Dorado vs. Palmas (looking for hands on feedback)

Apples and oranges:Dorado is an upscale community of Americans(not expats) here on assignment, some Europeans and middle and very upper class Locals. It is decidedly a suburb of San Juan with everything close by. Tasis is the local school.
Palmas is on the far east coast and much quieter way of life. Palmas Academy is the local school. They were also more severely hit by the hurricane so the closest shoppers get mall is in Caguas.
I am a relo specialist... Happy to assist you in your move.

We're moving WHERE? wrote:

Apples and oranges:Dorado is an upscale community of Americans(not expats) here on assignment, some Europeans and middle and very upper class Locals. It is decidedly a suburb of San Juan with everything close by. Tasis is the local school.
Palmas is on the far east coast and much quieter way of life. Palmas Academy is the local school. They were also more severely hit by the hurricane so the closest shoppers get mall is in Caguas.
I am a relo specialist... Happy to assist you in your move.

Hey thanks for the insights - that was a very interesting and helpful distinction re Americans (but not expats), I wasn't aware of that.

I'm mostly after feedback from people actually living in Dorado about the day to day life and re family activities etc.

Objectively looking at it Dorado sounds great for us being closer to San Juan knowing that we travel a lot and enjoy having City life near by (but not too close) and the beaches etc. - only reason then to still choose Palmas would be that we have friends there already. (apart from the fact that it's beautiful of course, bit I figure Dorado is beautiful as well)

you are not going to find many Americans on this site... we are NOT expats.  the 20/22 people ( which I am guessing you are) are all over the island. 
where you end up depends on where you live now: if you are from New York,  and live in NYC, Dorado is like living in Westchester , maybe Scarsdale or Harrison. A bedroom community with everything but the hectic pace of the city.

Obviously you don't really know Puerto Rico; we have everything and more here even after the hurricane.
People from Dorado go to church, dinner and concerts in San Juan... it's that close. 
since you already have friends in Palmas, it's probably the place for you to go. Why reinvent the wheel?  there's plenty to do there but definitely more relaxed and slow.
and BTW: Dorado is full of 4-5 and 6 bedroom homes at DBE that rent for $10,000+ a month.

We're moving WHERE? wrote:

you are not going to find many Americans on this site... we are NOT expats.  the 20/22 people ( which I am guessing you are) are all over the island. 
where you end up depends on where you live now: if you are from New York,  and live in NYC, Dorado is like living in Westchester , maybe Scarsdale or Harrison. A bedroom community with everything but the hectic pace of the city.

Obviously you don't really know Puerto Rico; we have everything and more here even after the hurricane.
People from Dorado go to church, dinner and concerts in San Juan... it's that close. 
since you already have friends in Palmas, it's probably the place for you to go. Why reinvent the wheel?  there's plenty to do there but definitely more relaxed and slow.
and BTW: Dorado is full of 4-5 and 6 bedroom homes at DBE that rent for $10,000+ a month.

Hey thanks for the insights again, very much appreciated and helpful.

I've never been to Puerto Rico so yes, I don't know much about living there, how could I

When I was asking about Movie Theaters, Crossfit, Plazas, Malls etc. I was directly referring to Palmas and Dorad by themselves, not to PR in general.

When you say hectic pace of city, are you referring to Dorado directly? When I talked with my local realtor and lawyer it sounded more like it's a town and pretty slow. What you said makes it more sound like actual city life, unless you're referring directly to San Juan and you count Dorado as part of that?

My understanding was more that Dorado by itself is Suburbs and slow living.

I've never been to Westchester or the other places you mentioned but I do think I know what you mean.

Thanks again for your insights!

No, I'm referring to San Juan... Both Dorado and Palmas are "bedroom" communities. 
again, we have everything PLUS: movies, gyms, social settings... everything in both locations.

again, since you already have friends in Palmas, just go there... it's a long drive from Dorado to Palmas so you won't be seeing them every day.

Hey, Mario. Maybe it's just me, but I never thought of Dorado as a suburb of SJ. It certainly felt like a separate place with its own character, set apart by a decent distance from SJ. To me, Bayamon, Guaynabo, Trujillo Alto, Isla Verde, Carolina are suburbs of SJ, but you'll note that they basically all border SJ-proper.

I'm partial to the east because that's where my wife is from, but I mention the above so that you know that, sure, Dorado is closer to SJ, but is it really close on a daily basis? I know there are people on this forum who commute from there and have better experience with the Dorado-SJ nexus than me so maybe they'll chime in (if the hurricane didn't drive them all away).

If you want a bit of city life, than Palmas is definitely too isolated.

NomadLawyer wrote:

Hey, Mario. Maybe it's just me, but I never thought of Dorado as a suburb of SJ. It certainly felt like a separate place with its own character, set apart by a decent distance from SJ. To me, Bayamon, Guaynabo, Trujillo Alto, Isla Verde, Carolina are suburbs of SJ, but you'll note that they basically all border SJ-proper.

I'm partial to the east because that's where my wife is from, but I mention the above so that you know that, sure, Dorado is closer to SJ, but is it really close on a daily basis? I know there are people on this forum who commute from there and have better experience with the Dorado-SJ nexus than me so maybe they'll chime in (if the hurricane didn't drive them all away).

If you want a bit of city life, than Palmas is definitely too isolated.

Okay thank you that is very helpful.

So the 'city' of Humacao is also pretty slow in general? Our friends in Palmas actually never leave the resort which is not how my wife and I roll, we'd love to go to local Crossfit Gym, I play Basketball etc. we want to meet locals BUT we also want to be connected to Expats especially so that our son can keep up his English which is pretty weak right now as Spanish and German are his strongest languages right now - he's 3 years old.

Wondering if Humacao has a bit of city life or if it's also very slow?

The city of Humacao is layed back but fairly modern, it has several strip malls, some very large and the local Walmart which is HUGE, is opening soon, they had a lot of damage so they been working to reopen.

That's good to hear, Rey. We hope to return to Humacao in late May or early June to evaluate whether we can rebuild. Our barrio still doesn't have electricity, as far as we know. Our neighbor texted us recently that linemen are working their way up the mountain above Humacao. We miss PR.

Yes, all the pockets are being addressed slowly. My brother that lives in "Pasto Seco" which is part of Las Piedras town does not yet has electricity either and he is in a valley along route 31. Crews are working in the town but not yet his barrio.

Hello, I currently live in DBE.  It is a bit pricey for sure.  You can find a 3-4 bedroom golfer3,200 sq feet single story for approximately $6,500 to $7,500 monthly.  2 story same size $8,000. And a bigger home with pool in the $10,000 range. You can find some really big homes in there 5 to 6 bedrooms. That's all ballpark.  DBE is a good mix of well off Puerto Rican's  and 20-22ers.  I would say I see more locals than I do expats in our community.  I drive my wife to San Juan everyday to work Approximately 30 min in to San Juan using the middle toll lane 15 min longer if you use the regular toll lanes.  We have a movie theater in Dorado. There is a lot to do right inside of DBE also great gym and a very long and pretty beach.  We have a golf cart path which I ride my mountain bike around it's 4 1/2 miles long and a beautiful ride amongst the homes and beaches.  Any questions just ask I'll be happy to answer.