Shopping

The best buys in Santo Domingo are handcrafted native items, especially amber jewelry.

Ever since the Dominicans presented John F. Kennedy with what became his favorite rocker, visitors have wanted to take home a rocking chair. These rockers are often sold unassembled, for easy shipping. Other good buys include Dominican rum, hand-knit articles, macramé, ceramics, and crafts in native mahogany.

The best shopping streets are El Conde, the oldest and most traditional shop-flanked avenue, and Avenida Mella. In the colonial section, La Atarazana is filled with galleries and gift and jewelry stores, charging inflated prices. Duty-free shops are found at the airport, in the capital at the Centro de los Héroes, and at both the Hotel Santo Domingo and the Hotel Embajador. Shopping hours are generally Monday to Saturday from 9am to 12:30pm and 2 to 5pm.

Head first for the National Market, El Mercado Modelo, Avenida Mella, filled with stall after stall of crafts, spices, and produce; you can easily get lost in the crush. The merchants are eager to sell, so remember to bargain. You'll see a lot of tortoiseshell work, but exercise caution, since many species, especially the hawksbill turtle, are on the endangered-species list and could be impounded by U.S. Customs if discovered in your luggage. Also for sale are rockers, mahogany, sandals, baskets, hats, and clay braziers for grilling fish.

Amber World Museum, Arzobispo Meriño 452 (tel. 809/686-5700), lives up to its name. Many visitors flock here to see plants, insects, and even scorpions fossilized in resin millions of years ago. Although some of the displays are not for sale, in an adjoining salon you can watch craftspeople at work, polishing and shaping raw bits of ancient amber for sale. To visit the museum costs adults RD$50 (US$1.50/75p) and children up to age 12 enter free. Open Monday to Saturday 8:30am to 6pm and Sunday 9am to 1pm.

Another reliable source for stunning amber, as well as coral, is Ambar Nacional, Calle Arzobispo Meriño (tel. 809/686-5700). This is also the best source for purchasing larimar jewelry. In general, prices here are a bit less expensive than those at the more prestigious Amber World Museum nearby.

In the center of the most history-laden section of town is the well-known Galería de Arte Nader, Rafael Augusto Sanchez 22 (tel. 809/544-0878), which displays so many Latin paintings that they're sometimes stacked in rows against the walls. The works of the country's best-known painters and most promising newcomers are displayed here (though to be honest, the Dominican Republic is short on painters with international reputations). There is also a lot of tourist junk, shipped in by the truckload from Haiti. In the ancient courtyard in back, you can get a glimpse of how things looked in the Spanish colonies hundreds of years ago.

Nuebo, Fantino Falco 36, Naco (tel. 809/562-3333), is patronized by some of the capital's most upscale buyers. This shop sells a carefully chosen assortment of art objects, lamps, and furnishings. With some persuasion, anything you buy here can be shipped.

Columbus Plaza (Decla, S.A.), Calle Arzobispo Meriño 206 (tel. 809/689-0565), is one of the largest, supermarket-style gift and artifacts stores in the country. Well-organized and imaginative, with a helpful English-speaking staff, it sprawls over three floors of a modern building divided into boutiques specializing in amber, larimar, gold and silver jewelry, cigars, paintings and sculpture, plus craft items.

Cigars are big sellers in Santo Domingo. The best selection is at Cigar King, Calle Conde 208, Baguero Building (tel. 809/686-4987), in the colonial city. Its selection of Dominican and Cuban cigars in a temperature-controlled room is wide ranging.

You Call That a Bargain?

Always haggle over the price of handicrafts, particularly in the open-air markets. No stall-keeper expects you to pay the first price asked. Remember the Spanish words for too expensive: muy caro.