Josean come now and tell us it is a PLD lie

The former Carlson Wagonlit in the US market.

So being next to the bottom is called progress now in the PLD's METROLANDIA!

Josean wants Raul to show us how to change the hotels into reeducation centers for issuing ration cards

This may not be a shock to most people, other than Cuban Gusanos, but the world doesn’t revolve around Cuba!

Nor does the World revolve around Punta Cana

Punta Cana is full of Old Fat Gringo and their little mami chula ...

So here we go again ...with good efforts from the Hoteliers and the developers and also the local community .Punta Cana has grown into a wonderful destination with good beaches and water sports , good golf courses and a wonderful climate. People come now to Punta Cana from all over the world and there are direct flights from the USA, South America and Europe.
But Josean and all his friends can not even say well done and welcome to the DR and we hope everyone has a great time here in our wonderful country ..much easier to sneer.

i have never been to Punta Cana, and i mean Dominicans no disrespect. but, to hear people speak of it in such rhapsodic terms,, i am amazed to see that it has been bested, at least in this survey, by Montego Bay, which, at least to me, is aggessively mediocre.

I have been to Punta Cana a few times and in my humble opinion I will say that it is breathtaking. The resorts and surroundings are immaculately kept. The beach with its soft- white sand is beautiful. Several friends and acquaintances of mine have visited. I have always asked them for feedback and they have done so. Only one couple told me that they liked Cancún better, but the rest said that they had a fabulous time, it was better than expected and could hardly wait to go back.
I always find it to be very relaxing

Remember, do not drink the Milk!

One must keep in mind that this is a US based survey and reflects only on that market. I think if you added Canada ( the North of North America) things would change considerably.

my understanding from people who have been there is that Punta Cana is devastatingly beautiful, and just as boring. it is like a magic resort transplanted into the middle of wonderful scenery, but with nothing of real interest to offer. i have a few friends who are musicians, with a fabulous jazz ensemble. they tried to get gigs to play in the Bavaro-Punta Cana area, but nobody wanted to pay them. there is just so much of a 4000 peso per night tipico band that one can abide.

There's a website "Debbie'sdominicantravel" which if have always found to be a good source of info about just about every resort in the D R. It contains, besides her own reviews, those opinions and reviews of hundreds of visitors from many corners of the world. I haven't been to this website in a while, but it is worth visiting it if you are planning on going to a resort in the D R. You will also see many pictures taken by tourists.
Debbie also provides info or tips about do's and don'ts while in the D R.

dont pay any attention to josean is one of her recommendations

I havent gone to the dominican republic in a long time, but when i do this will be the placed that i will visit first.

I cant believe that Montego Bay came in ahead of Punta Cana. Most people that I know have nothing but negative comments about it. Heck my Jamaican coworkers wont even go back to Jamaica and rather go to DR instead. Punta Cana is really a breathtaking place and will soon climb up on that list.

It has a very good laid back airport at Punta Cana with taxis that are a little expensive and the hotels have a lot more going for them than at the Bavaro end .

have you yourself been there, sajomero? i mean, people have negative things to say about everywhere. depends on who you listen to, and what their expectations are.i have no doubt whatsoever that Punta Cana is magical. then again, if it is, why is it that the return rate is so low?maybe many people have as low an opinion of it as your friends have of Montego Bay. i know of a travel agent who took a group to Mikonos, one of the majestic tourist spots on earth. as everyone was admiring a mythical sunset, two ladies in the party were whining and moaning that the prime beef was too cold, and vowed never to return. so, be careful who you listen, and go see it for yourself before passing value judgements.

Dreadlocks:

I have being many times in Jamaica so stop talking bullshit, in Jamaica people harrass you selling weed and also bothering women eventhough they might be with guys, your hateful pro-haitian, bad taste agenda is so biased that you can see your ass in a mirror doing nothing but degrading Dominican Republic ASS....E

Everybody in the Caribbean wants to be like Dominican Republic and don't give me your sissy
excuses since you don't have the right documentation like all the worldwide tourists organizations.

josean is mentally retarded !!!
prove me wrong !

etienne01 do not judge ur friend josean .He is not retarded but simply different

I visited Punta Cana for the first time during Semana Santa in April of 2009 and stood at Dreams Punta Cana Resort. The property was gorgeous and the beach was devine but I must agree that when the night falls it can get kind of boring. For relaxing on the sun all day and eating and drinking it is awsome but it is lacking night life, bars, restaurants, clubs etc. To relax it is a true gem but the type of person I am, I can only take that for no more than 2-3 days. I much rather the Capital, Santiago, Puerto Plata, and La Romana when it comes to night life. With regards to resorts and beaches it beats all the others mentioned but need to diversify the place a little bit more in my opinion.

To relax on the beach punta cana is good, but for the real Dominican experiance go to SD and Santiago. Where is Samana on this list???

Yes Punta Cana is one of the wonders of the world in natural beauty. But so far it has been ruined by corrupt illegal development and hasn't the infrastructure or planning to handle present or future growth. It has less than 10% repeat visitors because by the 3rd day you are clawing your way out of the prison hotels to see something of the DR and get away from tasteless hotel buffets. When they get rid of the all inclusive poison; stop terrorizing guests by telling them not to venture out or they will get mugged; create a real tourism outside the hotels with shopping and amusement; have decent roads and infrastructure to enable rentacar adventures and American Brand Hotels take over to stop exploiting the locals -then Punta Cana will be a world class destination worthy of competing. Right now they are just selling it because it is so cheap, but you quickly find out that you get what you pay for. I suggest that they blow it up and start all over again before it is too late.

what happened to puerto plata could happen to punta cana

You are right Xwill7, that is exactly where they are headed. Then maybe Samana or Barahona will be the next destination darling and Punta Cana will slip into decay and abandonment just like Puerto Plata -left to the deviants and scamers to thrive. It is the natural progression of unsustainable tourism runamuck.

the retard Rubirosa chimes in with his occasional public service notice. you see, he is the embodiment of what will happen to your children if they choose to drop out of school in the 5th grade. so, adults, with children, if you are reading this board, please show them the musings of Rubirosa, and remind them that this too could be their fate without an education. i would love for you to tell me which countries would like to be like the DR, and why, Rubirosa.

and, Rubirosa, here is the difference between Jamaica and the DR on the weed issue. in Jamaica, some dude harrasses you to buy his weed. you give him your money, and he hands over some great sensimillia. you go to your room, and light up a big spliff, and get ossified. it's all good. in the DR,you tell a guy you want some weed. he says he can get you some. you give him the money, and he never comes back. or, worse yet, he comes back. but first, he stops to rat you out to a cop. he brings the weed, you take possession of it, and the cop jumps out from behind the bushes and arrests you. now you have to pay off half the population so as not to do hard time in victoria prison. when they have taken everything you own, and more, the cop/colonel, abogado/tio Pepe/informer all split the loot and plan the next heist. thanks, but i rather the Jamaican version.

dread you are right. I cant think of any country that would want the following problems at a high rate:
drugs
crime
poverty
corruption
bad power system
huge pot holes
lack of school rooms in some areas
high petrolium costs
high customs taxes
high airline taxes

hey, xwill, every where you go, somebody is going to find a way to separate you from your money. in Jamaica, the weed dealers are relentless. in the DR, the girls harrass you to give them money to pay for their sick kid, who gets pneumonia every friday afternoon. so, what's the beef, Rubi?

As soon as you step one foot off the plane your back account starts to drain. dread, make sure you get your moneys worth from that girl. lol I always do

xwill, that is one war that guys will never win, unless they are absolutely ruthless. just go to western union on saturday mornings, and you will see the game being played to higher heights. i myself have retired. or, i have been placed on waivers.

lol... I did send money via caribe express on a Saturday in order to have my cusin renew my vehicle stickers and he said that there was a long line. I will ask him if the line was full of girls

trust me, it was. and all of them had sick mothers. and pharmacy prescriptions from the days of Trujillo, which need urgent attention!

dreadlocks, 27 Sep 2009 8:32 PM
From: United States
have you yourself been there, sajomero?
I have not been to Jamaica, but Ive been to Punta Cana. My mother and several of my relatives have been to Jamaica and I will trust their judgement on this. The lure of drugs is one of the biggest turn offs for me, I want nothing to do with it. As far as the girls in Punta Cana they are not as bad as the ones in Sosua/POP. I do agree that if Punta Cana is not developed more sustainably it will go to the dogs just like all the other tourist zones in the DR.

so, Sajomero, i take it from your posting that there are no drugs here, then? so why is everyone getting worked up about them? maybe you should tell the authorities. and what do drugs have to do with tourism? do i take your response to mean that you have no interest in seeing the Statue of Liberty, because there are crack vendors in New York?

I have no interest in using or having drugs paraded around the beach for me. Drugs are everywhere, but Jamaica is extremely popular with potheads. Tourism brings in all kinds of ills with drugs and prostitution at the top of the list. DR isn't known worldwide as a drug users paradise, as a major traficking point, yes. As for your statue of liberty analogy, I do not wish to visit it ever again, I don't care for that attraction or the all the people that live here high as a kite everyday.

sajomero, you are entitled to your opinion, and i admire the genteel fashion in which you express it. i really would not be disturbed because a bunch of guys are offering to sell me weed. after all, you can "just say no".the DR is not a drug users paradise because of the issues i described above. nobody wants to get blackmailed by some street hustler, and lose all his possessions. my buddy lost his house in Puerto Plata, because some lowlife drug dealer set him up, like i described. so, he ended up having to leave the country, and his wife got the house. and, everybody is in on the move. so, the cops get their piece, the rat gets his, the wife gets hers, and so on. maybe tourists buy weed in Jamaica because they can toot up a storm and not worry that there is some plot behind the buy to rip them off. or sell them dried oregano.

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) -- Jamaica's unprecedented crime level is threatening to derail the Caribbean island's vital tourism industry by scaring away visitors and hurting investment, the tourism minister said. Speaking at a political meeting on Sunday, Aloun N'Dombet Assamba said that no amount of overseas advertising dollars could counter the negative publicity associated with the island's worsening crime wave. "There is nothing I can do ... to move us forward if we are constantly having to fight the battle against crime," she said. "Too much of our resources are lost that way, too much of our people are lost that way."

More than 900 people have been slain on the island of 2.6 million this year, compared to 975 for all of 2003. The country is on pace to surpass its record of 1,138 homicides in 2001. Despite the upsurge in violence, tourist arrivals to Jamaica have remained steady.

However, Assamba said there are growing signs that crime is hurting business at some hotels and slowing tourism development. She said a group of potential investors recently canceled a trip to the former British colony over security concerns.

"If we don't put a grip on the crime, we won't get investment," she said.

The figures are chilling - there were 1,674 murders in 2005, up from 1,471 murders the year before. Last year, the number of murders came down to 1,340.

So far this year, there have been about 300 murders.

The never-ending spiral of gun crime has led to a vicious cycle of killings on both sides - nearly a dozen policemen have been killed on duty this year alone, and civil rights group allege that the police have also been trigger happy.

They call themselves Fatherless, a group of armed young men who have lost their fathers in gang wars in Trench Town, a Kingston inner city of bullet-pocked homes and birthplace of reggae.

High on marijuana laced with cocaine and armed to the teeth, the gang is among the many in Jamaica which fight over turf, drug money and influence as muscle men for political parties.

Last year, five members of Fatherless lost their lives in gang wars, prompting one of the mothers of a gang member who was killed to say she was "glad" that her son had been taken out, because "somebody had to stop him".

"Death is not uncommon in these parts of Jamaica. It has reached such a point that people have become numb to it. It is scary," says a resident, who is too scared to be named.

Chilling

The island of 2.7m people, which is slightly smaller than Connecticut, has one of the highest murder rates in the world.

Things have worsened to such an extent that recently schools in the Arnett Gardens community closed down after rising gang violence in the area. The number of students attending schools has dropped by 40%.

"Teachers cry, teachers shake... When me hear the gunshots start, me try crawl - you know like when you watching a war show and soldiers crawl with them gun," a young male teacher told reporters after the latest round of violence.

Crime in Jamaica is not new. According to a CIA report, "deteriorating economic conditions during the 1970s led to rising violence as gangs affiliated to major political parties, evolved in powerful organised crime networks involved in international drug smuggling and money laundering."

"The cycle of violence, drugs and poverty has served to impoverish large sectors on the populace," the report says. Continuing double-digit unemployment does not help matters.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6657203.stm

Jamaican Crime Statistics:

Totals, Total Rank, Per Capita Rank
Assaults 10,833 30th of 58 3.99 per 1000 8th of 42
Burglaries 2,426 44th of 55 0.89 per 1000 31st of 39
Murders 887 17th of 63 0.32 per 1000 2nd of 46
Rapes 1,304 22nd of 66 0.48 per 1000 4th of 47
Robberies 2,331 43rd of 64 0.85 per 1000 13th of 46
Total Crimes 39188 47th of 61 14.44 per 1000 27th of 43

Source: Seventh United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (1996-2000)

I worked on cruise ships as a Tours manager/Shore Excursion manager off and on from 1986 to 1999. i've been to between 20 and 25 islands in the caribbean over that span. i was in Jamaica every wednesday for over 6 months straight during our winter itenerary aboard the S.S Queen of Bermuda from 1988 to 1989. Jamaica was the only island in the whole caribbean where our older passangers would come back on board every single week mugged and roughed up/beat up, and needing hospitalization from the ship's doctors. it consistantly ranked highest on passengers complaints. it was the only island where we consistently had to make arrangements to fly people off the island because they could not continue the cruise because they were hospitalized and could not continue with the ship to our next destination. Jamaica was the only island where passengers would be propositioned by taxi drivers with drugs. it was the only island where many of the staff on the ship would not get off because of fear.

Frank Ranieri is that you?

I guess there go the facts about Jamaica which I did not know were that bad since I have never been to Jamaica before.

The difference between Jamaica and DR is that Jamaica has always had very effective advertising campaigns that consistently lure the most naive tourists who then never return again for the the reasons described herein. The DR should learn from them because they have been far ahead of them for many decades.

Advertising is the most effective tool and could go a long way for the DR too. I have been seeing a lot of the DR ads in the US lately but they lack the same persuasion that Jamaica has. Jamaican ads show an idilic place full of fantasy and smiling faces that await to greet you.......well the DR could compete very well with that too and the DR like Jamaica really doesn't care much if you come back either or tell 10 friends what a great time you had in that Hotel Prison with guards every 10 feet.

what Frank fails to tell the public is that most of the violence which he describes is in the capital, Kingston, and has its genesis in political garrison urban locations. most of the killings are between gang hoodlums fighting for either drug or political turf. he gives us anecdotal, self serving stories of how bad things are, but i want to hear this from him

how many tourists have been killed in Jamaica in the last 5 years?

how many tourists have been kidnapped in Jamaica in the last 5 years?

how many tourists have died in multiple death road accidents in the last 5 years?

how many have been hospitalised as a result of attacks by thugs?

no ramblings and cut and paste, please. cut to the chase and give us NUMBERS. and, while you are at it, give us the return rate figure for Montego Bay.

?

Synapse, Jamaica is one of the most violent places on earth. guys kill each other for the simplest reasons. they are the angriest people on the planet. but not against YOU! they do not know you. your political affiliation does not matter to them. you are not infringing on their turf. you are a visitor, and they could not care less. they all want to sell you weed, just as hordes of Dominican girls want to sell gringo their merchandise. but, i would like Frank to tell me why over 2 million tourists went there last year, and how many were returns. i like facts, not vapor.

Dread & xwil7, I can think of one country that wants and currently HAS all of that except huge potholes and that is the nation I'll refer to as the former america. It has all that and more.

Dreadlocks, you bring up interesting questions that i too would love to have the answers. i suggest you do a little research yourself since i have not been back to jamaica since 1990. however, i did find this about Jamaica:

"Stray bullets: Jamaica has many people running around with guns who have no problem using them. The murder rate in Jamaica is currently jockeying for top position with Colombia and South Africa, with Jamaica pulling ahead. In past years, the gunfire primarily occurred in Kingston and Spanish Town, but it's now spreading out. St James (Montego Bay parish) has seen increasing levels of violent crime (murder), as well as all other parishes. At this time, the chance that you will catch a stray bullet (meant for someone else) while standing on a main street in many of the tourist centres of Jamaica is not zero. Fortunately, there are fewer gunmen in the bush than in urban areas, so the further you get from town in Jamaica, the better.

Homophobia: If you are gay, don't even consider stepping foot on the island. Not only is it illegal to be homosexual in Jamaica, some Jamaicans believe that gays should be killed. The primary musical genre, Dancehall, is replete with songs that encourage this [4], [5], [6]. This belief is often acted upon, such as with the recent murder of Steve Harvey.

Rape: There are many single female visitors who come to Jamaica for sex, using the hired services of the many rent-a-dreads who congregate around the resort areas. Unfortunately, because of this, most single white women who come to the island are now regarded as being there only for that reason, and will be harassed accordingly. In Jamaica, "No means no" is not recognized amongst some segments of the male population and harassment can lead to worse things. If you are a single female, be very careful about whom you let become your friend, no matter how good the patter. [For those women who are hiring the male prostitutes,

it must be noted that the island has a very high incidence of HIV, and as you already know, condoms are not popular in Jamaica.]

Murder: As noted above, Jamaica is one of the most murderous countries on the planet. Tourists are not generally exposed to this risk (much of it is tribal politics in Kingston), but it cannot be disregarded. To be clear on this: Your chance of being intentionally murdered while being a tourist in Jamaica is relatively low, but not as low as visiting Cuba, or Costa Rica, or a hundred other countries. If personal safety is the main concern with regard to your vacation, go somewhere else.

http://www.jamaicancaves.org/jamaica-crime.htm

Ranieri is that you?

absolutely true, Frank. the violence in Jamaica is not a new phenomenon. that is a land of baaad men. they make tough guys in the DR look like choir boys. no self respecting Jamaican thug carries a revolver. low level boys have at least a glock. m16's are among the choice of weapons. some guys have been known to have grenade launchers in their backyard, and a police raid some years back turned up a tripod mounted 50 caliber, belt loaded machine gun, Vietnam War style. but guess what? you have no business, as a tourist, being in firing range of these devices. if some loony toon from california wants to follow some weed seller into the ghetto to score some sensemillia, then he might just get lit up in a crossfire

I remember the days when rastas were gentle stoned out peaceful loving people. Then they started arriving back from NY as hardened criminals instead of peaceful rastafarians. Then they switched from pot to being totally out of control free basers smokering cocaine and even wors crack. The day crack was introduced to the world was a death sentence to many islands and places of poverty and misery.
The aggressive turf wars are mostly over crack territories and the robberies are not to buy food but to buy their next high. Drugs and tourism don't mix and Jamaica is dominated from Drug culture because of poverty and misery.

completely incorrect analysis, synapse. you apparently make a link between rastas and guys with braided hairstyles (dreadlocks). real rastamen are still peace loving, hyper religious, and non aggressive. of course, there will always be literary misrepresentations by those who make sensationalist remarks, which are not rooted in reality. generally, americans spend a week in a place like jamaica, and become authorities on the entire history and culture of the country.(that was not intended for you). the real badasses in jamaica were created by the CIA, who used them to destabilise election cycles in the 1970's. before that, you could walk the streets at 2 am, alone, without worry.

This was a wonderful acknowledgement of the DR - Punta Cana does have superb soft white beaches and beautiful sea- just the kind vacationers want to relax at. Anyone who can criticize being acknowleged - is subpar!!! There just is no comparison about DR and Jamaica as far as tourism is concerned. Attitude, unfortunately is what is handed out in Jamaica. Too bad - because the natural scenary is breathtakingly beautiful. I also believe that in punta cana - those making decisions decided to create the now infamous inclusive hotels by making them "low life" low budget attractions. With that kind of advertising - the quick money - you get the lowlife brutes from Europe & US- puking all over beaches and creatiing havoc wherever they go. Punta Cana better start mak

Yah Dread, ya right Man, Bob Lives and all that IRE stuff man! Well I don't know about the CIA stuff but knowing what they are capable of I would give you every benefit of the doubt because that "divide and conquer technique is how they foment political chaos when they want to destabilize a country to it's knees."

You're preaching to the choir now man, --I was one of those out past 2 am because it was safer than anywhere else man, cause it was a mellow scene of splifs. But that was the 70's man full of peace love and big splif on your lip man days. But things changed when the criminals started looking like Rastas to be cool and their victims thought they where harmless until WHACK!. The gangstas took over Brooklyn man and the turf war over crack distribution began as the splif was replaced by the free base or crack pipe man. You know this story man! This cancer then spread to Jamaica man like wild fire as the gangstas came home to chill out from the posse. Bob Lives!

actually, synapse, the gun culture was created by the CIA in order to intimidate supporters of socialist Prime Minister Michael Manley. incidentally, his opponent was tailor made for the task, having been born himself in the USA.