Puerto Plata Dominican RepublicCruise Port Guide

Puerto Plata, on the Dominican Republic's northern 'Amber Coast,' is the beating heart of bachata — the soulful, guitar-driven music genre born in these communities and now embraced by the world. The port of entry for cruise passengers is Amber Cove, a modern facility developed by Carnival Corporation and opened in 2015 roughly five miles from the city center. Amber Cove itself is a polished, resort-style terminal with free swimming pools, water slides, beach chairs, zip lines, a sky bar, and a marina — a destination within a destination, should passengers choose not to venture beyond its gates. But those who do venture out discover a destination of real depth and character.

The city of Puerto Plata proper is a colonial gem, its Victorian-era gingerbread houses painted in candy pastels, its cobblestone streets anchored by a handsome central park. The 19th-century architecture is the most intact of any city in the Dominican Republic, reflecting the prosperity that came with European immigration and the tobacco trade. At the edge of town, Fortaleza San Felipe — a 16th-century Spanish fortress — stands guard over the Bay of Puerto Plata as it has for nearly five centuries, once imprisoning Dominican founding father Juan Pablo Duarte within its stone walls.

Above the city, a Swiss-built aerial tramway — the only cable car in the Caribbean — carries visitors 2,600 feet up to the summit of Isabel de Torres mountain, where a towering replica of Rio's Christ the Redeemer statue surveys the coast and a lush botanical garden softens the dramatic views. The amber for which this coast is named is not the amber of the Baltic — Dominican amber is unique in the world for often trapping prehistoric insects and plant matter, some specimens going back 25 million years, making the Amber Museum on Calle Duarte one of the region's most legitimately fascinating small museums.