La Romana Things to Do

When you're in the south of the island, visit Altos de Chavón. This picture is taken at the Rio Chavón.
Altos de Chavón is an artist village situated hight above the Chavón River. It has a tradition of arts and crafts and there are lots of art galleries. It looks very old with its cobblestoned paths, but in fact it's fairly recent.

La Romana has a very nicely kept park in the city centre, the perfect place to rest your legs and sit down.

There are lots of different tropical plants growing there, sometimes obviously some performances like theatre, music etc.

In La Romana there are two cigar factorys. One is somewhere in the town, the other near the harbour. We tried to visit the bigger one at the harbour first but couldn't. They only do tours if it's organised before. Then we tryed the second one.

This factory is only very small but you can look at it. The cigars are rolled by hand. If you want you can buy some cigars after the visit (but you need to ask to, they don't ask you!!!).

The visit was quite fascinating, one of the employees welcomed us with a cigar (my first cigar ever..) and showed us around. Then we could wander around and look over the shoulders of the working people. It was no problem to take pictures. You can see some in the cigar t-logue on this page

Tha factory is open until 16.30.

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La Romana is somehow a very confusing town. Streets go everywhere, people, cars and motorbikes are everywhere but no street looks alike. On the way to a shop we lost track of the streets and landed somewhere totaly different as planned...
There are thousands of little shops, lots of churches and colourfull houses to be seen.

One landmark helps you orientate: The chimneys of the sugar factory spitting out lots of smoke. In some places you could smell the sweet sugary smoke.

In La Romana there is a market, a real musst see. On the Market you can buy all different kind of things, fruit, vegetables, spices, meat, cloathes and much more. The Market is very colorfull and loaded with more or less nice smells.
There is absolutly no problem just wandering around and looking at the different stalls without buying anything. We weren't bothered with penetrant sellers, a simple "no gracias" would do to stop them trying.

From the old harbour of La Romana sail the boats that reach Isla Catalina. This is a private desert island where you can find wild beaches and snorkel over the coral reef. Anyway yoy can't go there by yourselves, but with organized tours.

Don't leave the beach too early in the afternoon, otherwise you'll miss beautiful sunsets. At this time the beach is full of people who are trying to get the fleeting moment taking pictures or just watching in silence the superb sight of the nature.

Go for a trip to Isla Saona. Here you'll can find beautiful wild beaches, visit a little fisherman's village and meet nice people, see big starfhishes walking under your boat while the pelicans are plunging into the sea searching some fish. Here you'll can pass a beautiful day at a seaside where there is the Caribbean you have always dreamed.
For more informations, please go to my Isla Saona page!