Puerto Plata

[chuckroast1]

We were there on the 11th and walked over to the newly developed area. It was lovely. We hung out by the pool and had a few drinks. Walked over to the restaurant and had lunch, shopped in a few of the stores. The ship is close by in the background so you can take some nice pics. It's all new so it's not an "authentic" DR experience but still a nice relaxing and easy day.  

[LGW59]

1 hour ago, DirtyDawg said:

While New England and the people are lovely, many areas are just not safe unfortunately

😉

 

We have stayed in Playa Dorada several times which is east of the town which has very good security. Going to town is like venturing into some of the areas of Boston. Best to have a local show you around. 

Very true, there are certain parts on the city that even locals won't venture to

[phoenix_dream]

I was just at Puerto Plata in December and I have to tell you so many of the comments on this thread are just wrong, wrong, wrong.  Puerto Plata has a beautiful area right off the pier.  Lots of nice shops and restaurants and bars.  There is also a nice pool area for free.  You can leave the port area and walk less than a mile to a fort as well as nice coastal views and nice park areas.  We did not walk into the town, with is also just a couple blocks away.  I hate much of the Dominican Republic to be honest, but I really enjoyed my visit here.  I did not feel at all unsafe when keeping to the areas I mentioned.  There were not the taxi drivers and such hustling you all over the place like many ports, and there were many what I assume were local families walking through the park areas (I am just assuming - they were speaking Spanish and as there were no other ships in port I'm guessing they were local).

 

I am visiting there in March and I can't wait to go back!

[AtlantaCruiser72]

6 hours ago, vickykay said:

We were there a couple of weeks ago on the Apex.  I’d recommend buying the local coffee ( bags sold at the port). It was very good.I wish I had bought more.

 

I was there in December, bought 4 bags of coffee and 2 bottles of rum - I too wish I'd purchased more!  I found the downtown area of Puerto Plata charming - music spilling out onto the streets from bars and cafes, lots of local artisan shops, beautiful historic architecture.  There were numerous uniformed police officers visble and everyone seemed friendly.  There were some street merchants that could be persistent, but using a polite but firm no did the trick.  Common sense measures to keep personal belongings safe are advised any time you travel and doing so I felt perfectly safe.

[5:00_Somewhere]

We'll also be there in March, on the Reflection. None of the excursions excite me all that much, but I'm looking forward to doing a bit of exploring on our own, if that will be allowed then.

 

[TMLAalum]

We stopped there on our one and only HAL cruise in December 2018. We booked a tour with this company:

Home - Welcome to Marysol Tours!! Enjoy your vacations in Puerto Plata!!

The cable car was running and afterwards we went to a local market. It was a loooong walk from the ship to the meeting place for the tour. And an equally long walk back but enjoyed stopping for a margarita in the clean, bright shopping and restaurant area near the pier before we returned to the Nieuw Statendam.