Museums Tour

It's All Up To You... TAKE THE HELM! MIX and MATCH diverse trips and activities in the assorted TOURS categories to create your own "unique" adventure in the Dominican Republic. Email us for more details: info@altgreengo.com

Let us take you back in time for a few days.  The Dominican Republic has a rich and storied history that traces back over 8,000 years to the arrival of the Taino Indians. Following the island's discovery by Christopher Columbus in 1492, the Republic had epic interaction with the Spanish, French, Haitians and Africans. It's no wonder, then, how the Dominican Republic came to boast such an impressive collection of personal and cultural relics from centuries past.   There are so many museums  we simply cannot list them all.  The country has done a magnificent job of maintaining and preserving these artifacts as well as the historical structures in which they're housed. Visiting the Dominican Republic's major cities, especially Santo Domingo, you can easily become engrossed in the historical legends that accompany some of the oldest museums and archeological sites in the New World. We promise to take you on a well-thought-out pre-historic journey that you will never forget!
El Faro Colon	Description: El Faro a Colon, or Columbus Lighthouse, opened in 1992 to mark the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's remarkable, fateful voyage to the New World. Standing 688-feet tall and constructed of white marble, the lighthouse offers exhibits and a tomb where the great explorer's remains were housed after a move from the Cathedral of Santa Mari­a la Menor. After you've seen the lighthouse by day, remember to see its beams by night. They're visible from the city and far beyond after dark.
Museo de Arte Moderno	Description: Santo Domingo's Museum of Modern Art features paintings and sculpture by national and international artists. There is, of course, a heavy focus on Dominican Republic artists, but creations by international masters are sometimes highlighted in exhibitions. Look for the works of two of the country's best-known artists, Elvis Aviles and Tony Capellan, who both enjoy worldwide recognition.
La Casa del Cordon	Description: ZONA COLONIAL. It was twenty years after Columbus's 1492 voyage that Spanish explorers and colonists built the first Spanish-style house in Santo Domingo. La Casa del Cordon, which still stands, was the first home of Diego Columbus, Christopher's son, before he moved into the palace, Alcazar de Colon. Today, the house offers a small museum, but more importantly, it stands as a landmark tribute to one of history's most significant eras.
Museo de las Casas Reales	Description: Museum of the Royal Houses takes visitors back to colonial times for a taste of the Dominican Republic's rich history. This restored 16th-century palace boasts suits of armor, tapestries, maps, and an array of artifacts stretching from pre-Columbian days to the beginning of the 19th century. The museum also features a restored colonial courtroom, a replica of the viceroy's throne room, and treasures salvaged from Spanish shipwrecks.
Museo del Hombre Dominicano	Description: Long before Columbus set foot in the Dominican Republic, the island was home to several native tribes, most notably the Taino Indians. This museum preserves portions of that early, rich history and allows visitors to get up close and personal with tribal masks, ceremonial items, and everyday artifacts that survived European colonial expansion.
Alcázar de Colon	Description: DISTRITO NACIONAL. Built in the early 16th century during the burgeoning years of the Age of Exploration, the palace of Alca¡zar de Colon stands as a tribute to explorers and nations who helped settle the New World. Diego Columbus, son of Christopher, was the palace's first resident and the city's first governor. After him, the structure's limestone walls and Isabelline architecture went on to greet other famous explorers: Ponce de Leon and Balboa. Today, the palace welcomes guests with an array of period artifacts and artwork from the era of Spanish Colonialism
Museo de la Familia Dominicana del Siglo XIX	Description:  (Museum of the Dominican Family of the 19th Century) Built in 1503, this colonial mansion exhibits artifacts and personal belongings of a 19th century well-to-do Santo Domingo family. While its contents are intriguing, the best part of the museum is the house itself, which has the only double Gothic window in North or South America.
Museo de la Comunidad Juda de Sosua	Discription: The  small exhibition next door to Sosuas synagogue tells the story of the countrys Jewish community, invited by Trujillo in 1940 to form an agricultural colony. For hundreds of Austrian and German Jews, the Dominican resort town of Sosua represents more than a sun-splashed paradise. Photographs, letters, and a sprinkling of 1940s artifacts explain how they fled the Nazis, settled in this North Coast town, and started a dairy cooperative. Like the mahogany hope chests that are now sold on its busy streets, the town of Sosua was carved out of dense jungle 54 years ago. But even the most intricate of wooden carvings can't compete with the remarkable history of this thriving beach resort on the Dominican Republic’s northern coast.
Museo  de las hermanas Mirabales	Discription: The Mirabal sisters: Patria, Dedra, Minerva and Maria Teresa are Dominican heroines who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. They gave up a privileged life to fight against the abuses of a powerful and corrupt Dominican dictator: Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina. The small town of Salcedo is unexceptional, apart from its museum commemorating the lives and deaths of the three Mirabal sisters, courageous opponents of Trujillo, who were murdered on the orders of the dictator in 1960. The little family house contains a collection of photographs and everyday personal effects. They lost their lives struggling to restore democracy and the rule of law to their beloved Dominican Republic. Their legacy will live forever in our hearts and the lessons they taught us cannot be forgotten. Six months after the Mirabals' death, the Trujillo regime came crumbling down when he was killed on the night of May 30, 1961.
Museo Juan Pablo Duarte	Discription: Freedom fighter Pablo Duarte (1813-1873) is honored in this modest one-story house where he was born. The mementos mostly comprise documents and paintings, but the three elegant rooms also contain fine furniture and iconography relating to Duarte underground independence organization, La Trinitaria.   Juan Pablo Duarte is considered "The Father of the Country." While he was studying, the eastern part of the Island of Santo Domingo, which had become independent from Spain, the country was conquered by the republic of Haiti, which occupied the western part, thus making the Island into a single republic. The Haitians ruled with an iron hand on the conquered part, which was inhabited largely by people of Spanish descent. Duarte, after returning to his native City, conceived the idea of freeing his country, and founded in 1838 "La Trinitaria," a secret society, which soon extended through the Spanish section of the island, and paved the way for national independence.
Museeo Mundo de Ambar Santo Domingo	Discription: This two-story Victorian museum located in Puerto Plata is thought to contain a collection of the world's most transparent amber. Well-preserved plants, insects and animals that were captured in prehistoric tree sap are on display. The Amber Museum contains the famous amber mosquito seen in the box-office hit, Jurassic Park. La Isabela Museum A new museum and educational center focusing on Christopher Columbus discovery of Hispaniola in 1492 are in the works and will be housed at La Isabela. The seaside village is the site of adventurer's first settlement in the new world.
 Museo de Larimar	Discription: Santo Domingo Larimar is a blue pectolite, and a result of vulcanic activity, which ocurred many million years ago on the island of la "La Hispanola". Its crystallization took place when the volcanic lava was cooling off as columns in the tubular "chimneys", in which these pectolites, andesites, basalts and other minerals formed.   The Dominican Republic, Caribbean, owns the only Larimar Museum in the world. All you want to know about this wonderful blue Caribbean gem is found in the Dominican Republic. A travel to this museum and the actual the mines of Larimar is an extraordinay experience. The place appears after a long adventure ride on an off-road vehicle over dirty and stony roads, in a village that brings memories of centurpast long ago.