Noise and the DR - Be Warned
The noise situation is, how should I put it; noisy. You have to be careful where you live. I live in a middle-class area where the majority of people work. I do not mind the noise BUT a lot of the noise is just not needed. Dominicans naturally like noise ( majority ) they like background noise - T.Vs, radios, etc. it makes them uncomfortable to be in environments absent of noise as in lonely ( a few Dominicans have told me this ). Also in their culture for the most part all the noise is not really rude unless they do it past 11 pm which most actually shut it down around then actually as in 90%.
Cars pump their audio because they just like loud music and like to look cool to be honest, others will do it for advertising when they have huge speakers they may be selling something or someone paid them to advertise and to be honest it's pretty effective at grabbing attention lol, I mean if were out on the street fine; I don't care it's the street not a library.
if I'm in my house and unable to hear my music or concentrate it's very annoying and I do get frustrated; mostly it's cause someone is cleaning their house and just wants to listen to it blaring. Normally it's bachata or merengue so it's not so bad but if it's Dembow - I wish their speakers died that instant.
If you're a professional and need to accept calls from professional clients or coworkers it can be super frustrating and this is where most of my frustrations come from heavy trucks, construction vehicles little dogs that bark for nothing will really hit a nerve after a while and it's embarrassing when people ask how many animals you have or if you live on a farm. Solution good headphones, close your windows, noise cancelation and a white lie .. say you're not home 9-5 cause people will visit you out of kindness and they will sit there on your couch but they will expect you to either cook, buy food and entertain them and you'll end up giving them the wifi password to watch memes for 3 hours while they laugh at 100 decibels or call their friend and talk at 120 decibels. I'm exaggerating a bit but i80 decibels is pretty common and I'm being serious. Note I'm saying all this neutrally if you have only visited here you don't know the real D.R.
How can you get away from the noise?
Honestly it's very difficult to cause even in most campos they play loud music and in the campo people will visit you at all hours of the day until about 10pm at night and quitley expect you to serve juice or coffee and biscuits and if they're there all day you will need to serve food as well ( dont be mad they will do the same for you ) but they will sit there and watch memes all day.
A good way to insulate yourself is to go to a weWork place or professional environment to work or buy lots of land to act as a sound barrier. Buying good windows and doors as well will help a bit. You can also pay for an expensive gated community and you will not have this problem 345 days of the year.
What you need to be careful with here is buying near intersections or non-gated areas; oftentimes what starts out as a good quiet project is good for a few years. It's good until you have someone that's from the barrio come back from the U.S or start renting the building cause they're receiving money then surprise - you have music again and scooters coming in until 2 AM this IMO is how "nice areas" degrade over the years and just become another barrio with nice houses; often times there will be 10 people living in that house too.
Last two.. do your thing too you don't need to be all quiet here and hold yourself to foreign constraints that don't mean crank it but it means to do your thing nobody will really care. Last, you gotta learn to relax or you will emotionally drain yourself here. Patience is what determines someone's successful living here, just let it go.
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Welcome to the forums. Pretty good descriptive first post!
I say often your ability to adjust determines your probability of staying and being happy.
But noise at all hours with zero controls when I work way too much, was beyond my ability. I moved!
T.DRDR I think you have summed it up well.
Unfortunately excess noise is damaging the health of many Dominicans who have been brought up living with high levels of noise as this Dominican specialist describes:
Noise pollution affects hearing and creates an imbalance in emotional well-being
Hearing loss leads to memory degeneration and increases anxiety states
The excess of noise undoubtedly impacts the hearing capacity of the human being. The damage is not limited to the physical plane and can create an imbalance in emotional well-being, producing fatigue, stress, depression, insomnia and irritability.
According to the otorhinolaryngologist Ilonka Rodríguez, founder of the Vertigo, Hearing, Voice and Vestibular Therapy Clinic ( Clivav ), the Dominican Republic is a country with a lot of noise pollution, “which ranges from the bad habit we have of speaking loudly to the bad use of instruments, such as car horns, stereos, motors, and since we are children we are exposed to an incorrect learning of how to listen to sounds”.
Noise pollution is a type of pollution that people do not consider as a negative effect because it is not something that is perceived immediately.
"It is a negative effect that occurs slowly and creates permanent damage," says Rodríguez.
The doctor explains that our ability to listen to sounds at different intensities is a learned behavior. There are many people who sometimes do not listen, not because they have a hearing problem, but because they have become accustomed to loud sounds and their brain no longer works if they do not hear a loud sound.
A child whose parents talk loudly, who watches TV at a high volume at home, will get used to loud sounds and it does not mean that they have hearing problems. The very noise of the environment makes us have to raise our voice.
“That frequent, constant and slow damage is no longer repairable. Being slow, the brain gets used to it and then there is a hearing loss that starts early and the person, at 35 years old, begins to ask: What? How? Tell me! And he doesn't realize that during his 15 or 20 years he has been exposed to constant high sounds”, details the doctor.
Rodríguez understands that the right thing to do is to educate the population about the damage caused by noise.
"Awareness begins at home, at school and by the State, which has the power to apply the law on environmental standards," he added.
For people who have to work in places where there is exposure to noise (such as an airport or industry with heavy machinery), the preventive measure to take is the use of ear protectors (plugs).
Hearing loss leads to memory loss
"When a person does not listen, their brain forgets the sounds, the consonants, the words and begins to degenerate into memory loss due to a lack of understanding of things or early dementia," says the doctor specializing in otoneurology.
The order of the chain goes like this: listening, understanding and memorizing. "If you don't have hearing, you forget."
Regarding the placement of hearing aids to amplify hearing, the doctor clarifies that they only serve to send stimuli to the hearing cells to prevent them from dying due to disuse, but it does not revive them, it puts the existing ones to work, that is why she emphasizes that hearing damage it is irreversible.
Noise upsets mood
In addition to severe damage to hearing, clinical psychologist Rafael Román, from the Calma Alma Center , explained that exposure to noise causes mood disorders.
“One of the first effects it causes is anxiety . It can also cause sleep disorders”, and gives the example when a neighbor plays music at a high level that does not allow sleep.
Choose carefully where you live in DR and check out in person the location at all times of day and week is the sound advice especially in noisier city and resort areas.
if you plump for a hotel or home in the middle of a resort area and find the noise is ruining your experience, you have been warned.
My campo is noisy at weekends with dawn to late loud music in the distance but during the week it calm. the deep base of denbow carries long and far and the long sound waves pass through virtually everything. But that is what appeals to the youth.
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This week should tell the tale..... you'll know more next Monday about your vecinario
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This will be welcome news for some vacationing in the tourist zones of DR and nightlife centres in DR. With drink comes noise, and more often than not, lots of it.
But for some residents and tourists this may be hell.
Extended hours of sale of alcoholic beverages in the country
The Ministry of the Interior and Police will prepare to issue a resolution that will extend the hours of sale of alcoholic beverages from Sunday to Thursday and Friday and Saturday.
The resolution, announced by Tourism Minister David Collado, extends the hours for the sale of alcoholic beverages in the country's nightlife centers from Sunday to Thursday until 2:00 a.m. and Friday and Saturday until 3:00 a.m.
“With the Minister of the Interior and Police, Jesús Vásquez , we announce that as of today the hours for the sale of alcoholic beverages will be extended , in the country's nightlife centers, from Sunday to Thursday until 2:00 a.m. and on Fridays and Saturdays, until 3:00 a.m,” Collado posted on his Twitter account.
One more reason to go live in the campo.......
and nothing about the closing for Easter Friday?????
Extended hours - a step backwards for sure!
For those living in Las Terranas, I saw how busy it was for Semana Santa . How are the crowds?
A lot of people..thinning out now as it Sunday evening and bad weather
@GregInTheDR Dominicans are the loudest, individuals ever to exist. I live in Spain, wild animals have more manners! I recently closed down two businesses owned by Dominicans due to excessive noise, and will continue to do so. Stop using the old "it's cultural". No it's a lack of education, manners, respect for others.
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It is very nice and quiet now-For those living in Las Terranas, I saw how busy it was for Semana Santa . How are the crowds?- @DRVisitor
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San Pedro de Macoris is one of the loudest places on the planet. I'm not complaining I just realize the difference. Due to my career choice I have some hearing loss. I have stayed in San Pedro quite a few times and it is always the same. I prefer SD by the malecon for most of my stays.
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It is interesting that you state SPM is the loudest place on earth.
In my travels around the Caribbean, I have come across Dominicans living in the Leeward Islands and invariably they come from the area SPM to La Romana. There is a strong relationship between the Leewards and the sugar cane industry and many Dominicans in this South Coast area have family in the islands and have relocated to work there.
Wherever there is a Dominican dispora whether it be St Thomas, St Croix, BVI, Antigua, Barbuda, St Kitts, Nevis, St Martin, Anguilla and even in the north east Caribbean in TCI and Bahamas, there are Dominican bars. And guess what, they are the loudest places on those very islands by far and the only places late at night where island tranquility is disrupted.
I've travelled back to SDQ with those same folk many times on flights from the Leewards and those flights are the loudest you can imagine. They are full of life these Dominicans and so excited to be going home for a vacation to see family.
Perhaps you are on to something?
Maybe not. Sabana Grande de Boya is small town but it too is very loud at weekends. so too is Yamasa, so too is Cotui, so too is Bonao, so too is SFM........Dominicans like to be loud.
On a rather sad reflective note but also in the memory of a fine Brit and friend of expat.com who was murdered by her husband and sons a while back and who is currently are on trial, just read what Lindsay wrote about Dominicans and Noise:
@GregInTheDR yeah ok mr. Sensitive.. guess what? This culture has extended to the USA and well, we love peace and quiet and had it for 25 years until your "fun loving" friends started filling up the poor parts of providence.
I have no problem with music- generally I find their music to be kind of nice and I also find Dominican people to be quite friendly... however... why is their music played at 90 decibels and accompanied with such bass that my house shakes?
So judge them I will.
We have to sell our house of 25 years with all its memories because of your super noisy culture that came here and made life a living Hell of noise!
Noise is certainly an issue and the problem is differs around the country form what I've seen. In Moca, I certainly dislike the "advertising" or "political propaganda" loud speaker trucks. The folks that rig up speakers that drive through communities selling or collecting ( fresh eggs/veggies or collecting old mattresses etc are annoying (sometimes) but they are quickly gone. Large parties - birthdays or National celebrations - within the community do end at an reasonable hour here. I've not heard or had issues with noise in the few locations I've been too along the North Coast. But then, I'm far better off than most - barring those mega speaker blasters during the day - in that I simply take my hearing aids out... :>)
It's almost 8:00 on Sunday morning... which means we're about to have 4 hours or so of some type of very loud church service full of evangelizing and music! I don't know if it is at a church, colmado, or someone's home, and we've not been able to determine if it's live or some kind of broadcast or recording, but it's like clockwork! Fortunately, we'll be leaving this rental someday!😁
An attempt at humor…Church on a Sunday Morning in a catholic country, shocking !
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Very common in my experience and part of life so you have to adapt.
The possibilities are:
A lay or hopeful preacher with loudspeaker he parks on a corner or park and off he goes. We have one here who often starts at 5am on a Sunday morning but at some distance.
The local church and they start at about 7.30 to 8am and it can last a few hours. The daughter of the preacher nearby is tone deaf and sings her heart out but closing the door solves that.
The local colmado with an owner who likes to repent for her sins the nights before and chooses to share a podcast from a preacher in Puerto Rico or SD at maximum decibels and this can go on for hours. Our problem colmado owner is 200 metres away and starts with the intro music at 7am. She used to start at 6am but locals stopped that.
Welcome to DR.
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Actually the services at the local catholic church are refrained and pleasant.
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@edward your post is being edited. While I understand your frustration we can't allow some of the language and no personal attacks please.
I once rented an apartment and I loved it. Except Wednesday at 7pm when the neighbor one street over became some kind of "minister". This translated into SCREAMING into a microphone for 2 hours! After week 2 I could be found anywhere except home on Wednesday evening! 😊 I adapted!
Interesting about the preachers using oversized speakers. Maybe they want to make sure God can hear them spreading the word.
My SIL is married to a preacher and they post their services on You Tube. I just viewed one and there are several big speakers. I’m going to ask him about it next time we talk.
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Noise is certainly an issue and the problem is differs around the country form what I've seen. In Moca, I certainly dislike the "advertising" or "political propaganda" loud speaker trucks. The folks that rig up speakers that drive through communities selling or collecting ( fresh eggs/veggies or collecting old mattresses etc are annoying (sometimes) but they are quickly gone. Large parties - birthdays or National celebrations - within the community do end at an reasonable hour here. I've not heard or had issues with noise in the few locations I've been too along the North Coast. But then, I'm far better off than most - barring those mega speaker blasters during the day - in that I simply take my hearing aids out... :>)- @2VPsoldier
What did he say 🦻
This may help the noise problems...LT and other places
@WillieWeb
I'm not so sure this will help! You can have 4 people in a villa, all registered guests, and they can still have their loud speakers hooked up blasting music! We've found that the noise level doesn't always correlate with the number of people! Plus, things like excessive trash, one of AirBnB's criteria to determine a party, can only be found after the fact, not while it's happening. It will be great if this does help, but the people who make all the noise and disrupt others really don't care about rules.
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And frankly those rules may not be applied here! I saw this on the news and I thought, good luck. What constitutes a part elsewhere is family dinner here! 
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Well, the temporary ban saw a 44% reduction in complaints....
The definition of 'party' is quite broad.....and is a global ban w/ penalties applying
But --- I don't run the company
Certainly a step in the right direction despite some naysayers........
The problem is going to be enforcement. It's not like the police are going to tell AirBnB, or even the owners of the property, if there is a party or noise complaint. Unless the owner is present to witness the party, or neighbors document the offenses (excessive noise, guests, vehicles, etc.), it's going to be really hard to prove and enforce. As a former AirBnB host, I found that even with photographic evidence of the way our property was left after our one bad renter, it's really hard to prove damages or violations. Bowls full of cigarette butts and ash stains on my sofa weren't enough proof that the renter violated my no-smoking policy and should be responsible for the extra cleaning required.
For the sake of owners and all their neighbors, I hope this works!
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Coexistence conflicts due to noisy guests hired by Airbnb
Owners rent apartments through Airbnb in family accommodation buildings
Association of Real Estate Companies favors ban on Airbnb parties
The short rental that is offered and reserved through platforms such as Airbnb is a reality that is growing in the Dominican Republic , according to experts in the real estate area, however, conflicts of coexistence can be generated in family buildings when the tenant of step breaks the rules.
In the case of Airbnb , this platform that has more than a million downloads in the Play Store, in addition to allowing people to find accommodation, gives them the possibility of becoming hosts by offering any accommodation to users.
Diario Libre is aware of several cases registered in sectors of Greater Santo Domingo, where apartments have been rented in family buildings in which guests have held noisy parties, causing inconvenience to neighbors.
One of these cases occurred in the National District, according to a woman (whose name is withheld) who, along with her family and other neighbors, was affected by the constant parties and noise made by people who were staying for rent. short in an adjoining apartment, despite being in a building intended for family accommodation.
He explained that he had moved into the apartment because of its location within the city, but that shortly afterward the owners of another apartment in the same building placed it on the platform , thus beginning to arrive unknown people and causing noisy parties. The woman had to move to another area.
Another case was recorded in a building with 17 apartments in Alma Rosa I, in Santo Domingo Este. There, a Dominican resident in the United States acquired a unit in 2020. Soon, the neighbors began to be bothered by the coming and going of unknown people every week, who also carried out scandalous activities until late at night.
Ban parties
The theme of parties in short-rent accommodation is not exclusive to the Dominican Republic , as this week Airbnb announced that it will definitively prohibit the celebration of parties.
In a communication posted on its website, Airbnb wrote that they are focused on trying to discourage cases of hosts who do not "operate responsibly" or guests who try to organize unauthorized gatherings.
When asked by Diario Libre about this measure, Alberto Bogaert, president of the Association of Real Estate Agents and Companies (AEI) of the Dominican Republic , said that this entity, which groups 800 agents and 110 real estate companies, sees the decision as favorable.
“We agree with this measure that Airbnb has taken to prohibit parties, since these services offered by the platform are oriented towards lodging, not parties. These places are more for the public to stay, spend nights or vacations, but they are not party halls, "he said.
The announcement of the Airbnb ban was made due to constant complaints from residents in buildings and nearby areas where there are apartments and houses for the business.
Bogaert stated that each owner of accommodation in his account must put the rules.
He indicated that when the guest ends his accommodation, the owner can issue a comment on the platform about his behavior , which is recorded and can be seen by the other owners.
The president of the Association of Real Estate Agents and Companies estimates that in the National District there are about 6,000 rooms for Airbnb and that there are about 50,000 at the national level .
"(The system) is growing, more and more agents and people are dedicating themselves to that platform ," Bogaert said.
Complaints
In the accommodation application there is a section called neighborhood help service, in which people can expose situations that occur in their community.
“If you need help with something related to a shared space in your community (to report a party, noise or a concern about the area), you're in the right place. Send us a message through the following form and we will respond by email. Our team will investigate and, if possible, contact the host. If we need more information after our investigation, we will get back to you,” he explains.
The form presents three situations to choose from: noise or party, neighborhood concerns, and personal safety.
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Just saw this post today; very accurate info, including in the many comments (from legitimate expats)…
If you’ll allow me to add my two-bits:
Be advised that if living in the capital, there is a burnout show (competition?) with racing cars burning their tires and causing an excessive amount of noise on the Lincoln near 27 Febrero on weekends from 11pm - 3am —and it is loud. It is often (not always) monitored by AMET, though Policía Nacional have been known to show up and scatter the festivities if things continue past midnight.
The ‘party bus’ (and several private cars/jeeps) have enhanced sound systems that shake my flat (rattles windows, shakes the bed, etc), and I live on the 5th floor. These set off several car alarms nearby, including the burglar alarm of a business on the next street.
I have lived in the cities of Glasgow, Toronto, Dublin, Paris, and Chicago, as well as spending significant time in other cities when I lived in in Asia (Bangkok, Tokyo, Hanoi, Chang Mai, and Singapore). I have also lived in rural communities in Asia, Ireland, the UK, Canada, and here in the east of the DR (north of San Pedro). I have never in my life experienced noise levels in any other place in the world, neither urban or rural, like what I have experienced here in the Dominican Republic (I have been here since 2006). Mario Vargas Llosa wrote a famous book called ‘La Fiesta del Chivo’. He paints a dynamic picture of the reality of excessive noise present among Dominicans in his opening chapter—setting the scene so uncannily accurate.
One day, when I was living in Ciudad Nueva (near the Colonial Zone), the colmado in front of my house played the same bachata 14 times at a volume that prevented me from carrying on a conversation with my flatmate who was in the same room as me in our flat on the 3rd floor. I’m sure Zacarías Ferreira would have felt it truly was ‘Tan Difícil’ for people to listen to his song that many times in a row at such a ludicrous volume. It’s no secret that Dominicans tend to create excessive noise as part of the culture, and yet it is something you don’t quite understand until you have to leave your own living room for a park bench in parque Colon for ‘peace and quiet’ among the tourists, perico ripiao, dominoes players, and a multitude of cooing pigeons….I love it here, but it is a fact that the noise in this country is excessive in comparison with many places around the world.
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@Shancit
For what it's worth
The magistrate says that they receive complaints of this kind in all the prosecutors' offices in the country and always try to respond. He provided these numbers for those who wish to make noise complaints via WhatsApp 809-480-9525 and call the office at 809-533-3522, option 3.
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@Shancita
Very true, and they actually have a division within the police dept to deal with noise complaints, but mostly for show,.
Let's all agree the culture here is loud! If you are going to rent a place check it out weekdays and weekends so you know what you are getting into!
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Let's all agree the culture here is loud! If you are going to rent a place check it out weekdays and weekends so you know what you are getting into!
-@planner
Excellent advice! Our campground is very similar, it's always quiet during the week but on the weekends some sections go crazy.
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