Anything worthy?

[bryan_sr]

Hi gents,

Forgive me for wanting a bit of culture, but do you have any suggestions as far as sights, tours, etc. Do they have cigar factory tours...

Anyways....getting laid is the easy part, finding sights and tours is another thing...lol

Slim

[naptime]

in puerto plata you can go on a tour of the brugal rum factory. its simple, but cool. takes about 45 minutes iirc.

the larimar and cigar museum.. cant remember if that was in santiago or puerto plata, but they were both quite interesting.

in santiago there are a few cigar factories that do tours.. we went to leon jimenez in 07. learned all about cigars, and watched them hand roll the high end smokes.

sosua, iirc has a jewish museum all about the founding members of sosua.

i havent gone, but i HEARD you can go on a tour of the tshirt factory in puerto plata.

just east of cabarette, there is a really cool "jungle/river tour" that really was interesting, but its more for groups of people.

mount isabel in puerto plata, take the cable car to the top, and tour the grounds up there. go when you dont see clouds on the mountain.

[RickRock]

Siamslim

Here is a phone number of a good guy that lives there, as a nice taxi, speaks english and spanish, he can handle your ariport pu and he can also take you on a few tours .. He is very honest and his prices are very good

Jose Martinez 829-540-4280

have fun and enjoy


Joe

[FritoBandito]

On my last trip to the DR in March, I took the Mel Tours one day trip to "Bacardi Island," in Samana.

Yes, I know Bacardi Island is a little commercial, but it IS a very nice beach to visit.

On the way back from Bacardi Island, I had the tour bus drop me off in Samana City (Santa Barbara de Samana), where I spent 3 days. When I left, I took the public bus back to Sosua and it cost me $500 pesos.

Second day, I went to Las Terranas to check it out. Nice place but it seemed like it was a little pricey and touristy to me.

Third day, I went near Las Galleras to a beach that I would say that is the most beautiful beach I have have seen anywhere and is the nicest beach I've seen in the DR: La Playa Rincon. Bordered by mountains on its one end, its white sand beach extend for at least a couple of miles. QUIET(which is quite unusual for a Dominican beach) and peaceful, and only about 10 people on the beach when I was there, it reminded of Gilligan's Island and what it must have felt to be practically alone on a deserted tropical island.

Swimming there was an absolute delight with its parkling crystal clear blue water. It was like swimming in a swimming pool, with nary a ripple, due to the fact that the waves broke on a reef several hundreds yards from shore. Damn, it was NICE!!!!

It is a pristine setting that, unfortunately from what I have been told, will be destroyed by condo development in the near future.

Samana City is a scenic little town where the main party hotspot in town is the carwash. Lots of nice looking putas in the place. What makes it unusual is that all the bartenders are hookers, too. So practically any woman you see is available. The locals are real friendly. They kept pouring us beer from their bottles the first day we went there, got pretty buzzed after a couple of hours there.

[FritoBandito]

Pictures of carwash and Samana City:

[deezl]

Third day, I went near Las Galleras to a beach that I would say that is the most beautiful beach I have have seen anywhere and is the nicest beach I've seen in the DR: La Playa Rincon. Bordered by mountains on its one end, its white sand beach extend for at least a couple of miles. QUIET(which is quite unusual for a Dominican beach) and peaceful, and only about 10 people on the beach when I was there, it reminded of Gilligan's Island and what it must have felt to be practically alone on a deserted tropical island.


sounds fantastic, thanks for the info. how realistic do you think it be to rent a car/jeep and do a daytrip drive to las galeras from sosua? how long/bad was the drive out? looks to be about 80-100 miles and the coastal drive looks like it would be a nice but i have no idea what the road is like out there. it'd be nice to hit a beach like that for a day on my trip.

[FritoBandito]

sounds fantastic, thanks for the info. how realistic do you think it be to rent a car/jeep and do a daytrip drive to las galeras from sosua? how long/bad was the drive out? looks to be about 80-100 miles and the coastal drive looks like it would be a nice but i have no idea what the road is like out there. it'd be nice to hit a beach like that for a day on my trip.

Road gets a little rough from Gaspar Hernandez to Nagua. Then it's fairly smooth from there to Samana City. Past Samana City to Las Galeras there is a lot of road construction going on and its really dusty.

It would be hard to do Rincon Beach in a daytrip if you want to spend a considerable amount of time there. You're looking at a good 5 hour drive to get there. I would start out real early from Sosua and drive to Samana, do the beach, then get a room in Samana City for the night. Then drive back to Sosua the following day.
Also, Rincon Beach is 10/15 miles from Las Galeras. You can drive to Las Galeras and have someone drive you in a boat or take the ferry to Rincon Beach.

Here's the picture of the hotel I stayed in. It's a safe and secure hotel, and it's only a couple of minute walk to the middle of downtown Samana.

Rooms are 900 or 1200 pesos a night. I got a 900 peso room and it was just fine with me.

[weyland]

This info on Samaná is too useful to be buried in this thread only, FritoBandito. May I suggest you copy and paste it into the Samaná section as well?

http://news.insearchofchicas.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=670

[FritoBandito]

Hey,

I'm going to head back to Samana City for 3 days in late July/early August. Anybody interested in tagging along??

I'll take the Mel Tour bus to Bacardi Island on a Wednesday(about $50 US), and get off the bus which passes directly by the Hotel Docia (900 pesos/night in March '10, it'll be cheaper in summer) in Samana City (about a two block walk). I'll take the public bus ($500 pesos) back to Sosua on a Saturday.

I'll hit the carwash in Samana a couple of nights and take a daytrip to Rincon beach (THE most beautiful beach in the DR) again.

PM me if you're interested in going....:)

[KoKi9290]

Road gets a little rough from Gaspar Hernandez to Nagua. Then it's fairly smooth from there to Samana City. Past Samana City to Las Galeras there is a lot of road construction going on and its really dusty.

It would be hard to do Rincon Beach in a daytrip if you want to spend a considerable amount of time there. You're looking at a good 5 hour drive to get there. I would start out real early from Sosua and drive to Samana, do the beach, then get a room in Samana City for the night. Then drive back to Sosua the following day.
Also, Rincon Beach is 10/15 miles from Las Galeras. You can drive to Las Galeras and have someone drive you in a boat or take the ferry to Rincon Beach.

Here's the picture of the hotel I stayed in. It's a safe and secure hotel, and it's only a couple of minute walk to the middle of downtown Samana.

Rooms are 900 or 1200 pesos a night. I got a 900 peso room and it was just fine with me.

Frito
Got any pix of the rooms. Any amenities like a/c, wifi, cable? Spent a day in Samana once but now you've got me jonesing for Playa Rincon.

[FritoBandito]

Frito
Got any pix of the rooms. Any amenities like a/c, wifi, cable? Spent a day in Samana once but now you've got me jonesing for Playa Rincon.

Hi,
None of the rooms have A/C, just a ceiling fan. I was never overheated when I was there in March. The rooms are basic, not to small, and clean. Cable tv in all the rooms. Community kitchen if you want to cook, and a refrigerator to store drinks. I don't know about wifi.

Restaurants and bars are within a 5 minute walk of the hotel. I like the place alot and its got good security, too.

[FritoBandito]

Hotel Docia:
http://www.samana.net/Samana_city/hotel_docia-en.html

http://gosamana-dominicanrepublic.com/small-hotels-samana.html

http://www.samana.net/accommodations_samana-en.html