Downtown / Commercial Center

Commercial center around the Swing Bridge and Albert Street. Worth a quick daytime look to see local life and the manual bridge, but pickpocketing is bad and it's dangerous after dark. Don't spend more time here than you need to.

Downtown centers on Albert Street and the manual Swing Bridge, which has connected north and south across Haulover Creek since 1923. The Commercial Center just over the bridge on the south side is a two-story concrete building - produce stalls, fish vendors, butcher shops, and souvenir stands downstairs, more shops and restaurants (including Big Daddy's) upstairs. It's where locals buy fresh food and household stuff. Downtown Plaza on Albert Street has about thirty small stores selling phones, clothes, beauty products, whatever. During business hours (roughly 7:30am to 5pm) it's busy with locals running errands and vendors working. Even during the day you need to stay alert - pickpocketing and bag snatching are common, and tourists are obvious targets. Once shops close and vendors pack up, the area clears out fast and gets dangerous. The Swing Bridge is interesting to watch when they manually crank it open for boats, but don't hang around after 5pm. The south side of the river is especially bad - avoid it completely. This is a daytime-only area for quick errands, not somewhere to stay or spend your evening.