Robsons-Adventures_Holiday Reports-Outline

The Dominican Republic is one of the larger Caribbean islands and shares its island with Haiti. Considering the size of the country it has quite contrasting climates, with lush tropical mountains in the north to near dessert conditions in parts of the south. The time difference is -5 Hours to GMT.
I flew into Puerto Plata airport in the north of the island, with the capital Santo Domingo being being on the south coast. I had heard that the queues for getting a tourist card ($10) were terrible at the airport and that is was recommeded to get this back home. However, yes there was a large queue, but it moved quickly. There are a few desks to fill in the form, just remember to have a pen, passport and flight details at hand. By the time people had filled in their cards (2 mins to complete) there were no queues to speak off at the immigration desks, so it didn't taken long before getting into the baggage area. By the time I got to this area the bags were starting to arrive and you will find plenty people to help you take your case to your coach!
Most of the UK travel companies will have you believe that all the hotel are All Inclusive, however, it is possible to get very cheap accommodation via the www and just get flights to the island. A word of warning though, to eat out may seem cheap, but most places add on the tax 16%, then service charge - you could pay 25% more than the listed price!
You will find the people mostly very friendly, but be prepared to be hassled quite a bit whenever there is something to be sold and that can include market stalls being set up in the hotels just by the restaurants!
Before you can board your departing aircraft, you are required to pay $20 tax and this is collected after you have checked in and after you have passed most of the shops. Usually about 1 hour before departure it will be announced when you are to report to 'Gate 10' usually to pay your departure tax, they will stamp the back of your boarding card. One final comment, don't be frightened to head to the departure gates as there are seats, some more shops cafe and bar.