Santo Domingo and Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic occupies (approximately) two thirds of the Hispaniola island, together with Haiti, bordering the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean just between Cuba and Puerto Rico. As both of the neighbouring islands, it is full of natural beauty, mixing of cultures and tropical beaches, but also prone to hurricanes. Most people would think of Punta Cana, the famous beach holiday destination in the extreme East of the island, when considering visiting the Dominican Republic. However, there are other parts of the country that are worth exploring, in particular Samana peninsula in the North-East.

Santo Domingo, the capital, is (allegedly) the first European city in the ‘new world’ – founded in 1498. One can see its past glory and strategic importance of the old colonial city and forts at the mouth of the river Ozama. However, modern Santo Domingo doesn’t really offer that much glory or touristic interest. Unfortunately, the city is relatively run down and, apart from the colonial part, it has very little to offer.

The colonial city (Ciudad Colonial) is very cute to walk around. There’s several forts, old streets, numerous churches and squares. In particular, I recommend walking around and soaking in the atmosphere of the streets around the Parque Colon.

The main cathedral claims the title of ‘Cathedral of America’ as the oldest cathedral in Americas.

The pedestrian street – El Conde, is nice to stroll along and observe the life day or night.

At its Western end, it leads to the Parque Independencia, with the Puerta del Conde.

And the Altar de la Patria, a mausoleum paying homage to the founding fathers of the DR.

At the East end, overlooking the mouth of the Ozama river, is the Ozama fortress. Unfortunately, not much of it remains at the moment. The entrance fee is RD$70 and it mostly consists of a large esplanade with a tower one can climb on.

From the top of the fort, the views on the river are not pretty as the Santo Domingo port is located just underneath.

The nicest street in Santo Domingo, according to my opinion, is the Calle las Damas.

It passes by the Panteon de la Patria, a church that was converted into a mausoleum honouring distinct Dominicans.

While exploring Santo Domingo one can notice, there is a lot of national pride and patriotism. This was largely created during the occupation by Haiti and even if that was over a 150 years ago, it still lives vividly in the locals’ minds.

Heading north, you get to Plaza España, a big esplanade with restaurants lining one end and the Alcazar de Colon on the other.

It is particularly charming at night, when the city comes to life.

The latter was the official residence of the Spanish viceregals and is possible to visit for RD$100, which includes either a guide or an audio-guide.

The Malecon of Santo Domingo is a long stretch, of mostly the George Washington avenue, starting from the colonial city and going west. It is lined up with casinos and big hotels, amusement park, funny monuments and locals walking, jogging and drinking. Particularly, interesting if you want to take a run along the malecon.

Unfortunately, streets of Santo Domingo are full of rubbish lying everywhere and with the heat the smells are not that pleasant.

Food

Dominican food is quite famous, especially in New York, and quite good too. No wonder that also Anthony Bourdain made a special episode in the DR. I had a lot of grilled fish in the beach areas and a lot of goat meat (chivo) in Santo Domingo. I was quite surprised though that empanadas are not more ubiquitous.

Meson d’Bari – a very traditional and very good restaurant I’d definitely recommend. They are famous for their empanadas, the crab one is famous, but it wasn’t the season for it, so I tried the conch (lambi) one and it was good. The famous dish of the house is chivo guisado (goat stew), it comes with rice and beans on the side.

Pat’e Palo – claims to be the oldest tavern in the Americas. Located on Plaza España with a very nice terrace. It’s a mix of European cuisine with local flavour. I (again) had a goat stew (Chivo Encendio), but this time it was served over pumpkin rice. The goat dish was delicious, but the service was very snooty and it was quite pricey – a slight disappointment on that.

Barra Payán – a traditional and extremely popular fast food joint, open 24h a day, and serving mostly sandwiches. It is more of an experience rather than a culinary delight. I had the Payán Especial, a sandwich made with ham, meat and cheese. The must have drink is Morir Soñando (die dreaming) milk shake. It’s basically orange juice blended with milk. They have a large selection of other fruit juices either alone or blended with milk quite worth trying – I went for my long time favourite guanabana.

La Alpargatería – a shoe shop in front and a lovely cafe and bar in the back. Very nice for afternoon/evening drinks in their patio. They also serve some tapas stile food to accompany your cocktails.

Casa de los dulces – excellent if you’re into trying some local (very sweet) desserts. It’s a dessert supermarket. I bought a selection tray of varied local desserts. They were all extremely sweet, but at least interesting to try – not the kind of sugar calories I’d usually like to cheat with too often.

There’s plenty of other restaurants and bars on the main square and in the streets in the colonial city.

Hotel: Boutique Hotel Palacio

A large hotel in an old colonial house. The rooms are very large, but relatively dated. The staff were not very helpful and quite uninterested in guests really. It is super well located and has a parking garage for free, so at least some positives. The worse thing, though, is the gym, or, in other words, a dark, windowless room with 3 broken machines, which they should not be allowed to advertised as a gym – honestly a disgrace. 

Timing your visit

In general, there’s not much more to see or do in Santo Domingo. I would not recommend spending there more than a day, and rather get out and explore other beautiful parts of this island.

Renting a car and driving around is relatively easy. As in many places in Latin America, the car rental are not to be trusted. Initially, I had booked with Sixt and they didn’t honour the reservation, i.e., there was no car. Fortunately, I had also booked with Payless (part of Avis) and not cancelled it in advance. They did have a car, but it was significantly more expensive and they also smacked quite a bit of extra for insurance on top of the basic rate. However, it was very worth it to go up north to the beautiful Samana peninsula.

Main roads in the DR are not that bad. I took highway 7 north towards Samana. It is a single lane highway, but fortunately there is very little traffic. Maybe because it is quite pricey. There are at least 5 toll stations and all together it’s over RD$1,100 (more than $20) for a distance of 150 km. However, secondary roads are not in a very good state, so I definitely suggest paying the highway. On teh secondary roads, there’s lots of VERY deep potholes, guys on mopeds and all sort of vehicles that shouldn’t be there. I’d avoid driving at night as much as you can.

Trip summary

On this trip, I landed on Wednesday at the Santo Domingo airport (SDQ) and rented a car to right away drive up north to the Samana peninsula. I spent 3 nights in Las Terrenas area, making a couple of trips in the region (see my post of the Samana peninsula). On Saturday midday I headed back to Santo Domingo to spend a night there and fly back home on Sunday.

Trip made in June 2019.