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Starbucks Coffee Store – An iconic Siren Café in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Yes, the Dominican Republic! Finally, after a flight you reach your destination and get off in one of the Dominican airports. If you travel from Europe, Asia, or Africa, that trip, probably was a long one. With a couple of transfers etc. a long-haul flight is usually something you would like to have quickly over. But it is not always possible. The Dominican Republic has international airports in different parts of the island, however, the most important and the most touristic are these in Punta Cana, Puerto Plata, and of course in the capital – Santo Domingo.
Starbucks Coffee store at the Las Americas International Airport
While the airport in Santo Domingo definitively is not the biggest one, it is quite well equipped, has ATM’s some snack bars, restaurants, and cafeterias. And, surprisingly, despite its relatively small size, it has a Starbucks Coffee store! Yes! So, your first thought would be – if at such a small area Starbucks exists, the Dominican Republic has probably plenty of them. No. that is not true. There are only five Starbucks Coffees stores in the Dominican Republic, and all of them are located in Santo Domingo!
And yes, no Starbucks store either in Punta Cana or in Puerto Plata. So, if you want to have a cup of coffee in an iconic siren mug – stay only in the capital.
Starbucks Coffee stores in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic – locate your nearest store
Actually, Starbucks Coffee stores are not in the Colonial Zone. That means, that while having a stroll in the Old Town, you will not be able to go to any Starbucks store. Well, you will have to choose and buy any other coffee. Of course, there is plenty of restaurants and local coffee vendors, so you will not have any problem with getting a caffeine kick.
One of these five Starbucks is in the Dominican Republic Training Center The next one is in the Acropolis Mall. The third in the Galeria 360. The fourth in the Downtown Mall and the last one is, as mentioned before, at the International Airport Las Americas in the departure area. Except from the Starbucks Coffee store at the airport, all other are in the Western part of the city. That also means, that they are to the west from the Colonial Zone.
How to get to the Starbucks Coffee store in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic by a public transport?
Use metro lines
To all of them (except from the one located at the airport, but I guess, you would not like to have your coffee in the departure zone!) there is a relatively good transport. If you decide to go either to the Starbucks in the Galeria 360 or in the Dominican Republic Training Center, the best option is to take a metro.
How to get to the Starbucks Coffee store in the Dominican Republic Training Center?
Get off at the station Ulises Francisco Espaillat if you choose Dominican Republic Training Center.
How to get to the Starbucks Coffee store in the Galeria 360?
If you prefer to go to the Galeria 360, get off at one of the following stations: Freddy Beras Goico or Estacion Pedro Mir, L2.
Use public buses
How to get to the Starbucks Coffee store in the Downtown Mall?
To get to the Starbucks Coffee store located in the Downtown Mall, you have a couple of options. The first one is to get off at the Av. Nunes De Caceres Con Av. Romulo Betancourt. That is the best option. At this bus stop, stop three bus lines: C12B, C12BD and C12BS.
Another option is to get there by one of the following lines: C2C1, C2C1S, C2C1SD and get off at the bus stop Av. 27 de Febrero Proximo Av. Nunez de Caceres.
The third option is to get off at the bus stop Av. Nunes De Caceres Con Av. Sarasota, if you use bus lines C12A, C12AD and C12AS.
Finally, not far from it, Terra Bus has its stop.
How to get to the Starbucks Coffee store in the Acropolis Mall?
If you decide to go to the Acropolis Mall, you have three options. The first one, the best one, is to use one of the bus lines C12A, C12AD, C12AS and get off at the bus stop Av. Winston Churchill Con Calle Victor Garrido Puello.
The second option previews taking bus line C14, C14D, C14S and get off at the bus stop Av. Gustavo Mejia Ricart Con Calle Freddy Prestol or at the bus stop Av. Roberto Pastoriza Con Calle Manuel De Jesus Troncoso. The bus stop name depends on the direction you are heading to.
The third option is to use one of the buses C12B, C12BD, C12BS. In that case, get off at the bus stop Av. Winston Churchill Con Av. Gustavo Mejia Ricart or at the bus stop Av. Winston Churchill Con Calle Francisco Prats Ramirez.
Starbucks Coffee store in the Downtown Mall
We arrived to Santo Domingo on the Saturday evening, and decided to visit one of the Starbucks the next day. Sunday morning seemed to be a good moment for a cup of coffee, especially that all local vendors with trolleys packed with snacks, lotteries and coffee were not working. We spent some time on searching for something local, but as we stayed the first night in the Colonial Zone neither of us knew where to go, nor had any idea what and where might be open. That is why we decided to go to the Downtown Mall, as that one Starbucks Coffee store was the nearest one.
On the map, everything looked relatively close to where we stayed. Well, actually, we just looked on the map, but did not check the distance. And that was a huge mistake. So, we started our walk from the Colonial Zone to the Downtown Mall. And that is something I do not recommend. Take a bus and skip a long walk. We expected to see something more than just almost empty morning streets, some cars and quite noisy and busy streets.
As the air close to main arteries was dense and making feel suffocating, smaller, local streets were deprived of any life. So, there was an option either to choose small streets and see almost nothing, or go along wide avenues in the polluted area, and also see nothing interesting as close to them only commercial building were located or some car services. Believe me, no fun in it.
It was extremely hot. There was almost no shadow and we were already tired after our first night in the new place. The way was tiring, long and almost with no perspectives. The decision whether to go further or whether to return and skip this day a morning coffee. However, every time we recalled in our memories about the effort we had already done, once again we were deciding to go further and further to finally reach our destination. The prize that was awaiting us there was really tempting!
Imagine being in a situation in which you were so hot that you could just sit down under any tree and do nothing more. Or, imagine the situation in which you could just sit down and enjoy a super cold drink in an air-conditioned area. Or just have some hot coffee served in the way you know and like so much. With no extra sugar, but just with some vegan milk. Wonderful, isn’t it? I mentioned this extra sugar, as in Dominican Republic people love everything that is extremely sweet. For us, these drinks or cakes are hard to be swollen. Of course, they are good but so sweet, that you can only have a couple of bites or sips. No more!
So, so much awaited and so loved coffee was really tempting and convincing us that every next step was a good idea. Of course, we could always get a taxi or Uber to give us a lift, but we stuck to our decision to go there on food, as we believed that it would let us see and experience more. Now, from the perspective, we would not repeat it.
When we reached our destination – a shopping mall with Starbucks Coffee store, we were so happy! Just like children that had just obtained a wonderful gift or a lot of candies! It was a wonderful moment. We could cool down in a relatively cold area, relax, listen to the chilling music, and finally have our, so awaited coffee.
We choose our venti coffees and one small cake. As we expected it to be, everything was perfect. The staff was super friendly, very helpful and attentive. We took one hot and one cold coffee beverage. The hot one we chose was Caffè Latte and the cold one – Caramel Frappuccino with whipped cream. We also bought a delicate and law in sugar blueberry triangle that was nicely crunchy.
As always, the stay in the Starbucks Coffee store was relaxing and it allowed us to regain energy for the rest of the day.
In order to always remember about our effort done on the first day, we even bought a local, Dominican mug from the Starbucks Been there collection!
