Hotel Casa Cayena

Let’s face it, there are some pretty fantastic hotel euphemisms out there -- “verdant green lawns,” “crystalline waters,” “home away from home” -- but calling a hotel used for sex tourism “The Place for Friends to make Friends” might be a new all-time low. No matter the fancy wording used on the website, make no mistake, Hotel Casa Cayena is visited solely by foreign, single, male travelers who have come to Sosua to take part in the town’s rampant sex tourism.   

The three-story hotel is painted peach and white. A stone floor and armless beige couches make up the lobby, which is also decorated with abstract art prints. The hotel's restaurant has worn wooden chairs and a hanging flat-screen TV near a Presidente beer cooler. 

Located on Calle Dr. Rosen, a main thoroughfare in downtown Sosua, Hotel Casa Cayena is a two-minute walk from the gorgeous Playa Alicia and is within a few minutes' walking distance of bars, restaurants, and nightclubs in town. Downtown Sosua is known for its sex tourism, so there will be prostitutes roaming the streets at all hours. The hotel is about a 15-minute drive from Gregorio Luperon International Airport, and about a 30-minute drive from Puerto Plata.   

In the 25 rooms at Casa Cayena, the heavy drapery probably predates the Reagan administration, the gold floral bedding is too old to even belong in your grandmother’s house, and the well-worn furniture is something you’d probably pass up at a garage sale. Bathrooms are just as bleak, with deteriorating tile, cracked mirrors, and rusty showerheads. All rooms have air-conditioning, flat-screen TVs, mini-fridges, large closets with safes, and spacious patios or balconies that overlook the pool. Rooms are supposed to be non-smoking but curiously reek of old cigarettes. Bugs, large and small, also seem to have made themselves at home throughout the hotel. And, to top it all off, instead of the usual “please hang your towel on the rack,” or, “your sheets will be replaced every other day” type signs, Casa Cayena outfits its rooms with “all unregistered guests must leave their ID with reception” notices.  

For those who’d rather hang out at the hotel than the nearby beach, there is a small, rarely crowded L-shape pool and a few lounge chairs inside the property’s interior courtyard. There is an on-site restaurant and bar, and most room rates include breakfast and dinner, but the food barely passes for mediocre. The hotel offers airport transfers for a fairly reasonable rate; but for those who’d prefer to drive themselves, free parking is available in the hotel’s small front lot. Wi-Fi is also free for hotel guests.