Santiago de los Caballeros

Santiago de los Caballeros is the Dominican Republic's second city and the cultural, industrial, and spiritual heart of the interior. As capital of the Central Cordillera, its identity is defined by tobacco—factories like La Aurora have exported the world's finest Dominican cigars for over a century—by baseball as national religion, and by the country's most spectacular Carnival, where papier-mâché masks of legendary characters compete in artistry and tradition. The imposing Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration symbolizes independence and pride. University life, dynamic entrepreneurship, and an authentic culinary scene give this northern metropolis an unfiltered energy that the capital city itself cannot match.