Cost of living in Dominican Republic — 2015

If danny is only 33 miles or so across, then it could pass between Sosua & Cabrera & not leave a drop of rain on either town!  Maybe the centwr is only 60KM wide.

Wrong thread honey..... lol

sorry, I rewrote it & relocated it, my error.

Happens to us all honey....

Your posts are hopeful.I'm really doing my due diligence with moving there.My primary concern is finding work.

You will need residencia and your cedula first. It's really hard to get work sponsor visa and almost no one will hire you without your cedula.

What do you do now? We can give an idea of how that might fit in here.

I'm a licensed cosmetologist and esthetician.I also have timeshare sales experience.

All of those positions will be hard to find and the pay will be low.

Planner is right you need your residency and Cedula to work here legally

Bob K

Expat.com wrote:

Hi all,

We invite you to talk about the cost of living in Dominican Republic in 2015, with an updated price listing.

Don't forget to mention in which city of the Dominican Republic you are living in.

How much does it cost to live in Dominican Republic?

> accommodation prices

> public transportation fares (tube, bus etc.)

> food prices (your monthly budget)

> health prices (for those who need medical insurance)

> education prices (if you need to pay)

> energy prices (oil, electricity)

> common bills (Internet, television, telephone, mobile phone)

> price for a good menu in a traditional restaurant

> price for a coffee or a drink

> price for cinema tickets

Do not hesitate to add items to this list!

Thank you in advance for your participation.

New to this forum, but I have been in Puerto Plata for almost 4 years.  You can rent a 3 bedroom house for a couple of hundred bucks per month.  Plus maybe $40 a month for electricity, and since most people cook with propane here that is another $24 or so a month. Internet and TV along with 400 minutes of telephone including calls to the USA and Canada all in one package for maybe $40 ( 1940 pesos @ 44,4 to the US Dollar) The TV is 40+ stations and Mylady tells me there are a couple in English, I don't do TV so am not sure.
My car runs on diesel which is less than gasoline here, but still $3.40 a gallon or so.
We buy most of our food off the truck which haunts our neighborhood, my lady is a Dominicana and that is how she is used to buying her food.  but fresh and real instead of boxed pizzas or that kind of crap.
Local transportation is by taxi or bus or motoconcho (motorcycle taxi) if one doesn't have a car.  But I have had a car since I was 17 and don't intend to be without one now that I am within a few months of 70.
Dingo El Gringo

Finding work here is close to undoable.  Most any job won't pay $10 a day.  Unless you can bring your job with you.  I know a French Canadian woman who does translating between French and English and makes abut $1000 a week, but she has that skill that most of us lack.  I managed a restaurant for a few months, I made about the above mentioned 10.00 daily plus feeding myself. There are several websites for freelancing work and if you have certain skills you can find work there, but you are competing against people in India and everywhere in the world. SO don't count on anything that pays a livable wage.
Good luck
Dingo El Gringo

Timeshare sales you can do without residency, maybe not totally legally, but I know a couple people who do that without papers.  As far as doing hair you will not earn more than a few pesos per day. There again maybe set up your own shop amongst Gringas and get a clientele that way without sricking your head up too high.
Dingo El Gringo

Wow. Not feeling very encouraged at

I see.that's help ful

DingoElGringo  some good information.  Thank you.

Bob K

Fromblahtomuah! like I had said finding work here is not easy.

Most folks that come here and have to work to survive do not make it. This is not the place to move to if you "need" to work to support yourself.  It can be done but is difficult.

Bob K

Certain skill sets are very valuable here,  one was mentioned translation work.  Physical skills (for lack of a better way to descibe them) pay little.  Mental skills will pay more but not all of them.

The government is cracking down on illegal employees. Almost everyone is paying attention.  IF you do not have residency and a cedula  you can forget trying to get work!  Yes there are still some illegal employees but they are becoming extinct! 

Get your residency if you need or want to work here!  It really is that simple. If you cannot afford residency then you really cannot afford to live and work here.

My wife speaks English, French, Arabic, and learning Spanish. Maybe she could do the same if we decide to retire in the DR

Hello!
I am a single 33 year old male from Ontario, Canada. I have recently sold my house with the intention of relocating to the D.R.

I was hoping to connect with some knowledgeable ex-pat's who wouldn't mind giving a Lad a bit of advice and probably put up with a stupid question or two.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in Advance,

Jaxx welcome to the forum.  There are lots of good folks here with very good information. I suggest you read the multiple threads on this forum (there are lots of them) then feel free to come back and ask away!.

We moved here full time over 9 years ago and have not looked back for a second.

As I used to tell my students..."there is no such thing as a stupid question unless you already know the answer"

Will you have to work here to support yourself?

Please tell me you are not moving for a "girl" you met here

Have  great day!

Bob K

In relation to most any state in the USA the DR is small, but in actuality it is quite large driving time from Puerto Plata to Punta Cana is almost 7 hours. Life in the capitol is different than in smaller towns or el campo.  I liev in Puerto Plata. Make a few more posts and you can PM me and we can get acquainted.
Dingo El Gringo

Where in PP are  you?

Bob K (helping  your post numbers )

Who me? up above the Forteleza in a barrio known as Las caobas.

Welcome to the forums. Read read read then ask any questions you have....

Any chance someone from Las Terrenas/Rio San Juan/Cabrera could chime in on what to expect to pay for a 3 bedroom, 1.5 house with a pool in terms of electricity, spraying property for bugs (?), maintaining pool? (Per month?)

Also, we are wanting to landscape our property...there's no landscaping presently.  Can anyone recommend a person or company in the Cabrera area to do landscaping and/or pool maintanance?

Hi Planner. I see you live in La Romana. This is one area I am interested in moving to however I can't seem to find a lot of useful information that will help in my decision. I like to golf and I see a lot of golf courses in this area. I assumed that it is a tourist area and probably expensive similar to Punta Cana. I have also been searching for rentals and seems that there is little to choose from.

Hi Planner

How much do 1 bedroom apartments or houses sell for in your area on average? Nothing too upscale just a normal apartment. I love your post about it only costing $750 to live here. I should have joined this forum a long time ago on my first visit  I dropped quite a bit of money.

Let me address La Romana -   the town itself is not really touristy.  We have Casa de Campo which is very very upscale, full of expats and wealthy but not really touristy as such.   We get cruise ships regularly so parque central turns into  tourist central but its only about  6 hours. 

On vegetable sale day at Jumbo (tuesday)   the expats from Casa de Campo seem to make their way into town......LOL

For the most part our prices are not reflective of a tourist town.  I had a nice 3 bedroom apartment for under US 200 a month. I now have a 4 bedroom 4 bath house for  under US 500 a month! 

You will not find much available online. It is not the way things are done here. Only the more expensive,  expat targeted rentals or sales are likely to appear online.  The rest - well we call it "boots on the ground". 

Golf - lots of it around but not cheap. We have a cinema,  lots of places to eat and drink and dance.  Local beach is  4 minutes from me, more touristy beach is 20 minutes.  Santo Domingo is  1 hour 15 and  Punta Cana is about an hour away.   We are in the middle and its quite nice here.

Thanks planner. I see that you have moved around the island a bit. Why do you now live in La Romana. Any special reason. Do you know the frequency of flights coming from the US and Canada.  I will be coming to DR before the end of the year. I am hoping October.  I was planning to go to the North coast but know i am thinking La Romana will be better for me. Only problem i see is language. When i was in Sosua it wasnt a big problem. What is your thoughts on this.

I moved to La Romana for a job offer honey.  I do like it here, but not sure I will stay here forever.... who knows.....LOL.

There are plenty of flights to Santo Domingo,  Punta Cana and  to La Romana airport directly there are fewer.

Thanks, if you don't plan to stay forever (thats a very long time), where would you stay.

Who knows honey, I tend to move around.....LOL  Depends where my work and my life takes me but it will be IN THIS COUNTRY....... I love it here.

Where ever you feet can DANCE!!!

Bob K

True Bob, so true....

If you need beach the North coast is a lot cheaper than Punta Cana etc, but if you don't need beach try Bonao.  There was a little place off in an area called Los Cuemados not sure of the spelling maybe with a Q instead of the C, that I really liked and paid less than$10.00 per night on a weekly basis. Sorry I don't remember the name of the place.

hey guys , i'm haitian i have a tourist visa and i speak english , french and creole i need a job here in the dominican republic but i don't have cedula . A friend of mine said i need to go to punta cana maybe they can hire me. I need help plz. Thank you!!

stephlo - getting a job without cedula these days is getting harder and harder, I am not sure if the resorts can afford to hire somebody without the proper paper work. At least on the east side (Punta Cana) and the La Romana area (Bayahibe / Dominicus).

stephlo wrote:

hey guys , i'm haitian i have a tourist visa and i speak english , french and creole i need a job here in the dominican republic but i don't have cedula . A friend of mine said i need to go to punta cana maybe they can hire me. I need help plz. Thank you!!

Have you tried going thru the regularizacion process offered to all of non Dominicans?  The guys who work construccion usually do so without legal papers as we did things also in miami.

stephlo First off welcome to the forum.

Your chances of getting a job with out your cedula nearly impossible these days.  There are huge fines for employers if caught with "illegal (non documented and cedula individuals) are huge and most companies will not take the risk.

If you plan on staying and working here then you will need to get your documents.

Bob K

Bob gives good advice.

Thank you so much for this info!! I will be moving to La Romana by the end of March of next year to work with a non-profit and had no idea what to except budget wise