Port-au-Prince Audio Tours

Port-au-Prince is the capital of Haiti, which in 1804 became the first nation in the world founded by a successful slave rebellion. That fact sits at the heart of everything about the city. The revolution that produced it was one of the most remarkable events in modern history, defeating Napoleon's forces and ending French colonial rule, and Haitians carry that founding with a pride that visitors should understand before arriving. The Citadelle Laferriere, a massive mountaintop fortress built in the early 19th century by King Henri Christophe, is one of the engineering feats of the Americas and is about 150 kilometres north in Cap-Haitien.

Port-au-Prince has endured enormous difficulty, most catastrophically the 2010 earthquake that killed more than 160,000 people and devastated the urban core.

Recovery has been long and uneven, and the city's situation has been complicated by political instability in recent years. What has not changed is Haitian art, which is world-class and represented in galleries and studios throughout Petionville, the hillside neighborhood above the city. Tap-taps, the elaborately painted and decorated minibuses that serve as public transport, turn every street into a moving gallery.