Likely you are flying in from Santo Domingo, Santiago or Puerto Plato, from any of those it will probably be easiest to take Caribe Tours to get you to Samana. None of these go directly to Las Terrenas, so from there you will need to catch a public car or Taxi.

This is where the fun comes in! Depending on how busy they are, there is a lot of room for negotiation. On our first trip to Las Terrenas we planned on taking a public car from Samana to Las Terrenas. It turns out that the majority of the public cars are pickups and you sit in the back. This is about a 20-25 minute drive and it rains frequently. Unless you are really into budget traveling this may not be the best option. However, because that is what we told the taxi drivers that asked us if we wanted a ride, they kept lowering the price to talk us out of it.

In the end we went with Taxi Luna ((809) 667-0344 or (809)355-8752), the driver didn’t speak English, but we speak enough Spanish so that it didn’t matter. Likewise, as long as you have the name and address of the Hotel you want to reach in Las Terrenas, you don’t really need to be able to speak to them much, they will find your hotel. We got the price down to 1200 pesos or about $33 USD. This price was pretty good, because when we got to Las Terrenas we found a taxi location that stated the price to get back to Samana and the price was about twice that or 2200 pesos. If you get a good deal then you will want to get the phone number of the taxi so you can call them on the return trip and get the same price. Be sure to confirm this price with them before they come to pick you up.

It’s a pretty wild ride up there, over less than perfect roads so expect a bit of a roller coaster ride. You do get to see some pretty terrain as you pass over the mountain heading to the coast. If you are able to talk to the driver some he will be able to point out where some of the excursions start out. You will pass by one of the waterfall excursion trails on the way up.

Depending on where your hotel is you might also need some transportation when you get to Las Terrenas. One of the most popular forms of transportation is Quad rental. Quads are those 4 wheel motorcycles, they are pretty easy to drive, so even if you don’t have experience, with a little effort you should be able to ride one. These cost about $40 USD per day. Most of the hotels pave parking areas where you can store them overnight. As far as we could tell, these quads are not allowed on the beach, they are for road travel only unless there are some beaches a ways out of town where they are allowed.

Most of the Las Terrenas hotels are right on the beach or right across the street from the beach quad rental is not necessary. However, the whole section of town where you first get to the beach can’t see the sunsets that Las Terrenas is famous for. To see them you will need to head to the far end of town. As the sun starts to go down you start seeing streams of people heading to western side of town where you can see the sunsets. If you don’t have a quad, there are many Motorconchos (motorcycle taxis) that will take you as well as car taxis.

As shown in the picture above, the beach bars are not always open in the less crowded seasons. Don’t despair though, most of the hotels have open bars for beer and other drinks open throughout the day. Likely you will find one right across the street from whatever part of the beach you are on.

Las Terrenas Map

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