I hadn’t planned on doing a review for Santo Domingo, but after my visit in February 2024, there are two things I’d like to highlight.

The first is the widespread restoration works. Several beautification projects are going on at the same time, causing monumental facades to be covered, the Calle Las Damas broken up for street repairs and the Ozama fort to be closed. I don’t know when it all will be finished, but given the scale of it I’d say it will last at least til the end of 2024 (they started early 2023). A visit is still worthwhile, but the Cathedral is about the only place you will be allowed to enter. The colonial center ( "a diamond that needs polishing") was already upgraded as a whole in 2017 and looks quite neat and safe already.

Also, I was surprised by the wide range of ratings this site got from our community members: from 0.5 – 5 stars, with Zoë (1 star) and Solivagant (2 stars) aiming particularly low. One of the reviewers described it as “somewhat lacklustre”. So for some (particularly those who have seen a lot of Spanish colonial cities already) Santo Domingo is hard to love. I returned more positive: the site is unparalleled for its public buildings going back to the early days of Spanish colonization of the Americas. Similar sites such as Leon Viejo and Panama Viejo are now fully ruined, while Santo Domingo developed into the major city it still is and has incorporated and transformed many of those early constructions. The Cathedral with its (for the Americas) unique gothic design, original 16th-century pieces of art and Plateresque portal (pictured) is the star attraction.

I think I can see where the “lacklustre” comes from, as the city is fairly slow-paced and more ‘Dominican’ than ‘international touristy’ in its manner. Most buildings in the colonial zone are regular houses and shops for locals, and often they are newish constructions from the 19th and 20th centuries. But let’s be happy that it is not grossly over-commercialized and nobody has felt the need to introduce foreigner pricing yet.