Haiti Travel Guide - Going Out

The French cuisine is good and the Creole specialities combine French, tropical and African influences. French wine is available in the better restaurants.

National specialities:
• Guinea hen with sour orange sauce.
• Tassot de dinde (dried turkey).
• Grillot (fried island pork).
• Diri et djondjon (rice and black mushrooms).
• Riz et pois (rice and peas).

National drinks:
• Barbancourt rum, made by a branch of Haiti’s oldest family of rum and brandy distillers.

Tipping: 10% service charge is added to hotel and restaurant bills.

There is plenty of choice ranging from casinos to African drum music and modern Western music and dance. There is something happening in at least one major hotel every evening with the main attraction being folkloric groups and voodoo performances. On Saturday nights bamboche, a peasant-style dance, can be seen in one of the open-air dance halls. Hotels often have the most up-to-date information on local nightlife.

Bargaining is recommended at the Iron Market, where both good- and bad-quality local items can be bought, including carvings, printed fabrics, leatherwork, paintings (particularly in the naïf style, for which Haiti is famous), straw hats, seed necklaces and jewellery, cigars and foodstuffs. Port-au-Prince has a good selection of shops and boutiques selling a wide range of local and imported items. Bargaining is an accepted practice.

Shopping hours: Mon-Fri 0800-1200 and 1300-1600, Sat 0800-1200.