After I started dreaming on Sunday night about giving our kids the world and traveling with them I spent a good portion of Monday trying to figure out how we could make it work to spend Fall Break visiting our two Compassion kids in the Dominican Republic. I started researching flights and rental apartments. The Dominican Republic is home to our oldest Compassion child (Luis) and our longest sponsored child (Naidelin). Luis is getting ready to graduate in December so I'm feeling the crunch of visiting him before he graduates.
My husband and I both know we don't want to stay at one of the large resorts that are popping up in the country, especially in Punta Cana, which is about an hour's drive from Naidelin. If we are going to give our kids the world, and the experience of traveling, we want to give them a real cultural experience. No matter where we go we want to stay away from areas designed for North American/Western tourists and go where the locals go. As it is, when my husband and I travel, we avoid chain restaurants whenever possible and try to find "hole in the wall" places where locals eat. We prefer to rent an apartment at our destination rather than a hotel room. First of all, it makes much more economic sense to stay in an apartment rather than a hotel, and secondly we get to meet locals that way and see the area through their eyes. We know that when traveling, especially to a Third World country, that if we were to stick to the touristy areas and resorts we might as well stay home in our middle class bubble.
While I know that it is extremely unlikely we'd be able to make it to the Dominican Republic this fall, before Luis graduates, it was fun to do some online exploring Monday to get an idea for how much it'll cost to fly our family of 4 from our home in Arizona to Santo Domingo. I enjoyed looking through homes to rent and getting to know the neighborhoods of the Dominican Republic.
My husband and I both know we don't want to stay at one of the large resorts that are popping up in the country, especially in Punta Cana, which is about an hour's drive from Naidelin. If we are going to give our kids the world, and the experience of traveling, we want to give them a real cultural experience. No matter where we go we want to stay away from areas designed for North American/Western tourists and go where the locals go. As it is, when my husband and I travel, we avoid chain restaurants whenever possible and try to find "hole in the wall" places where locals eat. We prefer to rent an apartment at our destination rather than a hotel room. First of all, it makes much more economic sense to stay in an apartment rather than a hotel, and secondly we get to meet locals that way and see the area through their eyes. We know that when traveling, especially to a Third World country, that if we were to stick to the touristy areas and resorts we might as well stay home in our middle class bubble.
While I know that it is extremely unlikely we'd be able to make it to the Dominican Republic this fall, before Luis graduates, it was fun to do some online exploring Monday to get an idea for how much it'll cost to fly our family of 4 from our home in Arizona to Santo Domingo. I enjoyed looking through homes to rent and getting to know the neighborhoods of the Dominican Republic.
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