Habitation Des Lauriers – Your Home Away From Home 

If you’re looking for a place to stay  in Cap-Haitien that feels like a home away from home, then I highly recommend Habitation Des Lauriers. 

Cap-Haitien is in the north of Haiti.   

 
This boutique hotel is owned by Leslie and Brenda Coles. Leslie is Haitian and Brenda is originally  from Honduras. Both lived many years in the US.

 

I stayed at HDL February 25 – 28, 2017 and I took the opportunity to sit down to talk to Leslie about HDL to find out a little  more about this “colonial house”  atop the hill, overlooking the bustling city and the Atlantic Ocean .

Leslie told me that the house was built in 1901 and was owned by a French man from Corsica, France.  He bought the house in 1975 and retained its original name, Habitation Des Lauriers. 

 The Coles began operating this lovely place, as a boutique hotel 10 years ago. They started off with 7 rooms and now they have 23 rooms including superior and standard rooms. Detached from the main structure, higher up the hill,  there are dormitory style accommodations. On my visit there were a group of medical personnel and a church group staying in the latter. 

 In the main hotel I met people from various parts of the world. Everyone was quite pleased with the ambience, location and the accommodation.  
 

Dining – I am vegan and as soon as Brenda found out she ensured that I had meals to suit my diet; vegetable  soup, eggplant stew and the Haitian staple, mais molou. At breakfast, I noted that most people were having the other Haitian typical breakfast, which is spaghetti with hamburger meat.  Breakfast 🍳 is included with the stay.

  

 The staff at HDL is very friendly help and accommodating as well.    

If you happen to get a room facing east, you must rise early with the sunrise, it is spectacular.

 

When you are not on tour, you can sit off in any of the comfortable chairs in the garden setting with a glass of wine or cocktail of your choice.   

 You can also plunge into the infinity pool from where you can see Dominican Republic in the far distance. 

Otherwise, let Brenda organize a tour for you to:

La Citadelle

Le Palais

Or to the  Amiga Island.   All at affordable costs.   She can also arrange a driver to take you around to see the city.  

 

I asked Leslie and Brenda if  they ever had any renowned persons stay at the hotel. They said that amongst the renowned guests was a Nobel Prize winner from Argentina and they also accommodated members of the Cornell and Yale University Orchestra which put on a concert last January at Le Palais Sans Souci.

Habitation Des Lauriers is definitely the place to stay in Cap-Haitien.

 P.S. One little detail I forgot to mention is that  transportation is arranged to and from the Hugo Chavez International Airport free of charge.