Heading to Dominican Republic for Christmas? How to spend A Festive Day in Downtown Puerto Plata.

We're spending the day in the city of Puerto Plata, in the historical area to see some Christmas decorations and feel festive. This is our first Christmas outside of Canada and also our first Christmas in a tropical location. During our day in downtown Puerto Plata we visited the main square in Puerto Plata and famous streets like Paseo de Dona Blanca and the Umbrella Street. The city was all decorated with lots of Christmas lights and decorations and of course a Christmas tree.

Discover The festive Puerto Plata

We are in Puerto Plata and we are in the mood to get festive. This is our first Christmas outside of Canada, which might shock some people since we travel a lot. Interestingly, it is our first Christmas in a tropical location. In the past, we have done some Christmas videos in Europe when we visited Christmas markets, which were amazing. We’re enjoying celebrating Christmas in a tropical warm location with palm trees.

We started our visit to downtown Puerto Plata at Central Park, we were so impressed by the decorations all around the square. We found these enormous gold reindeer with red noses and all sorts of other Christmas decorations.

Get a fresh coconut to cool down

We decided to get some Fresh coconuts. You can find these pretty much everywhere. You will find people selling them on the street but oddly enough we hardly ever have them, even though we spend so much time in warm locations. The coconut tastes delicious but we wished it was a little bit colder. It is a little heavy to hold as well.

*The Christmas tree in the square in Puerto Plata*

Check out all the Christmas Decorations

We are truly enjoying the Christmas decorations in this historical square. They are traditional combined with tropical colours that match the beautiful buildings around the square. There is also a walkway which has got lights around it. It has all the Christmas colours. In addition, there is the big Christmas tree which is at least 30 or 40 feet tall. Since we are renting an apartment here, we do not have any Christmas decorations. We did not want to spend money on that and then leave it afterwards. Since we would not be able to take it with us. So these decorations make us feel extra festive.

Don’t miss “Pink Street”

We heard that there are a few interesting streets in downtown Puerto Plata. One of them is the pink street or Paseo de Dona Blanca. We have never been to a street where it is all pink. It is a unique, cute and narrow alley. This alley is not the most Christmassy but if you are coming to Puerto Plata this is a must-see.

Make your way to “Umbrella Street”

We have found another street which is the Umbrella street or as they call it Calle de las Sombrillas. This seems to be becoming a thing around the world to do a street with all the colourful umbrellas. This one is decorated with multi-coloured umbrellas. Along this pedestrian only street you will also find coffee shops, ice cream, bars, restaurants and some shopping.

Find a historic restaurant decorated for Christmas

We came to a very pretty restaurant called Kaffee. It is inside an old, historic house, there is old victorian furniture and beautiful tiles. Also, there are a lot of Christmas decorations. We found little trinkets and a whole courtyard with Christmas balls hanging from the palm trees. It is a special place. So after walking in the hot streets for a couple of hours, we decided we needed a little pick-me-up drink. Therefore, we ordered the most festive drink we could come across which is Baileys Frappuccino. We think that this drink is the most Christmassy liqueur you can get. The drink was cold and tasted so good, you can taste the baileys. It does not taste too alcoholic and it is not too strong as well. You get that Irish cream flavour. It is sweet but not too sweet. It is perfect on this hot day to cool us off but also feel somewhat in the Christmas spirit.

Take a walk down the Malecon de Puerto Plata

We came down to a place called the Malecon, which is a boardwalk area on the water. The boardwalk or Malecon goes quite a few kilometres. We think you could easily get a bit of exercise if you did it. This part of the city is a very colourful and very colonial architecture that we might see in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Afterwards, we came back to the pink street to a very cool-looking bar that we sport earlier. We ordered a little Dominican drink which looked like a shot. It is called Mama Juana. It is a typical Dominican drink made with wine, rum, honey and some special herbs. When we ordered it, they kind of laughed at us, since it is considered an aphrodisiac. It is really good and it tastes Christmassy which is something we did not expect. It’s got nutmeg or cinnamon. We highly recommend this drink when we wanted to try something local in the Dominican Republic.