New members of the Dominican Republic forum, introduce yourself here - 1st quarter of 2015

Reach out to salsamama here,  she may know of some places.  I will ping her to come take a look.

I live in Costambar and may be able to help you.  Salsamama...aka Annette I have a Studio that may be perfect for you has a cooktop and small refrig.  Private bath and entry and free coffee in the morning.  You can call me at 809-869-0054...I am a 5 minute walk to the beach and stores, restaurants and bars are all within walking distance.  When in March will you be here?

My family is moving to Sosua on Sunday! I also emailed the international school and they also have not replied to me. I will visit the school once we get settled. My daughter is turning 5 in March.

Best of luck to you.
Jessica

Wow Sunday is right around the corner.  You excited yet

Let me know if I can help with anything

Bob K

newExpats6676: Which international school will your daughter attend? I have a Canadian friend here who is a teacher at Garden Kids Int'l School in Sosua (in front of Super Pola). If you need any insider info about that school you can send me your email in PV and I will connect you.

I wish you the best for your arrival in the country. Hope your family and yourself will enjoy the journey! If you stop by Gaspar Hernandez hit me up and I will give you the tour and cook good Dominican food my "novia" learned me how to prepare.

I know Garden Kids. We drove by it while it was closed! I didn't realized it was considered "international school". I thought only Sosua International was. I will definitely send you message to get more information. Thank you!!!! And yes, would love the Dominican meal!

Yes, Garden Kids is one of the 2 international schools in Sosua! Many foreign teachers work there. Please be welcome to stop by my casa with your family!

Very excited!! Also just sold my business (small gym that I founded, owned and operated for 7 years) so a lot of big changes!! Thank you Bob. I will check out the insurance info you sent me when we arrive.

NEw Garden h as a good reputation.  You will find more Dominican kids there than at ISS

Bob K

Sorry for late reply. We have been in  Buen Hombre. Just back to Cabarete. Are you feeling better ? Looking for real estate Advice.

Thanks,
Tom & Ling

Hi all!

My name is Mary Allison, and I have been reading through the forums for the past several weeks now. Thanks for all the great questions and information! I thought it was finally time to introduce myself

My husband and I will be moving to the DR in mid-March as I will be doing ten months of research on Dominican folk dance. I'll try to have a home base but otherwise will be traveling all over the island through my research. We are so excited!

I'm sure I'll be along with more questions soon - thank you all so much!

Best,
Mary Allison

Welcome to the forums, and you are very welcome.  Hopefully in your travels  you can meet some of us!

Mary Allison welcome to the forum.  Lots of good folks here.

Where are you moving to?  It sounds like a great adventure.  Have  you been here before?

Bob K

Hello everyone,
My wife and I are from the states...Nebraska. We are in our mid and late 50s and searching for our retirement haven. We were considering Mexico for awhile, but have recently been told about the DR and it sounds even better! We are tired of the cold here and an on moving in about 5 years. In the mean time, we will be planning trips to DR to research and see if it fits our needs, which are not lavish! We are pretty simple and enjoy simple things, mostly making new friends and enjoying life. Where would be a good place to begin, since we have never been to DR? Any suggestions are welcome and we look forward to seeing your beautiful country!

Welcome to the forums.  Start by reading about living here, read all the threads that interest you and start asking questions questions.

There are many areas to check out over the next few years...... after reading the threads you may have a better idea of where to start....

Welcome Dave

Like Planner said there are lots of places to consider as this is a big coutry.

We moved here full time to the north coast area (Sosua/Cabarete area) as we fell in love with the  place.  There is also a very large Expat community here (maybe the biggest in the country) and have made new friends from all over the world. We have not looked back for a second and are about  to start our tenth year here.

There is lots of information here on this board so do some reading.  The DR is not for everyone but if it "fits"  you it can be a very nice place to retire to..

Please feel free to ask any questions on liveing,  moving or visiting here.


Good luck and again welcome

Bob K

DaveLaneP wrote:

Hello everyone,
My wife and I are from the states...Nebraska. We are in our mid and late 50s and searching for our retirement haven. We were considering Mexico for awhile, but have recently been told about the DR and it sounds even better! We are tired of the cold here and an on moving in about 5 years. In the mean time, we will be planning trips to DR to research and see if it fits our needs, which are not lavish! We are pretty simple and enjoy simple things, mostly making new friends and enjoying life. Where would be a good place to begin, since we have never been to DR? Any suggestions are welcome and we look forward to seeing your beautiful country!

Welcome to the forum Dave & Mrs!!
Lots of great advice here..and helpful friends.We are just past the 2 year mark and love life here. Retired a bit earlier
than planned due to health but we have not looked back.Definitely come spend some time here and see if it fits your expectations,needs.
Check out the area and :as many will advise:rent in the area  before buying.There are many great communities and lots of ex-pats..and locals. We live in a great gated community..10-20 minutes from everything..airport,beaches local markets etc  Mix of Dominican, Spain, American, Canadian Germany!!  lovely views with gym,large pool Club house,Restaurant etc!! Let us know when you make your first trip..coffee..cold Presidente somewhere!! We are late 50"s also..love exploring this beautiful,diverse island.

You have to come and check it out first. You can read all you want, but until you come in person it doesn't mean anything. Also, you need time to acclimate to the place. At least a week or so before you can really understand the feelings for a specific location. You might find that the first day or two you might really hate where your at but after a week you find you start to enjoy it

Hello my name is Liza. I retired in October and I want to move to Santiago in late July 2015. I wanted to move earlier, but my kids school is out on 5 June.  I am also going to my 30th year class reunion!! I believe that is going to be fun...Anyway I am super excited about moving there and tried to keep it to myself from my relatives because I don't want to be discouraged.  I have always wanted to live in another country and of course I don't want to work anymore, but go to the gym lift weights and run, run, run.  Therefore I thought the Dominican Republic would help me out especially because it is not expensive to live there.  I found the schools for the kids are, but that is alright.  Ok any info would be good.  Any questions are welcomed also....

Welcome to all the new members!!!  Please read read read, then ask as many questions as you want.  We are here to help and will always do our best.

Hello all 

ON behalf of Expat.com Team I wish a warm welcome to all new members 

As stated by our dear expert planner, please read the threads on the forum first then for any questions please do not hesitate to create a new thread.

This one is only for the presentation of new members

Regards
Kenjee
Expat.com Team

Hola,

We are from Alberta/Canada and plan on retiring to Samana/Sabana de la Mar.  My wife is a Dominicana who wants to return home after ~30 winters.  The plan is to move in the next 3 - 4 months with our household effects and 1 small dog. 

Interestingly this will be a return to the tropics for both of us.  I grew up in the in the next door island - Jamaica but was an expat...

Welcome to the forums!!!!  Alberta can get damn cold.....its way better here.....

Yes, Alberta can get cold and we had to adapt to it.  The irony of spectacular sunshine on the coldest days...

In the tropics we also expect to adapt to extremes in climate, too hot at times, but a/c is not the only solution e.g passive cooling: builditsolar.com/Projects/Cooling/passive_cooling.htm#Towers

NB.   The move will also be for health, my knee specialist (orthopaedic surgeon) has twice mentioned that the knee will work better in both warmer weather and lower altitude (where we currently live it is 2,300' above sea level)

Acadien welcome to the forum.  I feel  your pain with the cold and snow. We came here 9 years ago on a full time basis from the foothills west of Denver Colorado.  Temp there this morning was -7F with 14 inches of new snow and 5 more on the way today.  Don't miss if for a nanosecond.  I like not owning a snow shovel

I was visiting a friend in Edmonton last winter and temps then were - 25C with snow. 

Anyway welcome to the torpics.  Only 32C here yesterday

Bob K

Hi everyone!  I'm Elaine and that's my husband Bill in the pic.  We're expats from the frozen northeast US,  currently living in St Maarten.  After 7 years we're considering finding a new rock to call home.

We have been doing some research and talking to friends from the DR and it sounds like it might just be a fit for us!  Just found this site and started reading - I may never get anything else done there is so much to read!  We'll be visiting for the first time next month for two weeks.  Hope to explore and perhaps make some contacts, find out about the finer details of life in the DR, look at some properties. 

I'm sure I'll be posting lots of questions after I snoop around a bit.  Thanks to the mods for a very nice blog!

PS - is it still raining?  Can you send some here, everything is brown and the cisterns are dry!

billandelaine First off welcome to the forum.  There are lots of good folks here with great information and ideas.

Second...What rain???? we had a rainy week a few weeks ago and since here on the north coast 2 or 3 one minute showers over the last thee weeks.  Lawn here is starting to brown up nicely

What part of the DR will you be visiting?

We moved to the north coast (Sosua/Cabarete) full time 9 years ago and have not looked back for a second.

Please feel free to ask away.

Again welcome

Bob K

Thanks for the welcome Bob.

Ha ha!  I saw a post, must have been during that time, that said you were getting rain.  We've nary a drop for several months.

We'll be in Cabarete as the area looked like a place we would like to be.  Not interested in condo's or gated properties.  Would prefer a smallish house with a small garden, a breeze and a sea view near a nice swimming beach in an area where we can live among the local folks and be a part of village life.  We don't need much except fresh fruit and veggies, which we don't have much of here!

You will be happy with the fruit & produce, very happy.   The DR is # one in exporting organic produce in the world!!!  The North shore is a good choice.  You should find all that you are looking for.  Welcome to this blog & to this great island.

Yes we have fresh veggies and fruit every day.  Some from our own garden.

Bob K

Thanks, I'm drooling!

Welcome Bill and Elaine!!!  This island is so much bigger then most in the Caribbean that it offers so much more.  Raining on the north coast,  come south.....  Like it a little cooler, go to the mountains. Like the white beaches - go east.  Real Dominican life -  its all over the place......

Yes Elaine you may find yourself getting less done as you read.......... but you will enjoy it anyway.

Bigger for sure!  Hit home real quick when I booked our tickets then realized we had a 4 + hour drive ahead of us!  We're used to 37 sq miles which you can circle in an hour 

That is one of the reasons as to why we picked here to move.  You don't get the feeling of an island, rather we just live in a beach town.  You can drive for 6 hours or more in most directions away from the ocean before you see water again.  We have mountains, desserts, jungles, beaches, huge cities, small towns, lakes, rivers and of course mother ocean.  Very diversified here.

We actually looked through out the Caribbean at most of the islands, central America, Mexico, Tahiti, Fiji before we settled on HERE!

Bob K

Bob, We bought our home at Perle Marina - - between Sosua and Cabarete. It is considered Cabarete by some folks.

Actually you are technically in Cabarete.  The cut off between Cab and Sosua is either el Choco road, or the bridge just west of David's tire shop depending on who is "right" that day.  We live up el Choco road.   In fact when we built we paid our building permit to Sosua only to have Cabarete come along after 50% was built and demand that we pay them a building permit.  Took a week or two and some $$ to a politico to straighten it out.  Only paid one fee.

What part of Perla Marina?

Bob K

If moving and looking to get a Visa and/or Residency.......just ask it has changed A LOt and can get quite expensive and exhausting. BUt since my husband and I just went through the process we know what it takes and the cost. Just ask 

Karen

Yes multiple posts on this.  I am glad that we did it 10 years ago.

What lawyer did you use and  was it a good experience (quality of work)?

Bob K

And that's one of the reasons we are concerned.  May be too big and busy for us!