Tips & Tricks
Museo de Ambar (Amber Museum) (Calle Duarte 61, Playa Dorada, Puerto Plata): a temple to the island’s prized resin that inspired the movie Jurassic Park. Located within a two-story Victorian-era building, it holds the largest collection of amber of world.
Meanwhile, for extreme sports enthusiasts, the Cabarete area east of Puerto Plata has been known over the years for water sports (kiteboarding, windsurfing, etc.) to the point where young tourists from South America (Chile & Argentina) trek there just for that. This is a mecca for college-age travelers passing through the Dominican Republic. A huge […]
Like other provincial towns, there are limited transportation options (mainly local bus and taxi services). For a negotiated fee, local “conch car” taxi drivers will take budget tourists whenever they need to go within the Puerto Plata and nearby beach resort areas of Sosúa, Playa Dorada and Cabarete (which is further to the east). Well-heeled […]
Aside from the Spanish colonial fortress and nearby beach resorts, Puerto Plata was known for two distinct things: one was the “Teleférico”. This Italian-made tram car, built in 1975 and carries 17 passengers, offering them a panoramic view of the Puerto Plata region. The Teleférico climbs over 2,500 feet to the top of a mountain […]
The tourist presence in the Puerto Plata area has kept in business a string of decent restaurants, such as La Parrillada Steak House (Av. Manolo Taveres Justo, Puerto Plata) – well reviewed by International carnivores; Le Papillon (Villas Cofresí, Puerto Plata) – a charming restaurant set on a hillside in a residential neighborhood about […]
During the 1980s, Puerto Plata, which had its own airport, used it to attract budget tourists from Canada and Western Europe who stayed at the all-inclusive resorts in that area. Puerto Plata Airport also served the provincial city of Santiago, which was a one-hour drive away (but didn’t have its own large international airport at […]