In the Dominican Republic, tourist dollars are both the most important thing and the most transient. Because tourism accounts for between one-quarter and one-third of the Dominican Republic’s GDP, it is vital to the island. But it also tears up land and leaves decay in its wake. Lost Paradise examines what happens when the hotels are no longer useful, the locations are no longer popular and the tourists have gone elsewhere. It turns the focus away from the beautiful views shown in tourism brochures and social media and toward the areas where tourism left or never arrived. This work examines areas, mostly along the north coast of the Dominican Republic, where areas that were promised tourist dollars either lost those dollars or never realized them in the first place, and what happens to the places and the people who were promised income and prosperity.