Cap-Haïtien travel guide

Cap-Haïtien, Haiti’s second city, has a dramatic location on the sheltered, southeast side of an 824-m-high cape, from which it gets its name. It was the capital in colonial times, when it was called Cap-Français. Its wealth and sophistication earned it the title of ‘Paris of the Antilles’. The colony’s biggest port, it was also the commercial centre of the northern plain, the biggest sugar-producing region. It was burned to the ground three times, in 1734, 1798 and 1802, the last time by Christophe to prevent it falling intact into the hands of the French. It was destroyed again by an 1842 earthquake that killed half the population. The historic centre’s architecture is now Spanish-influenced, with barrel-tile roofs, porches, arcades and interior courtyards.

Vertières, an outlying district on the Port-au-Prince Road, is the site of the battle at which Dessalines’ army definitively routed the French on 18 November 1803, forcing them to leave the island for good 12 days later. There is a roadside monument.

Cap appears to be more relaxed than Port-au-Prince and you will see people out on the streets at night. It is well worth visiting for its buildings and its surroundings but the people are not accustomed to tourists (blancs). The streets are filthy with streams of foul-smelling water running down them. The municipal government functions rarely and its services, such as street cleaning, are moribund.

The beaches in Cap itself are dirty and lack charm, but excellent beaches can be reached in 20 minutes by car from Cap. The first is Cormier Plage. Five minutes further west (30 minutes on foot) is Labadie, or Labadee, a fenced-off sandy peninsula used by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines as a private beach for its cruise ships two days a week. Passengers are taken on snorkelling trips to L’Îlet, renamed by RCCL as Amiga Island, they can jet ski or take a banana boat ride and there is a craft market within the beach compound and a couple of bars. They are not, however, taken beyond the compound to sites in Haiti. In fact they are not even told they are on Haiti, the destination is marketed as the ‘private island of Labadee’. On other days the public may use the empty beach and watersports for US$3.

Just beyond this beach, about 30 minutes’ walk, are steps down to Belli Beach, a small sandy cove with a hotel. Boats, some with outboards, can be rented here to visit nearby Labadie village, dramatically located at the foot of a cliff, and other beaches further along the coast, for example Paradise beach, 30 minutes, US$6, no facilities. Fix a price before boarding. Labadie village (about US$3 by boat, also reachable by scrambling over the rocks) has guesthouses. Excursions can be arranged, ask Arnold at Kayanol Village Labadee about going to the Citadelle , beaches and water taxi....read more