La Vega

La Concepción de La Vega (commonly referred to as La Vega) sits in the middle of the Valle del Cibao (Cibao Valley). The countryside is plush with vegetation and is an area that is rich in production of tobacco, rice, fruit, and vegetables.

La Vega has so very little to offer tourists, it ranks low on the priority list for most. That is, until February, when the small town’s streets overflow with hundreds of thousands of Dominicans and tourists for its Carnaval celebration [1]. It is the one thing that keeps La Vega on the map.

Getting to La Vega

The odd thing about La Vega is that it is highly accessible by both car and bus, from many directions, and still there are so very few services available.

Caribe Tours (Av. Pedro A. Rivera 37, tel. 809/573-6806, www.caribetours.com [2], 6:30 a.m.–9 p.m.) has a very steady stream of buses coming through its station. Santo Domingo [3]–bound (US$4.50) buses leave every half hour or so. Northern-bound buses make stops in Santiago [4] (US$1.85), Puerto Plata [5] (US$4.50), and Sosúa [6] (US$5) and leave every hour. A bus for Jarabacoa [7] (US$2.40) leaves at scattered times throughout the day as it is a transfer bus from Santo Domingo.

The north–south-running Autopista Duarte files right past La Vega, making it a major stopover for traffic coming from major destinations on either coast. It’s an easy 40 kilometers along the Autopista Duarte (Carretera 1) from Santiago to La Vega and 118 kilometers from Santo Domingo northbound on the same highway.