Dominican Republic

Lasabar

I'm planning a trip to the Dominican next year in June and was wondering if anyone had any experience or had any suggestions about cigar tours, or buying cigars, or any MUST-See factories etc....

AND I've been told that the Dominican is nice, but once you leave the resorts walls it's all guerilla's with AK's and kidnapped tourists. Is there any truth to this? I know it's a developing country and I'm not scared of rough areas, but is it so bad that I cannot go outside the fences and tour a real cigar factory???

Hugemoose

I don't know too much about the Dominican Republic, but I was in Haiti on a mission trip a few years back. We spent one day in a resort which was lovely. Other than that, most people in town were not happy to see white people. The super poor people in the mountains, those of whom we helped, loved the white people. There were always stories of missionaries being killed along with tourists.

Do you homework on the areas you will be going. Some might be more known for violence than others.

gmill880

Lasabar:

I'm planning a trip to the Dominican next year in June and was wondering if anyone had any experience or had any suggestions about cigar tours, or buying cigars, or any MUST-See factories etc....

AND I've been told that the Dominican is nice, but once you leave the resorts walls it's all guerilla's with AK's and kidnapped tourists. Is there any truth to this? I know it's a developing country and I'm not scared of rough areas, but is it so bad that I cannot go outside the fences and tour a real cigar factory???

I went a couple of years ago and stayed at Casa del Campo. A beautiful and huge resort with 3 golf courses one on the ocean. Everything paid by my employer which was even better. Everything is first class. From there close by were some really old churchs and courtyards where we dined outdoors. A lotta of pro sports figures have homes there as well. When not on business planned excursions we were highly cautioned to stay inside the resort wall. On our lone attempt to leave in a golf cart to just see what it looked like outside the resort there were armed military guards on every corner with sub machineguns. They all stopped talking and just gave us an incredulous look of disbelief like 'I know your dumb arses arn't coming outta there now are you ???" We decided we were having a great time without sight seeing on our on . Hope you have a great time, the place we stayed was truly beautiful and the natives could not do enough for you ...worth checking out if you have not decided on a place yet ...just Google it ...