Santiago

The Dominican Republic's second city, properly known as Santiago de los Caballeros, was in the 19th-century the wealthiest city in the nation, thanks to the tobacco industry. Today a thriving commercial center choked with traffic, Santiago (population 750,000) is still the center of cigar production; be sure to visit Fábrica de Cigarros La Aurora. Its downtown streets are lined with 19th-century structures in an amalgam of styles and centered on leafy Parque Duarte, the main square. The nation's finest museum and cultural center - Centro León - is here, too, as well as the dramatic 230-foot-tall Monumento a los Héroes de la ...

The Dominican Republic's second city, properly known as Santiago de los Caballeros, was in the 19th-century the wealthiest city in the nation, thanks to the tobacco industry. Today a thriving commercial center choked with traffic, Santiago (population 750,000) is still the center of cigar production; be sure to visit Fábrica de Cigarros La Aurora. Its downtown streets are lined with 19th-century structures in an amalgam of styles and centered on leafy Parque Duarte, the main square. The nation's finest museum and cultural center - Centro León - is here, too, as well as the dramatic 230-foot-tall Monumento a los Héroes de la Restauración, bequeathed by dictator-president Rafael Trujillo. Santiago buzzes by night and during Carnival, when revelers don fantastical devil masks, and high-brow culture is well developed; check out the events at the Gran Teatro del Cibao. The El Cibao region surrounding Santiago is quilted with bottle-green vegas (fields) where the world's finest tobacco is grown. The downtown is best explored on foot by day; but take a taxi by night.

About the Expert

Christopher P. Baker has authored guidebooks to Costa Rica, California, and various Caribbean islands for Frommer's, Lonely Planet, and National Geographic, among others.