Santo Domingo

Everything the Americas would become was rehearsed first in Santo Domingo: the first cathedral, the first street, the first university, the first paved plaza where a viceroy's court gossiped under new-world stars. The Zona Colonial keeps those five centuries in walking distance, and around it roars a Caribbean capital of three million that never stopped to pose for the postcard.

The sensible traveller gives the Zona a slow day: the Catedral Primada, the Alcázar de Colón over the Ozama, the Calle de las Damas at golden hour when the stones give back the heat. Then the city's real pulse: a colmado's cold Presidente at dusk, merengue and bachata rising from every doorway, the Malecón when the sea breeze finally wins.

The Guide's honesty: this is a city trip, not a beach one — the famous sand lies hours east, and mixing the two shortchanges both —; the Zona at night is lively and walkable, but it is an island of light: stay within it; and the music is not a show for you — it is the city's pulse. Dance badly, dance anyway.