Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic Geography & Climate
Geography
The Dominican Republic covers about 48,700 square kilometres, occupying the eastern two-thirds of Hispaniola, which it shares with Haiti — the only Caribbean island divided between two sovereign states.
Mountains
Four ranges run roughly north-west to south-east. The Cordillera Central is the spine, rising to Pico Duarte at 3,098 metres — the highest point in the entire Caribbean, high enough for frost and for pine forest rather than palm. The Cordillera Septentrional runs along the north coast, and the Sierra de Bahoruco crosses the south-west.
Valleys
Between the ranges, the Cibao valley is broad and very fertile, and has been the agricultural heart of the country since the colonial period.
The south-west
Geologically the most unusual part. Lago Enriquillo sits about 40 metres below sea level — the lowest point in the Caribbean — is saltier than the sea, and holds American crocodiles and, on its islands, rock iguanas. It is the remnant of a channel that once separated two islands, and the surrounding country is dry scrub and cactus rather than rainforest.
Coast
Around 1,600 kilometres of it, with reef and white sand in the east, cliffs and surf on the north, and mangrove in Samana Bay and Los Haitises.
One island, two countries
The border with Haiti runs for about 380 kilometres, and the contrast along it is visible from the air: forest cover on the Dominican side against largely cleared hillsides on the Haitian one, the result of decades of divergent land and fuel policy rather than any difference in the terrain. The two countries share the same mountains, the same rainfall and the same hurricanes, which makes the line one of the more studied environmental boundaries anywhere.
Amber
The northern range holds some of the world’s finest amber, frequently containing insects, and the blue amber found here occurs almost nowhere else.
Climate patterns
The Dominican Republic is tropical and warm year round, but it has far more climatic variety than most Caribbean islands because it is large and mountainous.
The coasts
Coastal temperatures sit between 25 and 31°C throughout the year, moderated by trade winds. The difference between seasons is humidity and rain rather than heat.
Wet and dry
The drier stretch runs December to April; the wetter one from May to November, with rain usually arriving as heavy afternoon showers. The north coast is wetter than the south and has a second rainfall peak in winter, which catches people out — Puerto Plata and Samana can be damp in January while Punta Cana is dry.
The mountains
Altitude changes everything. Constanza and Jarabacoa, at 1,000 to 1,200 metres, are pleasantly cool, and the summit of Pico Duarte regularly drops below freezing, with frost recorded — a genuine surprise on a Caribbean island, and the reason a trek there needs proper cold-weather kit.
The dry south-west
Sheltered by the Sierra de Bahoruco, the area around Lago Enriquillo receives very little rain and is semi-desert, with cactus and scrub.
Choosing a coast
Because the rainfall pattern differs between the north and the south, the practical advice is to pick the coast to match the month rather than assume the island behaves as one. December to March favours the east and south — Punta Cana, Bayahibe, the capital — while the north coast and Samana are at their driest and clearest from roughly June to September, which is the opposite of the general Caribbean rule.
Hurricanes
The season runs June to November and peaks between August and October. Hispaniola is struck regularly and the mountains can wring enormous rainfall out of a passing storm, so flooding and landslides are often the greater danger.