Six college students leave the beach and explore DR's capital, whose history and beauty all ages can enjoy.
The Dominican Republic is a popular destination for vacationers from around the globe. With its beautiful beaches, clear, blue water, and the friendly Dominican people, it may be hard to leave your beach chair and piña colada. But if six college students can do it, then anyone can!
While visiting the Dominican Republic for spring break of our senior year in college, five friends and I traveled to Santo Domingo. From the resort hotel, it cost only $10 a person, about 330 Dominican pesos, for six of us on a personal guided tour through Santo Domingo for four to five hours. Though our driver spoke some English, it was very helpful to know Spanish, not only for the tour but also for our entire trip in the Dominican Republic.
Those in the tourism business will know some English, to be sure, but a little knowledge of Spanish is welcomed, even if your pronunciation isn’t perfect. On our way to the city, we were very grateful that we had our own local guide, Chico.
Our Tour of Santo Domingo
Driving on the streets of the Dominic Republic is not for the faint-hearted. Weaving through people, motorcycles, taxis and trucks, our driver sped down the highways and side streets. If you get the nerve to look out the window, check out the colorful buildings and crowded streets filled with Dominicans.
We finally reached Santo Domingo, the oldest European city in the New World, and a place filled with earlier Caribbean history. Founded by Christopher Columbus’ brother Bartholomew Columbus, this city is the second most populated city in the Caribbean (Havana, Cuba is first).
Our first stop was to a market in the Zona Colonial, also known as La Zona or The Zone, a walled in area situated in Santo Domingo. We opted for this market because it was laid back, less crowded and there wasn’t as much pressure to buy from the vendors, unlike the Mercado Modelo, which has a reputation for pickpockets and overeager vendors, making it a definite tourist trap.
In other parts of the city, many stands and shops sold basically the same variety of items as all the others, from paintings to jewelry to clothing. The vendors are up front, however, about their negotiable prices, so don’t accept their first offer without haggling a bit. Credit cards are accepted, though there is a charge for using them, and Euros, dollars and of course Dominican pesos are welcome as well.
After visiting the market, we headed to Calle El Conde, a street known for selling jewelry, especially amber, the country’s national stone. Popular with both Dominicans and tourists, this pretty, shaded street is closed off to traffic and is a great starting place to explore other areas of the Zona Colonial.
One place you might like to visit is the Plaza de España. Alcázar de Colón, a palace built for Christopher Columbus’ son Diego de Colón and his family in the early 16th century, is one of the oldest buildings in the Dominican Republic, and is located at the plaza. With its beautiful architecture and refurbished interior, it is well worth a look.
The Plaza de España is a great place to relax and people watch. Outdoor cafes, concerts and shows are also popular at the plaza. Across the Ozama River at the edge of the square you can see the cross-shaped building where Christopher Columbus is buried, el Faro a Colon. On the edge of the square you can stop by the Museo de Jamon for a quick bite. In English it would be called the Museum of Ham. Salt cured pork hangs from the ceiling in this great restaurant, and it’s a fun stop during your trip. If meat décor isn’t your thing, there are a wide variety of restaurants on the plaza and around the city with both international and local menus.
If you do choose to take a tour rather than exploring on your own, many guides will take you to the National Aquarium on the west side of the city, near the Faro de Colon on the opposite side of the Ozama River. A great stop for the whole family, kids will enjoy the hands-on experience of the exhibits. Walking through the underwater tunnel is particularly fun as you watch sharks, sea turtles and fish swim around you. The water in the aquarium is directly from the Caribbean Sea, which is located right next to the museum. With beautiful views and gardens, a shark pool, manatees and more, kids of all ages will love this stop.
Santo Domingo is filled with history and Dominican culture. A glimpse of its recent past can still be seen while walking down the streets of the city, formerly known as Ciudad Trujillo. Looking at the grates on the street, the name of former dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo is a visible reminder of his controversial rule from 1930 to 1961.
Walking east down Calle El Conde, you reach Calle Las Damas. From here, make your way to the Panteon Nacional, a building with ties to Trujillo. Originally a Jesuit structure, Trujillo wanted to be buried here, but his downfall and assassination kept this from happening. Now, national Dominican heroes are laid to rest in the church. A copper chandelier, a gift from Francisco Franco, a Spanish dictator, to Trujillo, hangs at the center of the building. Avoid the tour guides outside – it is free to enter, but their tours are not, and they won’t give you a price until after the tour is finished.
With amazing rifle movements and exact military precision, the changing of the guard outside the National Pantheon is a wonderful ceremony to watch. The service is performed every two hours as the guards watch over the Eternal Flame.
Details, Details
I have just a few tips to share. You don’t need a guided tour of Santo Domingo to enjoy its beauty and culture, but it can be a huge help, especially if you’re only in town for a few hours. If you are comfortable walking around on your own, just buy a guidebook from a vendor on the streets. You can pick up a free map from any of the shops in town and explore the vibrant and historical streets, museums and buildings.
The capital is safe, but like any city, you must be cautious of your belongings. Santo Domingo has a thriving nightlife, but this is the time to be even more careful of your wallet. As long as you use good sense and stay aware of your surroundings everyone in the family will be sure to have a fun time.
We were on a Spring Breakers’ budget and stayed at the Barcelo Capella (800/BARCELO) resort in Juan Dolio, on the south shore, about 40 minutes away from the capital city. An all-inclusive resort with visitors from many different countries, there are activities for kids and adults, great dining, and beautiful white beaches. It was a great place to unwind after we’d done our sightseeing.
Dear Reader: This page may contain affiliate links which may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Our independent journalism is not influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative unless it is clearly marked as sponsored content. As travel products change, please be sure to reconfirm all details and stay up to date with current events to ensure a safe and successful trip.
I poured my heart and soul into this!!! Hope you people enjoy! =)
Wow, this is wonderful! You are so lucky to have gotten this opportunity. You looked absolutely gorgeous at the show and the red carpet. Thanks for sharing this, it really made me smile. I used to have the biggest crush on Joe Jonas.. hahah!
Amazing trip!
I hope that my story will inspire and enrich your lives; even if it doesn’t touch you as much as it has touched me. I hope that this will be passed on and that people will take a few minutes just to read what I had to say and try to be in the mind of these children. Try to change your day and see your house, your possessions, your income, and those many great things that you possess and find a way to share them with others. We all need a wakeup call sometimes, a message to straighten us out and look at the life we were given. I hope to go back next year to repeat the experience all over again and try to change myself even more, I love those children and I love their compassion and selflessness. Words can’t fully express what I felt or what I witnessed but my words are clear, these people see the world much differently than us, they treat possessions differently and they know how to work as a community.
This is about when my family and I took a trip down to Central Florida for our Family Vacation.
Hope you enjoy!
This was a vacation that taught me a lot about how my religion is organzied and gave me more appreciation for it.
I will never forget the time I spent in Germany.
I hope you guys enjoyed my story!
Best luck.
South Africa is this amazing country that not only is beautiful for its animals and scenery but for its people and for its ability to overcome the greatest oppression: apartheid, the discrimination of the majority. I am so glad I was given the gift of traveling to South Africa. It is an experience I will never forget!
It was a great trip!
I hope everyone who takes the time to read The Awakening enjoys learning about my bus ride to reality.
My typed essay about my vacation in Vietnam. It seem poorly written or should I say typed :\
Bryan Gray Europe Tour.
My vacation to Panama became suprisingly meaningful, contrary to what I had initially expected.
Thank you
This was a fun and yet difficult project i truely have enjoyed sharing my vaction with you.
Mahalo,
Have you ever been to Maine? What did you like best?
This is such an amazing story and essay!!
Their were many more memories from this trip that impacted me as much as the ones that were included, but I just didnt have enough room. So, I shortened it and tried to write the best description of the trip without exceeding the word limit. But the trip was, indeed, as remarkable as I said it was.
Washington is a really nice place. It has many museums and historical places. it also has very delicious foods. Chinatown was my favorite place to eat.
Thank you for this scholarship opportunity!
IB York was a great experience, and a great opportunity to explore new ideas and innovations
So now I head to college without my classmates but i will always have this wonderful experience.
🙂
This is one of my many travel adventure stories from my trip to Europe in the beginning of the summer. Besides Prague, I traveled to Berlin, Munuch, and Nuremberg in Germany, Innsbruck in Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and France. My favorite place was Switzerland, but my favorite story was the one I shared. I hope you enoy reading it as much as i enjoyed experiencing it!
I want everyone to be able to expericence something like I did.:) Everyone desevers happines!
I hope you enjoyed my travel blog and I hope you plan to take your mom to the Peaks of Otter Lodge for the best brunch you will ever eat. For more information click on this link:
http://www.peaksofotter.com/
Finished product. I love PERU!
This eye-opening opportunity has shaped my conviction toward making change and developing the community. It is a great pleasure to meet all those Leadership Award Honorees and other49 ANNpower fellows from 24 states in the U.S. I will continue to make change and build a dynamic community, excursively to ethnic, social, political gender aspects of advantage, as my milestone to become a great leader!
This eye-opening opportunity marks the culmination of my junior year. I am so glad to meet all those wonderful women leaders from all around the world and 49 other ANNpower fellows from other 24 states. I will continue to explore the world and make change with eagerness and confident, and overcoming disadvantage exclusively toward the milestone of a great leader!
I hope everyone enjoys my trip to Catalina and Ensenada!
This trip was the best trip regarding family time. It is unforgettable.
To see more photography from the trip, check out my photojournal: http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Photojournal-of-My-Grecian-Travels/213497035367351.
What a testimony!! Thanks for posting. You don't know how impactful this is. Let Jesus keep using you for His glory. 😉
I was saved in August of 2009. I was in my parents's room and we all prayed for m, becuase I was tired of not having a desire for God. There I gave my life to Him and let Him be my Lord. I already excepted Him as Savior, but though it was a license to sin. Thatt day, though I wanted to repent of my sin and let God lead me. Lord and Savior go hand-in-hand. My life is changed. Now I have convictions and am learning so much about seeking God, because He is seeking me. It's awesome to live in the security and hope of knowing I will see Him one day in heaven. I am so glad He lives in me, because my goodness outside of Him is nothing. I don't know what I would do without Him.
Jesus used that park to bring you and your dad back together. How beautiful 🙂
Each place I go, I leave a peice of myself. And everyplace I go leaves a peice of itself in me. The people I have met along the way have changed me in the deepest way. Their lives have touched mine and I can never return to life as was usual. Likewise, my life has touched many along the way. It is my hope that nobody I meet along the way may return to life as was their usual. This is how each thead pulls coth and fabric together as we the people of the world cover it like a quilt. We must double stitch each peice so not to fall apart or leave holes. We need one another.
To whoever reading this, I am the person wearing blue shirt and white shorts, sligtly leaning on the panda bear statue.
My essay that talks about my experience traveling to Lima, Peru aims toward encouraging others who are not too familiar with it to visit and appreciate the fun life changing experience they're gauranteed to get.
What a great contest! Hope to see lots of terrific teen travel stories here!
It was difficult for me to type a 600 word blog about an amazing experience I had in the month of July. It was also difficult for me to choose certain pictures from the ones that I have chosen, so I uploaded the pictures of my time at NeiHu elementary school. I really wished that I could have used more sightseeing photos, but unfortunately, those were too big to upload.
This trip was amazing and it also tested who I am becoming as a person. Seeing the woman in Central Park living out her dream, to the woman selling fruit throughout the day; New York is made of dreamers and hardworking people. I loved it. Hope I get the chance to go back.
This was an amazing experience! I am so grateful for everything it taught me!!
From research, I believe the ice cream shop was called Eisdiele Eddy. More information about the exchange program can be found at http://www.aatg.org/study-trip-faq as well as at the bottom of the page at http://www.aatg.org/NGE-awards.
These Picutures are both of my own creation (one being an acrylic painting). When I took this picture at the western wall in Israel, the man in the photo was crying his heart out wearing a tattered down bath robe, I thought it would make for an intersting picture. So it did, it also inspired to me to create a painting in which I showed the world what I believe he really is. A man who is down on his luck but seems to still find peace in his life.
My sophomore year of high school I went to Donner Pass in California with a group called The Woods Project (www.thewoodsproject.org) . I had to apply to go , I was really anxious and scared that I wasn’t going to get. When I got my acceptance letter I was excited. I was also nervous because I had never been away from home for more than a week and The Woods project was going to last for two weeks. I had chosen to go to Donner Pass because I wanted to experience something new. I was going to go backpacking for one week and hiking the other. I had never gone backpacking before. When I told my friends that I was going backpacking they started to laugh because I am the smallest girl in my whole school and they didn’t think I was going to make it. Getting that response from my friends made me super scared of going to the trip. I thought I was going to die while backpacking!
My dad went to go drop me off at the airport and then he left. I was already scared and freaking out at the fact that he had just left me there and I did not know anybody! . I got in the plane to California and I was already regretting going on the trip. I was going to be with complete strangers for two weeks! When we got to California we all got split .There were three groups going to different places, one to Yosemite, another to Marine Headlines and then mine, to Donner Pass. I got in a van and that’s where I met the people who I was going to spend two weeks with. We were in that van for hours! When we finally got to our cabin we had to go up a hill to get to the door.
The first cabin we stayed in was named Clair Tappan Lodge. It was really nice . It was made out of wood, had a pool table, personal chef, jacuzzi and hot water in the showers. I loved it there! Too bad it only lasted for two days then it was time to go backpacking. They gave us our backpacking materials. I tried on the backpack and almost fell over. My backpacking week had started. We went up and down mountains, through rivers and lakes, and I thought we were never going to set up our tents. When it started to get dark we finally started cooking. The food we had was not good at all. We couldn’t bring a lot of food because of the bears and other animals. My second day of backpacking went better than the first. Everybody in my group started to know each other better and soon we became really close. We would sing while backpacking to make time pass faster and at night we didn’t want to sleep because we would play games. While backpacking I got to experience many things I hadn’t before. Even though I was the smallest girl going backpacking I was always the leader of the line because of my stamina.
When our backpacking week ended it was time to hike. I had gotten the hardest part of the trip over with so I knew hiking was going to be a piece of cake. We would hike in the morning and hanged out at night. It was the best experience I had ever had! When it was time to go back home I didn’t want to because I knew I would miss my friends.
To watch my video go to : http://youtu.be/FLd7W71EnyU
My experience as a first time camper.
i hope i win