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Weekly UpdatesBEST BUSINESS HOTEL
El Embajador. Executives overwhelmingly voted for this as their favorite hotel for business, citing its convenient location, traditional elegance, and in particular The Royal Club, known as the Club San Miguel in Spanish, which reserves the 7th and 8th floors for business travelers. El Embajador underwent a complete renovation in 1998. The Royal Club is a sort of hotel-within-the hotel: It features its own staff dedicated to business travelers, a separate check-in desk, private access to the two floors, fruit basket upon arrival, free drinks and snacks all day, full secretarial services, private meeting rooms which can serve as a virtual office-on-site for a group from the same company, executive bedroom suites with high-speed internet connection, amt concierge services for flight and hotel reservations, excursions and tours. Occidental Avenida Sarasota #65, Ensanche Bella Vista. Phone: [1] (809) 221-2131; Fax: [1] (809) 532-5306. www.occidental-hoteles.com
BEST RESTAURANT FOR A BUSINESS LUNCH
La Briciola. Impress your business contacts with dinner at this white-linen establishment housed in an exquisitely restored 16th century building with coquina walls, brick floors and archways, and stone vaulted ceilings. A succession of dining rooms wrap around a central courtyard framed in arches and abounding with flowers. Dark woods and wrought iron furnishings lend a charming background to the fine, northern Italian cuisine, which includes all-homemade pastas. The osso bucco is famous, as is the extensive list of only-Italian wines. Open for dinner; closed Sundays. Reservations are a must. Calle Arzobispo Merino 152-A, corner of Calle Padre Billini, Zona Colonial. Phone: [1] (809) 688-5055.
BEST PLACE TO RELAX AFTER HOURS
Guacara Taina. Housed in a gigantic cave in a public park in western Santo Domingo, this bar and dance club is unique. From the entrance at street level, the cave floor gently winds down 100 feet to a series of rooms, some of which are three stories tall or higher, that add tip to three bars, two dance floors, and a theater where there are nightly shows of Dominican merengue and other Afro-Spanish dances. There are plenty of seating areas carved into the limestone walls, perfect for a quiet drink while waiting for the show. The place opens at 9 p.m. but doesn't get going full blast until 11 p.m.. Don't try to find la Guacara on your own; even the local first-timers have a hard time of it. It's best to hire a cab driver to take you there and wait for you. Avenida Mirador Sur, Parque Mirador. Phone: [1] (809) 533-1051.
BEST WEEKEND
Casa de Campo. Spend a day, overnight or weekend at Casa de Campo, an expansive residential and vacation resort complex in the town of La Romana, a 90-minute drive east of Santo Domingo mostly along the panoramic coastal highway. Casa de Campo has the usual luxury-resort facilities (scads of tennis courts and swimming pools, an exclusive on-site spa), but executives mentioned the three championship, Pete Dye-designed golf courses, a polo field, shooting range, and a much-photographed marina & yacht club, with an Italian-style plaza lined with exclusive boutiques and fine restaurants, including Chinois, Limoncello and Peperoni. Do not leave Casa de Campo without visiting Altos de Chavon, a charming mountaintop artists' village, where the streets and colonial-style buildings are made of coquina blocks and the views from breezy bars and cozy restaurants are breathtaking. Reservations from the United States: [1] (800) 877-3643 or [1] (305) 856-7083, from Santo Domingo: [1] (809) 523-3333. www.casadecampo.com.do
BEST SHOPPING
Santo Domingo's mall scene. The capital city has several good malls, including the newest, Bella Vista Mall on Sarasota Avenue; the most architecturally impressive, Acropolis on Winston Churchill Avenue; and the one with the most exclusive boutiques, Diamond Mall on Abraham Lincoln Avenue in the Arroyo Hondo neighborhood. Any taxi driver knows these three malls. Yon can also leave your shopping for the international airport. The collection of duty-free shops there is among the best stocked of any in the Caribbean; they're a great place to buy luxury watches, the latest electronics, French perfumes and high-end liquor.
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