Travel

Airlines
Hotels
Rental Car Companies
Driving in Haiti
General Info


Haiti, the world's first black republic, fifty miles from the eastern tip of Cuba, shares the Caribbean's largest island, Hispaniola, with the Dominican Republic. Despite a series of political and economic setbacks, there's new direction in Government. Haiti is again gearing up to welcome tourism. For Haiti has long held a place as the most intriguing (certainly the most mystical) of all Caribbean destinations.

Haiti is very French and very Creole, with deep roots in plantation life and the slave culture surrounding it. It is, at once, both primitive and polished.

Haitian art is celebrated the world over for its high color and intricate detail; dynamic depictions of daily life. Does everyone really paint? It seems so. The variety is staggering. Galleries at every turn are open for browsing and prices are good -- and the brightly painted buses (tap-taps) shout out "Art!" in the streets all day, every day. Other than art, the island's most interesting shopping experience is at the hectic Iron Market in Port-au-Prince, the Capital, where it's possible to buy almost anything (and to bargain with vendors in English).

Be sure to visit the Citadel , a fortress at Cap Haitien, and Palais de Sans Souci, extravagant legacies of Henri Christophe, and a self-appointed monarch whose architecture marked his mammoth visions. Visit ports and plantations along the south coast. Explore the beaches, which range from shimmering black diamond to dusty powder-white. Watch for news of hotel openings. Read up on voodoo chants.
Plan to visit Haiti. It's aristocratic, spirited, spiritual, riveting and strangely romantic.

Haiti, located about seven hundred miles south of Miami by sea. More than 7 million people within its mountainous 10,000 square miles make Haiti one of the most densely populated countries in the western Hemisphere.

The capital of Haiti is the city of Port-au-Prince: Over the years the city has spilled out of its original waterfront location, climbing further into the mountains behind. A rural exodus has swollen the population from 150,000 in 1954 to over two million now. Steep mountains tower over the city to the south, La Gonâve Island lies in a horseshoe bay to the west, and another wall of mountains beyond a rift valley plain rise to the north.

Haitians are descendants of slaves brought over from Africa centuries ago. In 1804, Haiti became the first Black Republic in the world, gaining its independence by driving out the French colonists. Haiti was a French colony until 1804 when, fired by the example of the French Revolution, the black slaves revolted, massacred the French landowners and proclaimed the world’s first black republic. The decades of self-rule since independence have not been easy ones, especially for the rural Haitian. Today, he struggles for a different kind of independence and freedom - freedom from poverty, illiteracy, and lack of education - from malnutrition and disease.

Except for a few small, mainly coastal plains and the central Artibonite River valley, the entire country is a mass of ranges. The highest peak is the 2,674m La Selle, southeast of the capital. Little remains of Haiti’s once luxuriant forest cover, cut down for fuel or to make way for farming. With soil erosion and desertification far advanced, Haiti is an ecological disaster. The main regions still regularly receiving abundant rainfall are the southwest peninsula and the eastern two thirds of the northern seaboard. The Republic of Haiti occupies the western third of the island.
The culture of Haiti is a unique mixture of African and French influences. Throughout the 19th century the Haitians reverted to a primitive way of life, indulging in a succession of bloody, almost tribal wars. Even today African cults, particularly voodoo, play a large part in everyday life like nowhere else in the Caribbean. The country is desperately poor and the standard of living is the lowest in the Americas. According to UNICEF, the literacy rate is only 55%, while only 30% of children reach secondary school.