Costambar · Puerto Plata
The cable car up Isabel de Torres
Fifteen minutes from Costambar, and the view that puts the whole coast in one frame — when the cable car is running.
Check before you go
Start here, because it matters. The teleférico has been out of service for long stretches, and it is the main way up the mountain. Before you plan a morning around it, check that it is running. We will tell you what we know — ask us — and locally it is common knowledge within a day or two of it stopping or starting again.
What is up there
Mount Isabel de Torres stands over Puerto Plata, and on a clear day the top gives you the whole north coast in one view: the city, the harbour, the mountains behind, and the sea running east towards Sosúa and Cabarete.
At the summit there is a Christ the Redeemer statue, modelled on the one in Rio, and a botanical garden of tropical planting with paths through it. It is a walk-around-and-look place rather than an attraction with rides, which is the point of it.
The cable car itself
It was built in the seventies and is the only one in the Caribbean. The ride up takes about ten minutes and is worth doing for its own sake — the cabin comes up out of the town and over the trees, and the view changes the whole way.
Going up
- Go early. Cloud builds over the peak through the day and by the afternoon you can be standing in it, looking at nothing.
- Take something warm. It is noticeably cooler at the top than at the beach.
- Fifteen minutes from Costambar by taxi or car.
If it is closed
There is a road up, and drivers in Puerto Plata will take you. Ask what the road is like before you agree — it has not always been in good condition. Or save it for another trip: the waterfalls at Damajagua and Puerto Plata old town both fill a morning, and neither depends on a cable being in service.