Planning a trip to Santo Domingo

Fast Facts

Currency Exchange -- All banks will exchange your currency and all maintain ATMs. Two of the most central and convenient are Banco BHD, Avenida 27 de Febrero (tel. 809/243-3232), and Banco de Reservas, avenidas Duarte and Mella (tel. 809/960-2000).

Mail -- Chances are if you use regular mail in the Dominican Republic, your cards and letters will arrive at their destination long after you've returned home. Many Dominican residents mailing money back to their homeland have their letters stolen and the money removed. If you must use the postal service (and we recommend that you don't), the main office -- and the most convenient -- is Instituto Postal Dominicano, Parque Colón, in the Zona Colonial (tel. 809/534-5838), open Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm, Saturday 9am to noon. If you've got to ship something home, try the more reliable Federal Express, Avenida de los Proceres, corner of Camino del Oeste (tel. 809/565-3636), open Monday to Friday 8:30am to 5:30pm and Saturday 8:30am to 12:30pm.

Medical Services -- The best hospital in Santo Domingo, and the one recommended by the U.S. Embassy, is Clínica Abreu, Calle Beller 42 (tel. 809/688-4411). Most of its English-speaking doctors trained in the United States. It is always open.

Newspapers -- There are three major dailies. One of the most comprehensive listings of local events, cultural or otherwise, is found in Hoy's "Revista" section. The same data also appears in Listin Diario's "La Vida" section. The afternoon daily, Ultima Hora, also carries helpful listings, including movie schedules.

Pharmacies -- Carol, Ricart 24 (tel. 809/562-6767), and San Judas Tadeo, Av. Independencia 57 (tel. 809/685-8165) are open 24 hours.

Safety -- Exercise extreme caution when walking around Santo Domingo at night, and keep your guard up during the day as well. Violent crime against tourists is not commonplace, but muggings are. Avoid the overcrowded slums at all cost. They are some of the worst slums in the Caribbean, and crime is rampant. One of the worst sections is on the west bank of the Río Ozama just north of Puente Duarte, the bridge. Another section that's riddled with crime is on the east side of Avenida Máximo Gómez north of the Río Isabela. The safest zones are the Zona Colonial or the Malecón, even though these sections are rife with pickpockets and muggers.

Telephone -- The area code for the Dominican Republic is 809. You place calls to or from the Dominican Republic just as you would from any other area code in North America. You can access AT&T Direct by dialing tel. 880/872-2881. You can reach MCI at tel. 800/999-9000 and Sprint at tel. 800/751-7877.

Travel Agencies -- There are a number of travel agencies that can handle your arrangements if you're venturing out of Santo Domingo and into the country. The best ones include Colonial Tour & Travel, Calle Arzobispo Meriño 209 (tel. 809/688-5285; www.colonialtours.com.do), open Monday to Friday 8:30am to 1:30pm and 2:30 to 5:30pm, Saturday 8:30am to 1:30pm. Giada Tours & Travel, inside Hostal Duque de Wellington, Av. Independencia 304 (tel. 809/686-6994; www.giadatours.com), also gives good service. It's open Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm and Saturday 9am to noon.

Parking

To get your bearings, you need to know that no one refers to the city's main artery as Avenida George Washington. This is a palm-lined boardwalk open to the sea. The Guinness Book of World Records calls it "The Planet's Largest Disco" because of all the clubs found here. Locals call it El Malecón (sea wall), and it hugs the edge of the Caribbean for a total distance of 8km (5 miles). This is one of the dozen or so major boulevards of the city, and the most important one. Parading along this boulevard at night (beware of pickpockets) is the major nighttime activity of both locals and visitors.

Forget about street addresses. Presumably, buildings are assigned a number, but locals rarely use them. The way to find an address is to tie in a building you're seeking with either a landmark or else the major cross street.

Chances are your hotel will be along the Malecón. For sightseeing, however, most interest focuses on the Zona Colonial (Colonial Zone), the heart of the centuries-old city where Sir Francis Drake, and Columbus, once walked.

Running parallel to the Malecón, but inland from the Caribbean, is Avenida Independencia. This wide boulevard cuts through the Gazcue sector of town, coming to an end at Parque Independencia and its nearby Palacio Nacional, lying just west of Zona Colonial. Parque Independencia is "ground zero" for the denizens of Santo Domingo.

One of the city's most attractive districts is Gazcue, lying immediately to the west of Zona Colonial, south of the Avenida Bolivar, and north of the Malecón. This is an upper-middle-class neighborhood with tree-shaded sidewalks. It centers on Plaza de la Cultura, and includes a popular stretch of El Malecón within its boundaries. A number of museums are here, and chances are you'll be visiting the district.

Río Ozama separates the western or right bank of Santo Domingo from the left or eastern bank. Lying directly off the Avenida España, the two districts here are Villa Duarte and Sans Souci, with most interest focusing on the Columbus Lighthouse, which locals refer to as El Faro Colón, or "El Faro." This monumental and stately looking lighthouse, whose floor plan was inspired by the form of a giant cross, towers over the western end of Parque Mirador del Este, a stretch of woodland spanning the length of the barrios east of the river.

The city's outer barrios won't concern the average visitor. These include Villa Mella to the north, a dreary sector of thatch huts and concrete structures that locals call home. Villa Mella is different from the rest of the districts in that most of its population was largely descended from slaves from the Congo, and some of the old Congolese culture still lives on in music, religion, and language. A new subway line is in the process of being built, a north-south line that, when completed in what's presently the summer of 2012, will link the Villa Mella neighborhood with El Malecón.

A barrio of more interest to the average visitor is the wealthy, and in some cases, spectacularly wealthy, Arroyo Hondo, lying to the immediate northwest and the site of the much-visited Jardín Botánico (Botanical Gardens). Close to the city's heart, the area gets a lot less upscale the more you travel northward. A short distance to the east of the botanical gardens lies the Parque Zoológico (zoo).

Getting Around

By Public Transportation

From sunup to sundown, public buses serve Santo Domingo. The better-maintained and more orderly buses are those maintained by OMSA. They make stops only at clearly designated bus areas, they are air-conditioned and relatively comfortable, and they charge, for a ride between any two points within the city, RD$10 to RD$15 per person. There's also a network of guaguas, privately owned, loosely monitored vans and minibuses that charge only RD$5 per person for rides between loosely defined neighborhoods, almost always without the benefit of air-conditioning. To catch an OMSA bus, head for the nearest bus stop. To catch a guagua, you'll have to stand beside the road and hail one down (as opposed to going to a more orderly and signposted bus stop).

By Taxi

Taxis aren't metered, and determining the fare in advance (which you should do) may be difficult if you and your driver have a language problem. You can easily hail a taxi at the airport and at most major hotels. Warning: Don't get into an unmarked street taxi. Many visitors, particularly in Santo Domingo, have been assaulted and robbed by doing just that. The minimum fare within Santo Domingo is RD$150. In Santo Domingo, the most reliable taxi companies include Tecni-Taxi (tel. 809/567-2010) and Apollo Taxi (tel. 809/537-0000).

Walking

This is virtually the only way to get around such districts as Zona Colonial, site of the major attractions. Do so during the day and avoid night walks, where you may be the victim of a mugging. Even during the day, you can expect to be hassled by hustlers calling themselves "guides" and offering tours. Many of them are hard to get rid of and will continue to follow you even if you turn down their services.

Getting There

Most flights arrive at Aeropuerto Internacional Las Américas (tel. 809/947-2225; www.aerodom.com), lying 13km (8 miles) east of the city center. This is not a good introduction to the Dominican Republic. Customs officials are often hostile, and retrieval of suitcases from the luggage carousels is cramped, neurosis-inducing, and, if you trip over any of the wheeled carts that passengers push up to the edge of the carousels, fraught with hazards. Once you've survived your arrival, you have to face an array of hustlers waiting to steal your money, grab your luggage (and disappear with it), or else hawk dubious deals on everything from hotel rooms and gypsy cabs to cheap car rentals. Not only that, but if you're a single man traveling alone, you might be offered a woman for the duration of your trip. If you express no interest, a boy might be offered instead.

Expect a lot of hassle and aggression. It's better to have everything reserved in advance, including your hotel and your car rental, before you face these touts trying to separate you from your money.

At the exit to the baggage reclaim area, you'll see a branch of Banco de Reservas, where you can change your currency into Dominican pesos. And once you exit from the security-controlled area inside the terminal, you'll find a handful of ATMs dispensing Dominican pesos. Note: Although virtually everyone in the D.R. accepts U.S. dollars as payment for virtually anything, it's hard to actually lay your hands on dollars once you're inside the country. We tend to bring $200 or $300 in U.S. cash into the country, safely tucked away, for tips and for the purchase of handicrafts -- just because it's easier than calculating everything in pesos and because locals seem to genuinely appreciate the receipt of U.S. dollars.

If you don't rent a car, you'll need to take a taxi. Count on at least 45 minutes to an hour to get from the airport into the center of town. The local taxi union is powerful enough to prevent bus service from operating here. Taxis, available 24 hours, cost about RD$1,225 for one-way transits for up to four passengers and their luggage into town. Always negotiate and agree on the fare before getting in.

If you're flying into the capital from somewhere else within the Dominican Republic, perhaps Puerto Plata or La Romana, chances are your plane will land at the smaller Aeropuerto Isabela (tel. 809/826-4019, ext. 112; www.aerodom.com) in the city's northern suburb of Higüero. A taxi from there to any point within the center of Santo Domingo costs around RD$1,050. Always negotiate and agree upon the fare before getting in, and be aware that if your hotel is on or near the Malecón, the traffic, especially during rush hour (usually 4:30-6:30pm) is likely to be horrendous.

Motorists who arrive from one of the popular resorts will find it easy to access the central city. If you're coming from the north on Autopista Duarte, the highway becomes Avenida Kennedy at Luperón, which will take you into the heart of Santo Domingo. If you're driving from a resort in the east, follow the signposts marked CENTRO CIUDAD until you come to the Puente Duarte, a bridge over the Río Ozama. The road at this point becomes Avenida 27 de Febrero. Follow this road to the intersection with Calle 30 de Marzo, at which point you turn left and head for the Zona Colonial (Colonial Zone).

Chances are you won't be arriving from elsewhere in the Dominican Republic by bus, although the major towns and cities of the D.R. maintain bus links with Santo Domingo. Buses let passengers off at the terminal at avenidas 27 de Febrero and Navarro (tel. 809/221-4422), at Av. Máximo Gómez 61 (tel. 809/221-4422), behind the Plaza Central, or at the terminal at Guarocuya 4 (tel. 809/544-4580), across the street from Centro Olímpico. Taxis are found at all bus terminals to take you to your hotel within the city itself.