In March, I went to an all-inclusive resort in Puerto Plata to celebrate a friend’s milestone birthday. Although we were at an all-inclusive, we made our way to the local grocery store to check out prices and buy a few things. My list of everyday grocery items for travellers came along as usual:
Bananas, Ground Beef, Chicken, Eggs, Milk, Butter, Orange Juice, Coffee, Peanut Butter, Bread
Plus my “luxury” items.
Vodka, Bailey’s, Beer
At the bottom of this post, I’ve included a table that gives you pricing for Puerto Plata and Ontario. My general thoughts though are:
- The more basic items are considerably cheaper in Puerto Plata.
- Sliced white bread, peanut butter and orange juice were considerably more expensive in Puerto Plata.
Before you look at the details, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Puerto Plata pricing for groceries and the luxury items are from Jumbo which is one of the big grocery stores in town; Ontario pricing for groceries is from Loblaws in Lindsay. Beer pricing is from the Beer Store; alcohol pricing from the LCBO.
- I only used regular prices. No sales, no coupons.
- Prices are from March 2018
- An exchange rate of $0.028581 Cdn to 1 peso is used. ($1 Cdn = 35 pesos)
- I tried to used comparable sized packages but didn’t do the calculations to make this an exact comparison.
- I forgot to check the price of the local beers, but I’m sure they were much less expensive than Coors Light.
Puerto Plata | Ontario | Difference | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pesos | Cdn $ | Cdn $ | Pesos | ||||||
Bananas, price per pound | 19 | 0.54 | 0.69 | 24.14 | -22% | ||||
Lean Ground Beef, price per pound | 134.95 | 3.86 | 6.49 | 227.07 | -41% | ||||
Chicken Breasts, bone-in, skin-on, price per pound | 129.95 | 3.71 | 4.99 | 174.59 | -26% | ||||
Eggs, price per dozen | 92.95 | 2.66 | 2.49 | 87.12 | +7% | ||||
Milk (1L) | 51.95 | 1.48 | 2.79 | 97.62 | -47% | ||||
Butter (454g Canada, 200g DR) | 149.95 | 4.29 | 6.69 | 234.07 | -36% | ||||
Orange Juice (Tropicana, 1.65L Canada; 1.75L DR) | 299.95 | 8.57 | 5.49 | 192.09 | +56% | ||||
Coffee (Maxwell House, 326g Canada; Santo Domingo, 454g DR) | 209.95 | 6.00 | 7.99 | 279.56 | -25% | ||||
Peanut Butter ( Jif, 500g Canada; 454g DR) | 234.95 | 6.72 | 5.49 | 192.09 | +22% | ||||
Sliced White Bread | 199.95 | 5.71 | 1.79 | 62.63 | +219% | ||||
Grocery Basket Total | 1523.55 | 43.54 | 44.9 | 1570.98 | -3% | ||||
Tito's Vodka (750 ml) | 1249.00 | 35.7 | 34.95 | 1222.84 | +2% | ||||
Bailey's Irish Cream (750 ml) | 1595.00 | 45.59 | 30.95 | 1082.89 | +47% | ||||
Beer (Coors Light, Canada; Bud, DR) | 84.99 | 2.43 | 1.97 | 68.93 | +23% | ||||
Overall, my opinion is that if you’re staying at a rental property in Puerto Plata that you can eat for less than you would at home in Ontario. Maybe my next trip to the DR, that is what I’ll do, but this trip to the all-inclusive was a nice break.
Happy travels!
Vanessa