Dominican Republic · Provincia de La Altagracia
Where to Stay in Salvaleón de Higüey, Provincia de La Altagracia
Higüey is a city of the eastern Dominican Republic, the great pilgrimage town of the island, where the faithful come to the towering basilica of Our Lady of Altagracia.
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Where to stay in Salvaleón de Higüey
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Where you stay in Higüey turns on the town or the coast. The streets around the basilica keep the shrine, the old church, and the market within a walk, and staying downtown suits anyone here for the pilgrimage. The great arches rise over the town.
Pilgrims throng the square. Out toward Punta Cana and the sea, the town gives way to the cane fields, the cattle plains, and the road to the beaches. A room out of town trades the streets for the green plains, the palm coast, and the resorts of Punta Cana.
The Caribbean lies east of the fields. Stay downtown for the basilica, or out for the beaches. The great basilica stands at the heart of it all.
About Salvaleón de Higüey
Higüey is the holy city of the Dominican east.
What is Salvaleón de Higüey known for?
On the wide cattle plains of the far east of the island, it grew as an old colonial town and a place of pilgrimage, and it keeps the towering modern basilica of Our Lady of Altagracia, the old colonial church of the first settlers, the sugar and cattle lands of the plain, and the road to the beaches of Punta Cana nearby. The flat plain runs to the sea. Pilgrims fill the great church.
What are the main landmarks in Salvaleón de Higüey?
The Basilica of Altagracia is the pride of Higüey. The soaring modern shrine of great concrete arches, raised to Our Lady of Altagracia, the patroness of the land, rises over the town, the emblem of the city, downtown. An old church stands nearby.
The colonial church of the first settlers still keeps the old town, while the cattle plains, the sugar fields, and the road to Punta Cana mark the country around Higüey.
What is the history of Salvaleón de Higüey?
Higüey is one of the oldest towns of the Americas. The Spanish founded it soon after they came to the island, on the lands of the Taíno people of the east, and it became a quiet town of cattle and cane. A holy image made it famous.
In the early years a small image of the Virgin, called Our Lady of Altagracia, was brought to Higüey, and it drew the faithful from across the island as a worker of miracles. The old shrine grew into a great basilica. For centuries pilgrims came to a colonial church to pray to Altagracia, and in our own age a soaring basilica of concrete arches was raised to hold the crowds.
The east filled with cane and cattle. Its plains grew sugar and grazed great herds around Higüey, and the town became the heart of the eastern province, while beyond it the beaches of Punta Cana drew the world, so Higüey kept its basilica, its plains, and its faith. The pilgrims still come every year.
Higüey keeps its holy shrine on the eastern plains.
Where is Salvaleón de Higüey?
Higüey lies in the far east of the Dominican Republic, on the flat plains between the hills and the Caribbean. The city sits on a warm lowland of cane fields and cattle pasture, ringed by low green hills, with the eastern beaches and the sea a short way off and the resort coast of Punta Cana to the east. Cane and pasture spread level and green around Higüey.
Warm seas lie close by.
What is the climate of Salvaleón de Higüey?
Higüey has a warm, humid tropical climate. Hot damp weather holds all year on the plain, with steady heat, trade winds off the sea, and the risk of a hurricane in the late-summer season. The heat holds day and night.
Sea winds ease the plain.
How do you get to Salvaleón de Higüey?
Higüey lies in the far east of the Dominican Republic, on the highway to the eastern coast. The road runs to it across the plains from Santo Domingo and the west, and the airport of Punta Cana lies close to the east. Pilgrims crowd the basilica.
Santo Domingo lies west up the road.
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Updated August 2026