Northern Haiti has a niche of fun tourist sites

 Fun tourist locations in northern Haiti

When tourists visit northern Haiti, they find an area full of activities.  This area reserves the most charming and fun locations, sites and museums that can make a trip there memorable for years to come.

Northern Haiti has beaches like Labadee, Cormier, Fort Saint-Michel and Camp-Louise that offer a pleasant time in the ocean with family and friends.  The beach in Labadee is similar to that of Cancun, Mexico where I visited 22 years ago. 

Every location spot around the city fascinates visitors, whoever they are and in a special way.  Besides the preparations and renovation work done to the above beaches, Northern Haiti is naturally made for tourism. 

What makes tourism attractive are people’s hospitality, their readiness to assist in any situation and the tropical climate that unlike most countries in the world is unique.  Northern Haiti, so to speak, is the get-away tourist location for a fun vacation.  For example, Labadee is a tourist hum or a crossroad for cruise liners to the Americas.

The museum in northern Haiti offers history and a glance at heroism of the Haitian indigenous troops in their independence war against the French.  For example, Verieres, Milot and the Citadelle are those tourist sites filled with such a history.

Other fun stuffs consist of boating tours and water sports, shopping, nature and parks and food and drink that visitors can purchase at a low price compared to what one would spend in the states.

Not too far from the dock is the prestigious hotel Mont Joli.  That hotel is an old 5-star of its time and of Haitian standard, so to speak.  I personally know of its existence since I was a child in high school in Cap-Haitien.  It looks more like a hotel museum than a regular 5-star.

The Status Of Reconstruction Project In And Around Cap-Haitien

Reconstruction status

Reconstruction of northern Haiti’s infrastructure and hotels are well underway.  For the past few months, workshops have been set up all over the area.  Mont Joli Hotel, Hotel Beck, La Fonda Hotel and others have been under renovation, including road repairs as an investment for the big tourism project in northern Haiti.

The city of Cap-Haitien and the surrounding areas have had for the first time in its history this colossal work project.  Streets that once were impracticable are beginning to be paved; hotels also are being renovated for tourism.

Tourism job opportunity

The locals are very happy to work, but for how long?  It’s just a matter of enjoying work while it is available.  It is not something someone can take for granted.  Haiti is a land of mystery. 

This tourism project has transformed despair into hope at least while people now have the means of putting bread on the table. 

Tourism is a big source of development in any country, which includes even in major and developed countries.  The greater good it will do to northern Haiti after the completion of the construction and the renovation projects is that everyone will benefit from it.

Regular laborers are paid $17 Haitian dollars a day.  It is a blessing, considering the high rate of unemployment in the country.  It goes without saying that bringing tourists in northern Haiti is all the locals need to empower themselves.

Reconstruction's compliance

Hotels renovation, street and major highways repair work are all in compliance with the city and national laws.  The project is moving in full speed, and it has become a face lift for the entire northern Haiti.

The Citadelle

The Citadelle history
The Citadelle, nicknamed the eighth world wonder, is the number one fortress in the entire Caribbean  It matches the pyramid of Egypt and even surpasses the Great Wall of China.  What makes it famous is its historic significance, its location and its architecture.

Built in Milot by King Henri Christophe in the early 1800s, the Citadelle, equipped with mortars and cannons, served as a monitoring post.  The purpose was to counterattack or repulse any French’s return for the re-enslavement of the people of Haiti. 

 Citadelle, a world tourist attraction
Tourists visit the Citadelle as the Pyramid of Egypt or the Great Wall of China or any extraordinary tourist sites.  It is a historic monument that draws the attention and the curiosity of historians, researchers and regular tourists alike.

Location and importance

The Citadelle is located on the top of a hill.  Perched at thousands of feet high, it offers a panoramic view of most of the northern department.  In case another war broke out with the French, the Citadelle would give the indigenous troops the upper hand.  This particular fighting advantage would mean nothing today because of the French advanced air power. Now the French could sit at home, push a button and bomb the Citadelle to rubbles. 

The French never returned, and the Citadelle serves since then as the beauty of Haiti, a tourist site and a place where writers get their inspirations and historians a niche of facts and old history of the first black nation to defeat a colonial power to write about.

The Citadelle has an architecture so complex that it is hard to reproduce it.  It is the ancient design, the achievement of African former slaves. 

The Citadelle is a gold mine.  It is frequently visited, and it brings money to the government.  It also creates jobs and opportunities for the locals. 

Sans Souci Palace

Sans Souci Palace, the black race pride

Palace “Sans Souci” (Carefree Palace) was the residence of King Henri Christophe and his family.  Located in Milot, the Sans Souci was built to exhibit to the Europeans and the Americans the pride of not only Haitians but the capability of the entire black race.

King Henri Christophe was a genius builder.  He built the palace in the early 1800s.  The design of the palace is so fancy that it draws the attention of Americans and Europeans  

Sans Souci, an African archichectural heritage

One of Christophe’s advisors, Pompee Valentin Vastey, (Baron Valentin de Vastey), who said that the palace and its nearby church, "erected by descendants of Africans, show that we have not lost the architectural taste and genius of our ancestors who covered Ethiopia, Egypt, Carthage, and old Spain with their superb monuments

Sans Souci has been for the past 200 years one of the most remarkable architecture in the Caribbean.  It is today one of the most visited tourist sites in northern Haiti.  It offers scenery and history.  One person at the center of it all was Henri Christophe. 

A historical heritage
The edifice of Sans Souci becomes one of his many historic legacies for the entire island.  Tourists flock the area to see the palace, and locals enjoy opportunity to make money.  They sell their services, their carved objects, mahogany and whatever tourists want to buy from them.

Milot where the palace is located is 20 km from the second largest city of Cap-Haitien.  The ship docks at the port and tourists have to be driven to the location in about 30 minutes. 

Road and hotel constructions

“Arcotec 
Arcotec mission
Haiti S.A. is a major Haitian builder that provides building and construction related projects for

• businesses,
• organizations,
• government agencies,
• other builders and residential customers.

We construct complex projects within Haiti’s unforgiving landscape, which is prone to natural disasters.”

 Arcotec building contract
 Now the government hires Arcotec Haiti to build

• Oasis hotel
• Hotel Mont Joli in renovation
• Hotel Beck in renovation
• La Quisqueya Hotel
• The Paradise Hotel
• Road reconstruction Cap-Haitien-Milot
• Several road construction projects leading to all the touristic centers

It is a 5-year project that will prepare northern Haiti for the tourism business. In the meantime, this major construction creates jobs and helps fight poverty.  With the assistance of the national government, ten million dollars are allocated for the project.  Arcotec has a little problem getting construction permit on time.

Arcotec Haiti has already acquired license for every hotel and road construction in the entire northern region of the country.  Every construction site has engineers, architect, subcontractor and laborers busy every day at work. 

It is a very well organized project where every construction site works as a separate entity.  But at the end of the day, the head of every construction must report to the central construction management team.

The massive construction project creates some discontentment in the area.  Traffic is slow, and people don’t like that.  In some areas, traffic is rerouted to residential neighborhood, which upsets commuters and residents even more.

This major tourism project serves as a development for the entire country.  If every geographical part of the country was developing tourism like the north, Haiti would be well on its way to win the war on poverty.

Viertieres

 Defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte in Haiti

Vertieres battle for independence

Vertieres is a war museum located about two miles from Cap-Haitien, the second largest city, located in the most northern tip of the island of Haiti.  This is where the Haitian indigenous troops defeated Napoleon Bonaparte army.  Tourists and researchers visit it out of historic curiosity or for their own work on a particular facet of Haitian history.

I can’t help talking about Vertieres without mentioning its historic importance and the heroes who made it what it is today.  The important people who made Viertieres are the following remarkable fighters:

• Jean-JacquesDessalines 
• ToussaintLouverture 
• Henri Christophe 
• Capois-La-mort 
• Alexandre Petion 
• Paul Prompt 
• Charles Daut, etc.

Vertieres had seen the fiercest battle of independence fought between the indigenous troops and the French.  As troops on both sides fought and died, some Haitian fighters were recognized for their bravery and their stern resistance.  Capois-La-Mort braved death so many times that two things happened: he was renamed Capois-La-Mort and his famous historic slogan is “bullets are nothing but dust.” 

The top two war heroes are Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Toussaint Louverture of whom I will talk about individually in separate blog posts.  Those two are the heroes of all heroes.  They are themselves Haiti in its entirety.  Alexandre Petion, a mulatto, often switches sides between the indigenous and the French troops, but at the end he became one of great fighters in the ranks of the Haitian fighters. 

Northern Haiti is good for tourism because it is considered the cradle of the Haitian history.  Most of the war fighters and leaders are from the area.  All the historic sites that draw tourists to northern Haiti are the ingenuity of them, for instance the fortress of the Citadelle, which is the work of King Henri Christophe.

Labadee

About Labadee, Haiti
Details and location

Labadee is a seaside community of Cap-Haitien in northern Haiti. It is located at the foot of Picolet mountain and right in the backyard of Haiti second largest and historic city of Cap-Haitien.  It is surrounded with corral reef and embellished with one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. 

Developed in the last 25 years, Labadee represents one of the world most visited tourist locations in the Caribbean.  What once was a rural area is now converted into resort hotels, shops, boutique, sightseeing, park and recreation and amusement center, etc.

Labadee is a gateway to many places in the Caribbean and the Americas.   It has become a central tourist destination before a cruise ship reaches any set destination.  Once in Labadee, tourists got so fascinated with its beauty and its charm that it is easy to forget that they are in Haiti. 

Labadee is a paradise on earth, which gives the illusion that it is not Haiti or a part of it because Haiti is known as a poor and underdeveloped country.  It is a fact, and I must add that I wish the entire island was as developed as Labadee.

Labadee is not freely open to the Haitian public.  The last time I visited it was in 2003.  The entrance fee was $30 then.  From I heard, today it is either a high entrance fee in US currency or it is closed to the Haitian public in general.  This link will take you to the topography of Haiti.

Describing Labadee is not enough to put it in the right perspective; one has to be there and see for oneself.  It is a fantastic place to visit and to revisit because it renews itself every time a tourist visits it. Here is more sightseeing in Labadee.