The SO has always wanted to visit Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic. We’re acclimated to the PNW, so we’re thinking it might be a cooler in one of those places in December. True, or false?
How’s the weather?
We’d like a place close to the beach. I’d prefer something closer to the locals, than a luxury resort. Any idea what a week would cost?
I know that, while both Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico have all-inclusive resorts, they are more common (and/or marketed that way) in the Dominican Republic.
The weather is probably similar. December should be in the 80s during the day, reaching to 70s during the night, with a breeze depending on location. Extremely cold temperatures on the coast would be 60s during the night and high 70s during the day. The interior (mountains) in both islands would be slightly colder, and perhaps a bit more similar to PNW summer weather (70s during the day, 60s or 50s at night, rainy).
I’m not sure what would be the total cost, but both would be more expensive than perhaps other islands in the Caribbean, with Puerto Rico being more so than the Dominican Republic.
Like she said, at the coast the tropical sea maintains stable temperatures. So daytime highs in the low/mid 80s and nightime lows in the low 70s, with ocassional outlier days; but get up in the hills specially past mid-December and you will get quite cooler (and DR has higher mountains than PR). Hurricane season officially ends 30 November so that first week after can get questionable if the season is active, otherwise as is wont to happen in the tropics you can have gorgeous sun then go to driving torrential downpour and back in what seems like nothing.
As to costs: PR is usually more expensive all-things-being-equal than the DR – remember we operate within the US economy with US minimum wages and US regulations. DR tends to market intensely to the clientele looking for the all-inclusive resort and their top resorts are of excellent quality; the all-nclusives OTOH a rare creature in PR, our fancier “marquee” hotels tend to be golfer’s resorts like El Conquistador and Rio Mar, boutique hotels like the Honred Dorset Primavera or El Convento, or place-to-be-seen hotspot venues in El Condado. To stay close to “real” in the SJ urban area there are properties in the Condado/Isla Verde hotel strips or Old San Juan where you can have the regular neighborhood right outside the door; out in the Island there are mid-level inns and paradores in a number of tourist-favored towns. Jacknifed Juggernaut was supposed to be here this weekend so he may be posting about what he thought of it.
The DR is much larger than PR geographically so in PR it’s easier/quicker to stay in one location and daytrip just everywhere on the island, in DR there will be some range limitations.
There are a number of threads on visiting Puerto Rico that myself and KarlGrenze have participated in for the last few years; let’s see if **Mighty Girl ** drops in with more DR details.
‘All-inclusive’ is precisely what I don’t want. Why go to a foreign country, if you’re staying in a hotel that isolates you from it? (I’m reminded of a friend who went to Hawaii, and was perplexed as to why people hung out in swimming pools when there was a beautiful ocean just steps away.) I’d be happy to stay in a hostel, myself; just as long as there’s a toilet, a shower, and a bed. The SO… not so much. She doesn’t want a ‘luxury home away from home’, but she’d prefer something like a Best Western. She probably had enough of ‘roughing it’ in Korea and Iraq.
In reality, I want to go for the food. I love eating what the locals eat. We have a lot of seafood up here, but just try to find a whole spiny lobster. Southern waters seem to have more variety, cooked and served in a more casual way. And I want to swim. When I lived in L.A. the water was 60º to 65ºF. Up here, it’s about 42º. (The bay that’s just steps from my house is very shallow, and does get nice and warm in Summer.) The SO wants to eat the foods we see on TV, and would like to go someplace warm – but not too warm. She’d like to visit PR because her dad was TDY there when she was little. (I’d like to tour Arecibo.)
I don’t know if we can afford it this year. I’m still paying off the trip to New Orleans. But it’s good to gather information early.
Given your preferences, you probably want to avoid the DR, or at least the punta cana resorts. They’re pretty much armed compounds surrounded by depressing slums. Also the food is bland shite at those places (at least at the middle of the road resorts, I don’t know about the high end)
PR is tropical - ain’t gonna be much cooler in the winter. Also, as mentioned above, PR is integrated with the US economy and prices are going to tend to be very similar to what you might find in a US state. Also, if you’re American, PR is nice in that you don’t have to worry about customs/immigration issues and can just hop down and hop back without needing to worry about renewing your passport, making sure you have the right visa, and knowing what to say and not say to an immigration official.
Some of the pricier places ARE around places the locals do go. El Convento, smack dab in Old San Juan, is around places that cater to both tourists and locals. Many other places in Condado are not that far away from places where locals would go, if only once in a while due to the prices. 
You can also ask to go see if there are tours to Piñones. If you want artery-clogging, pure greasiness fried coastal vendor food accompanied by a cool beer, go there. 
I went to Puerto Rico (Vieques and main island) a year ago and wasn’t too impressed by the seafood. The conch was interesting and good but the food they excelled at and served most commonly seemed to be rice, beans, pork, and chicken. PR was suprisingly expensive too. For seafood in that the neck of the woods, Belize was amazing -lots of different seafood cooked lots of different ways. Cheap too! I have not been to Dominican Republic, so I can’t comment on that.
Vieques did have the biolum bay though, which is a must see once in your life.
Well, Belize is an option. Why not?
I went to Ambergris Caye (Belize) in 2009 with an ex. As a rule of thumb, as you go up the island towards Bacalar Chico, the expense level of the resorts/hotels starts rising. It also gets secluded and harder to make it to main town without arranging a water taxi through your hotel, that’s the down side. The upside is that you avoid the Cancun-y places if that’s not your scene. We stayed at the Blue Reef Island Resort but only because Mata Chica was sold out entirely for our travel dates.
You can’t really swim off of Ambergris because of the seaweed, which is vital to all the marine life that fuels the excellent snorkeling. And I have seen better beaches in Mexico.
Personally, I wish I had learned how to dive before going out to Belize.
Also, JetBlue has good deals to DR right now (at least from our neck of the woods in NYC), esp. in the Samana region of the island. I just booked our honeymoon to Tulum, but DR would have been half the price. Was originally thinking Costa Rica or Nicaragua, but we decided to save those for more backpacky trips and enjoy diving, white sand beaches and ruins in Mexico for the honeymoon!
I’d also recommend Roatan, the Honduran island just off the coast. We went there in February 2011 and it was outstanding. Rented a villa through VRBO, which was seamless and really easy. They even took care of the car rental for us! Roatan is small enough for day trips, there’s diving (if you’re into that) and both resort areas and definitely non-tourist parts. (Because we rented a private villa, we stayed way the hell away from the resorts and tourists, and it was excellent.)
Grocery stores and the like are around, the people are friendly, roads aren’t bad, we felt safe - I’d totally do that trip again. I don’t know about today’s political climate, though, so perhaps research that first. In Feb, the weather was grand - 80s, not too hot, not humid (we didn’t even turn on the air conditioner!). Nice.
Oh! And super easy to get to as well. One of the major airlines (Delta? American? United? I forget) flies there direct from Atlanta.
Regarding the Dominican Republic-most tourists stick to the beach areas…is the mountainous interior interesting? There are some 7000 ft. mountains there-those places look interesting.
Three years later…
We’ve booked a ‘condo’ (looks like a studio apartment) in a high-rise across from a beach in San Juan, PR.