What could be better than free minutes for your cell phone? OK, well I can think of a few things, however it’s still nice to get something that you use a lot of for free! Something that it is good to know is Claro gives “bonus” minutes when you purchase refills of a higher dollar (or peso) amount. often it seems tempting to just buy the minutes you think you’ll need and pick up more when you need them. Seems reasonable when here in the DR you can buy your Claro, Viva, and Orange minutes at almost any comado. Usually in increments of 50, 100, or 150 pesos. But there are advantages of buying higher amounts. Bonus Minutes! (more…)

Well, this was probably the deal of a lifetime. The Lifestyle Resort in Puerto Plato was running a promotional deal for stays between October to December of this year to their very plush All Inclusive Hotel. For $10 USD per person per night you would get their VIP package which included the room, all meals including al a cart meal at 5 different restaurants, 24 hour a day food ad one of the different locations in the resort and of course all drinks are included. At the VIP bar that means all of the imported alcohol also. All tips were even included, although if someone gave very good service it was nice if you can tip a little extra.

There was one catch though; you had to be from the United States, Europe, or Canada. The thing is they only wanted people from other countries to use the deal so they could promote their Resort as well as promote their time shares. While getting the tour of the resort (as well as the timeshare sales pitch) was optional, you had to refuse it several times during your stay. Not a big problem, the people asking were always nice, never a hard push.

While this deal closed, I have received several notices from cheapcaribbean.com that they are continuing to offer other great deal on their All Inclusive VIP package. They have extended the deal several times a t a little higher price of $20 USD per person per night. The “taxes” also went up so it turns into a total of $28 USD per person per night. Still this is an awesome deal. If you stay at a regular hotel and pay for your own food you will likely pay about $5-$7 for breakfast and lunch and $12 – $20 for comparable dinners. This deal includes all food, drinks, tips, and the room for the same price, making this bay far one of the cheapest ways to visit the Dominican Republic.
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If you’re in the DR and you need to have some warrantee work done on your computer (at least Toshiba), I have both good and bad news. Good news? Well, yes there are Toshiba warrantee repair centers in the DR. Bad news? Nothing happens quickly here!

Allow me to tell a tale of getting an under warrantee computer repaired in the DR. First, no I’m not planning on bashing the repair center. If fact, through the entire process everyone we talked to was very pleasant to work with and in the end we ended up with a computer that seems have been completely repaired which included completing a Toshiba recall problem which involved replacing the keyboard.

The two points that did require a certain amount of patience on our part involved the time necessary to complete the repair and the organizational ability of the repair company. But first let’s digress: (more…)

While in the Dominican Republic, you are likely to want to change your phone over to one of the local providers. The Main Providers are Claro and Orange.

We have friends using Claro, Orange and several of the other prepaid phone companies. So far Claro seems to be the Clear winner in our area. Orange cuts out frequently, and often when you try to call someone who has Orange their phone is not in operation.

Orange on the other hand seems to have the upper hand in ease of buying refill cards. If you are in any larger town you will see guys walking around with orange vests on selling Orange cards. They’re pretty hard to miss. Either way, many of the comados sell both Orange and Claro refill card so they are pretty easy to come by.

Claro often gives bonus minutes when you buy over 150 pesos at one time. While that may seem like a lot, 150 pesos is a little over $4.00 USD. To ask for them you can just say “tiene tarjeta (tar-yet-a) de Claro?” or “tiene tarjeta de Orange?”, if they say yes say your amount i.e. ciento cincuenta pesos (150 pesos).

Minutes as a gift
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