Juan Dolio Beach

The best beach around Santo Domingo is Juan Dolio. It's even better than Boca Chica... The beach is cleaner and more quiet than Boca Chica. I even like it better than Punta Cana (Bavaro).

But see for yourself...

This is how you get to the beach, if you're in Santo Domingo. The bus stop is in La Duarte, close to the bus stop to Punta Cana:

Astrapu Bus Stop
Calle Jose Martí
10214 Santo Domingo

This is how the bus stop in Santo Domingo looks like. The last stop is San Pedro where also most of the people go. Therefore, it's important to tell the driver where you would like to go.

Go inside. This is how the ticket office looks like.

The bus is clean and has air-condition. It's also quite large and comfortable. I can highly recommend it.

Be sure to buy the ticket before you enter the bus. The ticket costs 110 Pesos, which are about 2€. Furthermore, tell the driver where you would like to go so he will stop and tell you. The trip lasts about 45-50 minutes depending on traffic. Sit on the right-hand side, if you want to enjoy the scenery. It is quite beautiful, as the route is along the coast.

This is where the bus stops. The bus to Santo Domingo stops on the other side of the road. Be careful when you cross the street! It's dangerous.

When you follow this street and turn left, there's the beach.

Enjoy your stay! There will also be an upcoming blog post about wooden figures which you can buy at the beach...

 

Chaotic Start

This trip has started a little chaotic.

First we took the ADAC bus which was 1.5 hours late. Luckily I planned plenty of time to our trip and we still got to the airport more than 2 hours before our flight.

When we got to the Condor check in, it was pretty empty. So far everything was fine until we got our boarding passes. I got a seat but my boyfriend somehow didn't. Maybe some failure in the system?! But the chick told us it's our fault cause we were late. We're supposed to proceed to the gate and ask.

We were almost the first at the gate - still 90 min before our flight... WE - who were supposed to be late... Of course they didn't have any free seats and told us to wait until we were called. The seating area was inside and we had to stand for over an hour.

After some people upgraded their seats and after some yelling, finally we got inside.

The flight was fine. Did you know that Condor has individual touch screens now? They even have USB so you can actually charge your electronic devices in the flight. It's very fancy. Unfortunately they want to charge extra for movies. Everyone is making fun of how cheap everything from Asia is but seriously, service in Asian airlines is a million times better!!!

Getting around in Santo Domingo

Now, it might be a little confusing but I wasn't done with my posts about the Dominican Republic. Today, I'd like to blog about transportation within Santo Domingo.

There's a very neat subway system, the Metro. It's clean, air-conditioned, and safe. The first line opened in 2009. Since it's fairly new, there are only two lines but there are supposed to be 6 lines in total, when everything is done. You can find further information in Spanish on the official homepage << click >>.

 

You can buy a plastic card for recharging purposes or buy one-way paper tickets, which look like this. One ride costs 20 Pesos, which are like 0.40€.

 

As I said, it's very safe. On each ride that we went, there were police officers with us.

 

Line 1 goes from north (Villa Mella) to south (Centro de Los Heroes). The stations are:

• Mamá Tingó
• Gregorio Urbano Gilbert
• Gregorio Luperón
• José Francisco Peña Gómez
• Hermanas Mirabal
• Máximo Gómez
• Los Taínos
• Pedro Livio Cedeño
• Peña Batlle
• Centro Olímpico Juan Pablo Duarte
• Juan Bosch
• Casandra Damirón
• Joaquín Balaguer
• Amín Abel
• Francisco Alberto Caamaño
• Centro de los Héroes

 

Line 2 goes from Ave. Luperon to Puente de la 17. I think, it's from west to the center. The second half of line 2 will continue to the east of santo Domingo. The stations for line 2 are:

• María Montez
• Pedro F. Bonó
• Francisco G. Billini
• Ulises F. Espaillat
• Pedro Mir
• Freddy Beras Goico
• Juan U. García F.
• Centro Olímpico Juan Pablo Duarte
• Cnel. Rafael T Fernandez D.
• Mauricio Báez
• Ramón Cáceres
• Horacio Vásquez
• Manuel de Jesus Galván
• Eduardo Brit

 

There are also other possibilities to travel around the city. Of course you can take a taxi. If you take a taxi from a company and don't travel too far, it's 150 Pesos, which are 3€. That's still very affordable. It doesn't matter if the cab has air-conditioning, it's the same prize.

Then, you can be a bit more adventurous. You can take a collective taxi, which can be recognized by the sign on the car that also tells you its route. They normally transport 6 people, 4 in the back and 2 next to the driver.

 

If you're lucky, your collective cab might look like a normal car. Otherwise, you might be traveling in something like this...

 

Sometimes I'm surprised, how the cars are still able to drive... You think, it'll pass the German TÜV? ;-)

Because of these seats, I always wear leggings or jeans so that my skin doesn't touch anything... I don't wanna know about all the bacteria.

Anyway, one ride costs 25 Pesos (0.50€). These cars run everywhere and very frequently. They have certain routes and they stop whenever you tell them. If someone is fat or wants a bit more comfort, they pay for the amount of seats, they need.