Botanical Garden Clock

The park is huge, so to get much out of it you should plan on spending most of the day and walking a lot. How much you walk will be determined by how many other people are there. In our case the park was mostly empty so only one of the three trains was running. They took us around the park, only stopping at one of the individual gardens, the Japanese Garden. The Japanese garden was pretty big and they only gave us 10 minutes to look around before the train took off again.

When there are not many people you take the chance of there not being another train for a long while so if you don’t get on the same one you may be stuck there for an hour or so, or have to walk back. It turns out that walking back would have only been about a quarter mile or so which would have been worthwhile. We really needed more time in this section.

Apparently if you want to see any of the other gardens you have to take note of where it is and walk there after the train ride. There are street signs but no maps (either printed or in signs). Our group had older ones in it and we were only able to spend 3-4 hours so we couldn’t opt to do the walking.

I’m guessing that when the park is more crowded the trains run pretty much constantly. So, I would think that you can get off one train, view the garden as much as you want and wait for the next train to take you to the next section of the park. Not as much of an option when the park is mostly empty and you’re not sure if there is going to be another train coming around.

Front Gardens: In the pictures below. All of the brickwork is in the front part of the garden. As well as the clock, fountains (which were not on the day we were there) and a wide variety of other flowers and plants. You can easily spend an hour or so wandering around this area.

Museum: You are given a guided tour through the Museum. It’s not real fancy, but you will get a very good idea of the terrain of the Dominican Republic. They have individual displays showing all of the different regions in the DR along with the plant and animals you will see there. This is definitely the educational part of the park. At least if you speak Spanish. There didn’t seem to be tour guides that spoke other than Spanish, however that may change during on the weekends and during the tourist seasons.

Japanese Gardens: This was the only garden they choose to stop the train at and they only gave 10 minutes to look around. We could have easily spent an hour. This would be worth walking back to if you can handle a longer walk. You will find a lot of pictures below that we took of this section of the park.

Food: We brought our own food however there was drinks and snack items in the snack bar. Prices were pretty close to what you would find outside of the park. This is one of the few places in the Dominican Republic so far that we have found cotton candy which is pretty much a staple in most of the recreational areas in the US.

Gift shop: One of the things I found to be interesting is that there is no gift shop and no maps or brochures. All you bring out is your memories and pictures so, be sure to take a lot of them. This is a little different that any of the places of interest you find in the US. There is pretty much no commercialism within the park except the one location to buy food and drinks.

Would I go again: Yes, in fact my family plans on it. Next time we go, we will start early in the morning. Bring lots of water and make sure anyone who goes with us likes to hike. I expect that we will walk 3-5 miles around the park to see everything we will want to see. Don’t get me wrong, if you can’t walk that much there is still enough to see but we will want to spend more time.

]]> http://www.dr-dominicanrepublic.com/santo-domingo-botanical-gardens/feed/ 0 http://www.dr-dominicanrepublic.com/kaskada-water-park-santiago/ http://www.dr-dominicanrepublic.com/kaskada-water-park-santiago/#comments Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:43:14 +0000 Dwayne http://www.dr-dominicanrepublic.com/?p=135 It gets hot in the DR and well, you’re not always near a beach to cool off. One of the great ways to get around that minor problem is the Kaskada Water Park (Kaskada Aqua Park) in  Santiago.

Pools: There are two main swimming pools, one in front of the grandstand and the other attached to one of the bars. Both are good for lounging around and taking a swim. One of them had a low and a high platform to dive from.

Water Slides: There were 6 water slides. Three that required tubes and three that did not.

The tallest slide in the park looked about 3 stories tall and was a straight slide with a steep drop and was tubeless. The other two tubeless slides had the usual array of twists and curls. All three of these were a little rough in the construction and left everyone in the party a little sore.

We liked the tube waterslides much better. Unfortunately, tubes do not come with the price of admission. This poses a couple problems. One you have to pay for them, another 100 pesos. The second problem is every time you put them down some kid tries to steal them. That being said we all still felt it was worth having one. The three tube slides were more fun and didn’t bruise your back. One of the tude slide was black and it was completely dark in the tube, this made for a very cool ride and turned out to be our favorite slide in the park.

Water Playgrounds: There is one large play area for very small children in the middle of the park. Things to climb on, small water slides, cute characters built into the structures and of course water. This area sits in a very shallow pool with water fountains and water flowing over the structure. I can’t imagine a kid not being thrilled to play here. There are also areas around the playground for the parents to hang out and watch.

There is also a large “Get wet” area near the grandstand. This has larger structures all of which spray water up, down and all around. This is more of a some what older area where kids (young or old) can climb around the structures while staying wet. One thing I did notice is the water in this area was much colder, this one took a little getting used to.

Food: There are several places to eat. There was a buffet for 190 pesos per person and a pizzeria, the pizzas looks like enough to feed 3-4 people who are not heavy eaters and cost 500 pesos. We opted for a hot dog, these were 70 pesos each and came with a small drink. One of the things you will notice in the DR is they like corn on a lot of thinks I would usually not put corn on. I.E. hotdogs and pizza. While corn on a hotdog is not bad it’s a little different, if you don’t think that is to your taste you might want to specify that while ordering.

Bars: This water park also caters to the somewhat older crowd With 6 different bars scattered through out the waterpark. One of them is located in one of the pools so you don’t even have to get out of the water to have a drink. All of the bars offer the usual array of tropical drinks and the price isn’t too bad at about 140 pesos. The drinks were large and strong although they were a little heavy on the alcohol and light on the juice and mixing ingredients.

One of the bars was on a second story overlooking one of the pools and the grandstand areas. This one also had several pool tables. In the name painted on the front of the building was the word Billars, they got a little closer with the word inside the bar when they called it billards, but maybe that is the spanish way to spell billiards???

Music: While we were there there was three areas each playing different music. The way the park is set up, these three areas didn’t compete so, you could hang out in the area where you liked what was being played and not be also listening to the other areas. There was a covered stage area and a bandstand where it looked like live music would be played at times. While we were there they were only playing recorded music.

Lockers: This is kind of important. You will need a place to put your money and other items while you are on the slides. They do have locker rentals, that you rent by the day. I would guess that they run out on days where the park is very full. The nice thing is they are not one time use lockers, You get a key that you need to find a way of attaching to you (to keep it from falling out of your pocket), which opens a standard keylock so you can get into the locker as often as you need.

Summary: We liked the park and plan on going again. It was worth the 350 peso (about $10 USD) price to get in plus 100 pesos for the tube rental. The park was clean, well staffed, friendly and had everything you would expect in a waterpark. By US standards it was a little short on slides, but we found plenty to do to keep us busy for the day.

Kaskada Water Park (Kaskada Aqua Park) is located at
Ave. Hispanoamericana # 90,
Santiago, República Dominicana
Telephone 809-570-7070 or 809-570-7159

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Dominican Republic is know by Canadians, American, European and more as a great destination that being the second largest country in the Caribbean is the main destination in this zone. There are several reasons why beaches is the foremost attraction of tourists that come –millions of them each year- to its beaches and take even some weeks in all-inclusive hotels and resorts. I would like to share with some of the reasons why you should visit the Dominican Republic in your next holidays. Discover the richness of this country and why its beaches are the best option for you during your next vacations in the Caribbean.

-Exotic place: I personally think that Caribbean is one of the most exotic places of the world and everybody like visit exotic places such as beaches, hotels and resorts of the Dominican Republic. This is the perfect place for your honeymoon or even if you are attempting to have a second or third romantic holiday it is also a great place for you. There are places –all inclusive hotels and resorts- in the Dominican Republic that are specially prepared for single people.

-Brilliant and golden sand: This is something that is making this country more interesting for people whose countries don’t have these things. Beaches, sand, coconuts and diverse elements that are part of the beaches in the Dominican Republic are very impressive for most of their visitants and its beauty is the main value they have.

-Very friendly and kind people: People in the Dominican Republic are very kind and friendly and tourists like this a lot. Dominicans like to share with visitants everything they know and they have and this is a very important reason why you should visit the Dominican Republic for your next holidays.

-Facilities and comfort: In the Dominican Republic you will find hotels with all the facilities you need such as comfortable accommodations –hotel suits and rooms, gyms, pools, transportation, security, wonderful food, drinks, restaurants in the hotel, cultural activities, parties, night life and more. The Dominican Republic is going to be for you an amazing and memorable experience.

-Amazing communication facilities: Telecommunications is one of the strongest aspects of the Dominican Republic –for those people interested in stay well communicated and connected- and you will find several communication facilities such as long-distance calls as well as DSL internet connection. As matter as fact, if you need use transportation services that is not included in your package you have the option to hire some of the services that is near your hotel. Also you could rent-a-car and use it to visit different places in the Dominican Republic.

-Water sports: If you really love water sports, the Dominican Republic is the perfect place to play all kind of water sports. There are several sports you can play there such as surfing, water polo, fishing, windsurfs and more. Hotels and resorts in the Dominican Republic often have a wide range of options for visitants and sometimes it’s depend on the kind of touristic package you have chosen you will have different options to choose.