$$$$ :) - USD cash, travellers cheques, pesos?

Bring USD and use the ATMS. Never bring traveler's checks as they are just about useless here and almost no one will accept them.  Those that will usually will give you a poor exchange rate and charge you a "commission" of up to 20% of the amount cashed.
Also you will get a much better rate exchanging your dollars here than at home, but never do so at a hotel as again a poor rate.

Bob K

Thanks Bob.

How much better a rate in the DR? I keep seeing that alluded to in blog posts, but we're Canadian, so we'd have to exchange twice. Once to USD and then again in DR.  We can get pretty decent USD rates here, but still worth it?

Thanks for the heads up on traveller's cheques. Even banks won't cash them?

Very few banks will take them and then they will add the commission as well as a lower rate.
Today you can get 40.9 or so pesos to the dollar here at multiple places.

Bob K

Bob,

Once again, thank you.

I got the rates are our local currency exchange place (best rates in town - VBCE).

Here's how it panned out (in case any other canadians read this):

For 10,000 Pesos:

To buy Pesos directly here would cost $291.00 CAD. Total, no fees on top of that.

At 40.9 (quoted by Bob) that's $244.50 USD. Which I can buy at the same place here for $253.10 CAD.

So USD it is, despite exchanging twice.

Good info and your CAD will trade for less here and currently is about 38.5 or so. The CAD always trades lower than the USD no matter what the exchange is between the USD and the CAD.

Bob K

The difference between exchanging at a hotel -  right now I am in Punta Cana - the hotel is giving 36 pesos to the American dollar, and I can get 40.9 outside of here. BIG difference.

I am very agree with Bob. In the company where I work a week ago that we are not accepting the Travelers check.
And when you changed was down 20%, only when withdrawing dollars.
It is best that you bring some bucks and change their dollars here.

I hope you really like the country ...