Although it has been sleeping for decades, this was a dynamic city in its heyday and it is coming back. You can get a feeling for this past in the magnificent Victorian gazebo in the central Parque Independencia. On Puerto Plata's own Malecón, the Fortaleza de San Felipe protected the city from many a pirate attack and was later used as a political prison. The nearby lighthouse has been restored. Big changes are afoot in this town, which is just realizing what it needs to do to become a tourist destination. The Office of Cultural Patrimony, which has done an admirable job of pulling the Zona Colonial from the darkness, is at work on Puerto Plata. Simultaneously, a group of private business owners and investors have developed a long-term plan for beautifying this city, which has hundreds of classic, wooden gingerbread buildings. Mansions, including Casa Olivores and the Tapounet Family home, are being restored; a Victorian mansion on Calle Jose del Carmen is now a gallery and coffee shop.

The Museo de Ambar Dominicano is in a lovely old galleried mansion. It both displays and sells the D.R.'s national stone, semiprecious, translucent amber, which is actually fossilized pine resin that dates from about 50 million years ago, give or take a few millennia. Shops on the museum's first floor sell amber, souvenirs, and ceramics. Dominican amber is considered to be the finest in the world. If you buy from street vendors for a low price, you're probably buying plastic.[. Calle Duarte 61. 809/586-2848. RD$15. Mon.-Sat. 9-5

Ocean World Adventure Park is a multimillion-dollar aquatic park in Cofresi with marine and wildlife interactive programs, including dolphin and sea lion shows and encounters, a tropical reef aquarium, stingrays, shark tanks, a rain forest, and the Tiger Grotto where you can feed Bengal tigers through a feeding hole in a glass window! Lunch, looking out to sea, is delightful. You don't have to come on a tour, but you must make advance reservations and decide among various tour options, which can almost triple the regular admission cost. If you're staying in the Puerto Plata or Cabarete area, ask at your hotel for tour schedules. Children must be six to do the dolphin swim, and a photo lab and video service can capture the moment. A private beach, locker room, a splashy marina, and a Las Vegas-style casino make for a fascinating mix. In front of Sun Village Resort & Spa, on the autopista to Santiago, Cofresi. 809/291-1000 or 809/291-1111. www.oceanworld.net. $55-$220. Daily 9-5.