Most people book the Dominican north coast as "Puerto Plata" and then discover on arrival that they have booked one of three quite different places, half an hour apart, that share an airport and almost nothing else.
Sorting that out is most of what this page is for.
The three towns#
Puerto Plata city
An actual working Dominican city of a couple of hundred thousand people, with a Victorian centre that almost nobody expects. The wooden gingerbread houses around Parque Independencia went up during the tobacco boom and are painted in colours that look excessive until you see them in the afternoon light. There is a 16th-century fort, Fortaleza San Felipe, on the water, a malecón that fills in the evening, and the only cable car in the Caribbean going up Mount Isabel de Torres.
What it is not is a beach town. The city beach is unremarkable and the good ones are a ride away.
Stay here if you want to be somewhere real, eat where Dominicans eat, and use the beaches as day trips.
Sosúa
Twenty minutes east. Sosúa Bay is the calmest, clearest swimming water on this coast, protected by headlands at both ends, with decent snorkelling straight off the sand. The town has a genuinely interesting history: it was settled by Jewish refugees admitted in 1940 when almost nowhere else would take them, and there is a small synagogue and museum about it.
It also has a nightlife district built around sex tourism, which is prominent, unavoidable if you walk through it, and the reason a lot of families give the town a miss.
Stay here if the swimming matters most and you are happy to be selective about which streets you walk down at night.
Cabarete
Ten minutes further on. Cabarete is a kitesurfing and windsurfing town — one of the best in the world, because the trade wind comes up reliably every afternoon — and the whole place is organised around that. Bars and restaurants sit directly on the sand, the crowd is young and international, and the atmosphere is the most relaxed on the coast.
The trade-off is the wind itself: this is not a beach for flat, still water, ever.
Stay here if you are doing water sports, or want the best nightlife on the coast that is not Sosúa's.
What is actually worth doing#
27 Charcos de Damajagua
The best excursion on the north coast and one of the best in the country. Twenty-seven limestone waterfalls and pools in a river gorge: you climb up with a guide, then come back down by jumping and sliding. You can do seven, twelve or all twenty-seven, and the standard package is seven — do more if you are physically able, because the upper falls are where it gets good.
Wear shoes you can swim in. You will be given a helmet and a life jacket.
The cable car
Eight hundred metres up Mount Isabel de Torres to a Christ statue, botanical gardens and a view over the whole coast. Go on a clear morning — the summit is in cloud by afternoon more often than not, and there is nothing more disappointing than paying for a view of the inside of a cloud.
Playa Grande and Playa Preciosa
An hour east near Río San Juan, and the most dramatic-looking beaches in the Dominican Republic: golden sand, cliffs at either end, a serious swell. Playa Grande has a small food scene and a local surf crowd. Playa Preciosa next door is emptier and rougher.
Neither is a gentle swim. The current is real and there are no lifeguards along most of it.
Laguna Gri-Gri
Also at Río San Juan: a boat through mangrove channels to a swimming cave and a small beach. Cheap, quiet, and entirely outside the resort circuit.
The interior
The hills behind the coast grow coffee and cacao, and farm visits are unglamorous, inexpensive and much more interesting than the packaged version. This is also where the amber comes from — including blue amber, which is found essentially nowhere else on earth. The museum in Puerto Plata is small and worth an hour.
Why the coast is cheaper#
The north coast has far fewer all-inclusives than the east, more independent guesthouses and restaurants, and a long-established expat population that keeps prices closer to local levels. Guaguas run constantly along the coastal road between the three towns for almost nothing.
Forty to seventy dollars a day is realistic staying in a guesthouse and eating locally. That is roughly half what the same trip costs on the east coast.
The weather is not the same as Punta Cana#
This catches people out. The north coast faces the Atlantic and catches more rain through the northern winter, so December to February can be noticeably wetter here than in the east, where those are the driest months.
February to April is generally the best stretch. The wind is strongest roughly December to August, which is exactly the season you want if you came to kitesurf and exactly the one you do not if you wanted flat water. There is a fuller month-by-month guide to the country.
Getting there and around#
Puerto Plata has its own international airport, POP, with direct flights from North America and Europe — fifteen minutes from the city, twenty-five from Sosúa, thirty-five from Cabarete. Most people fly straight in rather than connecting through Santo Domingo.
Note that Punta Cana is five to six hours away by road. They are on opposite coasts and combining them in a short trip means a long drive or a domestic flight.
On the ground: guaguas along the coastal road, motoconchos for short hops, and a driver for the day when you want the waterfalls or Río San Juan.
The part worth having help with#
Which of the three towns suits you is the whole question on this coast, and it is one a booking site cannot answer because it will not tell you what Sosúa's nightlife district is actually like, or that the cable car is pointless in the afternoon, or which beach is swimmable on a windy Tuesday.
A Local Friend on Roavi lives here and will tell you. You agree whatever you arrange with them directly, and Roavi takes no commission on it.
Browse Local Friends in Puerto Plata, read the full north coast guide, or look at Samaná a few hours east.
There is a fuller Dominican Republic local guide if you are still shaping the trip.
Twenty minutes east is the coast's other centre of gravity: Cabarete, the wind and water town.
By interest: adventure in Puerto Plata · sightseeing.
Putting a trip together? See Dominican Republic Itinerary: 7 Days, Done Properly.
Out on the water: Best Fishing Charters and Boat Tours in Puerto Plata and getting there from the airport.
Coming in on a cruise? What to do from Amber Cove and Taino Bay. Want someone who lives here to show you around? Rent a local friend in Puerto Plata.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I stay in Puerto Plata, Sosúa or Cabarete?
Cabarete if you are into water sports, are travelling young, or want a relaxed beach-bar scene. Sosúa for the calmest swimming bay on the coast, with the caveat that its nightlife district is a particular thing. Puerto Plata city if you want a real Dominican city with beaches a short ride away rather than a resort strip. Playa Dorada if you want an all-inclusive and do not plan to leave it.Is Puerto Plata worth visiting?
Yes, and it is the most underrated region in the country. It has a genuine old town, the best waterfall excursion in the DR, the most dramatic beaches, the Caribbean's only cable car, and prices well below Punta Cana. What it does not have is the flat, turquoise, reef-protected water people picture — the north coast faces the open Atlantic and it shows.What is the best thing to do in Puerto Plata?
The 27 Charcos de Damajagua — twenty-seven limestone waterfalls and pools you climb up and then jump and slide back down, with a guide and a helmet. You can do 7, 12 or all 27, and if you are physically able, do more than 7. It is the best half-day on the coast and one of the best in the country.Is Puerto Plata safe?
Broadly yes. Puerto Plata city and Cabarete are relaxed and ordinary. Sosúa's nightlife district carries the issues that come with that kind of scene and deserves normal sense after dark. The larger practical risks on this coast are the Atlantic beaches — real currents, no lifeguards — and driving the coastal road at night.How is the north coast different from Punta Cana?
Three ways. The water: Punta Cana is reef-protected and flat, the north coast is open Atlantic with surf and wind. The towns: Punta Cana has no town, the north coast has three. The price: the north coast is meaningfully cheaper for independent travel, and much less dominated by all-inclusives.When is the best time to visit the north coast?
Not the same months as the east, which surprises people. The north coast catches more rain during the northern winter, so December to February can be wetter here than in Punta Cana. February to April is generally the driest and calmest stretch. If you came to kitesurf, the wind is strongest from roughly December to August, and that is the season you want.
