23 Best Shopping in Dominican Republic

The Galerias at Puntacana Village lie within a still-blossoming shopping, dining, and residential complex built on the road to the Punta Cana International Airport. Originally the village was built to house employees of the Puntacana Group, but now the shops and restaurants are also a tourist draw. The village is comprised of churches, an international school, and this commercial area with its restaurants, shops, a supermarket, banks (with ATMs), a beauty salon, pharmacy, and doctors' offices. Family-oriented, it has an ice-cream parlor, a playground, and a children's clothing boutique as well as those for adults. The restaurants are less expensive than those at most resorts and very popular. The Sheraton Four Points Puntacana Village is across the street, just a two-minute drive from the airport.

A standout among the region's shopping centers, Palma Real Shopping Village is a swanky, partially enclosed mall (similar to something you would see in Southern California), that is also overall the most expensive. Fountains and tropical plants infuse life into the bright and airy interiors beneath the blue-tile roof. Music pipes through the stone-floor plaza in the center, where seating is available and security is tight. Upscale retail shops, which sell beachwear, clothing, skin-care products, and jewelry, line the walls. Several restaurants give visitors welcome dining alternatives beyond the gates of their resorts, and the shopping center holds Punta Cana's first movie theater. There are two banks, ATMs, and a money exchange outlet. Stores are open 10–10, but the restaurants stay open later. It has the best pharmacy in the area. Shuttle buses run to and from many of the hotels, with pickups every two hours.

Located at the intersection of Avenida Winston Churchill and Calle Rafael Augusto Sanchez in the Piantini district, Acropolis Center has become a favorite shopping arena for the young fashionistas and hip capitaleños (residents of Santo Domingo). Stores such as Lacoste, Kenneth Cole, United Colors of Benetton, and Barone have today's look and style. Prices, however, are generally more than what you would pay in the States. There are also several U.S. chain restaurants like Outback and Hooters, not to mention banks, a pharmacy, bars, and a Caribbean Cinema showing the latest Hollywood movies.

Altos de Chavón is a re-creation of a 16th-century Mediterranean village on the grounds of the Casa de Campo resort, where you can find a church, art galleries, boutiques, restaurants, nightspots, and souvenir shops, and a 5,000-seat amphitheater for concerts grouped around a cobbled square. At the Altos de Chavón Art Studios you can find ceramics, weaving, and screen prints made by local and resident artists. Extra special is the Jenny Polanco Project. A top Dominican fashion designer, she has made an outlet for Dominican, Haitian, and Caribbean craftsmen to sell their wares, from Carnival masks to baskets and carved plates. Tienda Batey sells fine linens handcrafted by women from the sugar plantation bateys (poor villages).

The sister shop to Fred Joyas, Beach Box Boutique has new furnishings—hippie chic. With beach style it has a new collection of colorful and utilitarian beach bags, pareos, organdy sun hats, shell jewelry, and wide silver bracelets.

The colorful, bazaarlike atmosphere at Bi2JH2O Artisanal Shopping Plaza (pronounced like bibijagua), makes it fun to browse the shopping stalls laid out in the sand on Bávaro Beach. You can find handicrafts, cigars, mamajuana, handmade musical instruments, paintings, sculptures, wood carvings, and ambar, larimar, and coral jewelry, but in cheap settings. And they might not be the real deal, particularly the amber and coral. Expect the spirited shopkeepers to beckon you into their kiosks; you might find a few pearls in their sea of trinkets. Bargain, but don't ask prices if you aren't serious about buying; you'll be hounded. A snack bar with Dominican munchies and restrooms are nearby.

In Puerto Plata you can find enough interesting stores to both quell your shopping urge and pick up a few funky gifts, like mamajuana, the Dominican herbal liqueur. A popular shopping street for costume jewelry and souvenirs is Calle Beller.

Casa de Campo's top-ranked marina is home to shops and international boutiques, galleries, and jewelers scattered amid restaurants, banks, and other services. The chic shopping scene includes Luxury Shops Carmen Sol and Kiwi St. Tropez for French bathing suits. Polanco-Leon with Dominican designer Jenny Polanco's has resort wear, purses, and jewelry as well as Bibi Leon's tropical-themed home accessories. There's also a marvelous Italian antiques shop, Nuovo Rinascimento, and Club Del Cigarro (Fumo). The supermercado Nacional has not only groceries but sundries, postcards, and snacks.

One of the Dominican Republic's leading department stores, Casa Virginia was founded in 1945. The store is stocked mostly with high-end designer clothing (including a Jenny Polanco department) and fashion finds, but also has avant Italian jewelry, some moderately priced gift items, and a line of high-end men's watches.

This shop sells souvenirs, including many made of amber.

Joyas is Spanish for jewelry. Here it's silver jewelry coupled with the island's semiprecious stones—larimar, amber, and black onyx—as well as shells and beads. Fred is the proprietress, a savvy Frenchwoman with great taste.

Top Dominican artists in various mediums are on display here. The gallery staff is well-known in Miami and New York, and works with Sotheby's.

This store is like many of the mano-name souvenir shops selling knickknacks, but there are a few better things here, and it's where locals buy their cigars. There's no sign, but if you find it, you'll discover that among the better gift items are handmade candles in the shape of a dugout boat, key rings, pink shell necklaces, colorfully painted wooden turtles, photo albums and picture frames made with sand and fiber, flip-flops, and inexpensive Panama hats, caps, and visors.

It's hard to walk by the windows of Harrison's Fine Jewelry without stepping in to admire the collection of jewelry, including a large selection of larimar and amber pieces in striking settings, as well as diamonds and other classic gems. Outlets of this renowned chain are also in several resorts of Punta Cana, like the Palma Real Shopping Village itself.

You won't find trinkets here but rather high-end jewelry (most likely at better prices than in your hometown). For quality larimar and amber with well-designed settings, many in platinum, this is it. A popular item and gift is a tiny gold or silver flip-flop pendant to dangle from a neck chain. Branches can be found in many touristy zones, including Cabarete and Sosúa.

The owner, Patrick Le Clercq, has some of the most attractive and creative designer pieces in native larimar and amber. If you have never bought any of these lovely stones because of cheesy settings or high prices, take a look here. His innovative custom work, in sterling or gold, can be done in 48 hours. Some staff do not speak English but can call Patrick if he’s not there.

This shop along El Conde in the Zona Colonial makes and sells its own branded premium cigars to clients worldwide and anyone who happens to walk into the cozy store. Enjoy the leather couch in the seating area, and let owner Julio Vilchez Rosso or a member of his personable staff regale you with the history of cigar making in the Dominican Republic and learn what makes a good cigar a good cigar. This store is perfect for the experienced connoisseur or those who'd like to become one.

This edgy gallery showcases mainly Latin artists from Mexico, South America, and Spain, and some of the most controversial Dominican visionaries. Specializing in contemporary art, it's been in business since 1995. Their rotating collection can include the new, the strange, and the daring.

If you need to know anything about anything in Sosúa, stop by and meet Patrick. Here for decades, he is kind about aiding gringos and has a sense of humor. He also makes tasteful silver jewelry if you are looking for a souvenir of your time here.

Stores at this shopping center (in the American tradition) sell everything from cigars, rum, coffee, snacks, and herbal remedies to ceramics, trinkets, flip-flops and suntan lotion, fine jewelry, American clothing brands, Oscar de la Renta tops, and Gottex bathing suits. There are banks and ATM machines.

The sprawling Plaza Bávaro Shopping Center has dozens of shops spanning two sides of the main street that cuts through its center. It is a Dominican hodgepodge—like a neighborhood without any zoning restrictions. On the side closest to the beach you can find clothing stores, jewelry, cigars, and crafts, as well as money-exchanges, a DHL shipping station, and a pharmacy, all laid out in a square; in the middle is a bar where you can take a beverage break. Across the street, most of the booths sell artwork and handicrafts. Ladies will likely be approached by women offering to braid your hair.

On the outskirts of Higüey, as you head into town along Carretera Higüey–La Otra Banda, you can find this artisan market on the right-hand side of the road that draws busloads of tourists. Here you can browse through racks and shelves full of souvenirs, such as the herbal mamajuana liqueur, rum, cigars, T-shirts, amber and larimar jewelry in cheap settings, crafts, and ceramics.

You won't find brand-name shops at Plaza Uvero Alto, but it's a convenient 24-hour shopping center for the hotels in the remote Uvero Alto area of Punta Cana. Especially useful are a bank, outdoor ATM, and a money exchange, followed by a small pharmacy, gift shops, and two minimarkets (one in the front, the other in the back row of booths).