Active family of 3 Moving to Sasua/Cabarete on February 15th!!

Welcome to the Forums guys.....Bob is your man for this one. American and 8+ years of living in that area.....Oh by the way did you mean to write Sosua?    Good luck on your adventure and ask away. Lots of good Kite schools, but most definitely L.E.K. School on Cabarete beach is the best. It is right on the beach front of Millenium Hotel. If you are early birds then breakfast at Vela windsurf school is your spot on Cabarete beach or friends restaurant on the main road of Cabarete beach. Enjoy.

Welcome new expats.

My wife and I arrived here almost 9 years ago and are here full time.  We are from the US (Colorado) and have not looked back for a second. We built a villa between Cabarete and Sosua and worked in real estate for 6  years when we arrived so we know the area well.

Where are you renting?  Do make sure they have electric back up and 24/7 security.

As to what we miss from the USA I would have to say not much.  We do bring in certain food products when we are visiting in the US (very rare) or folks are coming down  to see us.  Things like cooking ingredients we can't find here. Some supplies (quality plastic storage bags, good rat traps, medicines and such)

As to health insurance many of the private hospitals will work with you on your insurance coverage if you need to be treated but not all do.  If you pay cash at many places you will be charged gringo prices. You might consider getting local health insurance for the family when here (for the two of us with dental we are paying about $65 a month).   Generally health care here is cheap and meds can be cheaper as well.  However we bring our meds in from Canada or the US.

With school ISS (international school of Sosua) is the best around and you can google their web site for more info. However it is $$ but education is top notch and kids attending are truly a mixed bag of kids from all over the world.  NEw garden kids is good as well wit a stronger mix of Dominican kids.

We love Sosua day and night.  The beach is awesome and I actually try to spend two days a week being a beach bum.  Some good bars and restaurants line the beach.  Alica beach is also great with no shops, bars, bars on the beach and no peddlers.  Just a beautiful beach. 

We go to town 2-4 times a week at night for dinner and an after dinner drink/coffee and a good cigar.  Lots of great places to eat and very reasonable.  You will find restaurant prices cheaper than in Cabarete and bigger mix of locals and expats than tourists.  Though during season lots of tourists as well.   Up until recently they had closed the main street to vehicular traffic at night creating a very nice pedestrian zone with the restaurants setting up their tables and chairs in the street.  On weekends there was also always a band or two.  We are hoping they go back to this soon.

Are you going to be working here?  What do you do?

You will find this a great forum and lots of folks with good information for you. Just ask away

Again Welcome

Bob K

Welcome to the forums.  Massagewhiz is right -  Bob is your man. He lives in the Sosua area and is American. I lived in Puerto Plata 7 years and am Canadian, but I don't know Cabarete and Sosua like Bob does.

Sounds like you have done some of your homework already!   You are already ahead of the  game.....   

Healthcare -  not good to just pay "cash" - what if you have an accident and need something major.  Insurance here is inexpensive compared to the USA,  consider getting some.

School -  I've heard both good and bad things about International School but have no children so out of my expertise.  Garden school - sorry can't help there either.

Read the other threads you will find here,  ask lots of questions, we help wherever we can.

Thanks for spelling heads up. I wonder if it was a auto correct . Oh well 😀👍

Yes we know Vela well. Never heard of the school on the beach...?

Thanks for the quick replies everyone!

We are very excited about our upcoming adventure. Sounds like health insurance is very affordable so we will look into it when we arrive. Any recommendations?

To answer your questions Bob, we will be living in Infinity Blu starting June 1. Until then we will be in Ocean Village vacation community. While we would have preferred to be in Cabarete until June we just couldn't find something to suit our family and budget. High season when we started looking! But that's okay, we will be fine at Ocean Village and get plenty of use out of the amenities, especially the gym as I am an athletic coach and also training for competition this summer in the states. I just sold my gym in the states so will be taking off for the rest of the year, besides providing online coaching for current clients. My husband is in maritime and will go back to states every 3 months to work for a few weeks, but other than that we will spend most of our time enjoying the Caribbean sun. Very lucky indeed. 😊😊

In terms of insurance - two companies are considered the best  Humano and Universal.  Both have good plans and good pricing.  I can help you with Humano as I run a group plan. Bob can steer you in the direction of the Universal group.

You will be fine in Ocean village and Infiniti Blu will be great with an easy walk in to town (safe to do day or night).

Sounds like you have it planned out.  Send me a PM and I will forward on to your the person running the group plan for Universal which is what we have.

Let me know if you have other questions on the area or living here.

Bob K

That's my birthday! Too bad you won't be here ONE day sooner. Having a big bonfire on Kite Beach with a roast pig and all the fixins. I have one every year and usually about 100 people show up. Oh, well next year!

Dare2fly located at hotel Agualina on Kite Beach is my school of choice, but really you will be in good hands with most any mentioned.

I get my insurance from Bijana at Absolute Seguros: http://bikidozet.wix.com/absolute-seguros There are tons of options available, so don't stress that.

I teach a lot of the ISS kids in my kickboxing classes and they are all good and smart kids. A bunch of them just went off to college in the States, so you can rest assured that it is accredited and kids actually move on from there.

The rest has been given good answers! Hope to see you on the beach soon

Oh man! Sounds like we are going to miss a lot of fun!!! Thanks for all the tips.

BTW, Dare2fly is a kiteboarding school, right? I am looking for an academic school LOL.

Oh hee hee. I thought I saw someone mention LEK. I have to be honest when I say I skimmed when I read. I am a multitasker to my demise sometimes.