For international travel to Puerto Plata, there are two major airports that are relatively close to the most popular destinations. The closer airport is the Gregorio Luperon International Airport (POP), known also as the Puerto Plata Airport, located just east of Puerto Plata city. This is the preferred point of entry for most tourists headed to such northern destinations as Cofresi, Luperon, Puerto Plata city, Playa Dorada, Sosua and Cabarete. This airport offers service to and from the US (American Airlines through Miami), Jet Blue (through New York JFK), Continental in Newark, Delta Airlines (through Atlanta), Ryan International in Minneapolis), Canada (Air Canada in Montreal and Toronto and Air Transat in Calgary, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver), the Caribbean (American Eagle in San Juan, SkyKing in Providenciales and Turks & Caicos) and Europe (Air Plus Comet in Madrid, Martinair in Amsterdam, Holland Exel in Brussels and Amsterdam, Condor in Frankfurt, LTU in Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Munich, and Lauda Air in Vienna), as well as connecting flights through Mexico City and Caracas. In addition there are many charter flights available from Calgary, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver; Brussels, Helsinki, Reykjavik, Birmingham, London, Manchester, Milan, Paris, Shannon, Stockholm and Zurich. Travelers wishing to fly to Puerto Plata through this airport should check their local airlines for availability, as the list of scheduled airlines is constantly changing.

Everyone visiting the Dominican Republic needs to obtain a tourist card.  These can be purchased on arrival to the country and the current price is $10 per person (payable in US Dollars).  A departure tax is also required and this is currently $20 per person. In general, travelers from North America in commercial airlines will have the departure tax included in their ticket.

A second airport, located approximately an hour south of Puerto Plata city by car, is Cibao International Airport (STI) in Santiago. This airport mostly receives flights from the US. Scheduled airlines flying into STI include JetBlue, Delta and American Airlines (New York), American (Miami) and American Eagle (San Juan, Puerto Rico). Spirit airlines will start flying to Santiago in 2009.

 A third airport is located in Punta Cana.  Punta Cana is located on the east coast of the Dominican Republic not far from La Romana and Boca Chica.   US Airways flies from Charlotte, Philadelphia and Chicago.   Air Canada and Air France also fly into Punta Cana.

Flying into Punta Cana when you are coming to the North Coast is not advisable. There are no commercial flights from Punta Cana to Puerto Plata. A bus trip could take about 8 hours if not more.