Dominican Republic –
Endless Shores
- 8 Days / 7 Nights
- Santo Domingo · Las Terrenas
- Flexible Departure Dates
$1,990 / person
Trip Highlights
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Zona Colonial, Santo Domingo
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Playa Cosón & Playa Bonita
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Los Haitises National Park
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El Limón Waterfall
Departure
Flight
Santo Domingo
3 Nights
Zona Colonial
UNESCO
Los Tres Ojos
Day Tour
Malecón
Waterfront
Las Terrenas
4 Nights
El Limón Waterfall
Day Tour
Los Haitises
Boat Tour
Cayo Levantado
Island
Departure
Flight
Day by Day
Your Full Itinerary
Departure — Fly to Santo Domingo
Depart for Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Board your flight to Las Américas International Airport (SDQ) in Santo Domingo — the capital of the Dominican Republic and the oldest continuously inhabited European city in the Americas. Direct flights operate from New York (JFK), Miami, Atlanta, and other major US hubs.
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Located in the heart of the Zona Colonial · Private airport transfer included
Your Santo Domingo Hotel · 3 Nights
Hodelpa Caribe Colonial or similar ★★★★
A beautifully renovated colonial-style property steps from Santo Domingo’s most important historic monuments in the UNESCO-listed Zona Colonial. The hotel seamlessly blends 16th-century stone architecture with contemporary comforts — an ideal base from which to explore the birthplace of the Americas on foot.
Arrival in Santo Domingo — First Footsteps in the New World
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Las Américas Airport (SDQ) → Zona Colonial Hotel
Arrive in Santo Domingo — The Oldest City in the Americas
Check into your hotel in the heart of the Zona Colonial and step outside onto streets that Columbus himself walked over 500 years ago. Spend the afternoon exploring freely — this is a city best discovered at your own pace. As evening falls, join the locals on the Malecón — Santo Domingo’s sweeping oceanfront promenade — where food vendors, musicians, and the warm Caribbean breeze make for one of the most convivial evenings in the Caribbean.
UNESCO Zona Colonial — First Cathedral, Alcázar de Colón & Amber Museum
Included · Full Morning Tour
Zona Colonial — Walking Tour of the New World's First City
Begin at the Cathedral of Santa María la Menor — the oldest cathedral in the Americas, consecrated in 1541, where Christopher Columbus’s remains were once interred. Walk cobblestoned Calle El Conde to the magnificent Alcázar de Colón — the 16th-century palace of Columbus’s son Diego, now a museum of Renaissance art and colonial artefacts — and the Fortaleza Ozama, the oldest European military fortress in the New World. The Zona Colonial’s 300 hectares of five-century-old limestone architecture earned UNESCO World Heritage status in 1990 for good reason.
Amber Museum & Mercado Modelo
Visit the remarkable Amber Museum — housed in a restored 16th-century building and displaying an extraordinary collection of Dominican amber, some of it 40 million years old and containing perfectly preserved insects, plants, and even lizards trapped in ancient tree resin. Afternoon at the Mercado Modelo for the island’s finest handicrafts — hand-painted Talavera pottery, amber jewellery, Dominican cigars, Mama Juana rum, and carved wood.
Merengue & Bachata Dance Class
Santo Domingo is the birthplace of merengue — the Dominican Republic’s national dance — and the heartland of bachata, now one of the world’s most popular Latin dances. A one-hour class with a professional Dominican instructor will have even complete beginners spinning and stepping in no time. The most fun you can have without leaving the city.
Los Tres Ojos National Park · Malecón & Santo Domingo City Drive
Merengue & Bachata Dance Class
Just outside the city, Los Tres Ojos (“The Three Eyes”) is one of the Dominican Republic’s most dramatic natural wonders — a series of three interconnected underground limestone caverns, each containing a different-coloured lagoon: one saltwater, one brackish, and one freshwater. A fourth “eye” is reached by raft across an underground lake. The caves were sacred to the Taíno people for centuries, and their stalactite-hung ceilings and luminous turquoise water make for an utterly surreal morning.
Santo Domingo City Drive & National Pantheon
A panoramic drive past Santo Domingo’s most emblematic landmarks — the Plaza de la Cultura (home to the National Museum of Natural History and the National Theatre), the glittering Malecón seafront, the Independence Park with its Altar de la Patria, and the National Pantheon — a 1747 Jesuit church turned national mausoleum guarded by an eternal flame and marble busts of the Dominican Republic’s founding fathers.
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Santo Domingo → Las Terrenas, Samaná Peninsula
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Playa Las Ballenas beachfront · Steps from the Caribbean’s most beautiful beaches
Alisei Hotel or similar ★★★★
A charming boutique beach hotel set directly on the sands of Playa Las Ballenas — Las Terrenas’ most beautiful and unspoilt beach. The Alisei combines Italian-Caribbean design with a genuinely relaxed atmosphere: a beachfront pool, an excellent seafood restaurant, and grounds that open directly onto the turquoise Atlantic. Las Terrenas has a distinct French-Dominican character — part Caribbean beach town, part European seaside village — and the Alisei captures both perfectly.
Arrive Las Terrenas — Playa Cosón & First Beach Evening
Check In & Playa Cosón — The Dominican Republic's Most Pristine Beach
Transfer from Santo Domingo through the lush mountains of the Samaná Peninsula, with extraordinary views of the Caribbean unfolding as you descend to the coast. Check into your hotel and head straight to Playa Cosón — a 10-kilometre arc of completely undeveloped white sand and translucent turquoise water that consistently ranks among the top five beaches in the entire Caribbean. Bring cash for the beach vendors selling fresh coconuts and grilled lobster directly from the shore.
Evening
Las Terrenas Town — A Taste of the French-Dominican Scene
Las Terrenas’s beach strip is one of the Caribbean’s most vibrant — a happy collision of Dominican bachata bars, French boulangeries, Italian gelato shops, and open-air seafood restaurants. Walk the Pueblo de los Pescadores (Fishermen’s Village) boardwalk for rum cocktails and fresh catch, then find a table at one of the terrace restaurants as the warm Atlantic breeze carries the sound of music across the bay.
Horseback Ride to El Limón Waterfall · Playa Bonita Afternoon
El Limón Waterfall — 52-Metre Cascade by Horseback
Ride on horseback through the tropical jungle of the Samaná Peninsula’s interior — past cocoa and coffee plantations, banana groves, and clusters of royal palm — to the extraordinary El Limón waterfall, plunging 52 metres in a single curtain of cold freshwater into a natural pool surrounded by dripping rainforest. Swimming in the pool beneath the falls — with the mist and the sound of the jungle all around — is one of the finest experiences the Dominican Republic has to offer.
Playa Bonita — Beautiful Beach, Beautiful Name
Spend the afternoon at Playa Bonita — a quieter, more intimate beach than Cosón, framed by coconut palms leaning over the water at photogenic angles. The water is calm, warm, and clear enough to see the sandy bottom at chest depth. A handful of excellent beachside restaurants serve the freshest grilled fish in the Dominican Republic — order the catch of the day with tostones and a cold Presidente beer.
Los Haitises National Park Boat Tour · Cayo Levantado — Bacardi Island
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Los Haitises National Park — Taíno Caves & Mangrove Forests
Board a speedboat from Samaná for the UNESCO-protected Los Haitises National Park — one of the Caribbean’s most extraordinary ecosystems. Navigate through a labyrinthine network of mangrove channels, past hundreds of mushroom-shaped limestone mogotes rising from the bay, to sea caves covered in 500-year-old Taíno petroglyphs. The park is home to over 100 bird species including the brown pelican, the roseate spoonbill, and the magnificent frigatebird, which nests in the mangroves in enormous colonies. Look for West Indian manatees gliding silently through the channels below the boat.
Cayo Levantado — The Original "Bacardi Island"
Continue by boat to Cayo Levantado — a tiny jungle-topped island in the middle of Samaná Bay, made famous as the original “Bacardi Island” used in Caribbean rum advertising for decades. With its white-sand beaches, swaying palm trees, and impossibly blue surrounding water, Cayo Levantado is as close to the platonic ideal of a tropical island as anywhere on earth. Swim, snorkel, or simply sit on the beach and marvel at the fact that a place this beautiful actually exists.
Humpback Whale Watching in Samaná Bay
From mid-January to mid-March, Samaná Bay hosts one of the largest humpback whale gatherings on earth — over 2,000 whales travel from the North Atlantic to breed and calve in these warm, protected waters. Watching an 18-metre humpback breach completely clear of the surface, metres from your boat, is an experience that defies description. Available as an excursion from Las Terrenas during whale season.
Final Morning — Las Terrenas Beaches & Departure
One Last Morning on the Endless Shore
- A final breakfast at La Boulangerie — Las Terrenas’ beloved French bakery, where the croissants are the finest in the Caribbean
- One last swim at Playa Las Ballenas — the beach that runs right alongside your hotel
- Pick up Dominican coffee, cacao, and Mama Juana from the local market before you leave
- Visit Playa El Portillo on the way to the airport — the most secluded and spectacular final image of the Dominican Republic
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Las Terrenas → Las Américas Airport (SDQ), Santo Domingo
Depart Santo Domingo — Fly Home
Eight days in a country that surprises almost every first-time visitor — the oldest colonial city in the New World, followed by some of the most undeveloped and spectacular beaches in the entire Caribbean on the wild Samaná Peninsula. The Dominican Republic rewards the curious traveller. Hasta la vista.
$1,990
No payment today. A Voyex travel expert will contact you to discuss your preferred dates.
What's Included
- Return International Flights
- Cairo–Aswan & Luxor–Cairo Domestic Flights
- Return International Flights
- All Hotels — 4★ (7 Nights)
- Daily Breakfast at All Hotels
- All Airport & Inter-City Transfers
- Zona Colonial Guided Walking Tour
- Amber Museum & Mercado Modelo
- Los Tres Ojos National Park
- Horseback Ride to El Limón Waterfall
- Los Haitises National Park Boat Tour
- Cayo Levantado Island Visit
- 24/7 Voyex Expert Support
- ATOL Financial Protection
- Merengue & Bachata dance class (optional)
- Humpback Whale Watching (Jan–Mar, optional)
- Travel Insurance
- Personal Spending Money
$1,990
No payment today. A Voyex travel expert will contact you to discuss your preferred dates.
What's Included
- Return International Flights
- Cairo–Aswan & Luxor–Cairo Domestic Flights
- Return International Flights
- All Hotels — 4★ (7 Nights)
- Daily Breakfast at All Hotels
- All Airport & Inter-City Transfers
- Zona Colonial Guided Walking Tour
- Amber Museum & Mercado Modelo
- Los Tres Ojos National Park
- Horseback Ride to El Limón Waterfall
- Los Haitises National Park Boat Tour
- Cayo Levantado Island Visit
- 24/7 Voyex Expert Support
- ATOL Financial Protection
- Merengue & Bachata dance class (optional)
- Humpback Whale Watching (Jan–Mar, optional)
- Travel Insurance
- Personal Spending Money