Best Priced Beach Front Condo in the Tropics! Playa Ventosa C-2 Cabarete, Dominican Republic Real Estate

I have lived outside the US since 2006, mostly because I want to live ocean front or beach front without the price tag of San Diego or Miami.
I first lived in Panama, in an ocean front sky rise condo.  Then I wanted more.  I wanted not just ocean front, but beach front.
So I looked around.  Panama, Belize, Ecuador, the Caribbean.
Long story short, the average price for a beach front luxury condo is about $200/square foot in "developing countries".   As you know, its about 4 or 5 times that in the US.
Do your own research.  You will find out the same thing I did.  If you want a 1,500 square foot 2 bed 2 bath beach front condo, it will cost you about $300,000.  How would you like to pay only $139/sq ft ???

BEST PRICE PER SQUARE FOOT LUXURY BEACH FRONT CONDO IN THE TROPICS

PLAYA VENTOSA, UNIT C-2

CABARETE, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

$239,000 USD

1732sq.ft, 2 BED, 2.5 BATH FURNITURE INCLUDED!

THAT'S ONLY $139 PER SQUARE FOOT!!!

Playa Ventosa Condos are the nicest luxury condos for the money on the whole north coast, but MY UNIT is the CHEAPEST OF ALL AVAILABLE.  If you go to the web page, www.playaventosa.com you will see that the cheapest one they offer is $304,000.  My unit includes furniture and is priced to sell fast at only $239,000.  Call me in DR at 849-917-6228 or email me at frankieamorfati@gmail.com  - Frankie

200 meters east of Janet's Supermarket, 15 minute walk on the beach to all the premier bars and restaurants on Cabarete Beach. 

Cabarete's Anti-Tourism Program

You have worked hard to earn your vacation.  You land in the Dominican Republic, head over to your hotel in Cabarete, change into your swimsuit and b-line for the white sand beach and turquoise ocean.  Ahh... paradise! You grab a mojito at one of the many fantastic bar/restaurants right there on the beach, and lay down on a lounge chair to absorb the tropical sun.
Relaxation.  Finally.
Then it begins - the end of your vacation of peace and tranquility as you dreamed about.

About every 5 minutes, one of the 40-plus vendors sanctioned by the marketing geniuses at the Ministry of Tourism in the DR come to relentlessly harass you.  They put a wooden box of worthless trinkets in your face and ask you to buy a voodoo necklace or cheap bracelet nobody wants, so you decline.  They persistently offer the box to you again, so you have to repeat, "no thanks, gracias".  You put your head back to rest.  A few minutes later you take a sip of the mojito, only to find another baby-blue shirted "official" vendor at your side, with the same box of junk the last one showed you.  You say no, twice, again.  This goes on for pretty much the entire time you are on the beach trying to relax and enjoy your tropical vacation, because, after all, every one of the 40+ men and women selling the same exact box of jungle jewelery has to make sure that you say "no gracias" twice each.

Who's brilliant idea was this to send an army of professional vacation-wreckers to disturb people on the beach?  I will tell you who.  Some incompetent moron in the Ministry of Tourism for the Dominican Republic deliberately made this decision to completely disregard the peaceful, relaxing vacation experience of the tourist - the very bread and butter of their economy - and implement this anti-tourist program.  In addition, if you go to sit down at any one of the restaurants on Cabarete beach, you will have no shelter there from the entourage of ordained trinket peddlers.
I bet NOBODY who works for the Ministry of Tourism in this country ever asked the customer, the tourist, if they like being relentlessly harassed by their minions.  I bet NOBODY in the Ministry of Tourism ever figured out that this harassment DISCOURAGES TOURISM to the area, not encourages it.  I bet anyone who wants to that the vacationers that come to Cabarete beach go back home with a bad taste in their mouth about this.  Many don't return specifically because of this harassment, and even worse, they tell their friends not go go to the Dominican Republic because you will get bombarded with aggressive venders while you are eating at a restaurant or lounging at the beach.
If the idea is to put these men and women to work, I have a better idea.  Instead of having them sell unwanted worthless taboo trinkets, put an empty server plate in each of their hands.  Have them go around taking drink orders. 50 peso (apx. $1.20) tip automatically included in the bill for each drink.  These men and women will make a lot more money, and the harassment will be reduced/eliminated because everybody on the beach wants a pina colada or Presidente.

President Medina should fire the morons who put this harassment plan into place.  Replace him/her with the person that runs the Venus Pool Bar at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.

When you are on vacation in Las Vegas and head over to the Venus Pool Bar at Caesar's, you are treated like an Emperor.  There, instead of having venders try to sell you worthless necklaces, they have world-class cocktail servers and "grape girls". These grape girls are dressed in toga-like swimwear in the Roman empire theme, and they come over to your lounge chair and sit next to you.  As you are laying down, they hand- feed you frozen grapes.... drop them right in your mouth, like you are the king of the universe.  As many as you want.  For free.  NOW THAT'S MARKETING!  That is the Las Vegas vacation experience at its best.  Of course, if you don't tip that grape girl 5 to 10 bucks for that emperor experience, you are a cheapskate loser and I hope you go home broke.
The DR can do the same thing.  Take its people's talents, resources, and put them to work CREATIVELY - in a way that helps the customer's experience AND enhances employment opportunities.
The point is, the people that run this country, from the President to the Minister of Tourism, are not in touch with what the foreigner wants to experience when they vacation in the Dominican Republic. If they had even a little bit of a clue, they would have shit-canned this anti-tourist harassment program before it even got started.  But it has been going on for years. That says it all.  They put out their own one-track minded agenda such as "lets show them our culture" instead of sitting down with as many tourists as possible and asking them what experiences, what amenities, what things to avoid, etc to enhance the tropical paradise vacation.

Who knows, maybe after the President and Minister of Tourism read this, if they don't have me killed they will hire me as a consultant to figure out real ways to improve the Dominican vacation experience and eliminate the old bullshit that has been going on for way too long.

What changes would you propose?  Please leave a comment with your thoughts.

Propane Fuel in the DR 4 Your Car!

Living on the north coast in the Dominican Republic is a dream come true.  Soon I will post a valid argument for why the DR is the best and only place any gringo/expat should consider living in the Caribbean. However, the DR is not perfect.  Paradise, yes. Perfect, not.  One of the things I am getting used to is the sticker shock I get on items that are priced well above what I would pay in the US.  Gasoline, alcohol, cars and electronics - just to name most of the important products.
Fortunately, many of these price premiums can be mitigated or even eliminated if you are like me and value your money.  One way to reduce the cost of gasoline/fuel for your car is to install a propane gas conversion system.  The installation cost in total is about US $1,500.

Another solution is to buy an economy car like a Kia Picanto.  I rented one of these for two weeks and although the price of gasoline is a whopping 232 pesos regular (US about $5.50) and 245 premium ($5.79), the Picanto gets more than 35 miles per gallon. So to get good gas mileage, you have to either have a small 4-cylinder vehicle like a Picanto, or, convert your 6/8 cylinder to propane, which costs 107 pesos (apx $2.50/gallon).
I purchased a Nissan Murano 6-cylinder SUV that normally gets up to 20 mpg on regular gasoline.  But the advantage was it already had the propane conversion.  If you are a good negotiator, you can get a good deal on almost anything in the DR, real estate, cars, electronics, etc.  Propane yields a little less range, but not much, as I proved to myself this morning with a test drive.
First, I emptied the propane tank completely.  I drove it on gasoline (when you convert you still have both gasoline and propane) to the propane gas station.  I put exactly one gallon of propane.  The tank went empty at 29.1 kilometers (about 18 miles).  About 23 of that was highway, the rest city.
Follow the math.
29 kilometers = 18 miles = 1 galon propane = 107 pesos = apx $2.50
Propane costs about 45% of gasoline or less (see prices above).
So getting 18 miles per gallon on propane is the equivalent of getting 40 miles per gallon on gasoline.
Hence, you can drive a more powerful, perhaps luxury vehicle with the fuel cost of a Picanto.

This is one way to eliminate some of the price premiums in the Dominican Republic.  As for alcohol, the only solution I have to reduce this cost premium is to reduce or eliminate alcohol consumption.  I will post soon on the solutions to some of the other cost premiums.  In general, the things that you NEED in the DR, such as housing and food, are much cheaper than most countries.  The things that you WANT (imports, luxuries, etc) are more expensive, if you don't do any research or care about the price of the things you buy.  I do, so I will report on ways to solve that problem.

Until then, Happy Holidays from drgringo!