When we recommend leaving Santo Domingo
We recommend a pickup 5 to 5.5 hours before your flight time out of POP when starting from Santo Domingo, our own operating figure for the longest route we run. The drive itself is 3.5 to 4 hours north on the Autopista Duarte through Santiago, and the range depends heavily on where in the city you start: a hotel in the Colonial Zone or the Malecón adds city traffic before you even reach the highway, while a pickup at SDQ airport itself skips that entirely. Either way, the highway drive is the bulk of the time and does not shorten much even mid-morning outside rush hour. We build in the POP counter and security queues on top, so the 5 to 5.5 hour window is what keeps this route comfortable rather than a sprint at the end.