Your Insider Guide to the Dominican Republic

The Best Tours & Experiences in the Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic gives you a Caribbean beach holiday with a real country behind it. Most trips start in Punta Cana, where the Bávaro resort strip is the launch point for the country's signature day out: a catamaran run to Saona Island inside Cotubanamá National Park, with a stop at the waist-deep Piscina Natural sandbar. Closer to the hotels, buggy tours cut through the cane fields to Macao Beach and the Hoyo Azul cenote sits at the foot of a cliff in Scape Park.

Three hours west, Santo Domingo holds the oldest European city in the Americas — the Zona Colonial, with the first cathedral, Columbus's son's palace, and Calle Las Damas — and works as a long day trip from the coast or a base of its own. Northeast, the Samaná peninsula fills with humpback whales from mid-January to late March, with the El Limón waterfall and Cayo Levantado nearby.

On the north coast, Puerto Plata pairs the cable car up Mount Isabel with the canyoning circuit at the 27 Waterfalls of Damajagua, and takes cruise arrivals at Amber Cove and Taíno Bay. South, La Romana has Altos de Chavón and the shortest crossing to Isla Catalina. Every tour we feature is Viator-verified, top-rated, and bookable with free cancellation.