The recently restored colonial district of Santo Domingo contains the oldest Spanish buildings in the New World, many of them as beautiful inside as out, with their ancient pillared colonnades. With modern features now concealed, you can almost imagine, under the coral stone walls of Calle Las Damas, a conquistador coming around the corner.
Santo Domingo
The extraordinary stone hillocks of Los Haitises National Park are made from limestone that has been uplifted from the seabed and then steadily eroded, leaving just vertical-sided stacks of rock. Tours include a stop for a swim, visits into limestone caves with Taíno rock paintings and a trip into the mangroves.
Los Haitises National Park
The classic view of the Caribbean is surely a deserted beach with palms leaning out over a turquoise sea – something you will see plenty of on the undeveloped Samaná Peninsula in the north-east, where the hotels tend to be small and the beaches endless. Try Las Terrenas, Playa Bonita and Las Galeras.
You might be surprised to find a medieval hilltop village in the Dominican Republic (and you’d be right to: it was built only in 1978 and Frank Sinatra inaugurated the amphitheatre), but the rusty coral-rock buildings of Altos de Chavón are oddly impressive hovering above the Chavón River, and they have a lovely atmosphere.
Casa de Campo
The least-visited part of the Dominican Republic is Barahona in the south-west, but it is equally dramatic in its mountainous fertility and its far-reaching views. The sweeping coastal sections are as green as elsewhere, but inland around Lago Enriquillo the land becomes dry and scrubby, almost desert-like.
