Punta Cana & the Southeast
This dramatic mountaintop viewpoint has been discovered by the Instagram generation – Dominicanos flock here on weekends to take photos swinging in sky…
Must-see attractions in Dominican Republic
North Coast
A long, broad, tawny beach with aquamarine water on one side and a thick fringe of palm trees on the other. Stark white cliffs jut out into the ocean in…
Santo Domingo
The first stone of this cathedral, the oldest standing in the Western hemisphere, was set in 1514 by Diego Columbus, son of the great explorer (the ashes…
Santiago
This large, modern museum, built with the tobacco wealth of the León Jimenez family, is a world-class institution with an impressive collection of…
Santo Domingo
Designed in the Gothic-Mudéjar transitional style, this was the early-16th-century residence of Columbus’ son, Diego, and his wife, Doña María de Toledo…
Museo Memorial de la Resistencia Dominicana
Santo Domingo
For those interested in the details of one of the darkest periods of Dominican history, this austere memorial honors Dominicans who fought against the…
Casa Museo General Gregorio Luperón
Puerto Plata
The life and times of native-born son and independence leader Gregorio Luperón are impressively fleshed out inside this beautifully restored, pale-green,…
North Coast
This sweet little stretch of sand must be one of the DR's best village beaches, easily accessible from the road under Bahía Blanca. White sand, a green…
Las Galeras
Pitch-perfect Playa Rincón, with soft, nearly white sand and multihued water good for swimming, stretches an uninterrupted 3km – enough for every day…
Las Terrenas
Tucked away in surprisingly rough landscape, surrounded by peaks covered in lush greenery, is the 52m-high El Limón waterfall. A beautiful swimming hole…
Reserva Antropológica Cuevas del Pomier
Dominican Republic
Visiting this reserve is like reading a history book written in stone. There are 57 limestone caves in the area 10km north of San Cristóbal, five of which…
Punta Cana & the Southeast
There’s a reason why boatloads of tourists descend upon this island every day. The powdery, white-sand beach doesn’t seem real from afar, and a dip in the…
Ojos Indígenas Ecological Park & Reserve
Bávaro & Punta Cana
Though development may eventually cover every inch of the Dominican coastline, for now there are still large areas of pristine coastal plains and mangrove…
Basilica de Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia
Punta Cana & the Southeast
From the outside, this basilica is a strange mixture of the sacred and the profane. A utilitarian concrete facade, not far removed from a military bunker,…
Punta Cana & the Southeast
Much more than simply Isla Saona, which is all that most people see on a group tour, the Parque Nacional Cotubanamá (formerly known as Parque Nacional del…
Parque Nacional Lago Enriquillo & Isla Cabritos
Dominican Republic
This park comprises Lago Enriquillo, an enormous saltwater lake 40m below sea level, and Isla Cabritos, the island at its center which supports various…
Punta Cana & the Southeast
Around 9km west of Sabana de la Mar, Parque Nacional Los Haitises is certainly the best reason to visit this small bayside town. Its name means ‘land of…
Península de Samaná
A gorgeous public beach lies on the western third of this lush island, 7km from Samaná. It's the only section that's open to the public – a five-star…
Punta Cana & the Southeast
Extending for 840m between Río Cumayasa and Río Soco, this lighted and well-marked massive underground cavern complex is off the highway some 20km west of…
Santo Domingo
A long tree-filled corridor atop an enormous limestone ridge, this park is riddled with caves, some as big as airplane hangars. One of the caves has been…
Las Terrenas
The sand at Playa Cosón, 8km west along the main highway from Playa Bonita, is tan rather than white, and the water greenish rather than blue, but it’s a…
Las Galeras
Playa Frontón boasts some of the area’s best snorkeling. Apparently it’s also popular with drug smugglers and Dominicans braving the Mona Passage on their…
Punta Cana & the Southeast
Located deep inside Parque Nacional Cotubanamá, Padre Nuestro is a weaving stalagmite- and stalagtite-filled 290m tunnel flooded with freshwater that can…
Las Galeras
Better than the beach in town, Playita (Little Beach) is easy to get to on foot or by motoconcho (motorcycle taxi). It’s a stretch of tannish sand and…
Las Galeras
Playa Madama is a small beach framed by high bluffs at the edge of the country; keep in mind there’s not much sunlight here in the afternoon.
North Coast
Playa Entrada is one of the longest, most picture-postcard-worthy beaches in the country. Privacy is easy to come by. A couple of informal shacks sell…
Santo Domingo
This is the New World's oldest colonial military edifice. The site, at the meeting of the Río Ozama and Caribbean, was selected by Fray Nicolás de Ovando…
Santo Domingo
Built in the Renaissance style during the 16th century, this building was the longtime seat of Spanish authority for the Caribbean region, housing the…
Dominican Republic
San Cristóbal's strangest sight, currently used as the National Penitentiary School, was built on Trujillo’s orders for himself and his family in 1947 (at…
Puerto Plata
A cable car takes visitors to the top of the enormous flat-topped Pico Isabel de Torres. On clear days there are spectacular views of the city and…
Punta Cana & the Southeast
While a trip to a faux-16th-century Italian-Spanish village created by a Paramount movie-set designer won’t exactly give you a window into Dominican…
Punta Cana & the Southeast
Parque Nacional Cotubanamá has more than 400 caves, many of which contain Taíno pictographs (cave paintings) and petroglyphs (rock carvings)…
Puerto Plata
Located right on the bay, at the western end of the Malecón, the fort is the only remnant of Puerto Plata’s early colonial days. Built in the mid-16th…
Punta Cana & the Southeast
In the 15th century, pirates including Francis Drake would lurk around Isla Catalina, waiting to pounce on Spanish ships sailing to and from Santo Domingo…
Museo Jamas El Olvido Será tu Recuerdo
Dominican Republic
In the home of local resident José Miguel Ventura Medina, known to some as ‘El Hippi,’ this museum has a name translating literally to ‘Forgetfulness will…
Santo Domingo
The Dominican seat of government, which occupies most of a city block, was designed by Italian architect Guido D’Alessandro and inaugurated in 1947. Built…
Las Terrenas
A getaway from a getaway, the appropriately named Playa Bonita (Pretty Beach) is only a few kilometers west of Las Terrenas. It's not without…
Monumento Natural Dunas de las Calderas
Dominican Republic
This protected reserve, part of the Península de las Salinas, is 20 sq km of gray-brown sand mounds, some as high as 12m. A guided tour (in Spanish)…
Parque Nacional Submarino La Caleta
Punta Cana & the Southeast
This underwater park is the resting place of several shipwrecks, incuding the Hickory, a salvage ship that was scuttled in 1984, the year the park was…
Santo Domingo
The lush grounds span 2 sq km and include vast areas devoted to aquatic plants, orchids, bromeliads, ferns, palm trees, a Japanese garden and much more…
