Dominican Republic Route Descriptions & Maps

Las Americas Airport to Santo Domingo 30Ks

This is a busy flat 30 Ks on a divided highway with a shoulder. Urban riding in Santo Domingo is with traffic but not bad. The streets are wide, especially the Malecon (along the coast). You must be cautious about leaving your bike.

Santo Domingo to La Romana 110Ks

Ride the 30 Ks back past the Airport, leaving early to avoid the traffic. The flat divided highway with a wide shoulder continues to San Pedro de Macoris. The winds were east. After San Pedro the road is a wide 2-lane with good surface and much less traffic and 40 Ks to La Romana. The resort Casa De Campo is 8 Ks from the city.

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La Romana to Hato Mayor 79 Ks

Back to San Pedro de Macoris 40 Ks. turn north to Hato Mayor 39 Ks. Slightly up hill on good road and better riding. (We heard the ride to the Club Med in Higuey was a good trip)

Hato Mayor to Sabana de la Mar (boat to Samama) 45 Ks

The road was very rough and only paved in places and hilly. We took a cambionetta to the passenger ferry that took 1 hour. Then, in 1984 the boats left at 6AM, 9AM and 3PM.

Samana to the end of the peninsula 25 Ks

This is an excellent ride, that starts with a big hill, east to the end of the Island. A good scenic, and quiet road. 50Ks round trip.

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Samana to Nagua 70 Ks

There is a big hill out of town and then a good new 2-lane road (1983) all the way (to Puerto Plata) and it’s quiet. To La Fuente the distance is 26 Ks where thee is a spring fed pool and good swimming. Then it is 8 Ks more to Sanchez. There are beautiful beaches on either side of Nagua and good camping. There were no decent hotels in Nagua in 1983.

Nagua to Rio San Juan 65 Ks

Perfection on a smooth traffic free road with tropical scenery, and a constant east wind at our backs. There are gorgeous beaches with great camping 8 Ks east of Nagua.

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Rio San Juan to Sosua 65 Ks

Rio San Juan was not developed then (in 1988). There is a pretty lagoon in the city. Another day of great riding. This route along the coast is fairly flat along beautiful beaches. The traffic picks up toward Sosua. There is a nice beach here in Sosua’s city center.

Sosua to Puerto Plata 25 Ks

This route has one good-sized hill, more traffic and goes past the airport. It’s 10 Ks to the “New” resort complex. After these hotels the traffic gets heavier and the road is still 2-lanes. (5 years later in 1988 this portion of the road was dangerously busy).

Puerto Plata to Santiago 60 Ks

In 1988, there was much more traffic than before. Up a long gradual climb to 850 meters then down. Just before Santiago is a junction to Monte Criste (86 Ks). The road surface was especially rough toward Santiago. The last 15 Ks was a poor ride on a rough shoulder.

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Santiago to Santo Domingo 155 Ks

This road is narrow, lots of traffic and no shoulder so don’t ride it – take a bus.

Road Stories

Dominican Republic – 1983

The palm trees punctuate our view of the sun swept sea as we glide along pushed by a balmy east breeze. It is January. But in the Dominican Republic, shorts, t-shirts, and sunscreen are our winter garb.

My wife Sally and I are bicycling along the Dominican North Coast for a second time within a week. After or first trip from Samana to Puerto Plata , we simply had to repeat it. Preferring constant tailwinds to head winds, we decided to catch the local public transportation back to Samana. It was cheap and colorful. Toyota pickup trucks, called “cambionettas,” ply these rural roads. The drivers, never refusing a fare, cram passengers, packages, chickens and bicycles (ours) into the back. Their motto appears to be “There’s always room for one more.” Nevertheless, our fellow passengers are friendly, cheerful and helpful like all the Dominicanos we meet during our two-week tour.

On our first pass along the North Coast, we exalted at the tropical scenery, the smooth, traffic-free roads, the constant east winds and warm sun. Familiarity with the route on our second pass helped us especially in planning our lodging and meals. The North Coast, as is true of most of the Dominican Republic, is not fully developed for tourism. But this is exactly why bicycling along here is so attractive.

We carry neither tent, nor cooking gear, so we stay in hotels and eat in restaurants. There are reasonably nice tourist hotels (about $20-$30 per night) in Samana, Rio San Juan, Sosua, and Puerto Plata, but very little else in between. About ten miles east of Puerto Plata, there is a beautiful new resort complex, which is comparatively pricey and very full during the winter season.

Every night, after a day’s ride, we satisfy our bikers’ appetites with excellent local beer, fresh seafood, and lots of juicy fruit right from the trees. At midday, when the sun is high, and if there are no clouds, the heat drives us to the beaches where we swim and lie under a palm tree until it cools a little in the afternoon. We don’t lock up our bikes since the people are honest and the beaches are right next to the road. This Dominican honesty was a byproduct of the former police state we were told. Thieves were dealt with very severely under the Trujillo regime. Apparently this left a lasting impression on the Dominicanos.

Our appreciation of the Dominican North Coast is especially great since we had come to the Dominican Republic with almost no hard information about cycling conditions here. I called the Dominican tourist office in New York, but they had no idea what I was asking about.

We arrived in Santo Domingo, the principal city, on Christmas night. The Christmas fiesta is in full swing on the street in front of our hotel so we join in. The next morning, dusting off our rusty Spanish, we find a local bike shop operator who in turn directs us to the Federacion Dominicana de Ciclism (the Dominican Bicycle Touring Association). Slowly, we develope our tour plan. My Spanish is awful but they have good maps and lots of patience. Here is where we first heard about the North Coast.

To get to the North Coast, we leave early in the morning (avoiding the traffic near Santo Doming) and ride past the airport to La Romana. This flat 75 mile trip is a nice first day’s ride. The exclusive resort, Casa De Campo, is about five miles east of La Romana. The next day we ride back west to San Pedro de Macoris, then up north to Hato Mayor. From Hato Mayor, the road north to Sabana de la Mar is very rough and we eventually haveto save our tires by taking our first cambionetta. From Sabana de la Mar, there is a ferry across the Bay of Samana.

Since a Dominican bus is a pickup truck, we wait with curiosity for the 3 p.m. ferry to Samana. At 2:55 p.m. with no ferry appearing on the horizon, two men push past the waiting passengers and jump into a beat-up old cabin cruiser tied to the pier and announced that the “ferry” for Samana is leaving immediately. We clamor aboard with the other passenger, tie our bikes to the roof, and chug our way to the other side of the bay.

This is the start of our ride along the North Coast. However, that night a young man in Samana recommends that we ride east to the end of the island before we heading west. We followed his recommendation.

It is a beautiful 20 mile side trip to the end of the island’s north peninsula. We start early in the morning while the mist was still hanging around the coves. After an hour of pedaling, we stop at a little roadside stand and have local bananas, oranges, and coconut milk for breakfast—perfect fuel for the return trip to Samana.

At various times during our rides along the coast, Dominicano bike racers would meet us or pass us while out on their training rides. Bike racing is a popular sport in the Dominican Republic. There was always camaraderie between us.

Around Sosua, we were riding with two of these racers. They suggested a tour of a sugar cane refinery a few miles off the highway. While in the small refinery town, we realized that the language spoken there was French. Our friends told us that all the workers were Haitian and that no Dominicano would work so hard for so little money. The Sugar Plantation Company imported these workers from Haiti. After this guided side trip, our two racer friends then resume their training speed and soon became specks on the horizon.

While stopped for refreshments near Rio San Juan on our first run, we met Jorge. Jorge was born in Puerto Rico, lived in New York, and retired to the Dominican Republic. He lived down the road at the “26 Kilometer Marker.”

On our second trip through, we stopped by Jorge’s house. It was a modest house which was still under construction in spite of being lived in for four years.
Kids came and went as we sipped Cokes. We learned that he had adopted three of them. This was not a legal adoption but a de facto adoption. Jorge fed, clothed, watched after, and sent them to school. The kids’ real parents lived 200 yards down the road and ran a small subsistence grocery store. Jorge felt that their parents didn’t want the responsibility of raising kids and also realized that Jorge could better afford them. Jorge’s Social Security went a long way there. Later, we walked up to the grocery store with Jorge. One of the kids ran past the store and shouted “hello,” to Mama and Papa. Together shouted back, “Don’t be late for dinner.” This is the extended family: Dominican Style.

Our Coastal trip ends both times in Puerto Plata, about 180 miles northwest of Samana. Puerto Plata is a port city with a charming, old town square. Sally and I sit in an outside café on the square sipping ice-cold beer, dining on fresh lobster, and watching the locals gather in the square. After two glorious trips along the coast, we can’t wait to get going toward Santiago the next morning.

Our friends at the Bicycle Tour Association in Santo Domingo had glowed with enthusiasm about the coast but they never really told us much about the Puerto Plata to Santiago segment. This proved to be the only “bummer” of the trip.
The road to Santiago was full of traffic. There was a 4,000-foot climb out of Puerto Plata, and the road surface was especially narrow and rough toward Santiago. When we arrive, we are glad to be alive and we made up our minds to take the bus back to Santo Domingo the next day.

Sally always thinks something positive will come out of a bad situation. Sure enough, that evening in Santiago, we learned that the Dominican Winter Baseball League All Star game was to be played. Tickets were available and we, being avid baseball fans, go to watch the Dominican stars play the great American summer past time in January.

The bus back to Santo Domingo is actually a bus–seats, windows, and everything. From our window, we confirmed that the road is too rough, narrow, and trafficked to ride.

We arrive back in Santo Domingo, where the Christmas fiesta is still in full swing, on January 6th. The next morning, we return to the Federacion Dominica de Ciclism where we are welcomed back by the helpful people there. Juan, the club president, suggests some other routes for our next tour. He recommends the road through the center of the Eastern portion of the island from Hato Mayor to Higuey and then northeast to the Playa de Macao where there are beautiful beaches and new hotels.

We thank Juan for all his help and we assure him that we will return and try some of his other suggested routes. Sally and I agreed, that we would also do the laid-back paradise along the Dominican North Coast again. Next time, we’ll probably do it three times!