Dominican Republic
The idea to travel to the Dominican Republic was quite spontaneous. Corona had messed up our other plans and somehow the country seemed quite suitable to wait for our VW bus to arrive in the US. So we had booked in advance only the flights and an accommodation in Santo Domingo and decided the rest in the country. In the end, it turned into an almost five-week round trip through the country and we got quite a good overall impression of it. And of course we experienced a lot, because we were also far away from tourist hotspots and maybe got lost from time to time…
Regions
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo has about 3 million inhabitants, making it not only the oldest city in the "new world", but also the largest in the West Indies islands of the Caribbean. And it is a city of contrasts: the old town with beautiful old buildings directly adjoins busy and somewhat chaotic neighborhoods. Going a bit further, you end up in villa neighborhoods lined with huge trees and wide streets with real skyscrapers. Another special feature of Santo Domingo is that the Parque National Los Tres Ojos, a national park, is located in the middle of the city. The three eyes are small turquoise lakes in a cave, fed by an underground river and surrounded by stalagmites and stalagtites. They were formerly used by the indigenous people for rituals and were "discovered" in 1916.
North-East:
Las Galeras, Samaná & Las Terrenas
The peninsula of Samaná is located in the north-east of the Dominican Republic. It was our first destination after Santo Domingo and from our point of view you will find the country's most beautiful beaches there. There are rocky shore sections as well as beautiful sandy beaches lined with palm trees. Particularly beautiful is the Playa Rincón, about 5 km long, which offers many dreamlike Caribbean motifs. In the area near Las Galeras you can hike through the forest to secluded beaches as well as comfortably drink a piña colada from a pineapple on the beach.
North-West:
Cabarete, Puerto Plata, Buon Hombre & Monte Christi
Our journey continued to the northwest: first to Cabarete and from there via Puerto Plata and Buon Hombre to El Morro de Monte Christi. There are fantastic beaches with plams here as well, such as Playa Grande and Playa Preciosa, but the area is especially popular with kiters. When you drive away from the sea, it becomes much more hilly and forested - and and in the Parque Nacional Isabel de Torres near Punta Plata with 793 m above sea level even quite high. The combination of beaches and mountains can be found in the very west at El Morro de Monte Christi. All in all, the north-west is very diverse and can also be recommended to people who are not kiters.
South-West:
Enriquillo Coastal Highway, Paraiso & Oviedo
The Enriquillo Coastal Highway is an approximately 50 km long road along the coast in the southwest of the Dominican Republic. It is not a real highway and runs through small villages, such as Paraiso, and often right by the sea. The sea here is incredibly turquoise and the coast and landscape is extremely beautiful. But the villages are definitely not oriented towards international tourists. Everywhere runs the usual loud music and the only few understand English. Further south you come to Laguna de Oviedo, a salt lake with flamingos.
South-East:
Dominicus, Cotubanamá & Playa Caribe
Playa Dominicus is one of the longest beaches in the Dominican Republic and goes far into Cotubanamá National Park. The town of Dominicus consists almost entirely of all-inclusive hotels that are right on the beach. Well, at least one end of the hotel complexes, if you have your room at the other end, you are of course still half a kilometer away from the beach. The National Park Cotubanamá has an area of 791 km², is located at the southeastern end of the island and was therefore called Parque National del Este until 2014. On the shore of the park are mostly rocks of fossilized coral and sometimes small sandy beaches where you can go into the water.
Experiences
Country & People
The Dominican Republic is huge. Well, definitely much bigger than we imagined. In terms of the area, it is only about 48,500 km² (so a good ⅔ of the area of Bavaria), but we had somehow imagined a small Caribbean island. And due to the partly quite poor road conditions, everything seems longer.
Only a few of the Dominicans can speak English and since we both do not speak Spanish, communication was sometimes a bit difficult. But with the Google translator and a lot of good will, we have always reached the goal. And everyone was always very eager and friendly - we could even arrange with the policeman at the speed check and the armed parking lot attendant 😅
There are extreme differences in the country depending on the region. On the one hand, there are huge all-inclusive hotel complexes designed for international tourists who probably only leave the hotels for the way to and from the airport. And then again there are spots where you are the only international tourist and no one understands a single word of English. And of course there is then also extremely loud music everywhere 🔊🎊
Nature & Cities
The nature in the Dominican Republic is extremely impressive. For us, of course, it is always very special to see palm trees on a sandy beach. However, there are areas here where the water is additionally absurdly turquoise. And to be able to walk along a kilometer-long white sandy beach (or fly with the drone) is simply a dream 🌊🌴. But there are also very dry regions and areas that are used for agriculture. You can see a lot of bananas and sugar cane in particular.
The villages and towns are an interesting contrast. More or less everything can be found here. There are small villages where the houses are lined up along the main street, somewhat larger tourist towns with beach promenades and many bars, but also large cities like Santo Domingo or Santiago. And they all have one thing in common: as soon as several people get together on the street, it always gets chaotic 👻
Roads & Traffic
The roads and traffic in the Dominican Republic are a whole thing in themselves. Apparently there is no real driver's license here - at least according to our research on the internet and from what we saw on the road. Everyone drives somehow chaotically and parks even more chaotically. And that's also the way the cars look. On top of that, you can find everything on the street here that hasn't completely fallen apart yet. But then again, no one bothers if you drive or park chaotically yourself. So actually quite funny 😂
There are both newly paved roads and gravel roads here. And both have two things in common: there are extremely high speed bumps that you can only get over in slow motion without getting stuck. And there can be glaring potholes everywhere that can swallow up an entire tire. So driving at night is pretty exhausting, especially also because people here always drive with high beams 🙈
Garbage
In the Dominican Republic you can find garbage almost everywhere. On the roadside in the cities, but also washed up on lonely beaches by the sea. And it's also somehow not surprising that there is so much plastic lying around. At the supermarket, the very thin plastic bags are virtually forced on you and you get quite funny looks when you arrive with your own cloth bags 😂. The garbage is kind of a shame because the landscape is otherwise so extremely beautiful.
Living
In the Dominican Republic you can rent whole apartments or cottages very close to the beach or even with beach view for relatively little money (just under 40 €/night). However, the pictures on the Internet never correspond to reality. In general, the Dominicans are always very concerned that everything fits. However, the level is sometimes different: twice we had no water at all, some times only cold water and once no electricity for a few hours. But cooking is always done with gas anyway and drinking water is available in large canisters 🍛☕
Conclusion
Overall, the Dominican Republic is a really beautiful and interesting destination. Scenically, especially the coastal road in the southwest with the cliffs and the turquoise water was extremely attractive. But also the beaches of the Samaná peninsula were fantastic. From time to time, the Dominicans were perhaps a bit too pushy with the things they were desperate to sell. But we never had the feeling that the country is really as dangerous as it is described on the page of the German Foreign Office.