Higüey is not a tourist town in the conventional sense, and that is largely the point. The city runs on its own Dominican rhythms — markets, motos, street food, and the deep religious devotion centred on the Basílica de la Altagracia, the most important pilgrimage site in the country. The basilica alone is worth the stop; the old Santuario de San Dionisio next to it provides an instructive contrast between colonial and modern architecture. The rest of the experience is the city itself: a busy, crowded, thoroughly Dominican urban scene that most visitors to the country never see.