Puerto Plata's Victorian Town

Puerto Plata got rich on tobacco exports in the second half of the nineteenth century, and the merchants built themselves timber houses in the Caribbean Victorian manner: two storeys, deep verandas, fretwork trim under the eaves, painted in pale greens, pinks and blues. Several hundred survive, and the streets around Parque Independencia have been steadily restored over the past two decades into one of the more attractive small-town centres in the country. The square has a bandstand at its middle and the cathedral of San Felipe on one side, an unusual art deco building of the 1950s. The amber museum occupies one of the grandest of the merchant houses.

What you actually see

• The gingerbread houses - Victorian timber with fretwork and verandas.
• Parque Independencia - the central square and its bandstand.
• The amber museum - in a restored merchant mansion.
• The art deco cathedral - an unexpected 1950s building on the square.

When to go

November to April is drier and cooler. Cruise ship days fill the centre for a few hours and empty again. Evenings on the square are pleasant and the light on the painted timber is best late in the day.

Honest expectations

Restoration is patchy: some streets are immaculate and others a block away are run down, and the town has poor stretches around the edges. Cruise crowds arrive in bursts with an accompanying wave of touts. There is not much here beyond the square and a few streets, so half a day covers it.

Nearby

Fortaleza San Felipe is at the end of the malecón; the cable car is ten minutes.