bargain, till you have a feeling that it would be a good picking. Then still wait a little bit more drinking or dancing, make the girls jealous for some other girls and around 02h or betther 03h you will have your candy served at a reasonable price. As with all other places in PC Bavaro order personally your drinks or you will have the comission of the ordering person included. 100 pesos for 1, 2 litre presidente pilsener beer.
There are two other pubs like "ESCAPE" way up rincon criollo / sirenitas, with good air con and an open air terrace good for sightseing, prices are the same if you order your drink. There are (fewer) SW than Steve's and it is most likely to be a waiting worker of a ressort before entering to her shift or having a rest after it. You can tell by the looks, as SW tend to dress more sexy and have no uniform of the ressorts. Way up Flamboyan Casino is Ali Baba, a nice place decorated with leather coaches and arabic style, where they play house / old school as it is mainly focused towards tourists. Very rarely you may find local girls in here and most of the time is empty.
Then there are the discos as Cool, Mangú, Imagine, all them you would need a taxi, so be ready to be ripped of by taxist, then you'll have to pay entrace fee and drinks at international prices. However Cool and Imagine have some dance / house / oldschool courts where stunning SW await for her preys. The prices here can be very high and performance very poor. Mangú is more latino / bachata style but the same would apply.
Apart from that there are the Car Wash like D Luxe, which is a local favourite, plenty of latino, bachata, reggaeton in here, few tourist, pleny of girls a few semipro also, but the locals do not like tourist messing around as it is considered their playground. Cheap indeed but you would need extra stamina to dance the night in there, till making a picking. In Higuey, which is 1h bus ride (100 pesos) or 40 min taxi ride (a lot more) there are two places recommeded to me "la cuestecita" and "la nasa", this is much more real dominican place, there are few or none tourist there and you'the better go with a local friend to know where they are, but good deals.
About the sex clubs, there are still Jazzy's or La Punta, but they are at international prices, same can be said to the now highy popular Conejitas, who offered good deals but no longer. Taxi men told me about a tiny place called sexy girls inbetween machiplan and friusa, where you can bargain and many local people attend. But did not try.
As regards to hostels I clearly recommend Flamboyan, clean, with security guard and cameras, night porter and decent rooms. You can hire for "de paso" 3 hours or "amanecida" all night till 12h. For 800 pesos de paso or 1400 pesos amanecida you have WIFI included and a breakfast served till 10 a. M. Hotel Sosa is where many girls stay, much more trashed and with no extras, most of the times they charge you as if you had hired the room and in reality it is the girls room, so for her it is a plus. Cayacoa is another one, hut type, even more thrashed and basic to the bone. Prices are quite the same in all three.
All in all very dissapointing trip, with girls asking ridiculous amounts of money, lacking good performance, and many many miles away of the desired "novia dominicana". Definitely not a place for cheap or satisfying mongering unless you have good expertise and loads of patience, but if you are travelling for mainly mongering purposes, go somewhere else, clearly.
Hope this helps.
