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Travel and Tourism in Dominican Republic
Travel alerts, currency, climate, transit, health, and safety information for visitors to Dominican Republic.
Practical Information
Travel alert status, currency, climate, and transit details.
- Travel Alert Status
- Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution
- Time Difference
- UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)
- Currency
- 46.2
- Climate
- The climate varies little year round. Although the country is in the tropics, constant trade winds keep temperatures from frequently exceeding 90°F. Temperatures in its coastal cities average about 78°F, with seasonal variations of 5-8 degrees. Rainfall varies regionally with about two-thirds of the annual 57 inches in the capital falling in the rainy season from May to November. Hurricanes are a significant weather threat, particularly from June through October, and have caused serious damage in the past.
- Language(s) Spoken
- Spanish (official)
- Ethnic Groups
- Mixed 70.4% (Mestizo/Indio 58%, Mulatto 12.4%), Black 15.8%, White 13.5%, other 0.3%
- National Holiday
- Independence Day, 27 February (1844)
- Geographic Coordinates
- 19 00 N, 70 40 W
- Location
- Caribbean, eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, east of Haiti
- Airports
- 31
Destinations
Regions and cities, top sights, national parks, UNESCO sites, and festivals for visitors.
Santo Domingo — The First City of the Americas
There is no city in the Western Hemisphere with a history as deep and as continuously inhabited as Santo Domingo. Founded in 1496 on the eastern bank of the Ozama River by Bartholomew Columbus, brother of Christopher Columbus, and subsequently moved to its current location on the western bank in 1498 following a hurricane, Santo Domingo holds a claim to historical precedence that is unique in the Americas: it is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the New World, the site of the first cathedral, the first university, the first hospital, the first court of justice, and the first paved street built by Europeans anywhere in the hemisphere. Walking through the Zona Colonial, the historic colonial district at the heart of the city, is to walk through the physical archive of the earliest decades of European presence in the Americas.
The Zona Colonial was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990, recognized for its outstanding universal significance as the first planned European city in the New World and the point from which the Spanish colonial enterprise radiated outward to conquer and colonize the rest of the Americas.
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Health and Safety
Medical facilities, vaccinations, disease risk, and sanitation conditions.
While adequate medical facilities can be found in large cities, particularly in private hospitals, the quality of care can vary greatly outside major population centers. There is an emergency 911 service within Santo Domingo, but its reliability is questionable. Outside the capital, emergency services range from extremely limited to nonexistent. Blood supplies at both public and private hospitals are often limited, and not all facilities have blood on hand even for emergencies.
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