17 Best Things to Do in Haiti

Haiti is one of the most beau­ti­ful islands on earth. Blue waters of the sea, merg­ing with the hori­zon, white sand beach­es, pic­turesque moun­tain land­scapes, orig­i­nal cul­ture — all this attracts tourists.

Things to do in Haiti

Haiti is a unique place where you can see the har­mo­ny of man and nature, where the com­bi­na­tion of stun­ning land­scapes, rich resources and pover­ty of the local pop­u­la­tion, which is still char­ac­ter­is­tic of the peri­od of col­o­niza­tion, has been pre­served. Pass­ing through the cob­bled streets with rich hous­es and lux­u­ry hotels, you find your­self in the slums, where the poor live in rick­ety huts.

His­to­ry buffs are wait­ing for ancient build­ings and the leg­endary island of Tor­tu­ga, known through­out the world thanks to the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean”. The exhibits of the Nation­al Muse­um of Haiti will tell tourists the his­to­ry of the coun­try from antiq­ui­ty to the present day.

The gen­tle waves of the sea, clean white sand beach­es and the hot sun have cre­at­ed ide­al con­di­tions for a beach hol­i­day and water sports. Nature lovers will cer­tain­ly appre­ci­ate the nat­ur­al beau­ty of Haiti, the unique flo­ra and fau­na.

Interesting places

Port-au-Prince

This is the heart of the island, its cap­i­tal and major trad­ing cen­ter. Along the seashore stretch­es a strip of hous­es made of white stone, where wealthy peo­ple live. And in the depths, the rick­ety hous­es of the poor hid. The archi­tec­tur­al accent of the city is the Cathe­dral of the Assump­tion of the Vir­gin Mary. There is a leg­end that the dome of the cathe­dral used to dec­o­rate the port light­house.

Jacmel

The city began its his­tor­i­cal path as a colony. Its inhab­i­tants were engaged in the cul­ti­va­tion of cof­fee, sug­ar cane, spices and fruits, which they then sold. Now Jacmel is a place where you can plunge into the past, see what city streets looked like sev­er­al cen­turies ago.

Village of the Croix-de-Bouquet

In the mid­dle of the 20th cen­tu­ry, mas­ter Georges Liau­taud lived on the island and was engaged in forg­ing dec­o­ra­tions for the ceme­tery. Lat­er, on the advice of expe­ri­enced peo­ple, he engaged in the man­u­fac­ture of met­al fig­ures of nation­al deities and rit­u­al attrib­ut­es. And over time, his stu­dents found­ed an entire vil­lage. In it, tourists can vis­it the work­shops and get acquaint­ed with the process of mak­ing met­al mas­ter­pieces.

ville-boner

The vil­lage, which in trans­la­tion is called the “City of Hap­pi­ness”, annu­al­ly attracts thou­sands of res­i­dents of the island and for­eign tourists. The main attrac­tion of the vil­lage is the Sault d’Eau water­fall. It arose after an earth­quake, which gave rea­son to reli­gious Haitians to con­sid­er its appear­ance a mir­a­cle.

And after 6 years, one of the locals saw the face of the Moth­er of God in the palm branch­es. The phe­nom­e­non came sev­er­al times to dif­fer­ent peo­ple. Lat­er, the Cathe­dral of the Vir­gin Mary of Carmelite was built on this site. Now Haitians come to the water­fall to bathe and sac­ri­fice to the spir­it. Accord­ing to leg­end, after bathing, the pil­grim is freed from all trou­bles.

iron market

This col­or­ful place is locat­ed on Marche-de-Fer, in the cen­ter of Port-au-Prince. Here, in addi­tion to var­i­ous trin­kets, there are also valu­able goods: old house­hold and inte­ri­or items, coins of dif­fer­ent years, jew­el­ry. In the iron mar­ket, you can even buy old nation­al weapons.

Architecture and museums

Cathedral of Cap-Haitien

The archi­tec­tur­al mon­u­ment of the peri­od of col­o­niza­tion was found­ed in 1878, but con­struc­tion work end­ed only ten years lat­er. The snow-white walls of the cathe­dral, grace­ful beige columns and the sky blue dome give it a spe­cial beau­ty. The cathe­dral has three entrances and two high bel­fries.

Right on the cathe­dral square in front of Cap-Hai­tien, there is a mon­u­ment to Tou­s­saint Lou­ver­ture, the leader of the Hait­ian rev­o­lu­tion.

Citadel of Laferriere

One of the main attrac­tions of the coun­try, a sym­bol of the peo­ple’s strug­gle for inde­pen­dence. The fortress is locat­ed on a high moun­tain. Ris­ing to it, it is impos­si­ble not to notice the enchant­i­ng beau­ty of the sur­round­ing nature.

The citadel was built to defend against French attacks. The con­struc­tion area is 10 thou­sand square meters, and the height of the fortress walls is 40 meters. The con­struc­tion took about fif­teen years.

National Museum of Haiti

The muse­um opened its doors to vis­i­tors in 1938. Among its exhibits: his­tor­i­cal doc­u­ments, a col­lec­tion of ancient coins, paint­ings, house­hold items and weapons of local tribes.

The expo­si­tions reveal to vis­i­tors the his­to­ry of the island from the Taino and Arawak tribes to the 40s of the 20th cen­tu­ry. Some of the exhibits are asso­ci­at­ed with the rulers of the island, such as the gun that killed King Hen­ri.

Among the most impor­tant muse­um exhibits is the anchor of the ship “Saint Mary” — the very one on which Christo­pher Colum­bus trav­eled. In Decem­ber 1492, the ship ran aground off the coast of Haiti.

Sanssouci Palace

This build­ing was built dur­ing the exis­tence of the Mayan tribe. There is a belief among the local pop­u­la­tion that the cas­tle is cursed, and they try to bypass it. But this fact does not both­er for­eign­ers at all, and they are hap­py to inspect the mys­te­ri­ous build­ing.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, the palace ensem­ble was bad­ly dam­aged by an earth­quake in 1840, and now only a small part of it has sur­vived.

natural attractions

Lake Ethan Sumatra

The water in this lake is very salty and there­fore not suit­able for drink­ing. But here expanse for lovers of extreme recre­ation and eco­log­i­cal tourism. About a hun­dred species of birds live on the lake, among which pink flamin­gos attract the most atten­tion. Amer­i­can croc­o­diles are also found here, so you should be care­ful while div­ing.

Swamp of Trois-Caneman

Cov­ered with creep­ing algae and sur­round­ed by trees, this swampy lake seems to be trans­port­ed from a mag­i­cal land. The local land­scapes are mag­nif­i­cent, and the water is a pierc­ing azure col­or. Rare birds set­tled near the lake: pink flamin­gos and snow leop­ards.

Macau cave

The purest under­ground waters of the cave pro­vide drink­ing for the entire pop­u­la­tion of the island. Accord­ing to an ancient leg­end, it was from here that a local tribe once came out. And the hearts of his peo­ple were as pure as spring water.

Artibonite River

This riv­er plays the same role for the islanders as the Nile for the inhab­i­tants of Egypt. Tourists are attract­ed by the rich veg­e­ta­tion on the banks, the vari­ety of fish and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to ride a boat with the locals.

Parks and resorts

Macaya Park

In this reserve, tourists enter the mag­i­cal world of nature, which was pre­vi­ous­ly only read in books. In thick­ets of trop­i­cal plants and pic­turesque gorges, pink flamin­gos, agoutis and mon­goos­es are found. The lat­ter were brought here to fight rodents. Of the plants, dal­ber­gia and gua­iacum are of the great­est val­ue.

City of Pétionville

The resort cen­ter of the coun­try, a favorite vaca­tion spot for tourists and local rich peo­ple. The cob­bled streets of the town are com­plete­ly built up with lux­u­ri­ous vil­las, expen­sive restau­rants and five-star hotels. But the main attrac­tion is, of course, the sea and sandy beach­es.

Gulf of Gonaves

In one of the largest bays in the Caribbean, there are many bays and ports, includ­ing Port-au-Prince. And on its shores are locat­ed sev­er­al of the largest cities in the coun­try. The unique­ness of the bay is in the rich­ness of its nature. Here you can see a vari­ety of fish, marine ani­mals, watch dol­phins and beau­ti­ful angelfish.

Tortuga Island

This island is known all over the world for the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean”. This fact makes it espe­cial­ly pop­u­lar with tourists. The beau­ti­ful coral reefs around the island also attract atten­tion.