Recent Random Expat/Snowbird Experiences -- Punta Cana

Hi, all.

I'm not a frequent poster...but I'm SO thankful for all of you that do post. We've benefited greatly from everyone's advice since 2019 when we first discovered expat.com/Dominican Republic (less 12 months spent in purgatory for reasons I could never figure out).

For 2023, we've taken a different approach to our annual sojourn in the Dominican Republic. I'll describe our philosophy this trip, and then share some general experiences that sometimes matched our expectations...but also often DID NOT match our expectations.

PHILOSOPHY: In previous years, we generally stayed in nicer hotels and upper-middle Airbnb's or VRBOs, and rented cars nearly all of our entire stays. It was nice...but also expensive. With the recent inflation, it just wasn't in our budget to keep staying in fancier places. SO, we planned this year to be distinctly middle class and lower cost.

HOW THIS YEAR (January 2023) IS DIFFERENT:

• We DID NOT rent a car...though we dallied with the idea, in the end Hertz wanted to more than double the asking price of our 33 day stay over the advertised/agreed rate. The extra charges came in the form of "local insurance."
• I've pilloried rental car companies in other threads, so I won't repeat that here. I will say, though, that the rental car industry may well be cutting off its own lifeblood with such usurious rates and tactics.
• instead, WE ARE USING UBERS (and a few lifts from friends) INSTEAD. That has gone extremely well.
• The bad part: only one out of perhaps 14 Uber drivers thus far have ANY English language proficiency.
• The GREAT parts: Things have still gone quite well. Everyone is friendly, the Uber system takes care of most of the translating for us, we just confirm the driver and vehicle when they show up. The prices for Uber seem more expensive here in Punta Cana than they did in previous years in Santo Domingo, but we write that off to either inflation or tourist-area pricing. Cars have been clean and drivers pleasant.
• We're saving a LOT of money that Hertz could have had, but I guess they didn't really want our business.

• WE CHOSE A MODEST AIRBNB APARTMENT AWAY FROM THE BEACH.
• First off, we're not "beach people" any longer. We lived on Satellite Beach, Florida for two years back in the 1990s, and got the beach life yearning out of our systems.  So, we decided to quit paying the "on or near the beach" premium.
• We also chose to go decidedly "middle class," and I mean Dominican middle class. This was a lot less expensive yet turned out a lot nicer than we expected.
• Here, we must give kudos to DominicanadaMike here on the Forums. He rents out and manages several properties here in Punta Cana, and he responded to our posted appeal for help in finding a less-expensive place.
• Mike put us into a simple but very nice, VERY clean and comfortable 1BR apt in Serena Village in Punta Cana. He offered a very fair price, and he truly has been a "Super Dream Host" for us in every way.
• Oh, and this unit has absolutely the BEST hot water we've found in the Dominican outside of the luxury hotels!!! With great water pressure, too!!! It can be done!!!
• Now, I don't want to give the impression this is a luxury place -- there's no hot tub, and no YT Influencers taking selfies of themselves at the several (yes, several) pools here in the complex. But it is quite comfortable, safe and secure. THERE ARE NO BARS ON THE WINDOWS!!
• You still can't be stupid, of course. You do lock up your windows at night. But you don't feel like you're occupying a prison cell!
• The neighborhood -- which is gated and guarded and seems secure -- is pretty much filled with solid, hard-working Dominican families with lots of kids.
• It is a mostly-Dominican neighborhood...which means children loudly playing, laughing and occasionally shrieking with delight.
• I'd guess perhaps 20-30% expats are sprinkled around the various buildings, but those folks also aren't being obnoxious.
• There is one part of the complex, a few blocks from us, that seems to have SOME of the infamous "blasting music syndrome" experience to offer -- so I'd advise being careful as to which unit and complex you rent in Serena Village, at least on that score.
• Even so, everyone knows to quiet down by about 9pm, at least on weekdays. Maybe 10:30 pm on Friday and Saturday; by no means is this place overrun with loud music.  Indeed, this is a lot nicer than where I grew up in an urban US city!
• What we have NOT seen is loud, boisterous, drunken partying to all hours of the night. Everyone seems to play by the informal rules, and we really appreciate that.
• What's the worst noise problem? Occasional heavy trucks using the streets in the evening for either trash collection OR during the day delivering materials to the building site on the other end of the complex, where new units are being put up. But, that all ends by 9 pm, too.
• The secondary noise issue is the occasional moto or rice burner (souped-up Asian car) that zip down the thoroughfares. But those guys are NOT cruising the neighborhood revving engines and sharing their stereo music with us. Rather, they zip down the street to their destination, park, and go inside to their family. I can deal that that!
• I want to EMPHASIZE: There is some noise -- but nothing obnoxious or lasting, despite a few Airbnb reviews that suggest the Apocalypse has arrived early in Serena Village. We're just not seeing that kind of noise issues.
• If you enjoy the sounds of children at play, you'll love Serena Village. If you can't stand to hear children laughing and playing, this isn't the place for you.

• WE WERE NOT "MOBBED BY BEGGARS!!"  To read some Airbnb or FB reviews, every gringo in PC is mobbed/trailed by gangs of voracious youth (and even adults) trying to "sponge money off those rich gringos."  THAT HAS NOT HAPPENED TO US AT ALL ON THIS TRIP TO PC -- or during last year's visit to Bavaro, either.
• So, why haven't we? Here's how we approach life here:
• FIRST, no fancy jewelry of ANY kind. Ever. No expensive watches, just Casio or Timex are fine by us.
• SECOND, very average, middle-classy clothes and shoes. Nothing designer at all.
• Now, that's pretty much how we already live in Idaho, anyway. Those designer clothes just don't seem to do well in 8 degree Fahr weather.
• But, I take pains to try to wear shirts that I've purchased here or in similar countries, at the local department stores.
• Yep, I've got a few "tropical-style" shirts that might stand-out a little, but they're not all that different from what some Dominicans are wearing, anyway.
• THIRD, we follow expat.com advice to NOT carry large amounts of cash, and CERTAINLY don't flash our billfolds or pull a wad of bills out of our pockets or purse.
• But I also go back to the neighborhood we selected (as recommended by Dominicanada Mike): Serena Village.
• These are working people, raising kids and moving ahead with their own lives.
• They really don't seem to notice us -- they've got bigger fish to fry and kids to raise. The don't bother us at all!! (But if you want to talk, they are quite warm to expats.)
• Now, we have had the opposite experience on past trips.
• A couple of times, we were pestered by an occasional guy looking for a handout while in Santo Domingo.
• BUT NOT ONCE (THUS FAR) IN PUNTA CANA.

• EVERYONE IS SO POLITE AND KIND!! Yes, they really are. Not a single person has been rude to us -- and that's better than even our little hometown up in Idaho, where we get the occasional big-city family that moves in and brings their big-city attitudes with them. For a while, anyway.
• We love this place and this experience.
• One particular experience to share here:
• We were at a supermercado (think Jumbo, but a smaller version that isn't Jumbo) for grocery shopping today during the busiest time right after everyone gets off work.  (Yes, we should have planned better!!). Checkout lines were long/slow, so the store opened up an extra checkout lane, and we moved into the #2 position behind a small cart in front of us.
• But there was something wrong with the cash register!!!! They couldn't get it to work right, and it took about 15 minutes just to checkout the guy ahead of us...and he only had maybe a dozen items.
• In true Dominican fashion, it took about 12 people (I KID YOU NOT) to agree that there was a problem, vigorously debate the potential solutions, then try those potential solutions (all failed) and finally decide to fix it by...shutting down that register lane!
• During all of this, the poor guy ahead of us was patiently waiting for his receipt while holding his two meager plastic bags. Not once did he yell or even raise his voice.  Not even any eye-rolling! He understood how things worked, and kept his cool; Lisa and I followed his lead.
• If this had happened in many US supermarkets, there would have been murmurs leading to grumbles leading to verbal complaints leading to, if it went on long enough, verbal shouting by one or more unhappy patrons.  Lucky we weren't in the US.
• Notably, no other customers got heated up, either, though several did abandon that line to try others that were actually moving.
• In the end, the Store did take care of us, by loading our items back into our cart for us and escorting us over to a not-for-regular checkouts register next to customer service. There, we had to wait for a new cashier to open up the register and count the starting money. (sigh!)
• Everything worked out...eventually.

BOTTOM LINE: We should have dumped the fancy hotels and fancier Airbnb units years ago! We're loving this nice little community: things are clean, reasonably well-organized and convenient (once you can figure out which colmados to call or visit for water or whatever), and the price is right.

Okay, folks. I may not get to post again during this trip, but wanted to share those thoughts while fresh.

I hope other folks will be encouraged by this to try more places, too.

Take care,

Jim