POPPOPreport.com

News from Puerto Plata & the Dominican Republic north coast The Puerto Plata Report

Dominican Republiceco-tourism& adventure travel

Eco-lodgeoperator

dispenses free cell

phones and tripadvice to

independent-minded travelers

Dominican Republic Base Camps

Canadian ex-pat Tim Hall developed the DR Base Camp Network

after opening his Tubagua Plantation

Eco-Lodge at an abandoned plantation

near Puerto Plata

PUERTO PLATA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC— Lodge owners in the Dominican Republic are encour-aging travelers to step beyond this Caribbean country’s tony beach resorts by offering free trip planning and a local cell phone to help them along their way.

What’s the gimmick?“All you have to do is

stay at our base camp near Puerto Plata for a couple of days, “ says Tim Hall, an ex-Montre-aler who relocated here twenty-five years ago.

He bought an abandoned plantation and built a rustic lodge commanding pan-oramic views of Puerto Plata.

“As people explore the base camp zone around Puerto Plata, I am able to assess their travel experience, likes and dislikes, their language skills. With this I can help them to make final decisions on a de-tailed itinerary that really works

for them.”This is the most logical way to

customize a trip through the DR,, he says.

“Guide books give you over-view but they can never be up-to-the-minute.. And it’s hard to micro-plan a trip from your desktop —you never really know

you get there.”Hall provides a selection of

pre-inspected small hotels locat-ed around the country and fills his customers in on local lore.

“What traveler doesn’t want

Dominican Republic Base Camps

Lost your way? Phone the lodge! They give you a free cell phone to call in when you need help, especially handy if your

Spanish is spare

an inside track from a local?””The cell phone idea happened

by accident, he says. One day as a visiting friend was leaving to Santo Domingo. Hall decided to loan him a cell phone he had lying around so he could call in if he got lost.

“He didn’t speak Spanish and crossing the big cities can be challenging”, says Hall. “With the cell phone I was able to stay in touch and help him along the way. Since then it’s become an important part of our service. People really like being connected this way; they no longer have to travel on guided tours if they don’t want to.”Planning a Base Camp holiday-The Dominican Republic Base Camp Network is organized around seven different “base

camp zones” along with several pro-posed road trips, each of seven days; time enough to visit three or four differ-ent zones, says Hall.Any one of the pro-posed seven-day trips is easy to customize into a 14- or 21-day trek, simply by adding a few days layover in any zone, or additional zones to your route.It is never more than a three-hour drive from one zone to the next. This means the trip be-tween base camps can be done as a passenger in the (slow) public guaguas, while in a rented car it can be either a quick hop or an easy-going daytrip with plenty of time for stops along the way.

For more information about The Dominican Republic Base CampNetwork,visit www.Travel-Dominican-Republic.com

Breathtaking scenery:

an endless feature of the

Dominican Republic

The Dominican RepublicSituated between Cuba and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean, The Dominican Republic is a Spanish-speaking democratic country that occupies the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, sharing the island with Haiti. Well-known for its beautiful beaches and all-inclusive beach resorts, the Dominican Republic also boasts an unsung wealth of ecologocal at-tractions and diverse terrain, ranging from a below-sea-level lake to the

Caribbean’s highest mountain. A recently opened toll highway connects the north eastern region with Santo Dominogo, creating a convenient-to-explore highway loop around the central regions of the country. It is a three-hou r direct flight f rom New York City and less than two hours from Miami. Direct flights are also available from Europe, Canada and Latin America.

The Dominican RepublicSituated between Cuba and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean, The Dominican Republic is a Spanish-speaking democratic country that occupies the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, sharing the island with Haiti. Well-known for its beautiful beaches and all-inclusive beach resorts, the Dominican Republic also boasts an unsung wealth of ecologocal at-tractions and diverse terrain, ranging from a below-sea-level lake to the

Caribbean’s highest mountain. A recently opened toll highway connects the north eastern region with Santo Dominogo, creating a convenient-to-explore highway loop around the central regions of the country. It is a three-hou r direct flight f rom New York City and less than two hours from Miami. Direct flights are also available from Europe, Canada and Latin America.

www.popreport.com

POPPOPreport.com

News from Puerto Plata & the Dominican Republic north coast The Puerto Plata Report