Welcome to Our Complete Cost of Living in the Dominican Republic! In this blog, we cover monthly costs since moving to the Caribbean.
In this blog, we cover the costs of living in the Dominican Republic based on our own experience. We also did a little bit of online research to give you some ideas about additional costs here. If you are thinking of moving to the Dominican Republic or even staying for a long holiday. This blog will be very helpful as well as our youtube video.
Drone photo of Cabarete
Housing
The biggest expense is housing or renting apartments, villas and condos. However, it all depends on how much time you are staying and what type of place you want. The costs vary depending on whether you want a studio or one-bedroom apartment or a two-bedroom house, it also depends on the duration of your stay. For instance, if you rent for a full year the cost will be noticeably lower. Moreover, the costs also depend on the season you’re coming and if it’s during the high season or low season. Generally, the price ranges significantly, but if you’re looking at modern condo near the beach you can expect to pay anywhere from $1200 USD (one-bedroom) to $3000 (two-three bedroom in high season) with a pool. You can rent a room for just a few hundred dollars but it would be further away from the beach and likely not in the most modern of buildings. A lot of factors contribute to housing costs.
Condo Building in Cabarete (near the beach)
Other expenses
There are other expenses that go along with rent, such as cable and internet. If you are renting per month you’ll more than likely have cable and internet included. However, if not a good cable and internet package can cost around $40 USD with a reasonable speed. If you are renting for a long period of time it might not be included in your rental payment. Also, if you are purchasing your own house it will not be included. Another essential would be electricity. In our case, since we rent month to month the electricity is included, but in a lot of buildings/rentals you’ll have to pay for electricity separately. It can be quite expensive if you are a person who likes to have AC on all day in every room. On the other hand, water is also typically included if you rent an apartment or a condo.
SafetyWing is always our go-to travel insurance anywhere in the world.
Travel insurance
Safety wing is a travel insurance company that covers multiple countries and extended travelling. Unlike some insurance companies who will only cover you for a set number of days in only one country without the possibility of extending. SafetyWing is very affordable, super flexible and so easy to use and set up. Since we travel for longer periods We love that safety wing auto-renews from month to month. It happens automatically until we turn it off. It includes coverage for doctors, hospitals and emergencies and on top of that, it also includes coverage for travel delays and lost luggage.
Mobile phone plans
If you are staying for a long period of time you might want to switch over your sim card. In the Dominican Republic, there are two primary companies, Claro and Altice. We initially went with Claro since it came highly recommended. It has good speeds and reasonable prices. The card can cost one or two dollars so it is very affordable. It cost us $3 USD for 5 GB. However, every five days we have to go top it up. Since we couldn’t seem to be able to do it online (it did not accept our foreign credit card), we decided to switch to Altice. For Altice network, we only need to go every 30 days into the store. It costs us 1000 pesos (or about $18 USD) per month for 15GB. It is very affordable compared to what we pay in Canada for 15GB.
Food and restaurants
The next category is one of our favourites, food! Here in the Dominican Republic it is quite affordable to eat out and you'll definitely be tempted to do so all the time. There are affordable local restaurants and higher-cost restaurants. Starting with breakfast, you can eat a delicious breakfast plate with eggs, bacon, potatoes maybe a juice and a coffee for around $3 to $4 USD. A fancier breakfast can cost from $5 to $15 which includes fresh juice and avocado toast. For lunch, we usually prefer to grab a sandwich. It is usually about $4 to $5 USD. Often, the sandwiches are big with lots of meat, cheeses and veggies and we frequently will split one. Eating in a restaurant you will definitely spend more but it can still be very affordable. For dinner, you can get a hamburger for $6 to $8. Things like chicken kebabs and rice with a small salad can be found for around $6. If you pick a fancy restaurant you can end up paying $20 to $25 for a big steak dinner. If you like to enjoy a glass of wine with your dinner, you’ll typically find it for around $3.50 to $4.. A beer is around $3 and a mojito can cost $3. All in all, the prices are pretty affordable.
Pasta in the local supermarket.
Groceries
If you prefer to buy your groceries and cook your own meals, you can find pretty much everything in the local supermarkets. For instance, one pound of ground coffee is $4.50. Bread is about $1.20 to $2 and dried pasta is around the same. Pasta sauce costs about $3.50. One litre of milk is $1.15. A full chicken can cost $5.80. A 4 pack of toilet paper is about $2.50. A bottle of wine can typically cost about $12 but you can find an inexpensive one for $8. A beer is about $1.10 and a bottle of bourbon or a whiskey is about $21. Generally speaking, we found groceries more affordable compared to what we spend in Canada. You can also get your groceries delivered at your doorsteps (typically if you spend a certain amount).
Local transportation
Transportation and Gas
The taxis here are not cheap and can cost $15 for about 15min ride. There is Uber here as well and it cost $5 for the same ride (but Ubers can be difficult to come by). There are buses also as a means of transportation. However, we haven’t been taking the bus due to Covid but there are very cheap. If you want to rent a basic automatic car it can cost around $30-40 per day. Insurance is sometimes included in car renting. You can also find private transport companies if you want to hire them. But it can be a little bit costly depending on the distance. On average it is about $100 for 100 kilometres. The gas can cost around $4.50 per gallon which is pretty high.
Working out at the gym.
Gym membership
You can definitely find gyms here. Personally, we joined a gym nearby that doesn’t have air conditioning. It is a basic, open gym that has everything you would need. It costs $14 per month. Usually, we prefer to take a long walk since the beach here is amazing.
Hope this helps you a bit with the expected costs of living in the Dominican Republic, check out of full video here:
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