New Garden Hotel

Whether it’s the cigarettes and condoms in the glass display case in the lobby, the obvious drug paraphernalia laying around the property, or the complete absence of women during daylight hours, it doesn’t take long to figure out that New Garden Hotel isn’t exactly a family-friendly place. During our visit, we met a customer who had been regularly coming to the hotel twice a month from the U.S. "because he couldn't get enough of the girls," and we saw countless men with their "chicas" stroll back to the property. Here, sex tourism isn’t some hushed secret; it’s blatant and encouraged. This is not a place for solo female travelers, families, groups of friends, or even couples -- though some couples on a budget do stay here. The small lobby is clean and well-lit, decorated with two flat-screen TVs and that notorious glass display case of condoms. A single fabric chair and glass topped table provide a place to sit. The hotel is divided into three wings with a small outdoor pool in two sections. 

Located on Calle Dr. Rosen, a main thoroughfare in downtown Sosua, New Garden Hotel is within a five-minute walk of Playa Alicia and nearly all of the bars, restaurants, and nightclubs in town. Make no mistake, 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.   

Rooms at New Garden are dark and dingy, and feature a varying array of mismatched decor. There are three wings of the hotel, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Silver and Gold rooms are located on the hotel’s main property, behind the lobby and the restaurant. For the most part, these rooms have light green walls, white tile floors, cheap wood furniture, and funky red bedspreads to liven things up. Most rooms have flat-screen TVs and mini-fridges. Bathrooms range from “wow this is actually pretty nice” with granite counters and glass enclosed showers, to “this mirror is cracked in four places and there are dead bugs in my sink” with deteriorating tile and and dingy shower curtains. Don’t be fooled by the name “Platinum;” this wing of the hotel is really no better than its Silver or Gold counterparts. The Platinum wing is located across the street from the main part of the hotel. It has its own pool and a DJ (aka some random laptop sitting atop a lounge chair playing Spanish tunes). Platinum rooms are blue in color, with white tile floors and ugly brown bedding. Each room has a desk, flat-screen TV, safe, mini-fridge, and an armoire. Some are also equipped with moldy ceilings and barred windows. Bathrooms in the Platinum wing are the nicest in the hotel, with gray subway tile and large glass enclosed showers.    

Let’s just say that hotels in Sosua aren’t what attract vacationers to the area. Because most of New Garden’s guests are focused on other things besides turndown service and lounge chair quality, the hotel can get away with a minimal offering of amenities. There are two pools on-site, one in the Gold and Silver wing, and another across the street in the Platinum wing. Both are fairly small, and look as though they could be cleaned a bit better. There are a few scattered lounge chairs around each. The New Garden Hotel Restaurant & Pizzeria serves mediocre Italian cuisine and brick oven pizzas in an open-air setting that overlooks both the street and the pool. The hotel offers free Wi-Fi, and breakfast is included in the room rate, but there isn’t any designated hotel parking lot. Anyone with a car will have to park on the busy street.