Travel tips for Dominican Republic

We’ve been to the Dominican Republic a few times and for those traveling to this paradise for the first time, I’ve summarized a few things:

My ultimate travel tips for the Dominican Republic:

Tip1 – Electricity

In the Dominican Republic there is only 110 volts, so you can also charge a cell phone or so, because the chargers work yes worldwide, it just takes forever. We have done it now so that we have taken powerbanks. We charged them during the day and then used them to charge our cell phones at night. You take the phone during the day to the beach, to eat, etc.. You actually have Wi-Fi reception everywhere and it is as fast as at home. The USB plugs of chargers fit well into the sockets, otherwise you can also take an adapter for the USA.

Tip2 – Sun protection in the Dominican Republic

Cream, cream, cream. The sun looks harmless, there are clouds every now and then and you are lying under palm trees. Nevertheless and especially the first days apply sunscreen with SPF 50. After a few days you can then change to SPF30. We tried Ultrasun on our last trip. You only have to apply this sunscreen once a day (in the morning) and it was great. No smearing in the sand or pool. There is extra for the face and body, for babies, for water sports, etc. This sunscreen is expensive, but not really, because you only need to apply once. A bottle with 200ml is then easily enough for a 14-day vacation per person.

Quelle: RalfRoyal

Tip3 – Medication – International travel health insurance

Take a good first-aid kit with you. So what against gastrointestinal, mosquito repellent, headache tablets and necessarily what against colds. It is always windy in the DR and everywhere are fans on, is for us something unusual and you have a cold. The specialty restaurants that are closed are sometimes strongly cooled down. In the DR one goes with small things to no doctor, therefore rather more take along.

The hotel stores have a small selection of medicines for sale, but they are really expensive. Even a cold spray costs 15 dollars! A travel health insurance is recommended, because the Dominican Republic is outside the EU. The health insurance does not cover outpatient or inpatient treatment of illnesses and accidents. It becomes really expensive if a return transport to the home country becomes necessary. It is therefore in your own financial interest to take out travel health insurance. Some chargeable credit cards include a travel cancellation / international travel health insurance for the trip you have booked with the card.  

Quelle: RalfRoyal

Tip4 – Dollars – Euros – Tipping

Usually the hotels are all-inclusive resorts but the cleaners, bartenders are happy about a dollar tip. They earn about 80-100 dollars a month as wages. The dollar doesn’t hurt us and people remember your name. Otherwise you don’t need money there, unless you want to make excursions. Of course they are happy to take Euros 🙂 So tipping is not obligatory, but only welcome.

Tip5 – Mobile phone – Roaming

The cell phone is in flight mode and I would turn it off in the hotel and go to the WLAN. Turn off roaming and also turn off mobile data. Smartphones and the apps update themselves in the background and there always flow a few data, which is really expensive in the country! So only use WLAN and nothing more.

Tip6 – Entry

You need a passport that is still valid for at least 6 months, ID card is not possible. In the past, you needed a tourist visa for the Dominican Republic, but this is now booked by the tour operator with the trip and you no longer need to buy one.

For entry and exit you need an e-ticket, so everything is digital here as well. https://eticket.migracion.gob.do/

You should have your passport number, flight number, airline and hotel adress at hand.

Quelle: RalfRoyal

Tip7 – Suitcase weight

Do not pack your suitcase to the limit, because the humidity will make your clothes about 2 kilos heavier on the return flight. That does not matter if you have then used up the sunscreen, apresmilk and shower gel. In case of doubt, leave the bottles in the hotel to save 1-2 kilos of cosmetics. Better to throw away the few euros for it than to pay excess baggage, which is really really expensive.

These are my travel tips, who has more?

Weblinks:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Republic