Am Off to the Dom Rep In may and was wondering if anyone on here has been Biking starting out from Puerto plata/sosua area at all

Mostly downhill hopefully!

Ta

Be careful, one of my guys was married to a Dominican girl, and still needed 'protection' when outside of the tourist areas…

I went last year and rode with Iguana Mama who are based in Cabarete. They are quite pricey but they do a range of rides.

http://www.iguanamama.com/

Most people start with the half day downhill ride which is quite undemanding and then there are several longer more severe ones.

Because there are so many Americans go there they do the whole "wrapped in cotton wool" thing. "No seramos Americanos" is a valuable phrase to learn. (We're not Americans). When we went, a minibus took us and the guide to the top of the mountain, and then after breakfast we started gently riding down the road, with a few stops in gravelly lay-bys (with the bus following). We realised that the guide was checking us out for skill levels because as soon as he was confident we weren't all talk we then diverted down some nice rocky paths and ended up wading across rivers.

Tips – take your pedals and make sure they swap the brake levers around the right way.

And Sosua (that famous sex-tourist mecca) is only a 15 minute ride from Cabarete by moto concho or guagua, for about 100 pesos.

Be careful, one of my guys was married to a Dominican girl, and still needed 'protection' when outside of the tourist areas…

I have been before in 2006 for a short while, it really didn't seem that bad to me

And Sosua (that famous sex-tourist mecca) is only a 15 minute ride from Cabarete by moto concho or guagua, for about 100 pesos.

There is no way I'm getting on a moto concho not that brave!

Mrs BigJohn and I travelled just about everywhere by moto concho – 2 of us plus the driver on a tiny moped – there was no way a quarter of a ton was going to reach a dangerous speed.

If you're sensible there's no problem in Dominican, although those poor sods who are stuck in those big holiday prisons will no doubt be indoctrinated into thinking it's dangerous.

I'm sure all the guards outside every apartment block and hotel only carry the sawn-off shotguns for show.