Communications

Without a doubt, the easiest and most readily accessible way to make a long-distance call is by using a Verizon Comunicard. You can buy them at hotels, gift shops, corner stores, pharmacies—everywhere, it seems. All you do is follow the directions on the back of the card and it is a prepaid long-distance phone call.

If you are going to be staying in the Dominican Republic [1] for an extended amount of time and have an old cell phone to spare, take it with you. You can then take it to any Verizon office and they will activate it for you for a small fee. You can then receive phone calls on it and buy phone cards to use from it. It is a very convenient way to communicate, probably the most cost effective if you’re staying for a while. Placing long-distance calls in the Dominican Republic is easy. What looks like the area code (809) is actually the Dominican country code and doesn’t need to be dialed before a phone number within the country. If a Dominican phone number is 809/555-0012, then while in the country you only need to dial 555-0012. Calling from the U.S. or Canada, you would dial 1-809/555-0012.

Verizon also happens to be the country’s number one Internet access provider. Most bigger towns, especially ones that are frequented by tourists, have a Verizon office. Cybercafés are becoming more and more popular and are in towns such as Santo Domingo [2], Puerto Plata [3], Bayahibe [4], Boca Chica [5], Cabarete [6], Bávaro [7], and Las Terrenas [8].

For excellent Internet sources for all things Dominican (news, travel information, business, tourism, sports, message boards, directories, exchange rate, weather) in English, go to www.dr1.com [9] or www.dominicantoday.com [10]. These are both fantastic English-language, Dominican reference websites.

There are two main newspapers—Listin Diario (www.listin.com.do [11]) and El Caribe (www.elcaribecdn.com [12]). Others include: Hoy (www.hoy.com.do [13]), El Nacional (www.elnacional.com.do [14]), and Diario Libre (www.diariolibre.com [15]).

The postal system in the Dominican Republic [1] is a completely useless organization, not to be trusted with any important documents or packages. However, most hotel front desks will mail things for you. For really reliable service pay extra for FedEx (tel. 809/565-3636) or DHL Dominicana (tel. 809/543-7888).