Day trip with my "have-it-his-way" father

So...I want to take my 60 year-old Dominican father to some place out of Santo Domingo for a 1-2 day excursion. The thing is that he is grumpy and complains often as most old men do (no offense for the general stereotype). I would love to take him to some resort area, but I don't want them to kill me on the hotel prices.

Still, it has to be an area where there is enough to do for at least 6 hours (If in an area with no beach we could check out a cultural center, shopping area, eat and live jazz or something). What area would you recommend? Just keep in your mind that he never left Santo Domingo (not true, but keep that as a ref. point. Thanks for the input guys and gals.

All of you give such good info... Thanks

SKY- I will PM you tomorrow when I get a better chance to think of what I want to ask you

Lambada-I'm not going to take him to a Cemetery, but anyone else who would be complaining, I'd take to a cemetery. It may seem like a joke, but it is a great and clever idea.

Hipocrito and Hillbilly-I will research what u guys mentioned and may have to make 2 trips instead of one as those places sound interesting. "Cueva de las Maravillas"sounds interesting.

Hillbilly, what does it mean, if you "went native", you mean camp outside in a park or something, or do you mean something else? P.S.- he lives in a pretty nice house in Santo Domingo, so it'd be nice to take him to an average, or nice hotel, if it is a place where we expect to be overnight.


P.S.-Lambada, when I said he was "old" I was just trying to paint a picture. I know that the same will happen to me one day. One solace you can take though is that while in DR, whether native or gringo, you can be a "viejo sin verguenza" if you choose to.