Planning Your Time

Santo Domingo [1] is a vibrant city with a lot to offer. Tourists can touch the same fortress walls where Columbus, Cortés, and Ponce de León once leaned. History buffs will need more than a couple of days to soak it all in and may want to hire a guide (the official tourism ones wear blue shirts and have Ministry of Tourism name tags) in order to fully appreciate the significance of all the sights.

They are often very sure that you need them. This is debatable. Some are very knowledgeable (always agree on a price before commencing), but if you’d rather go it on your own, a simple no gracias should suffice. Many tourists can probably cover the Ciudad Colonial [2] in a couple of days with a self-guided tour, making sure to hit a couple of museums and save some time for shopping on El Conde.

For certain, the major tourism draw for Santo Domingo is the Ciudad Colonial, including sights like the Catedral Primada de América [3] and the Fortaleza Ozama [4], but other sights elsewhere in the city are worth visiting as well, like the Jardín Botánico Nacional [5], the Plaza de la Cultura [6], and the Faro a Colón [7].

The Ciudad Colonial is easily walked in a comfortable pair of shoes. There are also plenty of motoconchos around for hiring a ride if walking isn’t your thing—riding on the back of speedy little motorbikes can be a way to cover the small area quickly or if you need to leave the Ciudad Colonial.