Renaissance Santo Domingo Jaragua Hotel & Casino

A City Institution That Kept Its Gardens

Santo Domingo has been coming to the Jaragua since 1942. The building changed and the name gained a brand, but the address on Avenida George Washington never moved, and neither did the habit: this is where the capital holds its parties, its congresses and its long Sunday lunches. What you get as a guest is unusual for a city hotel, which is room. Gardens, a wide outdoor pool, tennis courts, a casino and a theatre sit on the same plot, with the Malecon and the Caribbean on the other side of the avenue. It reads less like a tower than a compound.

Why It Works

Space decided it. Very few urban hotels in the Caribbean can put three hundred rooms, a tennis club, a full spa and a garden pool on one site without any of it feeling squeezed, and the Jaragua does it on the seafront. The refurbishment kept the historic bones and brought the interiors forward rather than erasing them. And the mix of guests, part business, part Dominican families, part casino crowd, gives the public rooms a life that a purely corporate hotel never has. You are staying somewhere the city actually uses.

Why This Location

Avenida George Washington is the Malecon, the seafront boulevard that runs the length of the capital, and the hotel faces it. That gives you a walking route at dusk, when the wall fills with runners and vendors, and it puts the Zona Colonial a short ride east: the Catedral Primada de America, the Alcazar de Colon and the cafes of Calle El Conde. The National Botanical Garden lies north of the centre. A metro station is within reach for anyone who prefers rails to traffic, and Las Americas airport is about thirty minutes out of town.

Fast Facts

• Price: Premium

• Vibe: grand, social, unmistakably Dominican

• Rooms: 300 rooms and suites, with an executive lounge serving the upper categories

• Best For: business travellers with meetings, families who want a pool in the city, anyone using the capital as a base

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the garden and pool deck, a genuinely large green space in the middle of Santo Domingo

• Dining: Luna Bar and Restaurant for international cooking with Dominican accents, Sol Pool Lounge for lunch by the water, Bohio Coffee House for coffee and gelato

• Amenities: outdoor pool, Zui Spa, tennis club, casino, fitness centre, ten meeting rooms and the La Fiesta theatre

• Attractions: the Malecon at the door, the Zona Colonial and the Catedral Primada a short ride east, Calle El Conde, the National Botanical Garden

Rooms, Suites and the Executive Floor

Three hundred rooms means categories, and they matter here. The standard rooms are comfortable and generously sized; the interest starts higher up, where the sea comes into view over the Malecon and the suites open out. The executive lounge, reserved for the upper categories, is the sensible upgrade for anyone working: breakfast, afternoon service and a quiet place to take a call, which is worth more in a hotel this busy than a few extra square metres.

Luna, Sol and the Casino

The dining is organised around the day rather than around a single room. Bohio is the coffee house, for the morning and for gelato in the afternoon. Sol sits by the pool and handles lunch without ceremony. Luna is the evening restaurant, international cooking with Dominican accents, and the one to book if you are entertaining. After that the casino takes over, and on show nights the La Fiesta theatre fills the lobby with an entirely different crowd.

What to Know Before You Book

This is a city hotel with resort facilities, not a beach hotel: the sea is across the road but there is no swimming there, and the coast proper is a drive away. The Malecon carries traffic, so ask for a room away from the avenue if you sleep lightly. Congress season fills the meeting floors, which is worth checking if you want the pool to yourself. And the Zona Colonial, the main reason most visitors come, is a taxi ride rather than a walk.