[playa_with_a_passport]

I was in Santiago almost a year ago for one my best friend's wedding. I only stayed for a couple of days because I couldn't get off from work for the whole week. I stayed in "El Gran Amirante" which has a casino attached to it and a Friday's restaurant across the Parking lot. The hotel was $175 bucks a night but the service was horrible and the rooms smelled like mold. I noticed that the hotel had a desk dedicated for American Airlines employees so there might be some Flight attendant action. The hotel is located sorta like in the outskirts of town. All the action seems to be concentrated along the "Monumento" where there are a ton of bars with plastic chairs and tables catering mostly to locals and it looked very seedy. There are also some upscale spots scattared all around town. Santiago is mostly an industrial city, Call centers and sweatshops are big here. So there's a lack of touristy stuff to do. Therefore, I would only go to Santiago if you have a specific reason to be there or you know a local who can help you get in with his social circle. Otherwise, If you go there by yourself you are going to be bored, middle class Dominicans can be extremely cliquish like back in HS. I was surprised that I did not saw any hot women walking around like I usually see in Washington Heights(Little DR in NY). My boy told me that most of the locals go to the beach and resorts during the weekend so the city is basically empty. However, my hotel lobby had about 10 Ho's loitering around the lobby area around 3am and to say they were hot was an understatement. But since I don't pay for pussy under any circumstances, I went to my room to spank the monkey instead. The best bet to have a hooker free vacation in the DR is going to be to hit the resorts and banging the European tourist who go there or locals who are there "day passing." A lot of resorts in the DR even the top notch ones sell "day passes"(hang out and use the resort amenities all day) or " night passes" (same as day pass but they can spend the night) to locals for as a little as 50 bucks a night, some of them don't pay at all if they their "primo" works for security. Thus, just because you see a local chick chilling in a 5 star resort in Punta Cana doesn't necessary mean she's on the up and up and she's balling. She can still be willing to do something strange for some change. Dominicans are one of the largest Latino nationalities in Europe and the US, so they have made an art form out of hooking and reeling foreigners.