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 enlarge | Author: Sean Harvey
Publisher: Rough Guides
Category: Book
List Price: $18.99
Buy New: $12.91
You Save: $6.08 (32%)
New (4) Used (6) from $12.91
Avg. Customer Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 487988
Media: Paperback
Edition: 3
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 424
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.8
ISBN: 1843534975
Dewey Decimal Number: 917.2930455
EAN: 9781843534976
ASIN: 1843534975
Publication Date: November 21, 2005
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Homesick January 19, 2007
I helps me to better understand my mother's homeland.
it makes me want to go back!
really detailed, good social commentary July 11, 2005
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
I am about to leave to study abroad in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. I bought this book, as well as the Lonely Planet guide. I think the Rough Guide is far superior to the Lonely Planet one.
If you are planning on spending a lot of time in Santo Domingo, I would definitely recommend the Rough Guide as opposed to any other guide book. The Rough Guide and Lonely Planet pretty much have the same info about other parts of the country, but it seems like the author of Rough Guide actually spent the night at the places, hung out with locals, etc., while the Lonely Planet author seems like he went around and grabbed a bunch of brochures and only stepped inside most of the places.
Sean Harvey tells you what kind of people hang out at the various restaurants, hostels, and bars around the country (whether its tourists, expats, locals, young or old people). He provides an interesting, easy to read history about the country, and leaves out the boring facts that only a history buff or student writing a research paper would need.
The pages have lots of text boxes with unusual stories or facts. Harvey points out the highlights in various parts of the country, which has given me some guidance as to which direction I want to travel outside of the capital.
We'll see which book really proves more helpful when I arrive, but so far, I have mainly been relying on Rough Guide as my main source of research and information.
 Interesting and unnecessarily negative guide October 20, 2004
10 out of 15 found this review helpful
I recently travelled to the Dominican Republic and purchased this guide for my trip based on the online reviews.
Although the book is informative and does offer a good selection of transportation and hotel suggestions, it is unnecessarily and generously sprinkled with negative commentary on the country.
On my trip, I had the pleasure of travelling throughout the island, from West to East. I was overwhelmed with the vastness and variety the country had to offer however while reading the guide, it was difficult to find a single chapter that did not go out of it's way to offer some kind of caustic negative comment on the area being described.
After struggling with discerning relevant fact from the authors personal experiences, I put the guide down altogether. I was so distracted by the constant negativity that it overshadowed the content. I would not recommend this particular guide. Perhaps an updated guide or one from a different publisher altogether might be more appropriate.
Edit: I came back to re-read this review after taking a few additional trips to do DR and feel now just as strongly about the views in this perhaps dated guide as when I first wrote it.
 very useful guide June 9, 2004
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I used this guide to travel in Santo Domingo, Costanza and Samana and found it to be very useful in trip planning. First of all, it helped me to identify Samana and Constanza as great places to visit without the heavy tourism. It was also packed with information on practically every town we passed on the way and offered good hotel and restaurant recommendations. My only criticism is that it seemed the author probably traveled by car and the information on public transportation wasn't quite as thorough as in Lonely Planet guides. However, the sheer volume of other information and the easy to use layout made up for that. Overall, a very solid guide for both pre-trip planning and travel within the DR.
If there's a better guide I haven't found it! August 31, 2003
35 out of 35 found this review helpful
I have treveled in the DR and Haiti many times over the last 20 years doing volunteer work and this is by far the best guidebook I have run across! I read the customer reviews and noticed one that said "Good book, but lack of DR Reality". This book deals with off the beaten path and does it very well indeed! If one visits Santo Domingo or Puerto Plata and Sosua in the north, you will not encounter the country's great poverty. These are the cities of the elite and wealthy. How much poverty would one expect to find in Beverly Hills? The presidential palace and most diplomats live in Santo Domingo. There are squatter slums on the outskirts of even this great city. Where this guidebook excells is in taking you away from the big cities to the smaller towns and villages. If you want to know how to ride in the back of a pickup to adventure.. to visit Batays where sugarcane is harvested.. to see the dangerous frontier along the Hatian border, to see how common Dominicans live, to find the cheapest places to stay and to eat... This is the only book of its kind out there! I recommend the Lonely Planet guidebook along with this one for virtually all the info one would ever need on one's trip. In all fairness This is a book for the would be adventurer... the person unafrade to venture off the tourist paths. The other reader commented "We visited the DR and we don't know how they wrote 80% live in poverty..." Be prepared to confront extreme poverty outside the capital city and affluent areas. Hospitals are ill equipped and non staffed.. carry health supplies with you and get to Santa Domingo or Puerto Plata if possible if you need hospitalization. Many rural schools have closed because the teachers could not survive on their meager stipend. The travel becomes dangerous near the Haitian border as Dominican police are scarce and not able to do much there. Almost everywhere there are frequent blackouts.. most homes have a generator because this is a common problem.. dont count on electric shavers, hair dryers or other appliances and pack some candles in your bag when you venture on this route. BE PREPARED to see things other tourists never see! Dominicans are kind and generous and will go to extreme lengths to help you. DO LEARN some Spanish as in rural areas you will need to communicate and most English speakers are in Metro areas. Puerto Plata and Sosua in the north have large colonies of Jewish and German people so if you speak German you can find someone there. I hope my comments here are helpful to someone.. and don't be afrade to venture off the tourist path!
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