The DR is not the US or UK for that matter, each country is distinctive from one another as well.
If most tourists wanted to enjoy NYC like cities in the DR, why would they visit the DR in the first place???
If you want to visit the DR and while doing so, enjoy some services provided by "city" like living, then you can opt to stay in Santo Domingo's centric zone or Santiago; anything further will downgrade your perception of what a city should look like...
The problem with great modern cities is that being in one is like being in any other...
They all lack the identity which was lost when the mega-city phenomena were let out of the bag...
Standing in Tokyo's famous meeting plaza off the metro, is jut like standing in the middle of NYC's Penn Station or UK's Piccadilly’s... All look and feel the same, chaotic, congested and lineal...
Looking at Santo Domingo, one can't say the same once you take a stroll down the streets... One moment you're off from the Hilton modern and city like style, the next you find yourself walking the in a colonial street with 500+ yo buildings out of the history books; then you walk a few blocks and you find yourself facing a row of vendors akin to the lined merchants of any old world pagodas...
That's the charm of the DR!
The DR is not NYC or Brazil or Toronto, the DR is the Caribbean as Caribbean is...
