#yestrip

Mother – Daughter Yes Trip Ideas

We’re two days from embarking on a long-awaited mother – daughter 13th birthday Yes Trip to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and I’m beyond excited about this adventure. It’s my eldest daughter’s 13th year of life and I’ve been planning a way to do celebrate this milestone in a memorable and affirming way. Check out my prior post explaining what a Yes Trip is and the reasons why every parent should embark on one with their child.

Why Santo Domingo?

Jet blue had a deal for $300 direct round trip flights from JFK that will allow us to be in Santo Domingo by 8:30 a.m. and with our carry-on only travel we will be able to enjoy four full days on the island with minimized time wasted in route. Santo Domingo is my country of birth and I’m excited to share my culture, food, music, crystal clear water and family with my first born. By traveling to the Dominican Republic, kid 1 will be able to practice her Spanish skills while also enjoying the Caribbean sun and surf. Whenever I visit Santo Domingo, it feels like home though I haven’t lived there since I was 5 years old. There is something about the island that fills my vessel. I want to share that experience with the child who made me a mother. Kid 1 also loves Dominican food. Though she was born in raised in the United States and we do not live near any of our Dominican family, this child could eat traditional Dominican rice and beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Therefore, I plan to incorporate a lot of Dominican food, art, and architecture into our #foodies Yes Trip.

What’s on our Yes Trip Agenda?

While I do plan on having us spend some time with family, that is not the ultimate goal of this trip. We will be staying in a hotel versus being hosted by family, in order to have better control over our agenda. We look forward to enjoying many hours of just being still together and catching up without the constant hecticness of our schedules at home and life with her three younger siblings. The intent of a Yes Trip is to step away from the regular routine and open lines of communication in order to maintain connections during a difficult time in a child’s life.

 It takes a village to raise strong girls and my village is something else. I’m traveling with over 22 handwritten and typed letters from family and friends that I will share with kid 1 throughout our weekend. I will start with a letter from me explaining what a Yes Trip is and sharing my lessons learned in my teen years and give advice to her. I will share my letter with her on our 2-hour drive to the airport. Once we arrive at the airport, I will share a letter written by her father. It’s the only letter from a man that she will get throughout the weekend. It’s a tear jerker and overflows with love and admiration.

 Let me encourage you to schedule a Yes Trip for your teens. It would not matter if we were going to a local hotel, this is such an important and life changing gift for my big girl. The diversity and wisdom in these letters are the best gift that I can give my teen daughter. They have uplifted and encouraged me this week and I know that she will treasure them. One of my friends said to me: I’m sharing hard won knowledge. Hard won knowledge. This is the beauty of the support and love that our tribe has shared. Whether they are great grandmothers, grandmothers, teachers, lawyers, executives, theologians, writers, stay at home moms, single, married with no children or deep in the midst of hands on parenting, these women have lived life and have learned tough lessons that they have so graciously imparted on our daughter. What a blessing.

 Key takeaways and wisdom that I want to share throughout our trip

-          Love is not earned, it’s unconditional.

-          “Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.” – Oprah Winfrey

-          Enjoy the journey. Don’t rush through life and attempt to get to the next season of life before you’re ready.

-          You are fearfully and wonderfully made and are perfect just the way you are. Never change who you are in order to fit in or make someone else comfortable.

-          Remember who and whose you are.

-          Always remember our rich family legacy and history.

-          When someone shows you their true self, believe them the first time.

-          Be discerning in your choice of friends. Know the difference between an acquaintance and a friend. Choose your friends wisely.

-          There’s nothing that you can ever do that will make us or God not love you. Always come to us with questions or concerns that you have. When you fail, we will comfort you, encourage you and help you get back on course.

-          Do not live your life in fear.

-          Love mercy, live humbly and love others deeply.

-          You don’t have to be extroverted, loud or outspoken to make a huge difference in the world.

 I will be incorporating the reading of letters from women in her life and these key points into the natural progression of our trip. While we are in transit, on the plane, dining, at the beach, by the pool, riding bikes and enjoying the island, I will look for ways to talk about these topics and creating memories with kid 1. Have you done a milestone birthday trip with just one of your kids? Please share any must do or memorable things that you incorporated into your trip.

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Mother – Daughter 13th Birthday Getaway – Yes Trip to Santo Domingo 

Random Observations By now, I hope that you’ve read my other three posts about the prep work that went into planning this mother – daughter 13th birthday yes trip and my reasons for taking it. If you haven’t, please click here to get caught up and also enjoy more Instagram pictures from our long weekend trip to Santo Domingo. This last post, will focus on what we did on Sunday and Monday and also provide some random observations and feedback. What We Did Day 3: - As you recall from my last blog post, day 2 ended with a very late dinner in the Colonial Zone, so day 3 started with kid 1 sleeping in and me enjoying the Sheraton breakfast alone. - After breakfast, I enjoyed a to go coffee by the pool and used the house phone to wake kid 1 up and have her get ready to head out for the day. My cousin and her family picked us up at the hotel and we headed to Los Tres Ojos Park.

- Parque Nacional Los Tres Ojos o Los Tres Ojos (The Three Eyes) is a 50-yard open-air limestone cave located in the Mirador del Este park, in the East Side of Santo Domingo. It’s also near the neighborhood where I was born and lived the first five years of live, thus I enjoyed showing kid 1 that area. The last time that kid 1 visited Los Tres Ojos, was during a multigenerational trip to Dominican Republic with my parents and sister when she was just fifteen months old. She is a lover of all things science and nature and thus I knew that she would enjoy this particular attraction. A series of three lakes, or ojos, the site is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the country. The caves are open from 9 am to 5 pm, and are illuminated at night by colored lights. We’ve done a guided tour in the past, but decided to explore on our own this time around. Pro tip: you don’t need to pay for a guided tour to enjoy this attraction, as you can pay admission and explore on your own. The access to the viewing areas require you to be able to walk up and down lots of stairs, so the underground cave system is not accessible. I recall wearing kid 1 when we visited when she was 15 months old. Cost: $200 Dominican Pesos per person, which is the equivalent of $3.94 US dollars (this is a local cost and I believe the tourist price is $250 pesos, which is still a bargain). It cost an additional $25 Dominican pesos - less than .50 US cents per person to take a boat ride to the 4th lake and it’s well worth the cost. - After our time at Los Tres Ojos, we headed to my aunt’s country home for swimming and family time. Once again, my extended Dominican family showed up and loved on us. My aunt and uncle have a lovely country home just outside of Santo Domingo which has an incredible outdoor space with a pool, gazebo and amazing gardens. We spent Sunday afternoon swimming, eating, telling stories with family and enjoying the fresh air. I attempted to explain the family tree to kid 1 and verbally illustrated whose kids belonged to whom, until it got really complicated.  My Godmother’s (also my cousin) daughter (I guess that would make her kid 1’s third cousin) made her an amazing chocolate cake to celebrate not only her 13th year of life, but also her academic accomplishments and admission to her boarding school of choice for high school next year. In true Dominican family fashion, they started singing happy birthday and 10 minutes later, where still singing Christmas songs and dancing. These are experiences that my kids don’t get in Connecticut. o After saying our goodbyes to extended family, we headed back to my aunt’s house in the city and ordered Dominican sushi to be delivered for a late dinner. Santo Domingo’s culinary scene is on point. You can have just about anything delivered to your house or hotel. Whomever invented sushi with platano maduro is a genius. o My aunt gave me her car once again, as the plan was for kid 1 and I to do some shopping at Calle El Condo in the morning, prior to meeting her at her business then head to the airport. Thanks to Waze, we had an easy drive back to the Malecon area to the Sheraton Hotel and slept like babies after such a busy day. 

Day 4: Last minute shopping and travel day home - Once again, I was up at sunrise and ready to tackle our last day in Santo Domingo, but my teenager was not having those plans. She once again slept in while I went down to breakfast alone. I savored my last plate of Dominican breakfast specialties that I never cook at home because they are way too labor intensive. - We checked out of the Sheraton Santo Domingo and headed to the Colonial Zone to do some last-minute shopping. - Calle El Conde: This pedestrian only street in Santo Domingo’s Colonial Zone is the ideal place to do some shopping while taking a leisurely stroll through the city’s historic area. You will find stores, street vendors and unique boutiques carrying everything from coffee, jewelry, clothing, art, musical instruments and food. 

Random musing and observations: - I was prepared to receive some of the wall requests from my first-born daughter while on this trip. I’m pleased to report, that while it may seem like you may be opening yourself up to extravagant requests by doing a Yes Trip, that was not the case. Kid 1 seemed happy enough to get to sleep in as late as she wanted, to enjoy as much rice and beans as possible and the occasional ice cream. She’s usually up between 5:30 AM and 6:00 AM daily for school and activities, so it seemed like her desire to get some rest and relax on this trip was met. - As a mom accustomed to traveling with four kids, I was amazed by how easy it was to get around with just one teenager. Also, everything took less time and we were able to accomplish so much in just a long weekend. - A Yes Trip can be accomplished without ever flying or even leaving your state. I can’t stress enough what a blessing this trip was to my eldest daughter and I. It’s possible to take this trip by staying at a local hotel or Bed and Breakfast. You can also do a short road trip and still have an amazing time. 

- A long weekend was more than enough time to enjoy family time in Santo Domingo. I’m on the lookout for deals, as I would love to do a similar trip with the entire family.  - Have you taken a mother – daughter or father – son 13th birthday trip? Where did you go?

Travel home:

- We headed to the airport way early because I never want to chance missing a flight due to issues with immigration and customs. We travel with carry on and backpacks and got through the Jet Blue line in no time. We then got in line to go through immigration and security. The Santo Domingo airport is small and there is no separate lines for things like Global Entry. Sill, we were through all of the security screens and immigration within 15 minutes. We had no issues, but did witness many others being sent for further questioning and screening. 

- We enjoyed an uneventful flight home and landed at JFK just as the sun was setting over NYC. I had filled out our Mobile Passport  information while still in the hotel in Santo Domingo and processed it as soon as we landed in JFK. We were through the Mobile Passport line in all of 5 minutes and walked right out of JFK to our waiting car to begin our 2 hour drive home. 

- I always travel with a signed letter from my husband acknowledging that I’m leaving the country with our child(ren) and on this particular trip (most likely because kid 1 looks like an adult not) I was never asked to produce it. 

Mother – Daughter 13th Birthday Getaway – Yes Trip to Santo Domingo

My eldest daughter and I enjoyed a mother – daughter 13th birthday Yes Trip to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and I’m ecstatic to share our trip report. It’s kid 1’s 13th year of life and I spent months planning a way to celebrate this milestone in a memorable and affirming way. Check out my two prior posts explaining what a Yes Trip is and the reasons why every parent should embark on one with their child - by clicking here and here. Now it’s time for me to report back on our trip and share more details about what we did while on the island. I traveled with over 22 letters from women in our lives and started sharing those letters with kid 1 as soon as we were sitting at the airport in NYC. Throughout our trip, I would hand her a letter, allow her to read and ponder the wisdom shared by so many amazing women in our lives. I’m so grateful for every amazing woman who took time out of their busy lives to speak into the life of my teen daughter.

How we got there?

We departed from New York City - JFK airport on a 5 am direct flight to Santo Domingo. This meant that we left CT at about 12:30 am and drove 2 hours to Queens, NY. I parked the car right at the terminal 5 parking and walked over to the departure area. Both kid 1 and I have TSA pre check (please note that children 13 and over are required to have their own TSA pre check number, but children 12 and under are covered by their parent’s). We encountered no traffic on our middle of the night drive into NYC and arrived at JFK prior to the TSA pre check lines even opening. We decided that it was worth waiting for TSA to open up and were the first in line at 3:15 am. We breezed through security and arrived at our gate to wait patiently for boarding. Who knew that a Jet Blue flight leaving NYC at 5 am would be this popular, but let me tell you, terminal 5 was packed with tourists and Dominicans taking advantage of the off-season deal!

Dominican travelers are the best. They get dressed up like they’re going to a fancy event in order to travel back home. They lack boundaries and are overly friendly to complete strangers and I soaked up every single part of this experience. I found myself being engaged in conversations with so many people at 4 am and you would have thought that we were family. This was the first of many signs for kid 1 of what her experience in Santo Domingo was going to be like. I always have an emotional response to landing in Quisquella and experiencing an entire plane full people cheering and clapping. Kid 1 was convinced that we Dominicans are “extra” and I’m more than happy to own that claim.

Customs in Santo Domingo

Our flight was uneventful and we arrived to Santo Domingo 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, there was still a plane using our arrival gate, so we were held off from taxing to our gate. Toward the end of our flight, we were given Dominican Customs forms to fill out. There are two different forms, one for foreigners and another for Dominicans. My daughter was considered American and I was considered Dominican, though I am a US citizen and travel with a US passport. I was born in the Dominican Republic and they recognize Dominican dual citizenship. Once we disembarked, I was so glad that I had the Dominican form, as the tourist line was incredibly long and the Dominican line was significantly shorter. We were allowed to go through customs together, even though my daughter had a tourist form. We traveled with carry ons and were through customs and outside looking for our ride within 15 minutes.

Transportation in Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo SDQ – Las Americas International Airport is actually not located in the city proper, but rather 32 km or 20 miles east of the Dominican capital city of Santo Domingo. While on past trips, when on vacation with my entire family we have rented cars, on this trip I didn’t want to waste precious travel time dealing with the hard sales that happen at Santo Domingo rental car agencies. We’ve had some pretty bad experiences while arguing about rates and insurance with car rental agencies in Santo Domingo. I had arranged for family to pick us up at the airport and drop us off at our hotel and was planning to either walk, Uber or taxi around the city.  This is pretty safe to do, if you’re staying in touristy areas and have some street smarts.

Where we stayed

I’m a pretty brand loyal costumer and have spent time at various Marriott properties in Santo Domingo. On prior trips, we’ve stayed at the Renaissance Jaragua, the Courtyard Santo Domingo and for this trip decided to take advantage of the Marriott Bonvoy changes and booked the Sheraton Santo Domingo, located on the Malecon (road parallel to the ocean). My aunt and cousin picked us up at the airport and we were sitting in the conference room at their place of business enjoying breakfast by 10 AM. After breakfast, my aunt convinced me to take their extra car and kid 1 and I made our way alone to the Sheraton Santo Domingo - thanks to Waze. Wow, Waze really works in Santo Domingo, it will even give you directions through callejones (alley ways).

Check in is normally at 4 pm, but I was hopeful that my Marriott loyalty level would allow us to check in early in order to head out to La Zona Colonial (The Colonial Zone) and get our trip started. I had the currency converted app on my phone and used it to keep track of my dollars and pesos. At the time of our trip in March of 2019 $1 US Dollar = $50.59 Dominican pesos. Prior to our weekend trip, I had researched what we wanted to see and planned how many dollars I needed to convert. I took into consideration which restaurants and tourist locations would take American Express and attempted to minimize how much cash I traveled with.

What We Did

Day 1:

-          Arrived to Santo Domingo by 8:30 am via Jet Blue direct flight from JFK.

-          Checked into The Sheraton Santo Domingo by 10 AM.

-          Explored La Zona Colonial

o   We took a short drive from the Sheraton Santo Domingo – Malecon to the Zona Colonial, found parking a few blocks away and walked to the Calle de las Damas. We were headed to the Kahkow Experience, but I kept getting distracted by the amazing architecture, streets, windows and doors that date back to the colonial period. Check out my VLOGs below to see pictures of the colonial architecture.

o   We ran into a large group of school children entering La Fortaleza Ozama on a field trip and decided to join them and explore the historical site. Fort Ozama was built in 1502 by the Spanish at the entrance to Santo Domingo’s Colonial Zone and overlooks the Ozama river, after which it was named. The castle which is also referred to as “La Fortaleza” is the oldest formal military construction of European origin in the Americas. It’s a Unesco World Heritage Site and a nice place to spend an hour while visiting Santo Domingo. Pro tip: pack water and a hat, as even in March it was incredibly hot and humid. The entry fee was $70 Dominican pesos, which is less than $1.50 US dollars per person. There are guides that you can pay for a formal tour, but I just wanted to take some pictures and explore on our own prior to heading to our next stop. You don’t have to use a guide in order to explore, so skip the non-affiliated people, walk right in, pay a few pesos and enjoy as long as you wish.

o   Next on our agenda was a tour of El Kahkow Experience. The Kahhow experience was the perfect way for my chocolate loving teen daughter to kick off her 13th birthday trip. We took part in the English language tour and make your own bar add on option. The building in which the Kahkow Experience is housed is an old colonial property which was architecturally preserved. The entire experience is well done and it was one of the highlights of our weekend trip to Santo Domingo. The tour started with a video explaining the history of chocolate, harvesting and the process of making chocolate from cacao farm to consumption. We visited on a Friday morning in late March and literally had the entire place to ourselves. We were the only two in the beginning part of our tour and then joined six others for the chocolate bar making portion. Cost: $672 Dominican Pesos for 2 for the initial tour (equals 13.28 US Dollars) and $1440 Dominican Pesos for 2 (equals 28.46 US Dollars) for the make your own chocolate portion.

o   We then headed to the square in front of the first cathedral in the New World: Catedral Primada de America and a stroll through the coffee shops, restaurants and stores of La Calle Conde. By then it was almost lunch time and we were melting, so we decided to head back to the El Malecon for lunch at Adrian Tropical.

-          Adrian Tropical is a typical Dominican Restaurant which benefits from its location on Avenida George Washington on the Malecon near major tourist hotels including the Sheraton. We always enjoy at least one meal at Adrian Tropical when visiting Santo Domingo, because nothing says I’ve arrived to Santo Domingo like enjoying a traditional meal of rice, beans, chicken, sancocho and mofongo while drinking a fria (Dominican’s call their Presidente beer “frias”) and taking in the view of the ocean and listening to the waves crash nearby. Service was slow and leaves a lot to be desired, but that pretty much was the theme of all of our eating experiences on this trip. You’re in the Caribbean, I highly recommend heading to any restaurant to order food about one hour prior to you being really hungry.

-          After lunch, we headed back to the hotel and put on our bathing suits. We live in Connecticut and it seemed like we hadn’t seen the sun in months. We laid out by the pool and enjoyed some vitamin D before heading back to our room to shower and change for dinner.

-          Dinner with family at my aunt’s house. I have a lot of extended family that lives in Santo Domingo, but 4 days on the island with the intended purpose of connecting with my teen daughter, did not leave any time for visiting family. My cousin had coordinated for any family members who wanted to see us to join us for dinner at my aunt’s house in Santo Domingo, thus kid 1 and I jumped into our borrowed car and I endured rush hour driving to arrive at my aunt’s house for dinner. Wow. That was an experience. I quickly learned that using my turning signals was just a sign of weakness and making eye contact led to people cutting me off and blocking us in. Public transportation cars and buses constantly stop for passengers on the right-hand side and would just block traffic flow. Driving in Santo Domingo is not for the faint of heart. I’m accustomed to driving in Boston, NYC, DC and LA and while it prepared me for the lack of common courtesy, I still arrived to dinner with a knot in my neck. Somehow my teenager slept through much of the driving madness and only woke up a few times while I jerked to avoid a huge pot hole or a motorist. I was proud of myself for driving in Santo Domingo, though the lack of driving rules really stressed me out, as I’m a type A, uptight rule follower. Waze did save the day, as it was extremely reliable and even navigated me out of heavy traffic. We ended up enjoying hours of Spanish language practice, food and sweetened coffee and tea at my aunt’s house with over 40 of my extended family. I finally had to tell my family that I didn’t drink sugar in my coffee and tea and it’s still a running joke in my family WhatsAPP group chat. If you’re like me and enjoy your coffee or tea without cream or sugar, be prepared to get weird looks and comments from Dominicans. They drink their milk and sugar with a little bit of coffee.

Day 2:

-          Traveling with a teen means that I got to enjoy lots of quiet time, because not once during our trip did my daughter wake up in time for breakfast. As a mother of four children ranging in ages from 6 – 13, It’s rare for me to enjoy a quiet breakfast, so on day 2 I got up and left kid 1 sleeping in our room while I enjoyed the included breakfast buffet at the Sheraton Santo Domingo. The buffet includes traditional Dominican breakfast items like mangu, queso frito, boiled yuca, salami and fresh fruit. After breakfast, I lounged by myself poolside while soaking up the morning sun. What a perfect start to what would prove to be an amazing day. Plans for day 2 included a road trip to Las Terrenas beach in Samana. My cousin, her husband and two kids picked us up in front of our hotel and off we went down the new highway to the Samana peninsula. My parents are originally from Samana and Sanchez and thus, I grew up taking long road trips to the Samana beaches, however with the toll road it only took us a little over 2 hours to arrive at a secluded and beautiful beach in Las Terrenas.

-          The beaches in the peninsula of Samana on the northeast coast of Dominican Republic are one of the reasons why I’m a total beach snob. The turquoise blue water is bath water temperature and perfect for a swim. The palm tree lined beach provide the perfect mix of sun and shade. It’s literally paradise. If you’re ever in the Samana area, ask a local how to get to Playa Marico near the piedras de las ballenas. You won’t be sorry and you can join me in the ranks of total beach snobs. Las Terrenas is known as a European settlement in Dominican Republic, but it seemed that all of the locals were recovering from a late night, because we enjoyed having the entire beach to ourselves for the morning, prior to heading to lunch.

-          Next, we headed to Restaurante Luis in Playa Coson. My cousin called ahead and reserved a table for 6 at the outdoor shack -restaurant, that was packed with locals and tourists. The restaurant consists of an outdoor kitchen – beach hut and outdoor plastic tables and chairs randomly placed on the sandy shores of Playa Coson. The kids literally played in the sand and swam while we waited for our meal. We hand-picked our fish and they cooked them for us while we sipped on pina coladas served in pineapples. I highly recommend eating fresh food while the ocean breeze cools you off and live musicians serenade you. Esa es la buena vida (that’s the good life)! Restaurante Luis is a must for anyone looking to experience Dominican Republic like a local. Just don’t tell too many people and spoil the exclusive vibe of this off the beaten path dive.

-          We had packed so much into our one-day road trip to Las Terrenas that we decided to stop by my grandmother’s country home (now owned by my uncle) in Las Garitas. I loved reminiscing with kid 1 about summer vacations running around the campo, eating mangoes right off the trees and spending hours playing outside with neighborhood kids. We drank coffee and ate snacks on the porch with my uncle and cousin while laughing hysterically about our shenanigans as young kids. We were off and back to Santo Domingo by 7 pm. We spent a total of 12 hours including travel time in Samana and were able to pack in a ton in that short period of time. On the way back to Santo Domingo we stopped at Helados Bon for ice cream, because one can’t visit DR and not eat their ice cream.

-          Our second day in Santo Domingo ended with what I call adventures in La Zona Colonial. Two of my cousins picked us up at 10 pm post a shower and nap and we headed to the Colonial Zone for a late dinner. Yes, I had my 13-daughter year old out at this time. This is DR and it’s Dominican time. In retrospect, we should have left their car at the Sheraton and taken an Uber to the restaurant, but our adventures in attempting to find a parking spot on a Saturday night in The Colonial Zone just gave us lots of opportunities for laughter. In true teen fashion, kid 1 fell asleep as soon as we got into the car and thank God she did. We drove around for over an hour prior to finding a government parking garage that was full, but the attendant agreed to allow us to park there as long as we were back by 2 am. We walked toward Calle Conde to Jalao Restaurant. Even though it was 11 pm, the Colonial Zone was packed and we quickly learned that there was not one available table inside the Jalao Restaurant, which had a live band and large groups celebrating birthday parties. We were able to score a table outside and ordered our dinner. Dominican Republic is not known for quick service, so we should have guessed that it was going to be a long night, when our waiter warned us that the kitchen was backed up and that we should order soon. It did take 1 hour for our food to come out and we did not make our way back to our car until 1 am. Thankfully, we were among family and we laughed and joked through dinner and loved people watching in the Zona Colonial.

Part 2 of my Mother – Daughter #yestrip will be forthcoming, but prior to signing off I wanted to share a couple pro tips about traveling to Dominican Republic with kids. Also, click here to see more pictures and lives posts from our Yes Trip to Santo Domingo. 

Check out my VLOG of Day 1 for many more pictures of our adventures in Santo Domingo.

Pro Tips:

-          Pack your patience. Americans, especially those of us from the Northeast cities are always in a rush and always have an agenda. Dominican culture is not like that. Even in a major city like Santo Domingo, people move at their own pace (unless you’re driving and then everyone seems to be in a rush).

-          Even in March, Santo Domingo is hot. Pack a hat, sunblock and a refillable water bottle like my extra-large hydroflask which helps keep bottled water cold longer in the hot DR sun.

-          Practice your Spanish Language skills. Santo Domingo is a bustling city and it’s helpful if you can speak some Spanish.

-          As aforementioned, Santo Domingo is a large city and as such I highly recommend that you leave your flashy jewelry and accessories at home. We were two women traveling alone and never felt unsafe. I travel with my favorite Ebag cross bag purse and leave my large wallet safely at home.

-          Unless you’re an aggressive driver and have a thirst for adventure, leave the driving to the Dominicans. Car seats and use of seat belts are not common. It may require you to take a deep breath and relax your expectations a bit on this issue.

-          Dominicans are friendly people and always ready to engage you in conversation. When traveling with kids, be prepared for total strangers to engage your family in dialogue. Everyone called us familia (family) or prima (cousin). Kid 1 is convinced that Santo Domingo is a city of extroverts.

-          Take time to slowly explore the cobble-stoned streets and architecture of the Colonial Zone. Take lots of pictures and make beautiful memories.

-          If you’re planning a trip to Samana, I highly recommend going in January and adding a whale watching trip to your itinerary.

-          Water is not safe to drink from the tap in Dominican Republic. The Sheraton provided 3 bottles of water per day, which I used to refill my hydroflask water bottle and we picked up bottled water whenever we were out. We had no issues with GI side effects and even ate street food. We travel often though, and as a Dominican I think my GI system is probably stronger than most. If you’re worried about illness, stick to bottled water, ice in hotels and major restaurants are safe to drink.

Day 2 VLOG with many more pictures: