Puerto Plata’s Gregorio Luperón International Airport (POP) is the most frequent choice of entry for tourists headed to Cofresí, Maimón, Luperón, Puerto Plata, Playa Dorada, Sosúa, Cabarete, Cabrera and Playa Grande hotels, a 10- to 45-minute drive away. This airport offers scheduled service by/from:
   United States: American Airlines (Miami), Continental Airlines (Newark).
   Canada: Air Canada (Montreal, Toronto) and Air Transat (Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver).
   Caribbean: American Eagle (San Juan), SkyKing (Providenciales, Turks & Caicos).
   Europe: Air Plus Comet (Madrid), LTU (Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich).
   There is additional charter service from: Philadelphia (USA); Calgary, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver (Canada); Brussels, Cardiff, Helsinski, Reykjavik, Birmingham, Doncaster, Glasgow, London, Manchester, Milan, Newcastle, Paris, Shannon, Stockholm, Warsaw, Zurich (Europe); Caracas (South America) Santiago’s Cibao International Airport, about an hour south, is second best. Scheduled airlines flying into Santiago are:
   USA: American Airlines, JetBlue, Delta Airlines (New York), American Airlines (Miami), Continental Airlines (Newark).
   Latin America and the Caribbean: American Eagle (San Juan, Puerto Rico), Copa (Panamá).

    For the winter season of 2006-2007, the new Samaná International Airport (AZS) begins operations with flights from Europe by: Condor (Frankfurt), LTU (Dusseldorf) and Neos (Milano). And from Canada by: Air Transat (Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver) and Skyservice (different cities with stop in Puerto Plata). More flights will be added, offering a new closer option for tourists headed to the areas of Playa Grande, Río San Juan and Cabrera, and Samaná.
   Air Santo Domingo, SAP and Takeoff offer regular scheduled domestic flights to Puerto Plata’s Gregorio Luperón International Airport (POP).

   Metro and Caribe Tours buses reach Puerto Plata several times during the day from Santo Domingo and Santiago. Caribe Tours provides daily bus service to Sosua, Cabarete and Cabrera.    Travel is easy along the north coast as the main highway runs parallel to the ocean, with good roads for most of the stretch. Consider renting a car to see it all. Minibuses and vans commute several times a day between the principal tourism destinations, transporting hotel employees and Puerto Plata residents, as well as savvy tourists. In addition to minibuses there are publicos or conchos, the multi-fare paying taxis that can be waved down and also go for bargain prices. Expect some cramming at peak hours (so consider buying two fares).    There are motoconchos, but note that while popular, these are the least safe of all modes of transportation.

   Is now the only Dominican city that can truly boast having a beach and ocean-fronting bicycle trail for the delight of all its residents. Ministry of Tourism has overseen the expansion of five kilometers of beach stretching east from the city beach, Long Beach. The adjacent stretch from Costa Dorada to Playa Dorada resort complexes to the East has also been doubled and sometimes tripled in certain area for relaxing on the beach.

Major city beautification works that complement the beach project were begun in 2006 and are expected to continue well into 2007.
   A tour of Puerto Plata city should include a drive along the oceanfronting Malecón all the way down to the San Felipe Fort and Lighthouse, a walking tour of a selection of Victorian houses, and a stop at the Amber Museum, and a visit to the Brugal rum factory.

   The 2,000 square meter fort is the oldest standing edifice in Puerto Plata and was built to defend the city from English, Dutch and French pirates in 1577. As of 1821, it was turned into a courthouse and jail. It was restored in 1974. San Felipe Fort overlooks the statue of General Gregorio Luperón, hero of the war that restored the rule of the country to Dominicans from the Spanish.

   Across from the fort is the lighthouse, built 1879 and restored in 2002 with a grant from the World Monuments Fund that valued this 24.4- meter-high rare cast iron tower, only one of very few still standing in the Americas.

   The city’s cultural highlight are the around 150 Victorian houses that date back to the late XIX and early XX centuries, especially those that surround the central park of the city.

   Located in an 1919- built mansion, the Amber Museum shows off one of the better collection of amber anywhere in the world. One of the exhibits, a mosquito-encased amber was used in the Steven Spielberg film Jurassic Park. See a 42.5- centimeter lizard fossil, or the biggest bioinclusion feather fossil in the world, a 6-by-2 centimeter fossilized right-wing feature of a bird estimated to date 25 to 30 million years.