AZS - El Catey Airport

[questner]

Only 1% of air traffic is to El Catey airport in Samana. However number of flights is growing. One may plan one way flights into AZS or open jaw tickets to save on costs or travel through DR.

Next month I will do the above, I am planning to land at AZS. The airfare is half for my dates at peak time.

Likely AZS is just 'a-s-s' is verbal Spanish, a pain in the ass to get out or into from Sos.

The arrival is scheduled around noon. Usually I don't travel light or rent vehicles (and with a drop of charge one way one day rental is cost prohibitive).

What are my transportation options to get into Sos. on the same day?

So here is a challenge, AZS-SOS (and back) in less time, less $$$ and less pain in the azs :bootyshake:

[Jao]

Only 1% of air traffic is to El Catey airport in Samana. However number of flights is growing. One may plan one way flights into AZS or open jaw tickets to save on costs or travel through DR.

Next month I will do the above, I am planning to land at AZS. The airfare is half for my dates at peak time.

Likely AZS is just 'a-s-s' is verbal Spanish, a pain in the ass to get out or into from Sos.

The arrival is scheduled around noon. Usually I don't travel light or rent vehicles (and with a drop of charge one way one day rental is cost prohibitive).

What are my transportation options to get into Sos. on the same day?

So here is a challenge, AZS-SOS (and back) in less time, less $$$ and less pain in the azs :bootyshake:


http://www.fatamorganalasterrenas.com/

Owner is maybe a French woman who has lived in the DR, speaks several languages. On her webpage she has information about transportation from Puerto Plata and Sosua to Las Terrenas, Samana. AZS is the fairly new International Airport in Samana. You could call the owner of the Guest House and ask her advice about getting from AZS to Las Terrenas (you probably only need to know how to get to where the east-west coastal gua guas are to get to Sosua, maybe at Sanchez).

http://samanalife.com/elcateyairport/

[TNT72]

Only 1% of air traffic is to El Catey airport in Samana. However number of flights is growing. One may plan one way flights into AZS or open jaw tickets to save on costs or travel through DR.

Next month I will do the above, I am planning to land at AZS. The airfare is half for my dates at peak time.

Likely AZS is just 'a-s-s' is verbal Spanish, a pain in the ass to get out or into from Sos.

The arrival is scheduled around noon. Usually I don't travel light or rent vehicles (and with a drop of charge one way one day rental is cost prohibitive).

What are my transportation options to get into Sos. on the same day?

So here is a challenge, AZS-SOS (and back) in less time, less $$$ and less pain in the azs :bootyshake:


So not only do you want cheap, you want to be lazy about it too and not look stuff up?

[questner]

So not only do you want cheap, you want to be lazy about it too and not look stuff up?

I am not cheap and never have been. I am more on a prudent, frugal side. The fare to AZS was around $600 and to POP for the same dates - double! Would you prefer the double rate yourself?

Looking the stuff: a) there is only 1 rental company in El Catey and drop of extra is $200 b) the taxi cartel charges 3,000 peso to Las Terrenas and likely $200 to $O$ua c) There is one and half mile to the main road, so walking there even without luggage is no fun d) Papagayo bus may pick you up between 2 and 3 pm but you have to call them and most important to rely upon this one bus

[Jao]

I am not cheap and never have been. I am more on a prudent, frugal side. The fare to AZS was around $600 and to POP for the same dates - double! Would you prefer the double rate yourself?

Looking the stuff: a) there is only 1 rental company in El Catey and drop of extra is $200 b) the taxi cartel charges 3,000 peso to Las Terrenas and likely $200 to $O$ua c) There is one and half mile to the main road, so walking there even without luggage is no fun d) Papagayo bus may pick you up between 2 and 3 pm but you have to call them and most important to rely upon this one bus

http://www.a2btransfers.com/ A2B Transfers. http://optimataxisamana-airporttransferstours.com/ Optima Taxi Service in Samana. I don't have experience with these companies. A guy once recommended A2B Transfers, when he flew into SDQ. A2B Transfers offers the option of private or shared transfers on their webpage (shared transfer costs less).

Looking at Google Map today, I can see that AZS is near Highway 5, which is part of the coastal road that goes in the direction of Sosua (the new Boulevard of the Atlantic begins near the airport and that can be taken to get to Las Terrenas).

My guess is there will be gua guas running throughout the day between the northern coastal towns, between Sanchez and Nagua, Nagua and Cabrera, Cabrera and Rio San Juan, etc. You might have to use a few gua guas to get to Sosua. Maybe only a few gua guas do the entire trip between Puerto Plata and Sanchez (where you don't have to get off the gua gua). Rio San Juan to Sosua was about an hour drive when I did it years ago.

You might want to pay for a taxi to Nagua (in the direction of Sosua) or Sanchez (away from Sosua), from the airport, in order to catch a gua gua going west (in Sanchez or Nagua you can probably wait inside the gua gua or in a restaurant until the gua gua departs).

[WickedWillie]

PM the Thunderstars, they came in via AZS in September.

[Ramair4]

I tried looking up flights into AZS using a couple US cities but in both cases all flights were expensive all connected in Canada. Is it possible there are no direct flights there from the US?

[Jao]

I tried looking up flights into AZS using a couple US cities but in both cases all flights were expensive all connected in Canada. Is it possible there are no direct flights there from the US?

Jetblue, twice a week, direct from New York's JFK to El Catey (AZS), probably Wednesdays and Saturdays, during a jetBlue fare sale within the last three months, round-trip direct JFK to AZS was a little over $300US all taxes and fees included in that rate.

[thunderstar]

Hi there,

We always rent a car from L un I in Sosua - easily find able on here/DR1.

If you contact them, and they have a good rep for car hire in Sosua, they will come and collect you from AZS and come with you on the way back to the airport and take the car back to Sosua.

If you dont hire a car though - I cant be of much more help.

[j_d66]

Hi there,

We always rent a car from L un I in Sosua - easily find able on here/DR1.

If you contact them, and they have a good rep for car hire in Sosua, they will come and collect you from AZS and come with you on the way back to the airport and take the car back to Sosua.

If you dont hire a car though - I cant be of much more help.

Doesn't seem like you can get much better service than that.

[Jao]

I tried looking up flights into AZS using a couple US cities but in both cases all flights were expensive all connected in Canada. Is it possible there are no direct flights there from the US?

"El Catey Samaná airport flights planned until NOVEMBER 30, 2013":

http://us.las-terrenas-live.com/las-terrenas/el-catey-international-airport.html
(http://us.las-terrenas-live.com/las-terrenas/el-catey-international-airport.html)

[JD426]

I tried looking up flights into AZS using a couple US cities but in both cases all flights were expensive all connected in Canada. Is it possible there are no direct flights there from the US?

There have been DIRECT Flights on Jet Blue to AZS from JFK since like NOV of 2012, which is when it was opened to INTL flights from the USA
so .. over a year. maybe it was even Nov 2011 ? Im not even sure now , but it was definitely the month of November that the first Flight to AZS from JFK opened.
ALWAYS cheap, around $400 $425 Range..

[Jao]

Looking the stuff: a) there is only 1 rental company in El Catey and drop of extra is $200 b) the taxi cartel charges 3,000 peso to Las Terrenas and likely $200 to $O$ua c) There is one and half mile to the main road, so walking there even without luggage is no fun d) Papagayo bus may pick you up between 2 and 3 pm but you have to call them and most important to rely upon this one bus

"Caribe Tours buses are more comfortable than guaguas; but the only disadvantage is that they only depart from Sánchez and not from Las Terrenas. You will have to take a taxi or a guagua to reach the Caribe Tours bus stop in Sánchez."
"Travel times of the Caribe Tours Buses":

http://us.las-terrenas-live.com/las-terrenas/transportation/caribe-tours.html


Some guagua info:

http://us.las-terrenas-live.com/las-terrenas/transportation/guaguas-minibus.html

Prices and times, Caribe Tours (seems you can get from Sanchez to Rio San Juan using Caribe Tours, search sanchez to nagua, nagua to rio san juan). From Rio San Juan to Sosua I would guess there would be guaguas.

http://caribetours.com.do/index.php/viajes/get_travel

Hotel listing (large and small, many towns/cities in the DR): http://www.hotel-dominican-republic.net/

[Jao]

From Wiki:

"The Samaná Americans (Americanos de Samaná) are a cultural sub-group of descendants of African American freed people who, beginning in 1824, immigrated to the Samaná Peninsula in Hispaniola—then under Haitian administration—benefiting from the favorable pro-African immigration policy of president Jean Pierre Boyer. They constitute the most sizable group of native English speakers in the Dominican Republic. Aware of its distinctive heritage, the community, whose singular culture distinguishes them from the rest of Dominicans, refers to itself as Samaná Americans, and is referred to by fellow Dominicans as "los americanos de Samaná." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saman%C3%A1_Americans


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdf7-erJd8I

[Tonto4]

Usually I don't travel light or rent vehicles

Taxi (or it looks like a nightmare). How about the South Coast? Its a direct shot down the new highway. Or stay in Las Terranas.

[Jao]

AZS-SOS

From AZS to Sosua you will pass Cabrera, http://www.christiesrealestate.com/eng/sales/detail/170-l-77825-f1305091616711508/orchid-bay-cabrera-dominican-republic-samana-sa and Rio San Juan, http://www.christiesrealestate.com/eng/sales/detail/170-l-77825-f1305091616712035/playa-grande-en-rio-san-juan-samana-sa

[Jao]

Photos I took years ago.