Santo Domingo Nights: A bar for any occasion

A breezy day on a Dominican beach should be followed by an urban night out dancing and meeting new people. 

Santo Domingo has a respectably-sized gay scene that will work double duty you walk through the picturesque colonial zone to find local watering holes and dance floors. 

Start your evening at the Parque Duarte, an unofficial gathering place for the young LGBT crowd before they disperse to the different clubs for the evening. There are no open carry laws in the Dominican Republic, so get ready to see bottles piled high around the trash cans in the park and feel free to empty and add your own. 

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At G Lounge, you can catch local drag shows and ogle go-go boys while you sip rum-spiked cocktails. Let it be known that there are some fantastic Whitney impersonators in Santo Domingo. 

After the shows conclude feel free to head next door to Fogoo, where the music is louder and has a deeper club bass to it. 

If you’re looking to avoid the back and forth and want a dance floor with reliable top 40 hits mixed with some Latin favorites, Esedeku, named for Santo Domingo’s airport code, SDQ, is the place to be. Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Lopez, and plenty more appear on video screens while the dance floor gets crowded shoulder-to-shoulder at times. Feel free to head upstairs to the rooftop lounge where you can still feel the bass below you, but could hold a conversation if you wanted to. 

Make sure to chase your day at the beach with a disco nap before you head out to take the town.