Product Description

The revised, third edition of the "Rough Guide to the Dominican Republic" is the complete handbook to the Caribbean's most popular destination. The guide opens with a 24-page, full-colour section introducing many of the island's highlights, from the idyllic white-sand beaches and lavish resorts, to picturesque villages, coastal mangroves and the verdant Cordillera Central. There is lively coverage of all the island's top attractions, from the colonial relics of Santo Domingo to the stunning beaches around Puerto Plata. There are detailed reviews of all the best places to stay, eat and drink, and for the more adventurous traveller the guide provides plenty of practical advice on all outdoor activities, including: snorkelling, scuba diving, white-water rafting and hiking.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56149 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

About the Author
Sean Harvey first visited the island of Hispaniola in 1990. He has since travelled extensively throughout the island building a lifelong affinity to the Dominican Republic and its people.

Excerpted from Dominican Republic: the Rough Guide by Sean Harvey. Copyright © 2000. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Where to go

As stated, many visitors head directly for beachfront resorts, and there's much there to admire, to be sure. The southeastern part of the country probably has the loveliest all-inclusive resort zones, Bvaro and Punta Cana, both holding more pristine coastline stretching for kilometres on end, broken up just by coconut trees and, of course, hotels. These are slightly outshined, if not in attractiveness then by sheer magnitude, by Playa Dorado along the north coast, the largest all-inclusive complex in the world. Fortunately, Playa Dorado is close by Puerto Plata, an historic city worth examining for its wealth of Victorian architecture and proximity to developed stations like windsurfing capital Cabarete, to the east, and less trammelled villages such as El Portillo, home to the remains of Columbus's first colony, to the west.

More great beaches are scattered about the Saman Peninsula, poking out at the country's extreme northeast. Its primary city, Saman, also serves as a base for checking out the humpback whales that migrate to the Bah'a de Saman in the winter to mate and give birth and for boat tours to the lush mangrove swamps of the Parque Nacional Los Haitises, on the interior of the bay. The sand and surf theme continues in the southwest, mainly straight down the coast from Barahona, where you'll find isolated beaches with not many crowds at all on the pebbly waterfront - and, correspondingly, not many facilities either.

On the southern coast the capital city, Santo Domingo, offers the most fulfilling urban experience, and should obviously be on anyone's itinerary, not least because it has the country's largest airport; in addition, there are the historic forts, churches and homes of the Zona Colonial and, on a more modern note, the nation's top museums, restaurants and nightlife, scattered all about. Santiago, tucked away in the interior Cibao Valley, ranks a distant second, though there are no better areas to learn about the history of tobacco and see the production of cigars - a major Dominican export - firsthand.

If you're seeking a bit more adventure and outdoor life, you needn't look too hard. The Cordillera Central, the island's largest mountain range, should be a high priority: in addition to choosing between several-day treks through the wilderness to the top of Pico Duarte - the tallest peak in the Antilles - you can head to Jarabacoa, a resort town blessed with four waterfalls in its immediate vicinity and featuring all manner of mountain sports, or less developed Constanza, a circular valley short on tourist development but chock full of natural grandeur. Few visitors make it out to the rough Haitian border along the DR's western edge, but there are compelling sights here as well - though the singular experience of slowly trawling along desolate roadway, if some of the track can even be called that, straddling two distinct nations is likely the greatest attraction. Chief among the natural highlights, however, is Lago Enriquillo, a saltwater lake the size of Manhattan, inhabited by hundreds of iguanas, thousands of tropical birds and even American crocodiles.

When to go

There are two distinct tourist high seasons in the Dominican Republic, the summer months of July and August, when travellers from the northern hemisphere have some time off to get away for a couple of weeks, and the winter season from December through late February, when the Dominican climate is at its optimum, having cooled down just a bit from summertime. You'll therefore save a bit of money - and have an easier time booking a hotel room on the spot - if you arrive during the spring or the fall, which is just fine, as the temperature doesn't really vary all that much from season to season. In the Cordillera Central mountains, you can expect temperatures to be about four degrees cooler on average than in the valleys and along the coast - making those spots prime targets for wealthy Dominicans looking to escape the summer heat.

Keep in mind also that the Dominican Republic is right in the centre of the Caribbean hurricane belt, and gets hit with a major one every decade or so; the most recent was 1998's Hurricane Georges, which annihilated much of the year's harvest and wiped some small villages completely off the map. August and September is prime hurricane season, though smaller ones can occur in the months before and after those, so you may want to play it safe and schedule your trip accordingly. If you are on the island when a hurricane is about to strike, your best bet is to head immediately for the closest high-end tourist hotel, which should have a protected shelter for its guests. Definitely do not wander around outside, and don't be fooled by a brief respite of calm - you may well be in the eye of the hurricane, which means the destruction will start up again soon.

Summer is the traditional rainy season in the Dominican Republic, but with weather patterns somewhat disrupted in the past couple of years, you can expect short bursts of rain a few times a week - most of them lasting no more than a couple of minutes, to be quickly followed by sunshine - regardless of the time of year.

Customer Reviews

By Far the Best book on the Dominican Republic
If you're going to the Dominican Republic you've got to use this book. I brought four different books with me on my trip to the Dominican Republic and this was the one that I found was by far the most accurate. It had great, honest coverage of the all-inclusive hotels, comprehensive coverage of all the major tourism areas, like Santo Domingo's colonial district, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, Cabarete etc. But what was most helpful were the terrific recommendations for sights to see that weren't in any other guidebook. My husband and I were able to explore Taino caves that have depictions of Christopher Columbus' three ships. These caves were in the middle of a wilderness national park and no other guide book even knew that they existed. Also by far the best restaurant and bar recommendations. Highly recommended.

Possibly the second best guide book to DR
We brought this and the Lonely Planet guide, the later generally being more accurate, particularly the maps. This was surprising because the Rough Guide was supposed to be newer. Overall though a good guidebook and enough to get you around the country to see a lot more than an all inclusive hotel and a beach.

Fantastic essential book
This book is clearly written by someone who knows the country well, and who has travelled extensively. It is rather excellent, and full of essential facts. At times it contains too much information, making decisions about where to go and stay more difficult, but rather this than too little information.

Far better than the useless Lonely Planet