Occupying the eastern half of the island of Hispaniola, the Dominican Republic (or the DR, as it's often known) is the most popular tourist destination in the Caribbean, somewhat of a surprise given its relative poverty and previous instability, not to mention the allure of nearby islands that perhaps are more wholly given over to holiday-makers. What traditionally attracts most visitors are the parts of the country that do most resemble the image of a Caribbean playland, the crystal-clear waters and sandy beaches lined with palm trees, of which the DR has plenty. This vision of leisurely days spent by the sea and romantic nights filled with merengue and dark rum is supported by what turns out to be the largest all-inclusive resort industry in the world; if you're looking to pay a set rate for airfare, hotel, food and drinks - and have a carefree Caribbean vacation behind the protection of a fenced-off compound - you can't do much better than here.

Unfortunately, such a "perfect" vacation would mean missing out on much of what makes the Dominican Republic so special. Set on the most geographically diverse Caribbean island, it boasts virgin alpine wilderness, tropical rainforests and mangrove swamps, cultivated savannas, vast desert expanses and everything in between within its relatively small confines - slightly smaller than the US states of New Hampshire and Vermont combined. The opportunities for ecotourism and adventure travelling are staggering: if you were so inclined, in a single week you could scale a 150-metre waterfall on a rope, mountain bike across remote dirt tracks, ride the best windsurfing waves in the hemisphere, trek to the top of a 3000-metre mountain, and head out in a fishing boat to see dozens of humpback whales crashing about in a scenic bay.

The Dominican Republic also lays claim to some of the more intriguing culture and history in the area, dating back to its early cave-dwelling groups, the Tainos, who recorded much of their activities in the form of rock art - it's quite likely you'll find yourself clambering down a dark cave to view some of these preserved paintings during your stay. In addition, as Dominicans are often quick to point out, their land was the setting for Christopher Columbus's first colony, La Isabela, and Spain's first New World city, Santo Domingo, at the end of the fifteenth century. Though the island quickly lost this foothold, the events that took place during its brief heyday did much to define the Americas as we know them, and examples of period architecture - both preserved and in ruins - remain scattered across the country, most notably in the colonial heart of Santo Domingo, today the nation's capital and centre of industry.

During the intervening centuries the Dominican people have endured much hardship - interminable civil strife in the nineteenth century, an oppressive dictatorship in the twentieth, intermittent occupation by Haiti, Spain and the United States, and a boom-and-bust economy centred first on tobacco, later on sugar, that never allowed the country to stand on firm economic footing. Even today, the DR remains a nation in transition. Despite owning the highest growth rate of any country in the hemisphere, in part due to the all-inclusive tourist industry, eighty percent of its people live in poverty. Santo Domingo has grown into a heaving metropolis, five times larger than the next biggest city, and much of the rest of the country is made up of rural tobacco towns or tiny fishing villages often held at the mercy of tropical rainstorms, hurricanes and frequent power outages.

The Dominican people have dealt with these tough circumstances in ever- resourceful ways: extended families maintain close ties and pool their assets, most village homes are built one brick at a time (sometimes taking two generations to complete), and informal shoestring transportation systems connect nearly every city and village in the country. Another coping mechanism has been the extreme pride that residents take in the diverting rhythms of merengue and bachata - the national musical forms - and in the exploits of homegrown baseball players made good in the North American big leagues. And even if the Latin American "maana" culture stereotype sometimes holds true, with service that can be less than prompt, any frustrations are more than compensated for by the island's beauty and its surprisingly cheap price: along with its less politically stable neighbour, Haiti, the Dominican Republic is the last true budget destination left in the Caribbean.

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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.

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Dominican Republic

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