The capital of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo de Guzman sits where the Ozama River meets the Caribbean Sea. It is the oldest European colonial city in the Americas and has officially been founded in 1498 by Bartolomeo Colombo, the younger brother of Christopher Columbus.

Tourists can visit the Catedral Santa María La Menor (Catedral Primada de América), the oldest cathedral in the Americas, begun in 1512 and completed in 1540.

Famous landmarks in Santo Domingo also include the Puerta del Conde, the Puerta de la Misericordia, the National Pantheon and the Alcázar de Colón, all of which are located within the Zona Colonial district of the city. This part was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990.
Together the late Medieval buildings make a perfect collection and one of the best city landscape tourists could find, in a maze of cobbled streets.

A more recent architectural addition is the Faro a Colon or The Columbus Lighthouse,a lighthouse built to commemorate the five hundredth anniversary of Columbus' discovery of the Americas.

Other tourist attractions in Santo Domingo are the Museum of Alcázar, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the Museum of Natural History  and the Museum of Modern Arts .

Santo Domingo is also renown for its amazing nightlife and wonderful sandy beaches.