Punta Cana vs Hawaii

[TMJJS]

Our family is going to be SCUBA certified this summer and while we want to do scuba diving on the vacation we have other land considerations. I have read about a lot of the Mexican Riveria area and some Caribbean islands, but how is the diving at these locations - Punta Cana and Hawaii. Of course Hawaii has 5 islands, so is it different on the different islands? Is one better than the other? We can stay on Oahu, but want to travel to the big island also, but can go to the others.

We will have a new 10 year old 1st timer and the 15 year old along with my wife and I have dived less than a dozen times. We are most interested in seeing colorful coral along with lots of fish.

Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions/help!

 

[billmosel]

Try comparing apples and oranges instead. I have never dove Hawaii but...Punta Cana I have and there could be no comparison between the Atlantic where you would be diving off Punta Cana and the South Pacific. Punta Cana's vis is low, not much coral and plenty of surge. Try comparing Hawaii to say Indonesia and that will bring in a better comparison.

 

[TMJJS]

Try comparing apples and oranges instead. I have never dove Hawaii but...Punta Cana I have and there could be no comparison between the Atlantic where you would be diving off Punta Cana and the South Pacific. Punta Cana's vis is low, not much coral and plenty of surge. Try comparing Hawaii to say Indonesia and that will bring in a better comparison.

Thanks! I'm trying to compare two places I'm thinking about diving this summer. Someday, hopefully I'll get to the South Pacific. I'm taking it by your comments you would say Hawaii is the better dive spot

Thanks!

Anyone else dive both and can give me some insights?

 

[k374]

I haven't dove in Punta Cana but I've been there and didn't hear of any diving that was too popular, perhaps for a reason. Most of what was going on seemed to be topside..people drinking beer, lounging around in beach chairs and plenty of kayaking, swimming etc. I did dive on the other side of DR..i.e. Sosua bay and that seemed fine, nothing spectacular.

In Hawaii I have only dived around Maui (Lanai, Molokini etc.)...I would rate the diving "good" but not spectacular with the exception of Molokini which I personally really liked very much, especially the back wall was infact a fabulous dive. If you've only dove dozen times then the back wall may be out of your experience level since it's a pretty damn deep dive and your Bouyancy control has to be spot on, but the front side is a pretty EASY dive (although it can also be deep as the first bottom of the partial crater is around 110 ft) but there is a LOT of life there at shallow depths 20-60ft, you'll love it! The boat crossings in this area are notoriously rough so if you get seasick be prepared!

 

[Charlie99]

In general, the difference between diving in Hawaii and in the Caribbean is that Hawaii has much less of the soft stuff. By soft stuff I mean barrel sponges, sea fans, and gorgonians.

Hawaii tends to have a rougher, more severe look to it that the Caribbean. Lots of bright coral. Lots of critters. But much less plant life, particularly those softer items that can't stand much surge.

Within the Hawaiian Islands the general trend is for the southeastmost island, the Big Island of Hawaii to have the newest lava formations, better viz, and the bottom is often lava with just one layer of corals on it. You don't find the massive coral formations of many feet of thickness that can be found at places like Cozumel. The oldest island is Kauai in the northwest. It's rock formations are much smoother as they have had more time for erosion to take place. This leads to more algae and a slightly different skewing of the proportions of the various fish species. For a given amount of swell and surf, the viz in the Big Island will be better than in Kauai. The islands of Maui and Oahu fall in between these two extremes.

The above is perhaps a bit of overgeneralization, but it is the trend. There are local variations too. For example, much of S. Maui has fine sand beaches and viz is strongly dependent upon swells and waves over the previous 24 hours or so, while the nearby island of Lanai is more like the Big Island in that most of the shoreline is hard lava and wave action doesn't degrade viz as much. Molokini, a small islet in a 300' deep channel near Maui nearly always has excellent visibility as the currents sweep everything clear. It also has some of the most extensive coral formations in the mid-reef area, as it is protected from storm surge from one direction by the crater rim, and from the other direction by nearby Maui.

 

[WetBoy101]

If you do decide on The Big Island, send me a PM. I would be happy to share some local info on diving here. Rick :fish:

 

[DeputyDan]

Of the three place you listed
Oahu
Kona
Punta Cana

Kona would best meet your needs.

Do the Manta Ray night dive. If your kids aren't ready for that - let them snorkel while you do the dive. Still worth it and will give them something to look forward to later on!

 

[lmorin]

I have dived from the Club Med at Punta Cana. It was a family thing with little grand kids. There may be other dive sites at the Punta Cana end of the Dominican Republic reachable from other resorts, probably are, but based on my experience at one, I would not recommend it to anybody. Hawaii at its worst is probably still better. The dive shop would only take AOW divers outside the reef because of the very strong currents (that often forced cancellation of the dives, all drift dives). My wife and I are AOW, but the rest of the family is not. Therefore, we dove the one site inside the reef. Even there, the currents were so strong that it was impossible to swim against them. Moreover, the currents was hugely modulated by the incoming surf so the direction of current flow was highly variable. In the lee of some big coral heads, swimming was ok.

Because the area for diving was so limited, basically a group of big rocks with limited growth on them (although there were fair numbers of fish tuck up away from the currents), the dive op had rigged heavy duty nylon ropes all around the site. When you could not make headway against the current, you latched on to a rope and pulled yourself along. Actually the fish life at the site was not bad, but divers spent so much time concentrating on swimming or pulling themselves against surges and current, that it was impossible to swim into the cave and overhang areas where the fish were. We saw southern and yellow stingrays, scorpionfish, sand diver, lots of grunts of various species. Almost zero gobies/blennies. Very little coral, although the area has been planted with staghorn coral clippings.

 

[TMJJS]

Thanks! Well I guess Punta Cana is out. Looking for an AI in the Carribean or Mexico. Maybe back to Riveria Maya again.