Santo Domingo: the first city in America founded by Europeans, the capital of the Dominican Republic. It was founded in 1496 by Bartalomé Colón, on the east coast of the Ozama River. In 1502, Nicolás de Ovando moved the city to the west coast of the river. It is a cosmopolitan and flourishing city, full of historic buildings that show the Spanish conquests of the American continent. It is the largest city in the Caribbean. Santo Domingo is a varied and interesting area for both tourism and its people. There are many invaluable old buildings that can be visited in excellent condition today. A pleasant walk through the historical part of the city is needed to discover how important and beautiful these buildings are.
Posted By : maat49
Stayed in the Zona Colonia which is really good area for food, drinks and close to the places of interest in City. Easy to find good food and everywhere was clean. Used Lonely Planet which is from 2017 and very out of date! As usual, found quite a few restaurants had closed down but there are quite a few new ones. Food is reasonably price, something for all budgets. Restaurants all very clean and every toilet we used as clean with plenty of handwashing requirments.
Be aware that it is difficult to find English speakers at most places. There are also new attractions not in the guide - zoo (which we didn't visit but is supposed to be good), aquarium (also not visited), cable car ( did visit but need a taxi to get to start, well worth a visit, takes an hour to go to the top and back and cost £1! Good view of the so-called barios), Museo de la Atarazana great museum about shipwrecks and their history with signage in English, Plaza de la Cultura park is not a 'scruffy place' but has been refurbished and work still going on, worth a visit.
Modern Art museum closed, Museum of the Dominican Man has only one floor open, Alcazar de Colin closed, Museo de las Casas Reales has only one floor open, Fortaleza Ozama closed, Las Damas being dug up and lots of road works all over the city. Also, lots of churches closed most of the time, have to keep trying to find them open! The 4D cinema was entertaining!
Transport - there is a new metro system but nowhere near the Zona Colonia. Without my partner's Uber it would have been haggling with taxi drivers. Uber was brilliant for long and short journeys, arrived very quickly, no haggling and very cheap!
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Posted On : 2023-07-24 06:24:17 
Posted By : Jlfenton83
I booked an English speaking tour and was placed on a Spanish speaking tour. Luckily the guide was able to explain some of the things to me but I felt like I missed a lot of information. It was also very difficult to confirm the pickup time. My voucher said 12am, when I called the company to confirm they could not give me any information, Viator told me 12pm, and then I finally received confirmation less than a day before.
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Posted On : 2021-02-11 08:13:53
