The Samana Peninsula juts off the Dominican Republic's northeast coast, a strip of green mountains, coconut groves and quiet beaches that feels a world away from the resort zones. Its towns each have their own character: the port town of Santa Barbara de Samana on the bay, laid back Las Terrenas with its beach restaurants, and tiny Las Galeras at the peninsula's tip near Playa Rincon. Samana's headline act is the humpback whale season. Every winter, roughly January through March, thousands of humpbacks return to Samana Bay to breed and calve, and boat tours put you close to the action. The rest of the year the peninsula earns its keep with the El Limon waterfall, reached by horseback or on foot through jungle trails, beach days on Cayo Levantado island in the bay, and boat trips across to Los Haitises National Park, a maze of mangrove channels, limestone outcrops and caves marked with Taino rock art. Many travelers visit Samana as a full day trip from Punta Cana, and several tours on this site combine the waterfall, the bay and an island beach stop in one itinerary. If you are staying on the peninsula or arriving by cruise, local departures put the same highlights within easy reach. Either way, Samana is the wildest, greenest day the Dominican Republic offers.