3.42/5
203 reviews
Photo by Ruddy Corporan via Unsplash

Santo Domingo

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worth

friendly

food

dump

locals

generally

great

bus

system

car

country

visiting

beaches

full

fumes

trash

beautiful

Santo Domingo is frequently described as a chaotic and overcrowded city with significant issues related to noise, pollution, and general cleanliness. Many reviews express that it feels more like a sprawling, unorganized urban area than a well-functioning city. These features make it less appealing for those seeking a calm or aesthetically pleasant environment.

Some reviewers who are familiar with the city, including residents with long-term experience, agree with these sentiments and suggest that Santo Domingo may not be the best reflection of what the Dominican Republic truly has to offer. While it does have the friendliness typical of Dominican culture, its capital status doesn't necessarily translate to being a top destination for digital nomads or travelers.

Given these factors, those interested in the Dominican Republic for remote work, beaches, or nature might find better options in smaller towns like Las Terrenas or Cabarete, which are mentioned as more suitable alternatives. These locations offer the same cultural hospitality in a cleaner and more manageable setting.

Overall, Santo Domingo may not be the ideal choice for digital nomads prioritizing comfort, cleanliness, or quality of life.

AI-generated summary of reviews
1 year ago

As a Dominican that lived over 25 years in Sto Dgo I have to say most of the comments are accurate. HOWEVER, Santo Domingo is the capital of the country. Just like most Capitals in Latin America (Mexico City being the exception), it's not worth visiting much time. If you want to experience what the Dominican Republic has to offer (Beaches, Nature, Friendly Locals) as a nomad I would recommend Las Terrenas or Cabarete.

5 years ago

Hot mess of a city, full of noise, fumes and trash. More of a dysfunctional, crowded urban sprawl than an organised city.

6 years ago

Santo Domingo was worth visiting for a few days, but I wouldn't live there. Locals are generally friendly to westerners, including many of the stunningly beautiful women. I found no shortage of excellent and mostly healthy food in the beautiful and clean Zona Colonial historic neighborhood, which also had modern amenities and great salsa bars with friendly locals. Most of the rest of the city is a filthy and decrepit dump. There are some nice beaches 30+ min away from the city. When using the "wawa" bus system, you can flag down and exit a bus anytime, but I definitely recommend renting a car while here because its timetables can't be found on the internet, its stations are not signed, its bus lines are not labeled clearly, it's never on schedule, and it's generally not worth your time. Unfortunately, as another commenter stated, there is definitely quite a bit of racism towards Haitians here. And there is little to do outside of the Zona Colonial.

6 years ago

I lived in Santo Domingo for two years. The people can be warm, friendly and genuine most of the time. There are many exceptions to this though where some will beg or try to scam you and take your money. You will really need at least basic Spanish to get by here, as 98% of the population do not speak any English... this is not an exaggeration. Culturally, it is conservative (partly because it is a Catholic country... partly because it's a pretty stale island in terms of ethnic diversity). Interestingly, cultural influences here are mainly American (baseball, big cars, fast food etc.), as there is little Spanish culture here... save for the language. In my opinion, the city is an umitigated dump. It's really not worth coming here. There is trash everywhere. The traffic is horrendous and is saturated almost all day. The public transport system is not fit for purpose and the metro only serves a small number of stops... none of them anywhere you'd want to go. Car horns, car alarms, sirens, revving engines and building alarms are constantly ringing in your ears. Drivers are aggressive and will run you over if you're not careful (common courtesy does not exist on these roads). Air quality is terrible. There are regular fires at the local landfill site which waft vast clouds of noxious fumes into the city. There is barely any greenspace (and what little there is is an overgrown, unloved garbage dump). There is no beach (nearest one, which isn't that great, is at least 30 minutes away). The diversity of food and availability of healthy food when eating out or ordering in leaves much to be desired (you'll be fine if you love American junk food, Mexican, Venezuelan, Italian and Japanese... other than that, there's nothing really to eat and it becomes a bit limited after a while). Almost everything is fried and full of salt... heavy on the meat and light on the veg. There's a tipping culture here but the quality of service is generally quite poor with no-one really giving a s**t. There are very few convenience foods in the grocery stores, meaning you will have to make all of your meals from scratch (which is a good thing, but sometimes you just want to have a microwave or freezer meal when you can't be bothered to cook). A lot of Dominicans are quite vain, obsessed with appearance and status, while there is an obvious undercurrent of racism towards Haitians and Venezuelans, coupled with a segregated class system. The government is corrupt and takes around 15-20% in income tax, however, there are no visible returns on this, as the roads are terrible, greenspace is a dump, schools are neglected, healthcare is a health hazard and the police have barely any presence. The peso is increasingly worth less than the dollar (with a 15% drop against the dollar in the last three years alone), meaning, what you earn here is worth increasingly less and less elsewhere. Overall, it's a pretty grim place that feels 30 years behind the rest of the developed world where the only saving graces are the weather and some nice people, I guess.

7 years ago

Been to Santo Domingo sooooooooooo many times lived there really cool city chaotic lol Dominicans are friendly but can also be very sneaky, even their own people say don't trust us LOL but meet wonderful people but just like ever where else be careful stay alert its some what expensive if you let the "chapiadores" run your pocket and go clubbing every night it can get expensive

8 years ago

I have been living in Santo Domingo and it is great. Almost all what they say is true.

8 years ago

✅ Friendly people

✅ Fast internet

✅ Lots of fun stuff to do

✅ Warm now

✅ Warm all year round

✅ Good air quality today

✅ Many Nomads.com members have been

✅ Spacious and not crowded

✅ Easy to do business

✅ Good hospitals

✅ Freedom of speech

✅ Democratic

✅ Safe for women

✅ Not many people smoke tobacco

❌ Very crowded

❌ Loud and noisy

❌ Dirty

❌ Not very safe

❌ Very sweaty and humid now

❌ Bad air quality year round

❌ Nomads.com members didn't like going here

❌ Not many Nomads.com members right now

❌ Quality of education is low

❌ Roads are very dangerous

❌ People don't speak English well

❌ Not family friendly

❌ Hostile towards LGBTQ+

❌ Marijuana is illegal

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Feels (median)

3188°
hot

3086°
warm

3188°
hot

3493°
hot

3595°
hot

38100°
hot

3697°
hot

3493°
hot

3290°
hot

Real (median)

2781°
warm

2882°
very warm

2984°
very warm

3086°
very warm

3085°
very warm

2984°
very warm

2882°
very warm

Humidity

sweaty
79%

sweaty
77%

sweaty
76%

sweaty
77%

sweaty
80%

sweaty
83%

sweaty
81%

sweaty
82%

sweaty
81%

sweaty
80%

Most common

☀️ Clear

☔️ Rain

Rain

dry
37mm

dry
39mm

dry
46mm

rainy
72mm

rainy
142mm

rainy
119mm

rainy
140mm

rainy
127mm

rainy
125mm

rainy
52mm

dry
49mm

Cloud

pockets
42%

pockets
34%

pockets
29%

pockets
42%

pockets
41%

cloudy
54%

cloudy
51%

cloudy
53%

cloudy
52%

cloudy
53%

pockets
37%

pockets
32%

Air quality

bad
151 US AQI

clean
24 US AQI

bad
151 US AQI

Sun

avoid sun
7 UVI

avoid sun
8 UVI

avoid sun
10 UVI

avoid sun
9 UVI

avoid sun
8 UVI

avoid sun
7 UVI

seek shade
6 UVI

Remote workers

1,714 people

1,338 people

1,255 people

900 people

1,145 people

969 people

1,140 people

867 people

943 people

1,050 people

1,000 people

1,320 people

Green is good. Red is bad. Values shown are the medians of all daily highs in a month based on past few years, not necessarily current numbers. Remote worker count is estimated based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members.

If you'd like to filter destinations based on their climate, try Nomads.com's Climate Finder

Current weather data from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0)

Based on Santo Domingo's cost of living, here's selected remote jobs that would cover your costs:

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🌥 Feels 41° 106° 30° 87° Has AC AQI 63 😷

✈️22h

$1,675 / mo

🌇 Also went here89 people

600 remote workers in Santo Domingo now, of which 1+ members checked in (some members are set to private)

Members who will be here soon

Members who have been here

Values shown are estimated visits by traveling remote workers based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members. Visits to a place are only counted once per year per user, even if they visit more in that year. Visits are also normalized by overall trips added per month on the site, so if site usage goes up or down it does not affect trends. Not all digital nomads are on Nomads.com, and not all Nomads.com members log their trips. So the data is only indicative.

The chart below shows visitors by nationality normalized for population size. This means we take all trips logged on Nomads.com, check which country of origin the user is from, then divide that total visit count by the country of origin's population. If we didn't, it'd just show the big countries like US, Brazil and India always on top. Instead, this shows which nationalities worldwide proportionally visit more or less, which is more useful.

🎒 Nomad Score™	3.42/5 (Rank #218) 203 reviews
❤️ Liked by members	👍5 liked it 👎3 disliked it
👍 Quality of life score	Okay
👶 Family score	Okay
🎒 Community score	Okay
🤯 Overcrowding score	0% is nomad here
💵 Cost	😙 Affordable: $2,164 / mo
📡 Internet	😡 Slow: 11 Mbps (avg)
😝 Fun	Great
⛅️ Temperature (now)	🥵 Hot: 29°C84°F (feels 35°C95°F)
💦 Humidity (now)	🥵 Sweaty: 85%
❄️ % of buildings with AC	😥 Medium: 60%
💨 Air quality (now)	🌱 Great: 24 US AQI
💨 Air quality (annual)	😷 Unhealthy : 151 US AQI
👌 Safety	Bad
👩 Safe for women	Okay
🌈 Safe for LGBTQ+	Bad
🤮 Food safety*	Good
👮‍♀️ Lack of crime*	Okay
🤝 Lack of racism*	Good
🎓 Education level*	Mediocre
⚡️ Power grid	Okay
🌊 Resilience to climate change	Good
💰 Income level*	Poor: $922 / mo
🙊 English speaking*	Bad
🚶 Walkability	Great
🚦 Traffic safety*	Bad
✈️ Airline scores*	Great
🧳 Lost luggage*	Great
🏥 Hospitals	Okay
😄 Happiness*	Bad
🍸 Nightlife	Okay
📶 Free WiFi in city	Bad
🖥 Places to work from	Great
❄️ A/C or heating	Okay
😁 Friendly to foreigners	Good
🗯 Freedom of speech*	Good
🎅 Startup Score	Bad

🌍 Continent	Latin America
🚩 Country	Dominican Republic
🗓️ Average trip length	10 days
📡 Internet speed (avg)	11 Mbps
⛅️ Weather (now)	☀️ 29°C 84°F + 🥵 Sweaty (85%) = feels 35°C 95°F
💨 Air quality (now)	👍 24 US AQI 🍃 OK
💨 Air quality (annual avg)	👎☠️ 151 US AQI = 🚬 🚬 / day
🔌 Power	115V 60Hz
🚑 Travel medical insurance	Safetywing
💸 100 DOP in USD	USD 1.63
🏧 Suggested ATM take out:	DOP 10,000 = USD 163
🚰 Tap water	🚫 No, not drinkable
🦷 Fluoride added	🚫 No fluoride added
♻️ Return rate	9% of visitors return
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Population	4,600,000 people
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 GDP per capita*	$11,059 / year
👫 Gender ratio (population)	👨 45% 👱‍♀️ 55%
👫 Gender ratio (young adults)	👨 52% 👱‍♀️ 48%
👫 Gender ratio (nomads)	👨 83% 👱‍♀️ 17%
🏞 Foreign land ownership allowed	Yes
⛪️ Religious government	Non-religious
🏠 Apartment listings	Airbnb
✈️ Best short-haul air carrier	Avianca
✈️ Best int'l air carrier	United

💵 Cost of living for nomad	$2,164 / month
💵 Cost of living for expat	$1,735 / month
💵 Cost of living for family	$3,177 / month
💵 Cost of living for local	$908 / month
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$469 / month
🏡 Airbnb (median price)	$2,624 / month
🏠 1br studio rent in center	$708 / month
🏠 Median home price	$86,273
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$22 / night
🏠 Airbnb (median price)	$86 / night
🏢 Coworking hot desk	$72 / month
🍛 Dinner	$10
🥤 Coca-Cola (0.3L)	$1
🍺 Beer in cafe (0.5L)	$2
☕️ Coffee in cafe	$2
👩‍🏫 International school	$7,262 / year
🚕 Taxi price (avg trip ~3km/2mi)	$8 / trip

Santo Domingo

600 remote workers in Santo Domingo now, of which 1+ members checked in (some members are set to private)

Members who will be here soon

Members who have been here

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