Spent 4 days in this area in July for the first time. Traveled with a WM. We are both middle age professionals, not unaccustomed to hobbying. As a frame, we have been to Rio, Colombia, Panama, Thailand, CR, TJ and Santo Domingo.

There are no pictures in this report.

First, the trip to the DR from Miami is a piece of cake, which makes it a very convenient "quickie".

The North Coast is, obviously, a beach locale, which comprises the towns of Sosua, Puerto Plata, Cabarete and several others.

Original plans called for using Field of Dreams as a base; but, the day before they ceased hosting ladies on site, so we passed. We relied on Ed from Mantours as a resource and ended up retaining him as a driver for our stay. His email is info@themantour.net. Ed is a spanish speaking gringo, who knows his way around. He conducts evening tours and can help in many ways. He was the one who called me the night before and told me about FOD and that he had already booked the Garden Hotel as a fallback.

Ed collected us at the airport and we stopped at the Garden Hotel. Didn't care for it, so we decided to stop for an R&C in Sosua and contemplate options. We happened onto Casa Linda villas, located a few miles out of Sosua. We booked a lovely 3 BR house with secluded pool and BBQ for $170 pn. This became base of operations. It was ideal for us to host late afternoon BBQs and TLNs.

I will summarize our experiences rather than play-by-play.

First, Sosua. The main street has a strip of open air bars that are populated from mid afternoon to midnight by a rotating string of ladies for hire. I think there may be some on site accommodations. There are defintely cheap hotels nearby. The Garden is one. And, of course, you can take your pick back to wherever you are staying. Rates range from $50 for several hours to $100 or thereabout for TLN. Plenty of room to negotiate. Plenty of chicas; although 7&8's were rare. Based on pictures I've seen on CH, 7&8's are rare period. I also should note that we are not dedicated negotiators. We look for a fair rate; but, have no appetite for hardcore bargaining.

At 11 pm, the Classico disco starts to heat up. It's above one of the street bars and, in our opinion, is the best place to make acquaintances in Sosua. Spend $20 and get a well located table. From there on, sit back and let it happen. You should have many opportunities as the parade will be going by all night.

If we were to go back to SOS/PP (and we most likely will), we will hit this spot on the first night and assemble a rolodex of companions for the stay. We will then make dates by text as we fancy. The Classico has a higher calibre of talent for the same negotiable rates as the street bars.

We stopped by Passions, which is a higher end girlie bar from which you can extract. Don't remember the asking price, because we saw no one of interest.

Visited a few bars in Puerto Plata; but, they were much lower end and we departed quickly.

We did spend a few pesos at Cristals in PP. Very nice selection of companions. Can leave with you for $140 TLN. Definitely worth a stop if the price doesn't scare you. Everybody knows where Cristals is.

As far as walking around, we were escorted by Mantours, so we felt safe. I was, however, pickpocketed right on the main street in Sosua, so precautions should be taken. Travel light with zippered storage.

The Casinos were also enjoyable. Since we had such a nice pool at our villa we did not hit the beach, so no opinion.

To sum, this area is a useful mongering destination. The quality is decent. Been to Rio, etc., so I'm not sure where the quality is truly top shelf. I, for one, would think long and hard about traveling as far as AC or Rio, when the DR and Colombia are so close.

Excellent information, thanks.

How much did mantours charge for their various services?

Mantours is just a really gay sounding name, isn't it?

You guys needed a guide to protect you? Why do you need to spend $20 to get a good table?

Must be a newbie to "grease" anybody in Sosua..Plus the rates they are paying is outrageous and laughable. These guys must have been the talk of the town. It is a real sign of somebody not doing their homework.

Yeah, prices paid definitely on the high side. $100/TLN is very high for Sosua. But some guys have more money than time and just don't want to bother to find out the going rate. Which is a shame for the scene in general.

But if you're paying for a guide, wouldn't part of that service mean getting the best deal on a girl? I mean, isn't that one of the main reasons for hiring a guide in the first place, to prevent clipping?

Guarantee you that these "guides" were taking their cut for every venue they went to and even taking some from the girls pimps for the higher prices they were informing their clients. And they actually charge their clients for this service.

I thought the going rate was 1500 DOP for ST. So their quote is about $9 more. How much should TLN cost? Let's say two rounds from 11pm until 9am?

I went to Santo Domingo with my cousin a few years ago, he had a "partner" for a prospective business deal who was "guiding" us. The guy was actually ripping us off; cousin didn't know but I compared info on CH with the prices he "arranged" for us with the girls.

Here is a flash of news: Guides work for money. Of course they are going to take their little cut & here and there... Not sure why a guide would do otherwise - unless they are your personal friend. Obviously, however, security is not the strong point of this guide if one of them was pickpocketed as stated in the report.

Here is where you are wrong Guywholovesguys.... If they are paying the guide to help them then he shouldn't be steering them towards gouged pricing so he can take his commission IN ADDITION to his pay at the EXPENSE of his clients.

My cousin's "friend" was a supposedly well-connected local (who had lived in the US and was English-fluent); my cousin was considering opening a casa with him as the local partner. he wasn't a "guide" that, I agree, would be compensated. He said he was helping us and not taking a cut. He lied.

Fortunately, my cousin didn't go into business with him. (He married a Mineira instead and bought a restaurant in Belo Horizonte. Guess how all that worked out.)

Here is a link for "the man tour" http://themantour.net/Pricing.html One of the great things about Club Hombre is that we can learn from the mistakes that other guys make.

Kcirbu; Thanks for the report, hope you don't get beat up too badly, over your mistakes, but thanks for being upfront about them.

Holy shit, is that expensive, you spend more on the guy showing you around for the evening than on the girls. I thought it would be $100 for a three-day weekend or something.

I also use a tour guide during my stay in the DR. He basically does anything we need him to do.Translation,security,dealing with girls, he knows everyplace for everything.
I came with a large group of 15 guys and we paid him $50 each for the entire trip. Best money we ever spent.
if anybody wants his contact info let me know. I highly recommend him if you are looking for that type of service. His name is Richy.

Fletch, that sounds more reasonable, although that is a lot of money for the DR. Of course, if he's there translating and riding herd on 15 guys going all over the place, that's a decent deal if you're there for more than a few days.

For the life of me, I just don't get the need for a guide in DR, especially in Sousa. It is small town - one traffic light type of town - with one main road where most of the action is concentrated. It doesn't really matter how cheap the guide is....it is just such an easy place to get around and find girls.

Now, if it is for services like the one posted in the other thread for Caberate, which includes tours, hotels, etc, that is another story - but just to travel there for a weekend alone, no guide is needed.

I would get a guide if it made economic sense and only if there was some assurance the man would be trustworthy and represent my interests. For that matter, I would also get a police escort from the airport, a driver, a maid and a few big dudes to make it a posse.

However, all that does not make much economic sense for me and there is no guarantee that anyone is going to represent your interests.

I wanted to add that I once hired a guide in another Carribean country, but not for mongering. I was going on a tour of the countryside and just wanted someone to show me the sites and different cities.

I found the guide would sponge off of me on different occasions like when we went to eat. He sat down and ordered a good meal. I expected him to pay for his own food, but then when the bill came he said he had no money to pay. Then he would not be as helpful as he could have on other occasions. In the end, he seemed to serve his purpose well just as a driver, but I did not think he did as much as he possibly could. At the end, he pulled the old "I dropped my cellphone in water" routine. He said that it didnt work anymore and needed money to replace it or he could not work. When I checked his cellphone, I found the battery was simply drained but the phone not broken. No tip for this guy.

When I was in Mexico, I hired a guide in Mexico to show me around the towns in the Yucatan and the Mayan ruins. He was extremely helpful, charasmatic and played no games with me (i.e. cellphone or dinner). He was extremely knowledgable and had a lot of common sense. He never asked for a tip, but at the end I felt like I had to give him one.

So I found that guides can go both ways.

Check out these muthaf****s, has anyone used them? http://www.tour69.com
Not as expensive as places like Oxygen but it's definitely a premium.

5 grand for a week? Here is what I could get for that amount:

$500- About a 7 day stay at the Tierra Linda which is probably the nicest hotel in that Sousa bar area

$2100- Get 3 chicks a day and pay them way over the going rate at $100 per chica. Tell them that they have to stay with you until the morning and give you substantial service or no pay.

$350- Hire a real tour guide to make sure you are tended to the entire time there. Make him give you tours of the cigar factories and other such places.

$70- All day horseback riding.

$50- All day snorkeling.

$420- Eat like a king at the top restaurants getting the most expensive thing on the menu 3 times a day for 7 days.


I could keep going, but as you can see I can dream up a lot of stuff before I ever get to the 5 grand. I would have to ask what I would get for 5 grand that I could not do by myself.

For 5 grand, I could make a kick-ass vacation on my own in the DR or any other place of the world for a week.

I would be happy to offer my services as a guide which would include a local to do all translations etc. I am even willing to give a discount and only charge 4000 instead of 5000.