The city is on the coast of the "Miragoâne" Bay, in the Gonâve Channel of the Gulf of Gonâve, about 100 km south of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. It is also the chief town of an "arrondissement" (a part of a department) with the same name. The "arrondissement" has four "communes" (a "commune" is like a municipality): Miragoâne, Fonds-des-Nègres, Paillant and Petite-Rivière-de-Nippes.