Visiting for the first time as we decide on a place for retirement

What are your priorities?

Easy access to a downtown area, with restaurants and shopping would be too of the list.  Typically for vacation we prefer to be pampered but understand that may not be possible while searching for our retirement destination.

Though I have been to many places - do you want to be by the beach, peace and quiet area, city like, infrastructure important, traffic, language etc

You can go for a vacation and still see what is around or stay in airbnb for feel of living.

Restaurants and shopping you can find in most of the areas but varies.

Each area provides different level of comforts and what you may search may be different from someone else.

I believe Punt Cana/Bavaro - the East Coast generally - is now offering the best retirement destination in DR. It is modern and the infrastructure and facilities are developing all the time and there is an increasing retirement community in those parts and that is evidenced by posts on this forum from people who have started or are planning their retirement here.

Every other potential destination has its pros and cons and will be for individuals with more specific ideas.

It is a good place to holiday, be pampered and to start your understanding of DR as your possible retirement home.

Lennox hit the nail on the head for me.

The Punta Cana area is known for "tourists" and "hotels" but many surrounding areas are growing constantly for residential and for retirement.

We love Las Terrenas and have been living here since July.

On our first visit almost 4 years ago, we stayed for a week in an AirBnB right in town. Walking distance to just about everything! We did some of our cooking so that we could get a feel for availability of items at the grocery store . During that first week, we visited a lot of properties and saw quite a bit of the town. The second week, we stayed at the all-inclusive Viva Samana on Coson so that we could relax, make decisions and get pampered a bit!

On that first trip, we deciding on an apartment on Playa Bonita as a vacation home/investment property. When we decided that we were going to speed up retirement so that we could live here sooner, we started looking at homes because we knew that while the apartment was great for a week or two of vacation, we didn't want to live in one full time.

We couldn't find a home for sale that met our needs, so we decided to build. We bought land in the Coson lomas with a beautiful ocean view and fantastic breeze! For us, having the quiet tranquility of the hills was more important than being able to walk to the beach.

I would suggest staying in a few areas of town, or at least visiting multiple areas before deciding if LT is the place for you!

My husband (RockyM) and I would be happy to meet with you when you are here to answer any questions you have and help show you the town!

Las Terrenas and Galerias on my bucket list for next to visit.

This is excellent information.  Thank you.  I am thinking we should get an air BNB as well.  I will start looking there first.  Would definitely like to meet up when we come out.  Where did you move from if you don't mind me asking.

I am the other half of ddmcghee  :0)  We located here from Charlotte, North Carolina.

I am a great fan of Las Terrenas and lived there for two years in several rented properties. As a place for an expat to live in DR, it would be at the top of my list and I would not be alone in that assessment especially amongst Europeans.

I didn't post earlier to recommend LT as an intial point to start your discovery of DR as a retirement destination because over the years I have heard numerous Americans state they didn't enjoy it as much as say the more commercial North Coast. It is very European and really does lack commercialism. Punta Cana meanwhile has developed rapidly to fill a need for retiring expats.

DR is a bigger country than you may realize and to travel from corner to corner takes maybe 8 hours, both south east to north west and south west to north east and the roads are variable too. It takes a long time to explore this country.

Perhaps a two destination visit might work?

Arrive by Punta Cana and return via Las Americas, Santo Domingo airport

To get from Punta Cana to Las Terrenas takes 4 hours by road and will not be cheap by taxi. It is unrealistic by bus. There is a shorter option which would probably give you the opportunity to see a broad section of the country - travel up the north east coast from Punta Cana to Sabana al Mar (c 2 hours) and take the people only ferry El Bote which crosses the Samana Bay 4 times daily to Samana town and then transfer by taxi taking about one hour to las Terrenas. your return is by a two hour taxi to SDQ airport.

I am sure there will be others here who will recommend the North Coast too, such are the many excellent choices you can find in this interesting country.

Maybe another two centre option is North Coast - maybe a favourite retirement place such as Cabrera - and Las Terrenas

Explore this tourism website link below to understand the choices available in DR and keep asking questions and you will get on the ground reports and opinions, such as the fine recommendations from RockyM and ddmcgee for a lovely part of DR where they are making their home.

https://www.godominicanrepublic.com/

RockyM wrote:

I am the other half of ddmcghee  :0)  We located here from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Some would say the better half! 

The great half, and the even better half!   

Pleasure to meet you.  We will be coming from NJ.  We are thinking to visit in September.  We started looking at Airbnb and VRBO rentals.

Will be interesting your thoughts as first time visitor....Just curious what made you think about here as retirement?

I too will be in LT in September to hunt for a retirement home. then, I would love to hear your opinion to compare with my own:)