Puerto Plata

Puerto Plata, a 16th-century port city on the north coast, combines an engaging core–"Zona Victoriana"–of fine Victorian architecture with spectacular white sand beaches, including lovely Playa Long Beach, unspooling along the city's Atlantic seaboard. The historic town center, which is laid out in an easily navigable grid and which had its zenith with the 19th-century tobacco boom, makes for amiable strolling. The finest buildings are laid out around Parque Central and include the Museo de Ambar, displaying amber pieces in a 1919-era creole townhouse; but there's also a fine fortress nearby. All-inclusive resorts and boutique hotels grace ...

Puerto Plata, a 16th-century port city on the north coast, combines an engaging core–"Zona Victoriana"–of fine Victorian architecture with spectacular white sand beaches, including lovely Playa Long Beach, unspooling along the city's Atlantic seaboard. The historic town center, which is laid out in an easily navigable grid and which had its zenith with the 19th-century tobacco boom, makes for amiable strolling. The finest buildings are laid out around Parque Central and include the Museo de Ambar, displaying amber pieces in a 1919-era creole townhouse; but there's also a fine fortress nearby. All-inclusive resorts and boutique hotels grace nearby Playa Dorado, with a championship golf course and plenty of watersports. Puerto Plata is framed by mist-shrouded Mount Isabel de Torres, accessible by cable car. Nearby Ocean World Adventure Park offers sea-life shows, including the opportunity to swim with dolphins. Worthwhile are day trips into the Cordillera Septentrional mountains; to Cabarete, the kiteboarding and windsurfing capital of the Caribbean; and nearby Sosúa, the scuba diving capital of the north coast.

About the Expert

Christopher P. Baker has authored guidebooks to Costa Rica, California, and various Caribbean islands for Frommer's, Lonely Planet, and National Geographic, among others.