La Romana is a busy coastal town located close to the Eastern side of the country about half way between Santo Domingo and Punta Cana and is the 3rd largest city Dominican Republic. It´s main economy is tourism and sugar and is even "richer" than San Pedro de Macoris, a town nearby and much larger mainly due to very large tourist complex in the city - Casa de Campo. La Romanas population in 2005 was estimated at around 250,000, however this is only an estimate and the "guess" is currently that the city has far more inhabitants than that.
La Romana Map
Casa de Campo is what really gives life to La Romana. It is located 5 km from the city, has 2833 hectares has a dozen pools, ten restaurants, golf courses, tennis courts, polo fields and along with a Tuscan-style village make it a great tourist attraction.
La Romana is located an hour and a half west of Punta Cana and an hour and a half west of the capital, Santo Domingo. The nearest town is San Pedro de Macoris, a half hour away and Juan Dolio, approximately forty minutes. La Romana is also very near Bayahibe (25 minutes) and is the nearest place to visit the islands of Saona and Catalina.
History of La Romana
The city of La Romana was born in 1897 when a concession was granted to a Cuban firm by Congress to establish an oil refinery. Originally La Romana was an decadent city without a future for its inhabitants. This changed in 1917 through the construction of a large sugar mill which is still in operation today. Do not forget that after the tourism industry, the sugar industry is one of the biggest money makers for the DR and this also generates more revenue for the town of La Romana. The commissioning of the sugar mill coincided with the rise in sugar prices worldwide, which drove the sugar entrepreneurs looking for employees which in turn benefited many poor Dominican families inside the country traveling to La Romana in search of a better life.
In the early 1960´s Gulf and Western Industries, Inc. bought the sugar mill and started to invest in the livestock industry and cement in the province. They also invested approximately US$20 million to rebuild La Romana and build schools, clinics, homes and other 
infrastructure for its Dominican workers. In the mid 1970s, the American conglomerate (Gulf and Western Industries) began selling its Dominican assets and simultaneously build what is now one of the most exclusive resorts in the Dominican Republic - Casa de Campo.
Today, La Romana has become a major stop off point for cruise ships, and its International Airport is a busy little airport picking up and dropping off tourists and businessmen alike to Casa de Campo and the mega cruise liners which berth here weekly.
