To reach Barahona follow the coast west from Santo Domingo as it curves along the Caribbean coastline. The is a small international airport on the outskirts of Barahona called Maria Montez but most people travel by road. The carretera Sanchez (coast road leaving from Santo Domingo) eventually becomes Highway 44 and stretches all the way to the Haitian border. The road is in pretty good shape but be warned after leaving west of Barahona there are some pretty scarey windy turns high on the cliff tops!

The Town was founded by the Haitian General Touissant L’Ouverture in 1802 to be used as an alternative sea port rather than Santo Domingo, while he was briefly in power over all of Hispaniola. Later on the town was used by the Dictator Trujillo when he ordered many thousands of square kilometres of desert to be converted into sugar cane fields for his multi million dollar sugar cane industry. Even when he was assassinated the fields were still tended but now they have been split up and given back to locals enabling the whole community now to benefit from his initial greed, in fact the sugar cane is an integral part of this regions economy.

The city of Barahona itself is not too appealing, not having much to offer aesthetically in the way of a typical seaside town, no main beach to sunbathe on and more of an industrial town with the large sugar cane factory taking up most of the space by the sea front on the northern end of town. However it makes for a great place to stay as a base camp and then go off and explore the national parks or immediate surrounding areas.

There are parts of the sea front or malecon on the other side that have a few hotels and restaurants and there is a large children’s playground with a slide in the shape of the solar system. However on the far eastern side of the malecon if you follow the rutted track for a kilometre or so you will come across an amazingly pristine white sanded beach, fringed with palm trees for sunbathing! Just further back from the water there is the Melo Coffee Factory which is open to visitors for a very informal tour around (usually closed Sundays) and you can view the processing of the coffee ready for exportation. Also in town one will find a local bus service, a bank, a Verizon office to make international phone calls, church and bars.

There are a couple of all inclusive resorts but none have the main pull of Punta Cana or in the north Playa Dorada. For the independent traveller there is quite a selection of basic but very clean family run hotels in town ranging from super basic to fairly posh with air conditioning and light bulbs!

Ecotourism is the main reason for people travelling to the southwest. The regions diversity of eco systems and birds and animals gives one the opportunity to step from rainforest and fresh running pools of water to cacti barren desert in moments. So grab your binoculars, sunhats and sun screen and be transported to the three National Parks in the region.