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.
The other thing that Puerto Plata is known for is rum. The city is home to the major Dominican rum label “Brugal” (started there by Catalonian Spanish immigrant Andrés Brugal in 1888). Even though the Brugal label was bought by the Scottish distilling firm, The Edrington Group, in 2008, the rum is still produced in […]
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 […]
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 […]
For those who want to practice their golf swing, there is a string of golf courses in the north coast, including the Dorada Golf Club on Playa Dorada and the Grande Golf Course on Playa Grande (which offers marvelous ocean views from almost every hole). International golf pros traveling through the island will likely still […]
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 […]