Dominican Republic Discovery Guide

The Dominican Republic is the most visited country in the Caribbean, and most of that is resorts on the east coast. The interesting version of the country is elsewhere.

Santo Domingo’s Zona Colonial is the oldest permanent European settlement in the Americas, founded in 1498, with the first cathedral, the first university and the first hospital built in the hemisphere. It is UNESCO-listed and it is a working neighbourhood rather than a museum.

The interior is mountainous — Pico Duarte at 3,098 metres is the highest point in the Caribbean, and the central highlands around Jarabacoa and Constanza are cool, green and full of rivers.

The Samana peninsula gets humpback whales in their thousands between January and March, and the south-west is genuinely wild: a salt lake below sea level, desert, and the country’s best national parks.

Santo Domingo

The Zona Colonial: the Catedral Primada, begun in 1512 and the first in the Americas; the Alcazar de Colon, built for Christopher Columbus’s son; the Calle las Damas, the oldest paved street in the hemisphere. Then the Malecon, and the museums of the Plaza de la Cultura.

Samana

Humpback whales in the bay from January to March, the waterfall at El Limon reached on horseback, the beaches at Las Terrenas and Rincon, and boat trips into Los Haitises, a national park of mangrove channels, limestone hummocks and caves with Taino rock art.

The mountains

Jarabacoa and Constanza for rafting, waterfalls and cool air, and the two- or three-day trek up Pico Duarte, the highest mountain in the Caribbean, which needs a guide and is genuinely cold at the top.

The south-west

The least visited and most striking part of the country: Lago Enriquillo, a hypersaline lake below sea level with American crocodiles, the Bahia de las Aguilas beach in Jaragua park, and Barahona’s coast road.

The north coast

Cabarete for kitesurfing and Puerto Plata for the cable car and the amber museum.

Dominican culture is Spanish, African and Taino in inheritance, loud, warm and organised around music and baseball.

Merengue and bachata

Both were born here. Merengue is the national dance, fast and two-step, played on accordion, tambora drum and a metal guira scraper, and it is UNESCO-listed. Bachata came out of the rural poor, was long dismissed as music for cantinas, and has become one of the most popular Latin genres in the world. Both are listed by UNESCO and both are played at volume everywhere.

Baseball

A national obsession. The Dominican Republic produces more major league players than any country outside the United States, by a wide margin, and the winter league is followed intensely. San Pedro de Macoris alone has sent an improbable number of shortstops to the majors.

Family and religion

Extended family is central, Catholicism is the majority faith, and folk practice mixes with it in places.

Haiti

The island is shared with Haiti, and the relationship is long, difficult and shaped by the 1937 massacre and by continuing disputes over migration and citizenship. Prejudice against Haitians and against darker-skinned Dominicans is real and openly expressed.

Warmth

Dominicans are sociable, direct and quick to joke, and strangers are addressed readily.

• Punta Cana

The all-inclusive model concentrates spending inside resort walls and comparatively little of it reaches Dominican households. Eating outside the resort, hiring local guides and staying in smaller properties changes that substantially.

Go beyond Punta Cana. The Samana peninsula, the south-west around Barahona, the mountains and Santo Domingo all want visitors and have far fewer.

Whale watching in Samana Bay is well regulated — licensed boats, limited numbers, minimum distances — and the rules are the reason the whales keep coming. Use a permitted operator and do not push for a closer approach.

Reefs and mangroves have been damaged by development and runoff. Use reef-safe sunscreen, never touch coral, and choose operators using mooring buoys.

Haitian migrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent face serious discrimination and statelessness. It is worth understanding, and worth not repeating the casual prejudice you may hear.

Water and electricity are both unreliable outside the resorts.

December to April is the dry season and the peak: warm days around 28 to 30°C, lower humidity, and the least rain. It is also the most expensive, particularly over Christmas and Easter.

January to March is the specific window for humpback whales in Samana Bay, where several thousand gather to calve and mate — one of the most reliable whale encounters anywhere, and reason enough to time a trip around it.

May to November is wetter and more humid, with afternoon downpours. Prices drop and the landscape is at its greenest.

Hurricane season runs June to November, peaking August to October. The island is regularly affected, and the north and east coasts more so.

Carnival runs through February, with the biggest celebrations in La Vega, and independence day falls on 27 February. Merengue festivals fill the summer.

What a day costs, by how you travel

Relative cost across the country

All-inclusive packages can be remarkable value, and independent travel outside the resort zones is cheap. The gap between the two economies is wide.