Walk to the Cigar Factory??

[SpaceCowboy9]

Going to La Romana in June. Looking at the map, the cruise port is about a half mile from the Cigar Factory - anyone know if you can walk over there for a tour? The only excursion I've seen starts at the Factory Store that is about 7 miles away -- does the the Cigar Factory tour actually tour the Cigar Factory?

[sunlovinkittykat]

Did you ever end up trying this? Going in February and have the same questions

[SpaceCowboy9]

Never got a reply on this, but with other research, I think there are no tours at this factory. Here's what we did:

 

We started by checking out the taxis - more than we wanted to spend, but did talk to one driver who was watching the baseball team practice at the field next to the taxis. Said his son used to play for the team and was just picked up by the Blue Jays organization -- proud papa even showed us pictures on his phone. We ended up taking the bus into downtown and walked the square and met a nice woman at the church. My DW is even on facebook with her. You do have to be careful around the square -- some of the most aggressive vendors I've ever encountered. With the woman's help, we exchanged some money at a money exchange (Casa de Cambio, got a reasonable rate) and then walked to Jumbo which is a department store similar to a walmart. On the walk back to the square, got some fresh pineapple from a street vendor - best pineapple ever.

 

This was one of the best port stops we've ever had, but we would never be able to replicate it in a million years -- met the right people at the right time.