‘Dom Rep’ as the tee shirts say has had a history of fighting between invaders and those left to live there. It is another story of pirates and smuggling, people trafficking and growth. The island feels very Cuban, but they dance the meringue rather than a salsa. It has a host of beaches, and they are public. Rumours are that Royal Caribbean wants to copy the Amber Cove idea, and is looking at the old port in Puerto Plata. The town has a port, church, Independence Square and fort as seen in the film.
Other Amber Cove / Puerto Plata choices might be:-
Theme Park – Ocean World Adventure Park is three miles from Puerto Plata. It is a popular interactive water park and marina with tropical birds and tigers behind glass walls. It has aquariums to be viewed, areas to swim with dolphins, play with sea lions, pet sharks and stingrays, and snorkel with tropical fish.
Fort San Felipe is 400 years old and one of the first European forts built in the Americas. It was built to protect the island’s harbour from invaders and pirates. (It was built by the first invaders). It has a small admission fee which allows you inside, to see the small museum and the cell where Juan Pablo Duarte was first interned. He spent most of his life in exile. There are a number of guides inside its eight-foot-thick walls, who will show you around for a further small fee. The castle is lit at night.
Beaches are a big attraction in and around Puerto Plata. The area has golden sand beaches estimated totally around 300,000 square meters. There are eleven kilometres of beach, reaching from Cofresi to Sosua, with the main urban beach being Long Beach, located just to the east, along the Malecon. We drove past it and along the front to Consista Rica beach. Both Confresi and Costambar beaches are located west of Puerto Plata, and are now dominated by luxury resorts. Puerto Plata beaches are great for snorkelling because they have a reef. Nearby Playa Dorada (golden beach), has an amazing 24 km of white sand. Other beaches include Cabarete, Boca de Cangrejo, Cano Grande, Bergantin, Playa de Copello, and Playa Mariposa. To the west of Puerto Plata is a favourite, the shaded Guarapitao Beach.
Cable Car (teleferico) – Those who love great views can take a cable car up the 2,600-foot Mount Isabel. It is a seven-minute ride up a near-vertical climb. At the top there is a restaurant and a statue of Christ which is similar, but a lot smaller than the iconic one in Río de Janeiro. On the top, you will also find Botanical Gardens – Puerto Plata has a flower-filled botanical garden.
Golf – the Robert Trent Jones golf course is there for those who like to play at every stop.
The Brugal Rum Distillery is just a kilometre east of town on the main Sosua-Playa Dorada highway. The distillery is open every day of the week except Saturday and Sunday, from 9am-12pm, then 2pm-5pm. There is no admission charge, and you will met in a reception area by a pleasant guide who will escort you inside the huge distillery which produces about a million and a half litres of white and dark rum each year. There is a shop.
Cigar factory is in the central region where there are many factories. Santiago is the centre of the cigar industry where cigars are made individually by craftsmen, who roll as many as 300 a day. There may be small demonstrations in town. DomRep exports 60 million cigars annually.
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