Dominican Abroad provides travel, culture, and lifestyle guides. Our content includes insightful articles, photography, and videos filled with useful l tips through the lens of a multicultural New Yorker.
We offer cultural experiences in New York and the Caribbean. Our popular Dominican Heritage Tour to the Dominican Republic has been featured in the New York Times and Oprah Magazine.
MORE ABOUT USDominican Abroad was founded in 2017 by Gerry Isabelle: a New York Dominican content creator. Our mission is multifaceted. We seek to:
Encourage readers to travel in a meaningful way via educational travel and cultural guides and other digital content.
Support local communities domestically and abroad; especially local small businesses.
Empower multicultural communities to learn more about their identities and how our histories connect around the world.
Encourage diverse populations to travel and amplify diverse voices in digital media to promote diverse representation
Support cultural heritage preservation and the reclaiming of pre-colonial narratives.
Inspire people to embrace a more wholesome, curious, and creative lifestyle.
Perhaps it was growing up in the 90’s Bronx that drove me to the desire to uninhibitedly explore the world. Or maybe it was because I was born and raised in a unique Dominican community within an especially diverse American city that cultivated a special appreciation for global culture and world travel.
While studying in Europe as a teenager, I realized how multicultural travelers, often tend to have a more nuanced and multi-layered way of processing cross-cultural interactions and adapting to diverse environments.
Noticing the lack of diverse representation in media and travel, l decided to share our stories and adventures around the globe. Since then, I’ve grown a community of over 300,000 monthly readers/followers interested in my multicultural perspective on unique places and experiences through my content, while highlighting my beloved Dominican heritage as an American traveler.
Today, I am based in beautiful Brooklyn, New York.
Our team is comprised of a passionate and diverse group of individuals from around the world with a shared love for travel, culture, history, and wellness.
MELITA SMOLIC
TRIP COORDINATOR & CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Melita is fluent in Spanish, English and Croatian. She’s lived in 4 different countries and the Dominican Republic is her favorite place in the world. She has a degree in Politics and Economics and joined the Dominican Abroad team after having gone on the Dominican Heritage Tour!
Our team is comprised of a passionate and diverse group of individuals from around the world with a shared love for travel, culture, history, and wellness.
FLORaNNY LORENZO
ASSISTANT TOUR GUIDE & GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Floranny is a Dominican artist who lives in San Cristobal, Santo Domingo and graduated in Graphic Design and Biology. She helps facilitate our art workshops in the rural farm towns of Monte Plata, DR. On her free time she loves hiking, travel and painting.
Our team is comprised of a passionate and diverse group of individuals from around the world with a shared love for travel, culture, history, and wellness.
TIA RAMONA
VILLAGE CHEF & INSTRUCTOR
Tia Ramona is a renown chef in Monte Plata, Dominican Republic for some of the hardest dishes to make. Her mother was a curandera (rural healer) and thus has passed down to her the Afro-Taino medicinal wisdom of generations. She provides cooking lessons in the rural farm village of Chirino, Monte Plata to travelers interested in a culturally immersive/gastronomy experience using locally sourced farm-to-table ingredients.
Our team is comprised of a passionate and diverse group of individuals from around the world with a shared love for travel, culture, history, and wellness.
PABLO FELIZ
MARINE BIOLOGY RESEARCHER + Professor
Pablo specializes in marine biology and ecology of the southwest Dominican Republic. He is passionate about sustainability, wildlife, and ethical eco-tourism. He co-leads our tours in the Southwest Dominican Republic.