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Flying out of SDQ yesterday we had to wait in line for 2 hours, no I'm not joking, 2 hours to be stamped out. Many many people in the line were saying they were about to miss their flights, I imagine a lot of people actually did. Rude staff, passengers were screaming for help and the staff...

Tonight we were in Blue Mall and decided to have dinner in Hard Rock. We were literally the only people in the whole place when we entered (at 7pm) and we were the only people who had eaten anything when we left (at 9pm). A few couples came in and had drinks, maybe 6 people in total. Such...

In a country where every single Dominican is permanently glued to their phone connected to their socials, WHY is it so impossible for companies to post their opening hours on Instagram over the Semana Santa holiday? It took about 5 mins to find out which banks were open, and there seems no...

I am absolutely loving it now that everyone has disappeared from the capital for Semana Santa. So lovely and peaceful, almost zero traffic, you can whizz around town really quickly, you can park, even the weather is perfect. Today in the Colonial Zone I stopped and it was absolutely silent...

Just a quick cautionary message to remind everyone that you must have an e-ticket before you travel to DR, airlines are now getting very strict about checking these. I was talking to a French lady who was denied boarding, along with 10 others, as they didn't have e-tickets, she missed her...

A friend of mine is moving to DR for at least a few months (snowbird +) and we were talking about her hiring a car long-term or buying. She's been offered a Hyundai Tucson, including full insurance, for US$ 1,450 a month (US$ 1,100 with minimum insurance). The cars are all supposedly new...

I just got back from a few days in LT and I was surprised by a) how many building projects there are, all building tourist-friendly apartments b) how many realtors there are who have swanky offices and c) how empty all the existing tourist apartments and hotels seem to be. It's December...

Has Aduanas announced yet how much you are allowed to bring into DR as presents? I think last year they allowed up to US$ 4000 but I just want to check the exact amount as I have done a little shopping and don't want it to be removed from me when I arrive back.

Along comes the person who does the web for Expreso Punta Cana. A bus company. What's the one thing you'd like to know from a bus company? What time the buses leave. And NOWHERE on their website are the times. Even on their Insta you have to wade through pages and pages of posts and...

While I was sorting out a licence on the Ministry of Tourism website the other day (living the dream) I noticed a link to apply for a licence for tourist rented apartments such as Airbnb. So they have it set up and I wonder how soon Airbnb's will be required to hold a licence. The online...

Yesterday there was a massive power outage in the capital, a massive area of the city was out from Gazcue thru Zona Colonial and into Villa Faro in SD Este, and to the north right up to Villa Consuelo. Started at 11am and went on until 4am this morning. Late last night Edeeste said that it...

No new news items for 7 days now. I'm wondering if they have shut down. Does anyone have any info?

Seven weeks ago I went to Las Terrenas and has dinner in a restaurant in Playa Popy. It had recently been completely refurbished and had a brand new wooden roof. There was a young mixed race French chef who was in a relationship with one of the staff who I think was a blonde lady. Wooden...

We are setting up a new trading company and I'd like recommendations for reasonably-priced lawyers or accountants who do company formations in Santo Domingo. To stress, I already have a very good but expensive lawyer that I work with, but I know he will charge into the thousands of dollars to...

Dominican Today has an article about regulation of AirBnB. As usual from Dominican Today it seems to be a bad translation and it's hard to understand exactly what has happened - it seems that AirBnb is changing its terms and conditions in March and Asonahores is still waiting for the...

I noticed a couple of stories this week in Dominican Today which don't seem to have made big news, even though they involve the death of tourists. I'm struggling to work out why everyone isn't talking about these. One was the death of an American in a nightclub in the Colonial Zone who...

I went to see a doctor a couple of days ago and he wanted me to have a lot of tests and gave me a prescription for some medication. And we all know the process is usually that you go to a laboratory and wait in line to speak to someone, and then wait forever while they call the insurance...

The main subject on the UK's BBC news on Monday was a report about how terrible life is in Haiti, and the rest of the world is not watching or interested. The news started with an 8 min film report before it turned to anything happening in the UK. This was followed by another report...

There's an interesting piece in Dominican Today where the police are making a link between the young men who are subsequently found to be members of the LGBT community. Evidently families are not mentioning to the police that their sons are gay/ bisexual and this is hampering investigations...

https://fb.watch/fO2koQhhUv/ This is buzzing around social media. Basically a lady checked in for her flight. You can see that the guy in the hi viz vest goes to a counter and reprints her baggage tag. He puts this in his pocket. Later she is arrested as two bags are discovered with 58kg...