Dominican Republic: Historic Santo Domingo Meets the New Ecotours

[Ed Wetschler]

Wake up, Cuba: The Dominican Republic may be stealing your business. While your tourism numbers were flat for 2012, visits to the D.R. were up almost 6%, and travel from the United States leaped 14%.

Why?

First, let's look at what made the D.R. rock even before this surge:

• Punta Cana, Puerto Plata, Samana, and other areas of the Dominican Republic offer some of the most affordable beach resorts in the Caribbean. And contrary to stereotypes, the choices are not limited to mass-market all-inclusives.
• The Dominican Republic, especially Punta Cana, which lies in the southeast corner of the country, has some of the best beaches in the Caribbean: wide, deep, and so white that you can't find that white on a paint chart.
• Casa de Campo is known for its world-class golf, but Punta Cana, among other resort areas, also offers championship oceanside courses designed by Jack Nicklaus, Tom Fazio, and P.B. Dye. “I got whupped out there,” one golfer told me, “but I sure had a good time!”
• Punta Cana is one of the world's best billfishing destinations, and because the marlin come close to shore, boat charters cost less than in places that aren't as good. 
• Santo Domingo offers the kind of historical sights you'd normally have to visit Spain to see.

You knew all that? Okay, here's a peek at some of what's new in the Dominican Republic: 

• An ambitious highway-building project has shrunk travel time from Punta Cana westward to La Romana (Casa de Campo, etc.) and the capital, Santo Domingo, and highways connecting Samana, Puerto Plata, and other tourism destinations are also part of the project.
• Not only do these new roads make it easier for you to, say, play golf at Casa de Campo if you're staying in Punta Cana (and vice versa), but for the first time, guests in the south coast's resort areas can easily take day-trips to Santo Domingo. And that's gotten a lot of people -- both visitors and tourism industry officials -- very excited.
• It's hard to find anything in the entire New World like 500-year-old Santo Domingo. A UNESCO World Heritage site, Santo Domingo's colonial center includes Diego Columbus's palace, the Ozama Fortress (above, right), the oldest cathedral in the Americas, and great museums, restaurants, hotels, shopping, etc. Moreover, the government is restoring its grandeur by removing power lines, cleaning stone walls that date back to the conquistadors, fixing sidewalks, beefing up security, etc.

• Between the new highways and the revival of Santo Domingo, new tour operators have appeared,    including Gray Line, which has launched sightseeing and adventure day-trips within the Dominican Republic and complete vacation packages to everything from conventional resorts to all-inclusives to the 5-diamond, Oscar de la Renta-designed Tortuga Bay Villas. You like choices? You've got them. 
• Tour operators already established in the Dominican Republic have developed new ecotours and attractions. For example, Luna Tours, which offers ziplining, culinary tours, and adventure daytrips, is opening Monkeyland, where squirrel monkeys (above, right) get to train humans to feed them, or something like that. (Another company operates Monkey Jungle in Puerto Plata.)
• Marinarium Excursions, in the Punta Cana area, is offering all sorts of catamaran cruises. Nearby Bavaro Adventure Park provides wackier diversions, including a flight simulator, Dinosaur World, zorbing (sort of like rolling down a hill inside a transparent plastic ball), and, in the spirit of Pennsyltucky, paintball.

• Even the non-profit Punta Cana Ecological Foundation, which protects a swath of pristine land and water (right) is about to debut new ecotours ranging from walks to snorkeling and scuba trips, from horseback riding to Segway Eco-Tours, from kite-surfing to 4x4 drives. I can't believe that all these activities are intrinsically good for the environment (Exhibit A: the 4x4 drives), but Foundation director Jake Kheel promises that “a significant portion of the income” from them will fund coral reef conservation and the protection of endangered species, such as the Ridgway's hawk. And they'll be fun.
• More sophisticated international marketing. 
• But unless you're in the travel business, you don't care about the marketing campaign. Instead, you want to know where to stay. Glad you asked. New resorts, condos, and villas have opened in many parts of the Dominican Republic, and more are about to open. So many, in fact, and with such a variety of price points and amenities, that this is a subject for another blog post....

Photo of Ozama Fortress by Daquelle Manera. 

On Twitter follow @EdWetschler. Ed Wetschler is Caribbean editor of Recommend magazine and the executive editor of Tripatini, whose parent company, EnLinea Media, is dedicated to multilingual online content, marketing, and social-media management. 

[Anil]

Excellent review of places and things to do in Dominican Republic.  Last year, one afternoon I spent watching a baseball game.  It was truly remarkable experience. 

[Steve Mirsky]

This is great news indeed!  Even from an all-inclusive beach experience, I think The Dominican Republic offers the right balance of fun-in-the-sun and cultural exchange

[Ed Wetschler]

Hal, I think you know the country better than Prez Medina. Good to see you in NYC. Sorry I missed your call, and vice versa; hope you have a hassle-free flight back to Florida, notwithstanding an ill-tempered wind named Andrea. 

[Hal Peat]

Interesting news on the improvements to the road infrastructure.  I also loved the Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo and have the same shots of the Ozama Fortress, went to that stretch of Kite Beach in Cabarete in the north and remember visiting that swimming hole in the park maintained by the Punta Cana Ecological Foundation.  There will always be much to tell about the D.R., the challenge for many journos unfortunately will also probably remain navigating around the country and getting to what they need unless they're very resourceful in reaching the right media relations people with clients or operations in the country.