Les Trois Rois Hotel

While I was away from Haiti for 2 years, a new hotel Les Trois Rois was built along the beach in Ducroix, between Cap Haitian and Labadee. I didn’t see a sign along the road, look on a web map to find the gate. The hotel is beautiful and felt like it was very old, in a good way, with stately wood accents. There is direct access to the beach, just steps away from the hotel pool. When the tide is high you can sit on the deck and enjoy the waves lapping below. There is both indoor and covered outdoor seating for meals. A group was having a meeting there, and another was celebrating a wedding.

The lunch and dinner menu is a variety of fish and meat and limited for vegetarians, but the standard bannann peze, pikliz, and vegetables are very good. The breakfast was super good! Coffee, fruit, soup joumou, and kasava which was suitable for my new gluten intolerance. Some of the rooms have balconies, all have AC and hot water and are roomy.

For my nature-exploring side it was limited due to the small area of the grounds and being right along the main road. There is a sort of tidal pool at the corner of the deck to watch crabs and aquatic isopods, and brown pelicans landed in the water nearby. From the 3^rd floor balcony we saw a white-crowned pigeon and other birds in the treetops across the road. Go to the nearby Cormier Plage grounds for a meal, or along the road higher up to see more birds.

 

 

 

Belly Beach bird hike

Fort Belly

The real reason I wanted to stay overnight at Belly Beach was to go birding. Get up early and head up the stairs to a rocky road that sits above the bay. There are unique rock formations, a nice view of the bay, and a little fort my guide called Labadee Fort, and google maps labeled Fort Belly. There are typical birds – kingbirds, Antillean mangos, warblers. And also white-crowned pigeons which I have only seen once in Haiti, in the south.

Lichen

Walk up the stairs from the hotel

Rocky road

Spanish moss

Cruise ship at Labadee

Belly Beach near Labadee Haiti

Belly Beach is a small beach and hotel on the bay between the Royal Caribbean Cruise resort of Labadee and the Haitian village of Labadee. It has fewer foreigners than Cormier Plage, and better swimming in the calm bay and blue water (somewhat cloudy from all the boat activity). It's a nice place to spend the evening. We arrived around 5p on a Sunday, loud music was playing, people were enjoying the beach, but it wasn't too rowdy. They turned off music around 7p and most of the day-use people had left by then, so we enjoyed our meal in peace. 

We didn't make reservations, and seemed to be the only people staying overnight. There were around 10 rooms, $60/night. Each has a mini-fridge, TV, air conditioner, and indoor plumbing. There are no windows so we couldn't enjoy the view or sounds of the waves whiles we slept. Electricity was on until around 11pm. The main water pipe to the compound had broken, so there wasn't water that evening to the rooms (because they didn't know we were coming they hadn't filled the reservoir), but we could shower in the day-use facilities. The rooms had water by morning. The stay came with a hearty breakfast of eggs, bread, coffee. The manager speaks English and was pleasant, along with the woman who manages the rooms. Dinner and drinks for 5 was $30. They take only cash! Check out is 11am.

The morning was the best part for me - I came there to bird and explore. Go up the stairs and to the left to follow the road seen on google maps. There is a small fort, and lots of birds (see next blog). Go up the stairs to the right to get to the next beach over where people sell souvenirs to the cruise ship tourists. Tell them you are not from the cruise ship! The sellers are pleasant and not too pushy, but did try to charge 3x as much as they finally seemed happy taking.

Next time I would like to get there before noon, leave my belongings (and give time for water to the rooms), then take a boat to Labadee village to eat lunch and explore.

How to get there - Though google shows a road that looks like it goes directly to Belly Beach - it's really just a very rocky path that I don't think any truck could manage, and it stops at stairs that lead down to the hotel. On google maps Belly Beach is called Dhaloo, while a place within the resort compound is labeled as Belly Beach. To get to Belly, follow the road past the resort and park near the water taxis. Royal Caribbean had a ship in port the day I went, and when we arrived at 4 pm the area was very busy with employees who work in the resort. Hire a water taxi to take you to Belly. Pay 100 gd for the trip there, and arrange for pick up the next day for 1000 gd. 

water taxi

Dinner

Breakfast

Village of Labadie Haiti

Approaching Labadie Village

A nice surprise near (1 hr walk) from Cormier Plage is the Haitian village of Labadie. Moto or walk up the curvy paved road from the hotel (away from Cap) and you’ll reach the top of the hill that overlooks the private cruiseship Labadee Resort. The guard let me in to look at birds and take pictures. Then walk downhill and you’ll follow a high fence on the right to keep guests in the resort, and a nice wooded area on the left where you can do some birding. Keep walking to the water taxis, little boats that will take you to the actual village of Labadie. I think it cost around 100gd to hire one privately to take the 2 of us to the village. On the way back we waited for the boat to fill with other travelers and it was much cheaper. There were some larger motor boats too – perhaps they can be rented to go to some nearby islands.

Water taxis to go to Labadie Village

Labadie is a small quiet fishing village tucked into the forested hillside. I walked around with a friend to look at birds, but we didn’t eat or linger long. It would be a nice place to spend a morning or afternoon. If you are comfortable eating Haitian street food you could eat and drink there and hang out by the water. I didn’t see any other foreigners and kids were eager to say hi. Some people have kayaks so perhaps you could rent one. There seemed to be 2 hotels along the hillside between the village and mainland taxi stop. Here is another blogger's post about Labadee/ie.

A small cave!

The mainland taxi station.

Water project in Labadie Village funded by the Royal Caribbean Cruiseships

Hotel Cormier Plage Cap Haitien Haiti

My favorite place to stay in Cap Haitien is Cormier Plage, whose beautiful grounds have a variety of birds, plants, and reptiles, and sit along a clean swimmable beach. Bring snorkel gear! There is a small reef where you can see sea urchins and colorful fish, and next door is a coral restoration group Amiga Island that also offers snorkeling trips at a nearby island. The paved road to the hotel follows the north coast out of Cap – watch for signs for forts.

Someone's anchor

The hotel room had a ceiling fan and AC and patio. I didn’t notice hot water (I forgot to check since I don’t have it at home). The room electricity is off during the day which I think is great for conservation. You can charge electronics at the restaurant/bar right along the beach where you should be anyway. The room price included a breakfast of coffee, juices, bread, and fruit, as well as a selection of eggs, oatmeal, and other food from a menu. Lunch and dinner ranges from pricey to cheaper sandwiches, and even omelettes (which took a while to make!). Try the rhum banana for dessert! Avoid the conch (lambi) which is over harvested and avoid lobster during the reproductive season (March - June), or there won’t be any more next year! 

A 40 minute walk up hill on the main road you’ll come to an overlook of the private Labadee cruise ship port – complete with roller coaster and zipline for resort guests. Turn left and walk downhill to get to water taxis that will take you to the actual village of Labadie (see this post for more).

Gate from main road

View from balcony

Breakfast before I knew we could also choose from a menu!

Just one page of the large lunch and dinner menu.

Hotel Rival, Cap Haitien

Steps to the beach are to the right of the gate.

I learned about Hotel Rival from Paul Clammer’s Bradt Haiti guide. I wanted to go to Fort Picolet so stayed in the hotel closest so I could walk. It is a clean hotel with a great view of the ocean and a nice pool. The bar area has nice ocean view seating. Ask for room #2 to get a large corner room with 2 balconies. The property, tucked into the hillside, shares a gated road with houses, so you have a quiet road to walk and see birds. The road to get to the hotel is a bit rough, but passes a small fort (Etienne-Magny) that I didn’t notice was a fort until I passed it later on a moto and saw the canons. The Crammer guide mentions a second fort that might have been what formed the wall along the road at the hotel gate.

It was odd that I seemed to be the only guest, and the staff weren’t at the front desk much, mostly saw them hanging out upstairs near the bar looking at their phones. I ordered a drink, they couldn’t make change for my $20US bill, so I gave them my remaining small bills and didn’t have any left for a tip. The room didn’t have electricity part of the time. The bathroom didn’t have amenities except towels and a bar of soap. I forgot to see if the shower had hot water since I’m not used to having any! According to the Crammer guide there is a restaurant, which must have been the bar area, but there was no indication they served food until I went up the next morning for the complimentary breakfast which was really good - an omelet, bread, butter, jelly, juice and coffee. Someone else was eating there so I must not have been the only guest.

Don't get excited about swimming at the beach. You can access it from stairs outside the hotel gate (the start of the route to Fort Picolet), but is a bit trashy (including a syringe - don't go barefoot, but I've seen worse). Knowing what runs off into the bay from Cap made me leery of going in the water. Plus people literally bathing there, and groups of men standing around watching, made me uncomfortable about being the only foreigner.

I am a low key traveler with electricity only part of the time at home, so the sparseness and partial no electricity was ok with me, but if you expect the amenities of the Roi Christophe or Mont Joli you might be disappointed. It is not within walking distance of anything except the forts. That and the ocean view was the only thing that made it worth $100 for one night. I think if they charged $70/night they'd have more guests, and thus could improve the service! So enjoy Hotel Rival for the view, pool, and access to forts!

Yummy breakfast and great view!

All rooms seem to face the ocean.

Nice pool!

Large room!

One of the balconies on room #2.

Fort Picolet, Cap Haitien

Thanks to Paul Clammer’s Bradt Haiti guide, I learned about Fort Picolet and stayed in the nearby Hotel Rival to go on an early morning hike to explore the fort. The 'path' to the fort starts outside the gate to the hotel, go down the stairs to the beach. And keep following the shore at the base of the hill. Wear sturdy shoes that you can get wet (there's medical and other trash on the beach - don't go barefooted). We departed about an hour before high tide and didn’t have to walk through water, but have heard that at high tide water might be up to your knees.

Clammer describes the walk as involving 'a bit of scrambling' which must be British for you need to walk over loose rocks of all sizes and hang onto your surefooted friend to get up and down the big rocks and steps along the shore. See the photos for how high you need to scramble. Would be difficult for someone with bad knees or unsteady in walking.

Once at the fort just climb the stairs and explore! The guide book says this is a French fort built around 1740. There are still canons there. Be sure to go up the little set of stairs on the wall they sit along, and down the other side, and you'll get a good view the waves crashing into the rocks below. On the other side of the fort is a metal structure that must have been a light house.

We started the hike at 6:30a and were back at the hotel at 8am. There are paths to follow if you want to explore more of the hillside. There was no one at the fort, and no one along the way harassed us. There are signs of recent Vodou practice at the fort, even a peristyle, and people were praying with candles at a huge rock that is on the way to the fort.

It is well worth the walk! And look for the cool crabs and snails on the way.

The view from the start of the walk near Hotel Rival

Climb up and over the rocks!

A big step up!

The steps from the beach up to the fort.

At the fort, looking back at Hotel Rival

The peristyle

A lighthouse?