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Wraith welcome to the forum. There is lots of good information here on the board. Please read, read, read and then feel free to ask any questions you have on living here.

We retired here over 9 years ago and have not looked back for a second.

Bob K

Welcome to the forums.  Please come visit and check it out!!!

Have you been to any of these countries?

No, I haven't been to any of these countries. The internet is great tool. Youtube, google maps, and of course blogs are a great help so that one day we will plan a trip.

Nothing beats a visit!

You need to visit here as well as other countries for options.  We looked all over the Caribbean, Mexico, Panama, Honduras, Fiji, Tahiti before we came here.

Bob K

Hi I'm brand new to the blog and In need of lots of information.
I'm engaged to be married to a Dominican. We are planning for early 2016. The dilemma is how to combine both families at our wedding. I wanted to have a destination wedding in Punta Cana at an all-inclusive resort. This would be great for my family and friends because they would have all the comforts of home. But his family lives hours away in San Pedro and cannot afford to stay at the resort. How can I find a happy medium for everyone. I love his family and don't want to leave anyone out.  This is not my first marriage so it will not be an extravagant affair,but still want a beautiful intimate ceremony of both cultures.
Any suggestions?

Welcome to the forums.  First you have lots of options!!! San Pedro is about an hour and a half away from Punta Cana, not a big issue. But yes cost may be. What about day passes for his family for the wedding on resort? Or your family stay on resort, get married in San Pedro?

I would say get married in San Pedro and have the Luna de miel at the resort.

Thanks for your response Planner. His family is much bigger than mine but they are hard working poor. I don't have the connections to find a beautiful place to have the wedding in San Pedro. When I search the websites in America everything is related to destination weddings in the resort. I want to have a more romantic true Dominican experience so his family feels involved and not just guests. The problem is they all speak Spanish and very little English. except my fiancée. I can't really depend on the family in DR to help. Are there beautiful places in San Pedro to have a wedding? 
When I visit I usually stay in Juan Dolio.

Gordabella Welcome to the forum.  Maybe your hubby to be has some ideas on a nice place to have the wedding.  It will be difficult for sure for his family to all be able to attend a destination wedding.  I wish I had some ideas but I up on the north coast.

Good luck

Bob K

Thank you Bob K. I have my work cut out for me.

I wish you good luck with it. 

Are you going to be living here in the DR after the wedding?  If so where???

Bob K

You are very welcome.  There are many many places to hold your wedding honey.  You can look at San Pedro,  Juan Dolio,  La Romana and area.  I will send you a private message.

As this is the introductions thread,  may I suggest you open a thread for this? Then we can all put in our thoughts and options for you there!   

Of course we all want an invite to the wedding.......

Hello Everyone

I'm MJ. I fly to DR usually on average 2-3 times per year and stay sometimes for a month. I work from afar so my question is does anyone know a reliable internet with good VOIP ? I've stayed in Zona colonial and used Claro and when I called people in the US they said it sounds like I'm in a tunnel. I stayed in Malecon Center and used Tricom with wind as my back up and was told the same thing by my US customers that the connection wasn't good etc. My job has a mixture of internet only but also I must make some calls and I have trouble finding a good internet connection that has a good VOIP. Any suggestions?

Yes. You can sign-up with - diamondcard.us for a VOIP service. Works great and you can recharge locally too.

Hello, my name is Tori. My husband and I are moving to the DR for one year! We will be in the Samana area. Really looking forward to getting there! We have visited several times,  love the town! We just wanted to introduce ourselves to your forum. We have been to cabarette once, beautiful place. We are looking forward to having the opportunity to explore the island a bit more this time.

welcome to the forums!   One year will pass so quickly!  Keep us posted on your adventure.

Tori welcome.  What are you going to be doing for the year?

You will probably get hooked and won't want to leave

Keep us posted

Bob K

Hi Julien and everyone,
My name is Claire. I am 50, divorced, mom of 3 boys (15, 21 and 24). I currently work as a Bilingual Copywriter for Walmart.ca and was a French teacher for 11 years prior to this. I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I have been on vacation to the Dominican 3 times so far and I will be there again on the 26th for one week. I love it there. Yes, I know real life is very different to tourist of vacation life but I have a friend with whom I have been communicating for the past year and a half who is a ganadero (cattle farmer). I know how difficult life can be. On the other hand I'm a simple person who really only needs basic comforts. I can't go yet though. My youngest son still needs me. His father lives in Israel and he does not want to go there. He is not interested in moving to DR either so ... I still have a few years before I make my move. I am in search of a quiet life by the sea. I would love to work for one of the resorts (I speak 4 languages - French, English, Spanish and Hebrew). I am also an artist - I paint some but mostly I make jewelry and small copper sculptures. I was thinking maybe I could make a living selling my art but I'm really not sure about that. That's about it. I welcome any questions or advice. Thanks!

Hi Classygringo,

I don't have any advice re communication systems in DR but I do have a question - what do you do for a living?

Thanks,

Claire

Lamarguerite welcome to the forum.

Yes take it slow....very slow before making any move here.  Do understand that making a decent living here is very difficult and wages very low (average "worker" making about $210 US a MONTH).  You may have more success in the tourist arena as you speak 4 languages.  You will need your residency and Cedula (national ID card) before you can work here legally.

There is lots of information here for you to read.  So read, read and then read some more.  After please feel free to ask away.  There lots of good folks here on this board and some of us have been living here for a long time.

Again welcome

Bob K

I work in a customer support role. There are more and more opportunities to work from home nowadays. You are probably better off with a work from home position in the US to live there than you would be trying to get a job there. Like someone else said average wages out there are around $200 US per month. Good luck.

Bob, as usual,  says it very well.  I second the welcome to the forums.   Take it all very slow and steady, get yourself set up to move here.....  work in tourism is tough to get these days even with multiple languages. What matters in tourism is if you can sell!  That is how the money is made. 

What part of the country are you looking to move to?

Hi everyone! (And a special hello to Planner and Bob K.),

I have been following this forum for more than a year and I'm really glad you guys are here! I've been longing to move to the DR since May 2014.  Another way of life...have been waiting for my husband to join in on the dream...and finally..he is also in! We have decided to move in July 2016 for at least one year...I know we will want to stay!

I was born in the DR and lived in la Capital until I was 12 years old. My mother is Dominican and my father was Dutch. I'm married and have 3 children. My eldest finishes school in 2016 but my youngest two will still have to go to school.
We know the country pretty well and have decided that at least for that year, we are moving to Las Terrenas...our favorite place. We actually love the peace and quiet and don't need much to entertain ourselves. They have an international school in Las Terrenas so the kids can go to a good school. My husband will probably be travelling back and forth for work. I coach internationally using Skype or phone and will be adding online courses to my lifecoaching. I'm also an educational and child psychologist but this is not a skill I think I will be able to market in the DR.

My husband has started with Spanish lessons, the kids are starting in September with English and Spanish lessons (they only speak Dutch) and we are in the 'get all the advice we can get' phase.
So, here it goes:
- Insurance for 5...how much would this cost? How is the coverage?
-If we are only there for a year, can I still work on my online business?
-An old friend is a real estate agent in Santo Domingo...could I use her for Las Terrenas or would you advise someone there?
- What kind of appliances would you advise us to bring?
- What else should we bring instead of buying there?
- Anything else?

Thanks so much! Here comes adventure!
Karin

If you can get a residency visa then you can ship EVERYTHING out in one shot and no customs fees in a container. That will save big bucks especially with a newer car that you want.  Otherwise, it's one big pain in the !@#!@# to start looking around here to buy appliances, clothing and everything else you would need for the house.

For example, if you ship out a nice new $60k car that is 3-4 years old and can buy it for $40k there won't be any taxes to import. That same $40k car might be $65K+ here to buy. So the savings on a nice newer car is big. Everything else is gravy and the ease of just shipping everything you want here in one shot beats running around this country looking for stuff to buy that you can't find anyway and what you end up buying may not even work right. The hassle factor buying stuff here can be enormous.

Welcome to the forum! Thank you or the great  background info.  Can I ask you to start a separate thread with all your questions.....that way this thread stays on topic

Will do!

To aswer your question bob...
We are both fluent in ASL. American Sign Language for the deaf. There are many deaf in the island, but many in the peninsula have no formal language. We will be volunteering to have ASL classes for the deaf in the area, teaching them to use sign language. We got a nice taste of it for two months. Very rewarding!! So, that is our goal for the year....to be involved with the deaf, supporting ourselves with one online job, and possibly (if I can figure out my table situation..) medical massage.

I will wait for the new thread and answer there to keep this thread cleaner

Bob K

Toribird  are you fluent in Spanish and will your ALS classes be in Spanish.  Great project.  In college we lived with a Deaf student (4 of us sharing a house) and learned ALS then.  Quite interesting.  However I have not kept my skills up but can still finger spell some.

Bob K

Hi,
Buzz here and thanks for letting me join your group. I am looking forward to listening and participating in the forums.
Thanks.

Buzz welcome to the forum. Why don't you tell us a bit about yourself by way on an introduction. Where do you live? What do you do? What kind of information to you need or want to share.

This is a pretty active group and we look forward to your participation.

Bob K

Hi classygringo,
My name is Paty and I live in Switzerland bu am portuguese.
I also work on a call center on the customer service as I speak english, french, italian and spanish.
I am planning on mooving to Dominican Republic in 2016 and am looking for a work from home kind of job.
But here in Switzerland it's not common.
Do you think I could get a job from a USA company even though being from Switzerland?
And wich are the average payouts for a part-time customer service job there?
Thank you in advance.

Welcome Buzz and welcome Paty.   Thank you for joining us.   

Can I ask everyone to read the threads, read read read. Much of what you will ask at first is covered. THEN when you cannot find the answer there, start your own thread.  That way we keep this for new member introductions and it does not get confusing with multiple conversations.....

Thanks everyone!

Sometimes it is like herding cats

Bob K

Sure is.... but I love it.....   

Hi Bob, Planner and All, my friend and I are definitely travelling to DR in November for 3 to 4 weeks.  We will spend the first 2 weeks in the North Coast and the 3rd and maybe a 4th week in Punta Cana.  I still haven't made my mind where to go in the North Coast.  I am thinking about staying in two different areas to check out and enjoy the expat, locals, beautiful calm beach, walking distance to restaurants, buying fresh food, nightlife etc.  I will either be flying to Puerto Plata or Samana.  I would like to know if it were you, which two places would you go and why?  Here are some areas I thought of and am open to other ones: Sosua, Cabrera, Las Terrenas, Samana, Cabarete, Puerto Plata or other places.  We don't mine renting an apartment or condo or stay in an All Inclusive.  Planner: you mentioned Costambar, would this be one of the top 2 places you would recommend?  Bob, you said that Sosua had one of your favorite beach.  What is it called and were exactly is it?  is there any apartments/condo/all incl. at that beach? and would Sosua would be one of your top 2 places you would recommend?  I am really hoping the finalize my travel arrangements within the next week.  Thank you all in advance for your suggestions and comments.  The area must be friendly and safe.

Hi Bob,  I live in Nicaragua and Colorado and I have friends who visit the Dominican Republic often and say i should move there.  So I joined the group to get information and insight on all sorts of things from housing and items available there vs. USA.

dragonflies
I will try to answer some:
The beach in Sosua is the main town beach and takes up the Sosua  bay.  There is also Alicia beach which is a bit smaller with no bars or restaurants but just beautiful.  The town can be quite lively at night with lots of restaurants, bars and clubs. There are also a fair number of "ladies of the night" about but you can avoid them with out too much difficulty. We are in Sosua a few times a week for dinner and drinks. There are lots of condos, villas, and hotels in the area.

Cabarete just down the road a bit is also terrific with the beach lined with restaurants, bars and clubs with the party going on to the wee hours of the morning.  Again lots of hotels, condos but not many villas here for rent.  This more of a sports town with  kite boarding, surfing, and wind surfing.  The water is a bit rougher (waves) than Sosua and not a place for snorkeling.  Sosua has great snorkeling as water is pretty flat and there is a reef just off shore.

We actually live between the two.

Bob K