Santiago travel guide and vacation resources
The spectacular Cordillera Central, the country's highest mountain range, cuts right through the center of the country. Here visitors will find the incredibly diverse geography that's among the most unique in the Caribbean. Santiago de los Trenta Caballeros, the Dominican Republic's second largest city, is in the heart of the Cibao Valley. The area south of Santiago includes everything from fertile farming valleys, famous for their tobacco, to astonishing waterfalls and rivers. Here also is the Caribbean's highest mountain, Pico Duarte. Santiago, with a population of one million, lies an hour's Dominican Republicive south of Puerto Plata. Columbus established Santiago when he had a fort built there to protect area gold mining. In 1504 Spanish farmers settled in this fertile center of the Cibao Valley and began farming tobacco. Today this is still the Dominican Republic's most important agricultural area, notably for coffee, livestock, tobacco, and fruit farming. Santiago and its surrounding region are famous for their elaborate carnival celebration in February. The city also offers good restaurants and a vibrant nightlife. During the day visitors can view the Parque Duarte, the CatheDominican Republical of Santiago, or some of the many monuments. A monument difficult to miss is the huge Monument a los Heroes de la Restauracion, which you can climb to get amazing views of Santiago and the surrounding area. Museums in Santiago include the Tomas Morel Museum of Folkloric Art, popular for its colorful collection of carnival masks, the Santiago Museum and the Tobacco Museum. Santiago's Bermudez Rum Factory and E Leon Jimenez Tobacco Company offer popular tours. There are also fascinating exhibits and performances at the Leon Jimenez Cultural Center. Jarabacoa is in the heart of the Cordillera Central mountain range, a 45 minute Dominican Republicive southeast of Santiago. This town has long been a popular summer place for wealthy Dominicans and adventure-sports tourism has only increased its popularity. Even if you're not the adventurous type, the pleasant town offers good restaurants and hotels, a temperate climate and nightly baseball games at the field on Calle la Confluencia. But the fresh mountain air, towering pines, river rapids and huge waterfalls make it a natural destination for those wanting a piece of the adventure sports action. Tour operators provide river rafting, kayaking, hiking, climbing, paragliding and horseback riding trips. It's also a starting point for those wanting to hike Pico Duarte, a towering 10,128 feet high, with spellbinding views along the way as well as at the peak. The lovely mountain valley town of Constanza is located southeast of Santiago and northeast of Santo Domingo. Created by a meteor millions of years ago, this fertile valley has made farming a stronghold since the ancient Tainos inhabited the Dominican Republic. The farmers produce strawberries, raspberries, apples and an incredible variety of flowers. Visitors to this area will enjoy some of the Dominican Republic's most scenic hiking trails and breathtaking sunsets. Not to be missed is Saltos Aguas Blancas, a remarkably beautiful, remote waterfall on the deserted dirt road south from Constanza. Rarely will you see others there, except Dominicans on Sundays. Well worth the trip, you might think twice about dipping more than your toes in the 58 degree water.
|
|
Santiago Vacations site
Our company is running one of the largest pc and mobile travel website networks, covering top hotel, vacation package, airline ticket, beach, cruise, all inclusive and honeymoon destinations worldwide.
We will also run a travel blog portal which centralises the blogs posted by our visitors on all of our websites and which represents one of the world's best travel information resources, totally build by people such as yourself.
In the link section, you can check more links to our travel website network as well as to other third party specialized websites as lastminute.com or orbitz.com which we suggest you to visit if are you planning a trip to Santiago Dominican Republic.
|
