Luxury Vacations in the Dominican Republic

With its surf, sand and vast choice of hotels, the Dominican Republic regularly takes the top spot as the Caribbean’s most visited island.

But this is a land of diverse and wildly contrasting geographies – sweeping beaches of white sand and mangrove reserves, evergreen highland forests, fertile valleys and even deserts, complete with dunes. In the flamingo-jewelled Lago Enriquillo, the Dominican Republic has the region’s largest lake, and in Puerto Duarte, its highest mountain, rising to over 10,000 feet and fringed by two national parks – a boon for hikers and nature lovers. A birder’s paradise, with high levels of endemism, look out for prized species such as the palmchat, Ridgway’s hawk and the almost iridescent Hispaniolan emerald hummingbird. Colorful wildlife of a different feather is found, too, in the Dominican Republic’s exuberant bars and clubs, where you can join fleet-footed dancers in the nation’s native merengue.