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Five-centuries-old Puerto Plata is a big, noisy city that appeals to a particular kind of traveler – the really adventurous kind who enjoys visiting odd cities with an alluring air beneath the surface. Puerto Plata fills that bill, with its colorful expat community and the narrow streets and gingerbread Victorian architecture of its Old City. The latter is a holdover from its heyday as a tobacco and sugar port in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when it outshone even Santo Domingo as a wealthy enclave. Today, Puerto Plata is more industrial and traffic-choked, but worth a look around if you’re on the north coast. Besides tourism, Puerto Plata’s modern economy is built on sugar, tobacco, and rum – a nutritionist’s nightmare but a hedonist’s haven. (Perhaps attracting all those expats.)
Victorian detail on a Puerto Plata house.
Most visitors spend the bulk of their time along or near the Malecón, the mile-long-plus promenade that runs along the ocean. On the far west end is Fort San Felipe, the city’s one relic of Colonial days, dating from the mid-16th century. Toward the other end is Long Beach, the city’s recently upgraded public beach, where you can watch for offshore whales in winter. In between are a succession of restaurants, bars, dance clubs, and colorful shacks frequented by prostitutes. (Should you walk through at night, you may feel like covering yourself in a body condom.)
South of the Malecón, the city has a beautiful parque central, featuring a reconstructed two-story Victorian gazebo complete with Moorish arches. The parque central is set amid the city’s oldest streets and is lined by gingerbread Victorian mansions.
Just east of the city is Playa Dorada, the walled all-inclusive resort compound that aims to be a world unto itself, drawing a half-million vacationers a year, many of whom fly in from Canada and Europe on value-priced package deals. Besides 14 resorts and a white-sand beach, Playa Dorada has a raft of restaurants, bars, pools, discos, casinos, and sports facilities, including an outstanding golf course that wraps around the resorts. If you aren’t staying in one of the resorts, you can buy day-passes for the beach that include food and drinks.
Playa Dorada sand.
