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A fine Mediterranean restaurant with colonial decor. The French chef prepares gourmet meals and delicious desserts. There’s an extensive wine cellar, too.

The American oystercatcher is difficult to confuse with any of the other waders due to its large size, striking black and white plumage, and bright orange bill.

These roomy condos on the beach are privately owned, individually decorated, and walking distance from the beaches and bars in Cabarete.

The brown sigua palmera is the national bird, nesting high up in the foliage of a palm tree.

Every Dominican town has its own central plaza, shaded by trees, supplied with benches, and often filled with locals. This is the place for people-watching, especially in the early evening, when most of them stroll around. Don’t be afraid to smile and say what you can in Spanish.

On the east bank of the Ozama, overlooked by the imposing Faro a Colón, this stretch of open parkland has a fine selection of trees and makes for a pleasant walk.

A large and pleasant expanse of well-tended grass, trees, and tracks, the park is a magnet for joggers skateboarders, and dog walkers. Younger, health-conscious city dwellers congregate here along with families, especially in the morning and evening, when the through road is shut to cars.

Baoruco boasts the greatest variety of landscapes and flora, ranging from dust-dry, low-level hillsides to exuberantly tropical rainforests. A four-wheel-drive is essential to get to the profusion of wild orchids and swathes of pine forest.

Adjacent to the well-trodden tourist track of Bayahibe and Playa Dominicus, this large expanse of protected natural wilderness covers over 100,000 acres of dry forest and palm-lined beaches. The terrain on the mainland peninsula is much tougher going and less popular with tourists, but offers the determined explorer a wealth of birdlife and tropical vegetation as well as glimpses of Taino art and culture.