Haiti (How too ?)

M

Marc Magnus

New member
Apr 1, 2012
7
0
0
[h=2]Haiti (How too ?)[/h]
Hello.

1. Is there a bus to Port Au Prince / Petionvile , Haiti from Puerto Plata / Sosua ? I know there is a bus from the capital to Haiti. But, I am hoping there is a bus and / or an alternate means of getting to Haiti from the North Coast.

2. Any hotel recommendations in Haiti ?

Thanks a lot in advance.​
 
L

london777

Bronze
Dec 22, 2005
786
29
28
You can travel to Okap (Cabo Haitiano) from Santiago by Caribe Tours cheaply and fairly easily. Pay to have your border crossing formalities pre-arranged in a little office like a janitor's cupboard behind the main ticket office at the Caribe Tours depot.

To travel to P?toprens (Puerto Pr?ncipe) by bus you will need to start from Santo Domingo.

Be prepared to pay three times the price you would pay in the DR for an equivalent standard hotel.
 
E

Eco-

New member
Jan 12, 2012
23
0
0
Hotels.

The Kalbas in Petonville and at $25 a night it's cheap (so much for rumors that all hotels are $80+. I found the room to be worth $25ish, good location and not a complete sh!thole. Also it's within walking distance of the Metro bus station that goes to the DR.

The Park Hotel in Port Au prince $57 a night and worth about $20. Great location if you want to be downtown (a block from the Capital) but not so great if the tent cities concern you. Tons of UN and local police all around it after dark....sort of a weird vibe. ****You will need a Digicel sim card that works in Haiti (store within a block of the hotel) if you want to enter the gates of the hotel after 1030pm...it goes on lockdown without having anyone at the gate--you need to call. This hotel is about a block from the other bus company that runs the DR-Haiti route.

I looked at a few other hotels at in my limited experience it looks like the hotels have not seen a remodel in 40 years. Some look like they were built in the 1800's without a remodel but that's charming to some.

Buses, I might be wrong but I think it's just Caribe Tours and one other company running from capital to capital. Out of the two I found Caribe Tours to be a nicer experience. The toilet on the bus, the limited stops, the nice seats and not having a long ass route bus type of experience caused me to form that opinion.

Have a great time in Haiti!
 
Hillbilly

Hillbilly

Moderator
Jan 1, 2002
18,948
514
113
Please do. Good information is somewhat difficult. Sometime believability depends on a reader's own feelings, so your experience will certainly contribute to the general knowledge.

Do be safe.


HB
 
M

mountainannie

Platinum
Dec 11, 2003
16,350
1,358
113
elizabetheames.blogspot.com
if you do go .. try to make it to the Oloffson front porch for a Sunday afternoon.. This is the hotel which was the center of Grahame Green's Comedians.. it is oozing with history and is right downtown.. near several of the old wooden Victorians. Now, I have not been to PauP since the Quake and so cannot tell you what it is like now. But I know that the hotel itself is fine - did not suffer damage - which was true for the majority of wooden buildings in PauP. I would recommend that you contact my friend Jaqui Labrom at Haiti @ Voyages Lumiere who can arrange transport for you to travel about - up to the Arcadains coast resorts for instance or down to Jacmel. That is not going to be cheap - figure at least $100 a day for the car and driver.

If you are traveling solo.. the new Lonely Planet guide to the DR and Haiti has good information on how to get around on the public buses -- the tap taps. The Haiti side of the book is really a lot better than the DR side which was apparently done by folks who are not really the back packer types as the DR side is full of reviews of high end hotels. But the guy who wrote the Haiti side actually went about on the tap taps.

If you have some French, you should be fine. If you do not speak French or Kreyole - then you are going to have a harder time. I can perhaps hook you up with a friend of mine who is fluent in Spanish and can translate - but then there is the money issue again.

There is a full range of places in Haiti - well - no -- not full range in that there is really just high end and low end.. There are no middle class options - like Caribe Tours. So you are either traveling about on small planes and hired SUVs or you are squeezed into the tap taps for adventure travel.

do let us know!
 
M

mountainannie

Platinum
Dec 11, 2003
16,350
1,358
113
elizabetheames.blogspot.com
for those of you who do not want to make the trip west, we are creating small patches of the Haiti that so many of us have come to love - here on this side. At the corner of Pasteur and Indepedencia, we have a garden gallery that we are working on. We have plants and aloe and lots of art for sale. We are planning on opening up the building as a boarding school for boys as soon as you come down and start buying our art.

i am heading over there right now

decided to skip out on the dentist and take the dog and have a cauppucino in mi jardin

stop by any time
we are selling beer all day and night

and trying to teach the shoe shine boys how to pick up the trash
 
K

kinostar

New member
May 24, 2012
42
0
0
Haiti is a wonderful destination and I encourage anyone thinking of visiting. There are many ways to go. You can fly directly into L'Overture airport near Port Au Prince on American or other airlines. You can take the Caribe tours bus every day from either Santiago (to the North Coast, leaving at noon from Santiago and no reservations required) or from Santo Domingo (to both Petionville or Cap Haitien). Or you can walk over the border from Dajabon and elsewhere legally.


I found the people friendly and welcoming. The food is a delight! As far as hotels, they tend to be more expensive than in the RD and all the aid workers on expense accounts don't help the situation. I agree that the Olaffson with its rich past is a joy, but $100 per night for a room that would be condemned elsewhere isn't such a deal. When I stayed there another traveler complained the roof was leaking on his bed and was told by management to move the bed! Go there to have a rum punch or lunch or to hear the live entertainment. The Park Hotel off Champ de Mars is cheaper and also atmospheric. If you stay at the Wall's Guesthouse in Delmas be aware that the $40 price is good and there is a pool BUT there are no room keys. I stayed there once- nothing happened to my stuff but I didn't like not being able to lock the door when I went out.

Port Au Prince's famous Iron Market has been restored and is open for business. Tap taps can be very overcrowded but I found that people were so kindly to me when I used them that it offset this...offering me seats (I'm not THAT old!) and directions.

I'm going to Jacmel next. if anyone has advice of cheap hotels there, please contact me. I love Haiti and my visits there have made me a big cheerleader for Haiti and it's lovely people.
 
M

mountainannie

Platinum
Dec 11, 2003
16,350
1,358
113
elizabetheames.blogspot.com
kinostar said:
Haiti is a wonderful destination and I encourage anyone thinking of visiting. There are many ways to go. You can fly directly into L'Overture airport near Port Au Prince on American or other airlines. You can take the Caribe tours bus every day from either Santiago (to the North Coast, leaving at noon from Santiago and no reservations required) or from Santo Domingo (to both Petionville or Cap Haitien). Or you can walk over the border from Dajabon and elsewhere legally.


I found the people friendly and welcoming. The food is a delight! As far as hotels, they tend to be more expensive than in the RD and all the aid workers on expense accounts don't help the situation. I agree that the Olaffson with its rich past is a joy, but $100 per night for a room that would be condemned elsewhere isn't such a deal. When I stayed there another traveler complained the roof was leaking on his bed and was told by management to move the bed! Go there to have a rum punch or lunch or to hear the live entertainment. The Park Hotel off Champ de Mars is cheaper and also atmospheric. If you stay at the Wall's Guesthouse in Delmas be aware that the $40 price is good and there is a pool BUT there are no room keys. I stayed there once- nothing happened to my stuff but I didn't like not being able to lock the door when I went out.

Port Au Prince's famous Iron Market has been restored and is open for business. Tap taps can be very overcrowded but I found that people were so kindly to me when I used them that it offset this...offering me seats (I'm not THAT old!) and directions.

I'm going to Jacmel next. if anyone has advice of cheap hotels there, please contact me. I love Haiti and my visits there have made me a big cheerleader for Haiti and it's lovely people.
Click to expand...

i sadly agree about the olffson....... glad to hear that pauap is open

any word on the hotels on the beach _

kaliko?

the old club med?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom