Costa Norte DR started as a way to put one family's firsthand knowledge of the Dominican Republic's north coast somewhere useful. No resort deals, no sponsored placements — just people who actually know this coastline.
Most travel sites about the Dominican Republic's north coast are written by people who visited once, or never visited at all. This one is different: it's built around the firsthand knowledge of someone who actually lives here year-round, plus real photos — not stock images — taken on the ground.
Our main source of local knowledge lives on the north coast year-round. Restaurant recommendations, honest corrections when we get a detail wrong, and most of the original photography across this site all come from him — someone who's actually eaten at these restaurants, swum at these beaches, and knows which fish story is true.
Where we can, we verify what he tells us against other sources before publishing — not because we doubt him, but because rules and details change, and we want this site to stay accurate.
Wherever possible, the photos on this site are original — taken by our contributor on the ground, or by friends and family who've visited. We're gradually replacing generic stock images with the real thing as new photos come in.
We also take a firm line on privacy: no recognizable people appear in photos without their consent, and nothing here is AI-generated or AI-edited.
Costa Norte DR isn't affiliated with any resort, hotel chain, or tourism board. It's an independent project, built one page at a time, covering Sosúa, Cabarete, Puerto Plata, Río San Juan, Las Terrenas, and the smaller places in between that most guides skip entirely.
The site is supported through Google AdSense and affiliate links to Booking.com and Expedia — full details are in our Privacy Policy. These don't influence which places we recommend; the honest, sometimes unflattering details (a mislabelled fish, a beach that's smaller than the photos suggest) stay in.
This site is a family effort, plain and simple — built by one family member, kept accurate by another living on the coast, with photo contributions from friends along the way.
My wife runs Inner Balance 101 — a gentle, structured program built around breathwork and nervous-system science, designed to ease the adjustment through a big transition. A different kind of project entirely, but if you're drawn to a place like this for the reset it offers, it might be worth a look too.