This week’s travel dream: Learning to love Haiti

Haiti has long been the “Caribbean nation that tourism largely forgot,” said Amy Wilentz in Condé Nast Traveler. Christopher Columbus was shipwrecked on its sandy, white shores as early as 1492. Some 500 years later, the vibrant but troubled Caribbean country remains virtually “undiscovered” by the rest of the world. The least-developed country in the Americas—and one of the world’s poorest—Haiti offers “ravishing natural assets, thrilling history, and magnetic culture.” Yet its pleasures have been a long-held secret among intrepid outsiders, such as Graham Greene, who knew to look past the rough reputation “to find out what lies beneath.”

In 1791, Haitian slaves revolted against their French masters. When Napoleon finally capitulated, Haiti became the first independent nation in Latin America—and the first post-colonial, black-led nation in the world. It was a courageous achievement, but it cut off the young country from European commerce. “Economically isolated,” Haiti became desperately poor. Even today, as the country struggles to stabilize its economy and government, “you are never far” from squalor. Just outside the capital, Port-au-Prince, you can enjoy a Creole lunch in Pétionville, a tony “traveler’s dream”—though you’ll likely drive past desperate shantytowns to get there. Along the picturesque “pink and gray” beaches of Cyvadier, you may share a sunset with “a silent fisherman” wearing the “bleached-out T-shirt and gray shorts of poverty.”

Over the decades, Haitians have developed “an ability to make much out of little.” Now, for the first time, its tourism industry has begun to flower. Starting in December, Royal Caribbean will dock its Oasis of the Seas on the country’s coast. But Haiti is “not a place you just visit” for an afternoon; make a plan for a longer stay. Take a dip in Bassin-Bleu, a well-hidden cluster of small, deep pools. Stroll through the “ginger­bread houses” of Cap-Haïtien, the second-largest French-designed city in the Americas, or sit in on a Voodoo ceremony at Madame Nerval’s temple in Fond-des-Nègres. You will discover what makes frustrating, fascinating Haiti the “Cleopatra of countries.”

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Contact: Haititourisme.com