Destination: Haiti

C

Cypress

Well-known member
A vacation in Haiti — yes, Haiti — offers adventure, great food and a chance to really unplug

For a certain kind of adventurous traveler, the best thing about Haiti is that most don’t have a clue about it.

Of course we’re aware of the earthquake of January 2010, which killed many thousands and displaced still more. Many of us think still of Haiti as an impoverished island nation strewn with tent cities and rubble, a third-world country in need of charity. That’s part of America’s mainstream view. Fox’s “The Mindy Project” even recently used Haiti as the backdrop for the charity work of the protagonist and her minister boyfriend.

But there’s so much more to the place — and Haiti wants to change the narrative. A trip there proves that’s possible.

The adventurous, curious and open-minded can clearly find these gifts in Haiti: brilliant, unspoiled beaches; delicious, homey food; welcoming, fun-loving people; and enough rum to knock out a gang of pirates.

.Yes, the capital city of Port-au-Prince and its surrounding metropolitan area faced extreme hardship and catastrophe following the 7.0-magnitude quake. Swaths of downtown Port-au-Prince continue to be open plots of land where structures once stood. But there’s more to a country than one neighborhood.

Generally speaking, you won’t get luxury amenities or brand-name hotels (more of those, like a Marriott and Hilton Garden Inn, are coming in 2014 and beyond), and the WiFi won’t be reliable. So it’s best to mentally untether yourself from email. There is no public transportation, unless you count the brightly painted tap taps, or shared buses and pickup trucks, which populate every street in the country. It’s not advisable for visitors to board them — so don’t.

You will probably need a guided-tour package and a good week in order to make the most of your trip, especially if you’re not of Haitian origin. But you will not need to exchange your dollars because they are accepted everywhere, and you also won’t have to learn French or Haitian Creole because English is widely spoken.
In the Port-au-Prince environs, most visitors stay in the city of Pétion-Ville, where Best Western Premier recently opened a modern property. You’ll want to eat at hilltop restaurant La Reserve. A live jazz band will set the mood while you enjoy impressive interpretations of Haitian staples like griot, a fried pork dish.

When the sky is clear, head up Mount Boutilliers, a 3,000-foot peak on top of which is L’Observatoire. Stop there for lunch and you can try one of the tastiest sandwiches around. Sounds simple enough: ham and cheese on a baguette. But the magic here is in the spread, a secret recipe made of ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard and onion juice.

If you have more than a day in Haiti, do not leave the country without taking a 20-minute domestic flight to the northern coast, better known as Cap-Haitien. You’ll feel like you’re in an undiscovered land having a private moment with a place few have ever seen.
That feeling is incredibly special. Especially if you can ignore the fact that here (as in many parts of Port-au-Prince), locals are purposefully kept apart from tourists, whether by 15-foot fences or by the UN patrol.

In Cap-Haitien, head on horseback to the soaring cliffs of Sans-Souci, where Haiti’s first king built Citadelle Laferrière, an enormous fortress that houses a large collection of 17th-century cannons. The brave can gallop up the rocky trail. Two guides on either side of the horse take you along the path, which is lined with fruit trees — banana, mango, guava and breadfruit.

Take a bath and get a good night’s rest at Cormier Plage Beach Resort. There’s a great beach here, with gorgeous views. There’s also good food, motel-quality amenities and nonexistent WiFi.

Head out the next day to Labadee, a port on the northern coast where there’s a private paradise operated by Royal Caribbean International. The boat trip is offered, appropriately enough, through Paradise Tours.

Enjoy a Prestige beer, or even a rum cocktail inside a fresh coconut, while you float in the warm, clear and distinctly blue waters of the Caribbean. This will feel like you’re having the most exclusive, perfect experience of your life. Spotty Internet will be a distant memory.

One last thing: Don’t leave Port-au-Prince without having lunch at the Visa Lodge, a hotel famous for its daily buffet. This spread is stocked with heaping piles of fresh avocado salad, rice with Haiti’s famous djon djon mushroom, perfectly marinated pork, seafood gumbo, twice-baked squashed stuffed with cheese, and other epicurean pleasures that you’ll just have to try for yourself.
Click to expand...

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/vacation-haiti-yes-haiti-charms-article-1.1504346
 
countryboy said:
If Haiti is such a great country, why would anyone from there even want to immigrate to the United States? For that matter, if the United States is such a racist fucking shit hole, why does anybody want to come here?
Click to expand...

That would be a great question to ask EVERYONE
 
countryboy said:
I wish, but this place has a high tolerance for morons like you.
Click to expand...

Obvious this place allows personal attacks on it's members ... but that's ok, it's not like that will be a problem for you.

Internet Balls are the Biggest Balls.

Care to engage in political debate, or are we at the end of your intellectual capabilities?
 
Bourbon said:
Obvious this place allows personal attacks on it's members ... but that's ok, it's not like that will be a problem for you.

Internet Balls are the Biggest Balls.

Care to engage in political debate, or are we at the end of your intellectual capabilities?
Click to expand...

You are the one who won't engage. :dunno:
 
Cypress said:
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/vacation-haiti-yes-haiti-charms-article-1.1504346
Click to expand...

Back in 2001 I spent a 5 day adventure vacation in the Dominican Republic. I had a great time. Each morning we had a different adventure from climbing a mountain to watch the sun come up over the Island to a 35 mile mountain bike adventure, a trip out wale watching (I saw far more wales at Atlanta international). I also took an excursion to the Fuentes tobacco plantation and saw how the harvest and process their tobacco into some of the worlds best cigars (which went great with a sample of the local rum).

In short I had a great vacation there and I didn't spend a single night at an all inclusive resort. Now that's not to say all is well in the DR as poverty and corruption abounded but it's still a great tourist destination for snow bound Norte Americanos.
 
countryboy said:
If Haiti is such a great country, why would anyone from there even want to immigrate to the United States? For that matter, if the United States is such a racist fucking shit hole, why does anybody want to come here?
Click to expand...
Fuck if I know. I ask the same damn thing about Kentucky and West Virginia...if they are such great places to live how comes they're all over here in Ohio? Build a wall I say! Right on the north bank of the Ohio River!!
 
countryboy said:
If Haiti is such a great country, why would anyone from there even want to immigrate to the United States? For that matter, if the United States is such a racist fucking shit hole, why does anybody want to come here?
Click to expand...

You actually don't sound very educated, don't sound like you have never been outside the United States, and possibly you have never been more than 100 miles from where you were born.

Why don't you ask a Hatian about their country? Why the eff ask me?
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Back in 2001 I spent a 5 day adventure vacation in the Dominican Republic. I had a great time. Each morning we had a different adventure from climbing a mountain to watch the sun come up over the Island to a 35 mile mountain bike adventure, a trip out wale watching (I saw far more wales at Atlanta international). I also took an excursion to the Fuentes tobacco plantation and saw how the harvest and process their tobacco into some of the worlds best cigars (which went great with a sample of the local rum).

In short I had a great vacation there and I didn't spend a single night at an all inclusive resort. Now that's not to say all is well in the DR as poverty and corruption abounded but it's still a great tourist destination for snow bound Norte Americanos.
Click to expand...

See, now that is a Dominican Republic vacation I can respect!

Rush Limbaugh evidently went there with his Viagra to hook up with prostitutes.

I don't think I have ever stayed at a resort either, just not my bag -- so I think you and I share some similar interests!
 
Cypress said:
See, now that is a Dominican Republic vacation I can respect!

Rush Limbaugh evidently went there with his Viagra to hook up with prostitutes.

I don't think I have ever stayed at a resort either, just not my bag -- so I think you and I share some similar interests!
Click to expand...
Oh I can't play the hypocrite there...My dance card was full. :)
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Oh I can't play the hypocrite there...My dance card was full. :)
Click to expand...

Well, the senoritas can certainly be irresistible.
I think I fell in love at least four times when I was tooling around Venezuela....and I was only there six weeks!

Well, wish my luck on my Haiti vacation.....I might be adding it to my bucket list!
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Fuck if I know. I ask the same damn thing about Kentucky and West Virginia...if they are such great places to live how comes they're all over here in Ohio? Build a wall I say! Right on the north bank of the Ohio River!!
Click to expand...

And all of the original Ohioans move out here to WA. I've got at least three of them in my unit (one is a Browns fan, one is a Bungles fan, and the third is smart enough to only be a Buckeyes fan)!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top