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FijiYour place in the guide
A direct path for those who have already chosen the next stop of the trip. 8 destinations and 22 cities in the Dominican Republic.
Explore by destinationIllustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
Today's highlights
Santa Cruz de Barahona is the main city of the southwest, a port with a malecón facing the Neiba bay and the Sierra de Bahoruco behind. It is the base for the south coast road, with Playa San Rafael, where a mountain river forms freshwater pools beside the sea, and for Lake Enriquillo inland.
Pedernales is the southwesternmost city in the country, on the border with Haiti, surrounded by two national parks. From there you can reach Bahía de las Águilas, one of the most isolated and preserved beaches in the Caribbean, in Parque Nacional Jaragua, and Hoyo de Pelempito, a huge forested sinkhole in the Sierra de Bahoruco.
La Romana is the capital of the province of the same name, a sugar-mill town and cruise port on the south coast. To the east is Casa de Campo, with Altos de Chavón, the stone village above the Chavón River; to the west, the Cueva de las Maravillas, with Taíno paintings; and in front of the port, Isla Catalina, with a beach and diving.
Puerto Plata is the main city on the north coast, with a center of wooden Victorian houses around Parque Central, the 16th-century Fortaleza San Felipe by the seafront, and the Amber Museum. A cable car rises to Loma Isabel de Torres, with a Christ statue and a garden at the top. To the east lies Playa Dorada; inland are the Damajagua waterfalls.
Boca Chica is the closest beach to Santo Domingo and Aeropuerto de Las Américas: a cove with shallow, calm water protected by a coral reef, with light sand, food stalls and weekend activity from Dominican families. It works well as the first or last night of the trip, near the airport, or as a beach day trip from the capital.
Santa Bárbara de Samaná is the capital of the peninsula, a port city with a malecón facing the bay and pedestrian bridges connecting islets. From January to March, boats depart from here to see humpback whales. Offshore lies Cayo Levantado, a little islet with white sand, and a half-hour drive away is El Limón waterfall, set in the middle of the forest.
Las Galeras is a quiet village at the eastern tip of the Samaná Peninsula, at the end of the road, with a calm beach in the center and access, by boat or trails, to isolated and wild beaches: Playa Rincón, long and lined with coconut palms, and Playa Frontón, with clear waters at the foot of a rock wall.
Sosúa is a beach town on the Amber Coast, with a bay of calm, clear water between cliffs, good for swimming and snorkeling. It has its own history: it was founded in the late 1930s as an agricultural colony for Jewish refugees from Europe, and the Museo Judío tells that story in the El Batey neighborhood.
Capital of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo has in the Ciudad Colonial, a UNESCO World Heritage site, the first European constructions in the Americas: the Catedral Primada, the Alcázar de Colón, Fortaleza Ozama and the Museo de las Casas Reales, all a few blocks from each other. On the other side of the Ozama River are the Faro a Colón and the underground lagoons of Los Tres Ojos.
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