Santo Domingo

Founded in 1498, Santo Domingo was the first European city in the New World, and its Colonial Zone — a World Heritage Site — recalls it on every corner: the first cathedral of the Americas, the Alcázar de Colón, the Ozama Fortress and Las Damas street, the oldest in the continent. As evening falls, El Conde street and the colonial squares fill with music, dominoes and the aroma of freshly brewed coffee, while the Malecón unrolls kilometres of seafront promenade facing the Caribbean.

The Dominican capital is also the perfect gateway to the rest of the country: the beaches of Boca Chica and Juan Dolio are half an hour away, and Los Tres Ojos, a park of caves with underground lagoons, lies within the city itself. With a huge Dominican community in Madrid and direct flights all year round, it is the ideal destination both for visiting family and for discovering where the whole Caribbean began.