Travelling to Dominican Republic

[steelman]

Well we finally will be making a break for the south this coming week. We are spending a week in Punta Cana. Can anyone tell me if there are good sources for cigars there at reasonable prices or am I better off bringing my own with me. I know to stay away from beach hagglers but are there others that I could visit without worries.

Cheers

[zeavran1]

Stayed in Punta Cana this past August. Unless you're planning to take a tobacco tour on a companies farm take you own. Every single cigar I found was a fake. It was unreal. The hotels looked ok but they were charging $90 a cigar. A La Aurora 1495 robusto was going for $30 USD.

[tnlawyer]

Agree. Some good deals can be had at the factories. Otherwise bring your own.

[JGD]

Most cigars produced in the DR are for export only. This means that they have to re-import them for sale in country - resulting in high prices if you're able to find what you're looking for in the first place. Due to this most people bring their own.

[FlyersFan]

Take your own. The prices at the resorts are so high you'd think the sticks are gold plated.

[Engineer99]

I've found it interesting that the DR and Haiti are on the same piece of land, yet one is in a constant state of poverty and turmoil, and you never hear anything about the other half the DR occupies. If anyone has insight to this dichotomy, my ignorant self would love to hear it.

[JGD]

I've found it interesting that the DR and Haiti are on the same piece of land, yet one is in a constant state of poverty and turmoil, and you never hear anything about the other half the DR occupies. If anyone has insight to this dichotomy, my ignorant self would love to hear it.

A few of my former co-workers were Haitian. They said a lot of it was to do with the different quality of land between the two sides - the DR has "the good land" as they said. That and some bad luck with the earthquake and the leaders of the country after the French left compared to the relative stability of the DR is what caused the difference. At least that is what I was told.

[Lapithicus]

I have seen video fly overs of Haiti/DR and you can actually see the delineation between the two countries. DR being lush and green and Haiti brown and dry. The same video claims it is due to the Haitian people/government not replanting what they harvest and general disregard for the future.

I’m not sure if that is true, or the bad luck with the weather and positioning. Maybe a little of both.