Visiting the Dominican Republic soon?

I hope you rethink your plans. Maybe it's just media hype, and I'm willing to believe it is, but the Dominican Republic seems like a very dangerous place. I'm reading about news stories every day and it seems that tourists are checking in any time they like but they can never leave. I wonder when the state department is going to issue an official warning about the country. 

I'm not sure what is going on there. As a general rule most international travel is pretty safe, and for countries that rely of tourism, they keep the touristy parts of the country extremely safe. Mexico is the perfect example. Unless you plan on going into cartel controlled territory, you are going to be just fine going there. It doesn't seem like the same can be said about the Dominican Republic, at least right now.