Dominican Experience, to stay in the all-inclusive hotels in Playa Dorada would be to miss the real Dominican Republic.
You will love the people and the country when you get to see the real lifestyle but most of the hotel tours don't show you the real Dominican Republic.
Most hotels have become all-inclusive and as a result the people staying there only get to see other tourists. The hotels tell the tourists that it is not safe to go outside the hotel complex at night and only with tours in the day time.

THIS IS NOT SO!!!

As for safety, it has been my experience, it is entirely safe. Although there are occasions where single men and women have had a member of the opposite sex try to pick them up, love that "Latin" culture. Or a taxi driver has taken a customer for a few extra pesos.
These incidents have been very few in number, and violent crime is much less than back in downtown Toronto.

Dominican Culture:
The lifestyle of the Dominican is a contrast in perceptions.
Most of the Dominicans who have never been off the island believe that everyone living in Canada and United States are rich.
This is because of two factors, the first is the tourists they see spend money like water and second is, returning Dominicans want to impress all their friends as to how successful they are.

The contrasting mistake made by the tourists is not appriciating that the average worker makes less than 200.us per month. Cars, clothes, shoes, radios, televisions and even food costs more than in the states. The only thing that maybe cheaper is housing and that could be debated as most tourists would not be content to live in such small homes.

Don't be fooled by thinking they they are poor though, you can't compare the quality of their lifestyle with yours, they live in the country that most tourists work all year just to spend two weeks holiday there.

Dominican Tourism:
The Dominican Republic is working to become a popular vacation destination. In 1970, the country had 1,300 first-class rooms, the industry generated 4,932 jobs, and the total number of visitors was 87,700. In 1990, there were 19,000 rooms available, the industry generated 114,56 jobs, and the number of visitors reached 1.53 mil. In 1994, the number of rooms increased by 2,108, and an additional 3,178 were being built. Tourism generated US$1.148 bil, 5.9% of the GNP. Currently, there are 149,561 jobs in the tourism industry there. The government intends to continue building, maintaining, and expanding the infrastructure of the country. The article includes tables from the World Tourism Organization which show the improvements in the Dominican Republic's tourism industry.
The Dominican tourist industry grew tremendously during the 1970s and the 1980s, and by 1989 it boasted more than 18,000 hotel rooms--more than any other location in the Caribbean.
The country has had over 2 mil visitors/yr over the past few years and about 36,000 hotel rooms were on the market in 1996. It is estimated that 2.3 mil visitors arrived in 1997. There are also over 200 radio stations in the nation and Dominicans have access to over 40 European and US cable channels.

E-mail [drhotel@hotmail.com] for rates and availability.