Cigar Shops in the Dominican Republic

[JZBdano]

My wife and I are going to be spending a few days in the Dominican Republic next week.  We are flying in and out of Santiago spending most of our time in Cabarete but will have time to tour around.  I was wondering if there are any factory tours or cigar shops that would be worth visiting.  I would like to find a box of Opus X Angel's Share if possible.  The LFD factory offers tours so that is one possibility but would like to hear of any others.  Any advice on restaurants or places to see would be appreciated also.  Thanks in advance, Daniel 

[PartagasIV]

Was in Cabarete kiteboarding a month ago. Very neat place. I'd say bring your own, honestly...didn't even bother with local domestics.

[Huckleberry]

You won’t find Opus X anything on the island. The Leon Jimenez/La Aurora factory tour is worthwhile.  I am sure LFD is as well.

Bring your own cigars.

[Dynamo320]

Have also heard positive feedback of the La Aurora factory tour. I’m down there more than I would ever like to be and have been meaning to hit that. They will have Opus, prob not angels share, at STI airport on the way out, at a hefty premium though. 

[JZBdano]

6 hours ago, PartagasIV said:

Was in Cabarete kiteboarding a month ago. Very neat place. I'd say bring your own, honestly...didn't even bother with local domestics.

Thank you, good to hear you enjoyed Cabarete, we're really looking forward to it and I will bring plenty.

 

4 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

You won’t find Opus X anything on the island. The Leon Jimenez/La Aurora factory tour is worthwhile.  I am sure LFD is as well.

Bring your own cigars.

I wasn't able to come up with any good prospects for finding a box of Opus in my online research, appreciate the confirmation.  I will look into the Leon Jimenez/La Aurora tour, thank you for the recommendation.

4 hours ago, Dynamo320 said:

Have also heard positive feedback of the La Aurora factory tour. I’m down there more than I would ever like to be and have been meaning to hit that. They will have Opus, prob not angels share, at STI airport on the way out, at a hefty premium though. 

I will check out the airport selection but I don't really want to pay the mark up that Opus can demand.  I was thinking there would be a similar retail cigar market as Cuba but it seems that cigar tourism just isn't early as big in the DR.

[helix]

In Santo Domingo will deliver anywhere in the DR  to your resort or hotel.    https://cigarcountry.com/

[cigcars]

     *Well, what about local Cuban domestics like their Pesos cigars?  I've been gifted a few of them and they are splendid! 

[El Hoze]

My wife’s family has a house in Sosua, a few miles down the road from Cabarate. They are actually from Santiago. There are a bunch of restaurants on the beach in Cabarete. My favorite is probably Casita de Papi, the house specialty is a shrimp/lagoustine. All super relaxed, feet in the sand type stuff. If you are eating in Santiago and want to have a cigar, Saga is a great steakhouse/cigar bar. Actually one of my favorite places to hang out anywhere. Killer steaks/food and the whole restaurant is filled with people enjoying cigars with great ventilation/ outdoor areas. Not something you see every day in some parts of the world. La Aurora has a good tour, but don’t expect to be able to pick up much in DR. The Duty Free at STI before you go up the elevator has a decent selection of Opus X but they don’t have Angels Share. Carlito Fuente flies in/out of that airport constantly so you can rest assured the Opus X are decent pedigree, but it’s a tiny airport…so the selection is limited. I always BYO in DR. Give some away, get some in return. Works well. Enjoy, and feel free to PM me if you need more help…I know that area well! If you like cold beer you’re in the right spot…one degree colder and it’s slush. 

[JZBdano]

10 hours ago, cigcars said:

     *Well, what about local Cuban domestics like their Pesos cigars?  I've been gifted a few of them and they are splendid! 

I will definitely try them.  I have been enjoying Dominican cigars out of my stash the last few weeks.  Really looking forward to trying some local sticks.

 

2 hours ago, El Hoze said:

My wife’s family has a house in Sosua, a few miles down the road from Cabarate. They are actually from Santiago. There are a bunch of restaurants on the beach in Cabarete. My favorite is probably Casita de Papi, the house specialty is a shrimp/lagoustine. All super relaxed, feet in the sand type stuff. If you are eating in Santiago and want to have a cigar, Saga is a great steakhouse/cigar bar. Actually one of my favorite places to hang out anywhere. Killer steaks/food and the whole restaurant is filled with people enjoying cigars with great ventilation/ outdoor areas. Not something you see every day in some parts of the world. La Aurora has a good tour, but don’t expect to be able to pick up much in DR. The Duty Free at STI before you go up the elevator has a decent selection of Opus X but they don’t have Angels Share. Carlito Fuente flies in/out of that airport constantly so you can rest assured the Opus X are decent pedigree, but it’s a tiny airport…so the selection is limited. I always BYO in DR. Give some away, get some in return. Works well. Enjoy, and feel free to PM me if you need more help…I know that area well! If you like cold beer you’re in the right spot…one degree colder and it’s slush. 

Thanks for the info.  Saga sounds great and was just added to the itinerary.  I'm sure we will have a chance to eat at Casita de Papi also.  I don't think we are going to stray too far from the beach, at least the first couple days.  

[Stoyan]

I was in the DR 8 months ago. All the big factory tours were closed because of Covid. 
https://cabinetcigar.com has the best selection. They had plenty opus X and weren’t terribly expensive. Prices in store were 20-30% higher than online. The girls that worked there didn’t speak English, but they told my Spanish speaking friend that they don’t send cigars to Punta Cana. Only place in the DR that didn’t give me any discount. I spent around $1000 and the even charged me for filling my lighters. As I said they had

 

 

a huge selection of cigars, but that was the worst customer service experience I ever had.

All the other cigar shops in Santo Domingo I went were not worth visiting. Few of them had opus X.

www.cigarcountry.com had a great customer service. They sent me an email with availability of the cigars I was interested in and shipped the cigars next day for me.

 

[JZBdano]

@Stoyan, thank you for the recommending Cabinet Cigar shop.  David, the guy working the shop was polite and helpful.  Prices were a little higher than what can be had online for most Habanos, except Trinidad are still at 2019 prices which was awesome because I had been wanting to get the new vitolas.  They had a decent selection, missing a couple marcas but had a bunch of hard to find sticks. They also had a really nice lounge, great drinks and great service. I'll post my purchase in the "latest CC purchase" thread.

[...]

It seems the Cuban cigars on the shelves are in cellophane... were you able to get the info as to why it was the case?

[JZBdano]

@Jeanff it was unusual to see but David explained they put them in cellophane because dipshits with poor etiquette like to fondle and sniff them and then place them back on the shelf.  They also had barcode price stickers on each of the singles so I think that's another reason. The store was 90+% NC which most come with cellophane from the factory.  All the boxes on the shelves were sealed and he allowed me to look through the inventory of sealed boxes in the cabinets below for boxes or codes that I might want to purchase.  I am by no means a Cuban cigar expert but I've seen plenty of fakes in my travels through Mexico and Central America.  Nothing of the boxes or singles raised any concern but I couldn't get myself to buy a Cohiba Piramid Extra in cello.  CoPE in cello just doesn't sit well with me, bad experience 20 years ago in Honduras.  

[porkchop]

Cubans in cellophane is like the reverse of seeing a familiar dog without their collar - does not compute. 

[Frinkiac7]

The little place in SDQ airport has a good selection and you can sit and smoke in there. Cabinet is also a very nice/complete cigar store in Santo Domingo that had a great CC and NC selection. I was thrown off by the cello wrap on all the cigars but apparently they put them on there for individual sale and barcoding. Proof was in the pudding and everything I smoked from there seemed legit. If you are in Santo Domingo I would go to Cabinet.
 

I saw many fake Cubans in Cabarete stores--I would not mess with them. La Aurora factory seems nice but I did not buy anything from their factory store as prices seemed high. I stumbled upon LFD factory but apparently they do not give tours and don't sell cigars--Lito's son came out with a look of how we got on the property and told us they did not sell cigars on site. In Puerto Plata there is a store/factory run by some (I think) Canadian guys but they don't have any CCs.

I smoked more locally rolled, no-name cigars while there than anything else. I mean they had names and bands but were mostly guys rolling them in backyard factories or family operations. That being said if I were going again, I would just BYO. That's what I did when I was in Punta Cana a couple of weeks ago. Less stress, no mess!

[JZBdano]

@Frinkiac7thank you for the reply.  I picked up some boxes of Trinidad for a good price at Cabinet in Santiago.  I went ti a place in Puerto Plata that had a couple roller tables and their own brand.  The cigar was decent and they had some interesting fakes.  

Collectors Edicion Sublimes 😂

Trinidad Robusto Extras are back!!!😂

[JZBdano]

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