Driving in the Dominican Republic before you rent a car

Motorbikes run the road

The first surprise behind the wheel is not the potholes, it is the bikes. Motorbikes are the majority on the road and the motoconcho is real public transport, not a novelty. That changes how the road works: they overtake on both sides at once, ride the hard shoulder, cross a six-lane avenue diagonally and, on short stretches, come straight at you against the traffic. It is not aggression, it is the local habit, and everyone takes it for granted except the person who just landed. Driving here means checking your mirrors far more often than you do at home.

Signs exist, habit decides

Painted lines read as a suggestion. A lane and a half becomes three rows of cars at a red light, turns come out of whichever lane you happen to be in and indicators are used sparingly. The horn is not an insult, it is a language: one short beep means "I am here", two in a row mean "I am going through". At roundabouts and unsignalled junctions the driver who commits gets to go, and hesitating halfway across is usually more dangerous than carrying on. None of this is learned by reading. You learn it in your first twenty minutes, which are exactly the twenty minutes you drive fresh off a flight and tired.

What a rental car actually costs

The website price is not the final price. On top of the daily rate there is almost always a Dominican third-party liability policy the agency sells separately, and your credit card cover does not replace it, because card cover usually protects the vehicle, not other people. Then come fuel, dearer than in most of the region, the tolls on the eastern and northern motorways, parking in Santo Domingo and the excess if the car comes back with a dent. Add it up and one long trip by car for two people rarely costs less than two bus tickets plus a short Uber ride at each end.

Nobody drives at night, and that is not an exaggeration

The rule everyone who lives here repeats is to arrive before dark. Away from the main motorways lighting is thin or absent, plenty of bikes ride with no rear light, animals wander onto rural stretches and a pothole you would swerve around in daylight is invisible at night. Breakdowns and checkpoints are also more awkward to deal with in the dark on a road you do not know. Bus operators apply the same logic and concentrate departures in daylight. We never sell the last departure of the day either, because if that one fails there is no plan B left.

When renting really is worth it

The car wins when the drive is the point. The north coast between Puerto Plata, Sosúa and Cabarete is best with a stop at every beach. The southwest from Barahona towards Los Patos and Pedernales is a coastal road that deserves its own pace. The mountains around La Vega and Jarabacoa have turnoffs no bus takes. In those cases rent, set off in daylight and do not chain long legs together. For everything else, meaning getting from A to B between big cities, the bus leaves you just as far from the hotel and saves you the wheel, the insurance and the traffic.