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The biggest challenge of them all, the mountain can be reached from several trails, the most popular setting off from La Ciénega. The round trip takes at least three days, and an official guide must accompany walkers. You’ll pass through pine forests, meadows, and rocky terrain.

The town provides the perfect base for walking or riding through the lush Dominican Alps (see Constanza & “The Dominican Alps”), where waterfalls, clear rivers, and gorges are to be found among meadows and scented pine forests. There are many well-established trails in the area, varying from gentle strolls through farmland to day-long mountain treks.

This idyllic, cool valley is the starting point for many recommended trails, which take you through pine forests and into flower-covered mountain meadows. Bird-watching is a big draw here, with Hispaniolan woodpeckers, parakeets, and hummingbirds in abundance. The trail to the Salto Agua Blanca is manageable and often spectacular (see Constanza & “The Dominican Alps”).

Most of this sprawling wilderness comprises desert and hard-to-reach mangrove swamps. But the large humpback mountain of El Morro is easily accessible from the park office, offering a great walk through a cutting onto the beach. This is the place to appreciate the Northwest’s ecosystem.

If you don’t want to take the cable car to the top of the mountain, you can always choose the four-hour hike up a steep rainforest-clad slope. Guides are recommended, as it’s easy to stray off the paths and get lost. The lush vegetation is home to parakeets and many other birds (see Pico Isabel de Torres, Puerto Plata).

The walk from Las Terrenas to the gorgeous Playa Bonita includes some of the country’s prettiest beach scenery, with a shade-providing background of coconut groves. The headland of Punta Bonita is harder going over a stony hillside, but a path leads through a panorama of vegetation and boulders.

This large area of wilderness contains dry tropical forest and the Robinson Crusoe Island of Saona. An official guide must be hired, and a boat trip from Bayahibe is the best way to reach the otherwise inaccessible nature trails.

The extensive dunes on the Las Salinas peninsula are one of the country’s best-kept secrets. An expanse of sandy hummocks, dotted with sea grape and marine grasses, rolls down to the glittering Caribbean.

Inland from the deservedly popular beach and swimming hole, the river that fills the pool flows and falls down a hillside covered with boulders, ferns, and tropical trees. A hike up the riverside path passes a series of small waterfalls and leads to magnificent sea views.

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.