Fifteen years ago when we opened our first hospitality establishment, a downtown bar & grill called Cafe Cito, a young backpacker named Sean Harvey swaggered in, slapped some pesos on the bar and asked for a cold Presidente. We soon learned that he was here for a year researching a guidebook. He was a pretty decent guy so we told him he could stay with us whenever he came to Puerto Plata. He took us up on the offer and over the course of that year would pop up every now and again to hang his hat for a few days.

Every time he showed up was on a new mission to somewhere, looking for someone or following up something he had heard about. Of course we would help him, it was fun to be part of his project. If we didn’t know the exact answer we at least knew where to look, who to send him to, how to point him in the right direction.

Hanging out at Cafe Cito, Sean soon learned he didn’t have to actually hit the pavement; all he had to do was sit around and strike up conversations with our patrons, many of whom were involved one way or another in tourism or other businesses all around the DR.

And so it turned out that, by relaxing at our place over a couple of beer and picking our brains, that Sean saved himself a lot of time, effort and money as he did the research required to write the Dominican Republic Rough Guide, which is still to this day the most complete and well-informed guide book about this country.

We were pleased to help Sean write The Rough Guide. And we’d be pleased to help you explore the Dominican Republic. The only catch is, you have to come stay with us for one or two days at Base Camp One in Puerto Plata…

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