The Rough Guide to The Dominican Republic

Rating:
Summary: Been there, Used it, Helped me
Review: Bought this book BEFORE my first trip to the DR in Sept. 2001 (yes just after the WTC attacks) and it made life ever so much easier to get around there (as well as research via internet). Easy to read and extremely helpful tips. Please note: Since the WTC attacks, life is much different in the DR and business is down considerably. One of our party stayed there for nearly two months and said the incidence of people carrying guns was higher, more noticeable although he noticed no extra crime or violence. Staying in the resorts is very safe (he stayed in small hotel outside resorts), still, although tourists are staying away right now. This book will help you in your travels!

Rating:
Summary: Been there, Used it, Helped me
Review: Bought this book BEFORE my first trip to the DR in Sept. 2001 (yes just after the WTC attacks) and it made life ever so much easier to get around there (as well as research via internet). Easy to read and extremely helpful tips. Please note: Since the WTC attacks, life is much different in the DR and business is down considerably. One of our party stayed there for nearly two months and said the incidence of people carrying guns was higher, more noticeable although he noticed no extra crime or violence. Staying in the resorts is very safe (he stayed in small hotel outside resorts), still, although tourists are staying away right now. This book will help you in your travels!

Rating:
Summary: If there's a better guide I haven't found it!
Review: I have treveled in the DR and Haiti many times over the last 20 years doing volunteer work and this is by far the best guidebook I have run across! I read the customer reviews and noticed one that said "Good book, but lack of DR Reality". This book deals with off the beaten path and does it very well indeed! If one visits Santo Domingo or Puerto Plata and Sosua in the north, you will not encounter the country's great poverty. These are the cities of the elite and wealthy. How much poverty would one expect to find in Beverly Hills? The presidential palace and most diplomats live in Santo Domingo. There are squatter slums on the outskirts of even this great city. Where this guidebook excells is in taking you away from the big cities to the smaller towns and villages. If you want to know how to ride in the back of a pickup to adventure.. to visit Batays where sugarcane is harvested.. to see the dangerous frontier along the Hatian border, to see how common Dominicans live, to find the cheapest places to stay and to eat... This is the only book of its kind out there! I recommend the Lonely Planet guidebook along with this one for virtually all the info one would ever need on one's trip. In all fairness This is a book for the would be adventurer... the person unafrade to venture off the tourist paths. The other reader commented "We visited the DR and we don't know how they wrote 80% live in poverty..." Be prepared to confront extreme poverty outside the capital city and affluent areas. Hospitals are ill equipped and non staffed.. carry health supplies with you and get to Santa Domingo or Puerto Plata if possible if you need hospitalization. Many rural schools have closed because the teachers could not survive on their meager stipend. The travel becomes dangerous near the Haitian border as Dominican police are scarce and not able to do much there. Almost everywhere there are frequent blackouts.. most homes have a generator because this is a common problem.. dont count on electric shavers, hair dryers or other appliances and pack some candles in your bag when you venture on this route. BE PREPARED to see things other tourists never see! Dominicans are kind and generous and will go to extreme lengths to help you. DO LEARN some Spanish as in rural areas you will need to communicate and most English speakers are in Metro areas. Puerto Plata and Sosua in the north have large colonies of Jewish and German people so if you speak German you can find someone there. I hope my comments here are helpful to someone.. and don't be afrade to venture off the tourist path!

Rating:
Summary: If there's a better guide I haven't found it!
Review: I have treveled in the DR and Haiti many times over the last 20 years doing volunteer work and this is by far the best guidebook I have run across! I read the customer reviews and noticed one that said "Good book, but lack of DR Reality". This book deals with off the beaten path and does it very well indeed! If one visits Santo Domingo or Puerto Plata and Sosua in the north, you will not encounter the country's great poverty. These are the cities of the elite and wealthy. How much poverty would one expect to find in Beverly Hills? The presidential palace and most diplomats live in Santo Domingo. There are squatter slums on the outskirts of even this great city. Where this guidebook excells is in taking you away from the big cities to the smaller towns and villages. If you want to know how to ride in the back of a pickup to adventure.. to visit Batays where sugarcane is harvested.. to see the dangerous frontier along the Hatian border, to see how common Dominicans live, to find the cheapest places to stay and to eat... This is the only book of its kind out there! I recommend the Lonely Planet guidebook along with this one for virtually all the info one would ever need on one's trip. In all fairness This is a book for the would be adventurer... the person unafrade to venture off the tourist paths. The other reader commented "We visited the DR and we don't know how they wrote 80% live in poverty..." Be prepared to confront extreme poverty outside the capital city and affluent areas. Hospitals are ill equipped and non staffed.. carry health supplies with you and get to Santa Domingo or Puerto Plata if possible if you need hospitalization. Many rural schools have closed because the teachers could not survive on their meager stipend. The travel becomes dangerous near the Haitian border as Dominican police are scarce and not able to do much there. Almost everywhere there are frequent blackouts.. most homes have a generator because this is a common problem.. dont count on electric shavers, hair dryers or other appliances and pack some candles in your bag when you venture on this route. BE PREPARED to see things other tourists never see! Dominicans are kind and generous and will go to extreme lengths to help you. DO LEARN some Spanish as in rural areas you will need to communicate and most English speakers are in Metro areas. Puerto Plata and Sosua in the north have large colonies of Jewish and German people so if you speak German you can find someone there. I hope my comments here are helpful to someone.. and don't be afrade to venture off the tourist path!

Rating:
Summary: Interesting but unnecessarily negative
Review: I recently travelled to the Dominican Republic and purchased this guide for my trip based on the online reviews.

Although the book is informative and does offer a good selection of transportation and hotel suggestions, it is unnecessarily and generously sprinkled with negative commentary on the country.

On my travels, I had the pleasure of travelling throughout the island, from West to East. It was difficult to find a chapter in this book that did not offer some kind of caustic negative comment on the area being described.

After reading the guide for a few days, I was so distracted by the constant negativity that it overshadowed the content. I hesitantly continued reading it only because I did not have a better one at hand. I would not recommend this particular guide.





Rating:
Summary: very useful guide
Review: I used this guide to travel in Santo Domingo, Costanza and Samana and found it to be very useful in trip planning. First of all, it helped me to identify Samana and Constanza as great places to visit without the heavy tourism. It was also packed with information on practically every town we passed on the way and offered good hotel and restaurant recommendations. My only criticism is that it seemed the author probably traveled by car and the information on public transportation wasn't quite as thorough as in Lonely Planet guides. However, the sheer volume of other information and the easy to use layout made up for that. Overall, a very solid guide for both pre-trip planning and travel within the DR.

Rating:
Summary: very useful guide
Review: I used this guide to travel in Santo Domingo, Costanza and Samana and found it to be very useful in trip planning. First of all, it helped me to identify Samana and Constanza as great places to visit without the heavy tourism. It was also packed with information on practically every town we passed on the way and offered good hotel and restaurant recommendations. My only criticism is that it seemed the author probably traveled by car and the information on public transportation wasn't quite as thorough as in Lonely Planet guides. However, the sheer volume of other information and the easy to use layout made up for that. Overall, a very solid guide for both pre-trip planning and travel within the DR.

Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: I've been thinking of going to the Dominican Republic for over a year. I read several travel books on the DR, but it wasn't until I read Sean Harvey's (The Rough Guide) that I really got excitated about the trip. He Included the kind of information that was exactly what I need to plan my trip. Using his book I've decided on the Resort and what sites, I would like to see. I'm traveling on my own and his comments on Night Clubs and Restaurants was the sort of info I needed, to check out places I would feel comfortable going too.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Travel Guide
Review: I've been thinking of going to the Dominican Republic for over a year. I read several travel books on the DR, but it wasn't until I read Sean Harvey's (The Rough Guide) that I really got excitated about the trip. He Included the kind of information that was exactly what I need to plan my trip. Using his book I've decided on the Resort and what sites, I would like to see. I'm traveling on my own and his comments on Night Clubs and Restaurants was the sort of info I needed, to check out places I would feel comfortable going too.

Rating:
Summary: To the Dominican Republic and back.
Review: If you must settle for only one guidebook on the Domincan Republic then you MUST settle on this one! Mr Harvey certainly covers all of the mainstream tourist destinations in great detail but what intrigued me is how he encourages readers to venture off the beaten path and then leads you down that path. Of course the information is the most current as the book was published within the last month. I have never had the pleasure of visiting the Dominican Republic but plan on doing so this summer. I feel fully confident that Mr Harvey's Rough Guide will get me there and back. Five stars indeed!