Historical Centre of Puerto Plata

Puerto Plata is one of the tourist hotspots in the Dominican Republic. We spent our family vacation in one of the resorts, a few minutes’ drive from the city center. The city has its own international airport and a cruise terminal. Further, Carnival’s private cruise terminal, Amber Cove, is only a few minutes outside the center.

Thanks to the massive amount of tourists the region sees each year, the old town is very well maintained. There is a large number of wooden colonial houses, all of them in colourfully painted. There is a nice square next to an unimpressive church. The fortress is San Felipe is small but in good shape. The city is clean compared to Santo Domingo and during off-season also very relaxed.

In general, there are many colonial city already on the list, but given that the Dominican Republic, despite its important place in history, has only one WHS and the number of wooden structures being rather special compared to the other colonial towns I visited, I give it a thumbs up.

From Puerto Plata it is around 1.5h drive to La Isabela, the first settlement in the new world and other TWHS in the region.