Dominican Republic Safety

We are planning ours for early October and we are also nervous about this!!

We are planning our wedding at Hilton La Romana in March 2020. We just returned (May 2019) from a trip there to look at resorts and venues. We felt safe the entire time and the service was incredible. The food was amazing. We took a taxi between hotels and restaurants in the area and never felt unsafe. We are still torn if we should continue with the wedding, mainly because of other family fears and not our own. It is unfortunate the deaths but Mexico goes through this every few years, Jamaica is currently having horrible crime which is why we chose Dominican over Jamaica, but Jamaica is not in the news. Mexico had a bootleg alcohol problem a couple years back. I think as long as you are at a reputable resort we will be okay. Aruba went through the same thing all those years ago and it hurt their tourism for years. Like others have said, tragedy can occur anywhere. Whether it is a coincidence or not is yet to be determined. The silver lining is, whatever the issue is, it will most definitely be fixed ASAP!

My FH and I are planning to travel to Punta Cana for our honeymoon in 21 days! We're very excited, and do not plan to cancel. We both agreed that if something happened at the resort we're specifically staying at, we'd change our plans. We have insurance on this trip for this very reason.

I do have to say, though, that we all have to remember the media over dramatizes everything. It's very sad that people have passed away while on vacation, but when you read those articles, what the media doesn't say is how much alcohol they drank before drinking from the minibar, what medications they're on that say "do not drink alcohol" or what their health was BEFORE traveling. When you have health issues that you're unaware of and then travel, travel is a stressor on the body that can make previous "asymptomatic issues" be "symptomatic".

Just be smart, always stay aware of your surroundings and don't go off by yourself. If the minibar beverages do not come factory sealed, don't drink them. And if you do start to show symptoms of being sick, get checked out by a doctor.

I am still going back and forth on hosting our wedding there. But on Another note, Thailand had 33 American tourists die in last year (2018) alone and that isn’t in the media.

Jamaica has do not travel zones, don’t take public transport and several reports of sexual assaults happening in all-inclusive resorts. State.gov says “sexual assaults occur frequently at all-inclusive...police lack resources to respond...” No media attention?

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I feel your pain we are booked for Punta Cana next April. So torn.

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We moved ours from Dreams Resort Dominicus La Romana to Dreams Los Cabos. I had too many guest that were nervous about traveling to the DR