Getting Around the Dominican Republic
In Punta Cana, your resort arranges everything (airport transfer, excursions), and Uber barely functions there — outside the resort bubble, a rental car (from about $30-50/day) or private driver is the way to explore. Santo Domingo, unusually for the Caribbean, has an actual metro system. Getting between regions (Punta Cana to Santo Domingo) means a 3-4 hour drive or a short domestic flight.
Getting to the Dominican Republic
Punta Cana International Airport (PUJ) is the country's busiest gateway and, given the Dominican Republic is now the Caribbean's most-visited destination, has extensive direct flight options. Expect 3-9 hours depending on origin, with round-trip fares typically $350-700 from the US. Santo Domingo, Puerto Plata, and Santiago all have their own international airports too, useful if you're skipping Punta Cana entirely for the north coast or the capital.
Getting around: the real options
How you get around here depends heavily on which part of the country you're in — Punta Cana runs almost entirely on resort transfers and organized excursions, while Santo Domingo and the north coast expect a bit more independent navigating.
- Trains — Santo Domingo has the Caribbean's only metro system (two lines, opened 2009 and 2018), but there's no intercity passenger rail anywhere else in the country.
- Buses — decent for budget intercity travel; Caribe Tours and Metro (the bus company, not the subway) run comfortable coaches between Santo Domingo, Santiago, and Puerto Plata, while cheaper shared vans ('guaguas') connect smaller towns for a fraction of the cost, with less comfort and no fixed schedule.
- Domestic flights — a genuinely useful shortcut between Punta Cana and Santo Domingo (about 40 minutes) if you don't want the 3-4 hour drive, though most visitors doing both regions just drive or take an organized transfer.
- Car rental / driving — worth it if you want to explore beyond your resort or base yourself outside Punta Cana; expect $30-60/day, aggressive local driving norms, potholes on secondary roads, and tolls on the main highways. The Dominican Republic drives on the right.
Getting around inside cities and resorts
Inside Punta Cana's resort zone, you genuinely don't need transport of your own — hotels arrange airport transfers and excursions, and most guests never leave the property. Uber technically exists in the Dominican Republic but is unreliable to nonexistent in Punta Cana specifically; it works reasonably well in Santo Domingo and, to a lesser extent, Santiago. Santo Domingo's Zona Colonial is entirely walkable, and the city's Metro (about $0.40 a ride) covers longer trips efficiently. Outside the capital, taxis (agree the fare before you get in — meters aren't standard) and hotel-arranged transfers fill the gap.
| Route/option | Typical cost | Typical time |
|---|---|---|
| Punta Cana airport to a Bavaro-area resort | Included in most resort packages, or $25-45 by taxi | 20-40 min |
| Punta Cana to Santo Domingo | $80-150 (flight) or $15-25 (bus/shared van) | 40 min (flight) or 3-4 hours (road) |
| Santo Domingo Metro single ride | ~$0.40 | — |
If you're staying in Punta Cana and want to explore beyond the resort, book a private driver or a rental car rather than counting on Uber — ride-hailing coverage there is genuinely thin, and you don't want to be stranded trying to get back from an off-resort restaurant at night.
Common transport mistakes
- Assuming Uber works reliably in Punta Cana the way it does in Santo Domingo — it doesn't; arrange transport through your resort or a private driver instead.
- Renting a car without budgeting for tolls and rougher secondary roads — the main highways are fine, but smaller roads off the tourist track can be poorly maintained.
- Getting into an unmetered taxi anywhere in the country without agreeing on the fare first — always confirm the price before the ride starts, especially near resort zones where overcharging tourists is a known, if minor, hassle.
Getting to the mountain towns and the north coast
Jarabacoa and Constanza have no commercial airport or intercity rail, so a rental car or private driver is the standard way in — figure roughly 2 hours from Santo Domingo to Jarabacoa on paved mountain roads, plus another hour on to Constanza. Puerto Plata and Cabarete are best reached by flying directly into Puerto Plata's Gregorio Luperón International Airport rather than routing through Santo Domingo or Punta Cana, which adds hours of extra driving.