A visit to Labadee in Haiti

The first port of call for our Royal Caribbean Western Caribbean cruise was Labadee, Hispaniola, which is actually part of Haiti. This specific port is leased to Royal Caribbean, so only their cruise ships come here. Labadee is actually a peninsula with a few beaches. Getting ashore from the cruise ship is by tender.

There is a small children’s section with floating fake icebergs to climb on and water slides, but they do charge an admission fee. Floating mattresses are also available to rent for those who just want to float in the ocean. There are also locals who help get beach chairs for you, but they expect tips. So the stuff here is a money grabber. The cruise had optional tours for snorkeling, parasailing, waverunner, and kayaking, but we thought they were overpriced. Most of the passengers simply spent the day relaxing on the beaches.

The area around Labadee was nice enough, but the beaches and shorelines were quite rocky so sandals are recommended in the water. Royal Caribbean had hosted a beach BBQ at an outdoor picnic center which was ok but nothing special. There is a market there consisting of two buildings. One is a shop where souvenirs and items have marked prices and the other building is like your typical market where the locals try to pressure you into doing business. The locals inside the market were pushy but polite. If you don’t mind haggling, you can get good deals, but if you don’t like this kind of pushy environment, you’d better avoid the market except the fixed price store.

One big difference between this port and others is that since it’s used quite well as a private beach, you won’t be bothered by the locals. The vendors that come with drinks at the beach locations are actually Royal Caribbean staff, so if you want to buy a drink, all you need is the cruise key card. As far as concerns about being in Haiti given the poverty and political situation, Labadee was not an issue because the entire site is surrounded by a high steel fence. Other passengers told us later that they wandered near the perimeter of the site and saw many Haitians along the fence begging for alms and food. The fence was mostly hidden in the distance from the main tourist areas.

We found that Labadee in general is a waste of time for us. The beaches were too rocky and we had no access to cheap activities as everything was run by Royal Caribbean. If one wanted to just lie on the beach all day and not much else, then Labadee would be a suitable place. For those who want to experience some culture, practice water sports without going through the cruise ship or shopping at duty free, Labadee would not be the place to go. We decided to stay on board the boat after the BBQ lunch for the rest of the afternoon. I like Royal Caribbean and would definitely sail with them again, but would not want to follow an itinerary that included Labadee in the future.