Dominican Republic Punta Cana Diving

[kabal22]

Going to Punta Cana (Bavarro Beach) in August and looking to do some diving while there.

Can anyone make any recommendations?

Also, going to be staying at the NH Real Arena if anyone has any input on that resort.

thanks

[StingRob]

I've been to La Romana... very nice:
Moments, places and things: Dominican Republic – Neptuno Divers - dive places (http://robertkuzel.blogspot.com/2009/07/dominican-republic-neptuno-divers-dive.html)

[DRsharky]

The diving conditions around La Romana are usually better then in Punta Cana / Bavaro area. Most of the divers who've been both locations say that the diving on the east coast is not as good as on the south. Some of the dive shops organize diving trip to Catalina Island, bring you here to Bayahibe by a bus where you board the boat. Personally I haven't been diving in Punta Cana, so I cannot tell you where are the best spots. There are many dive ops, some better some worse, I usually recommend Promarine at Catalonia Hotel, I've seen the operation, my friends used to work there, the owner cares about the clients.

[kabal22]

Thanks for the insight. I did some searching already and found that Punta Cana is not the best location in DR to dive. The Mrs. already booked the resort so I am stuck with that location and just figured I would make the best of it.

I know the resort has their own dive op but I couldn't find much on them, and it looks like there are several in the area. Unlike other areas I haven't been able to find any good info on any of them. I guess the lack of information out there should tell me the diving is going to be mediocre at best.

[awshay]

I'm in the same situation. We're staying at the Iberostar in Punta Cana. The hotel has a dive shop (Drexxel (?)), I'm looking for other dive shop options, but without much success.

[DRsharky]

Dressel Divers is a big and good dive operation all over the world, here is their link for Dominican Republic
Dive in Dominican Republic with Dressel Divers (http://www.dresseldivers.com/en/diving_dominican_republic.htm)
Divers are happy with their service, some people are saying that they are too expensive.

[drmatt1972]

anyone have any recommendations off the north side of the island around Puerto Plata? Heading there next week. Nothing like the last minute for advice.

[DRsharky]

I lived in the area for 2 years and was diving in Sosua, about 15 - 20 min drive from Puerto Plata. I still have a website about diving there so you can look at the dive sites (http://palmbreak.com/?page_id=13) on the north coast and info about them.
Good dive shops are Northern Coast diving run by Mark a guy from USA or Merlin diving run by German owner Jurgen. If you dive with any of them, say hi to them from me :)

[Teg97RS]

Hi guys,

I'm going to the Grand Palladium Bavaro in Punta Cana in 2 weeks and I saw that they're offering scuba diving excursion. Any info on the operator (or actually any suggestions at all)?

[DRsharky]

I don't know who the op is at the resort, I know that Dressell (in Iberostar), Neptuno, Promarine and few others work from Punta Cana Bavaro area. Dressell is well know dive op all over the world, and cannot say much about other ops from there except Promarine. They are located in Catalonia hotel (that might be too far from your resort), ran by a German owner and it's run very well.
I think the excursion will be to Catalina Island, meaning bus drive from Punta Cana to Bayahibe (where I live) and from there on the boat to Catalina.

[trigfunctions]

anyone have any recommendations off the north side of the island around Puerto Plata? Heading there next week. Nothing like the last minute for advice.

We were in Sosua a couple of months ago. We stayed at the Sosua Bay Club hotel, which is right on the beach.
Sosua Bay Hotel - Sosua Bay Club Puerto Plata Specials

We dove with the dive shop that is associated with the hotel:

http://www.dolphindivecenter.com/

Both were good operations and we got pretty good deals. It was very convenient. The diving is OK, not great. you can also snorkel in the bay for free any time, but I don't know about shore diving.

[kabal22]

We are back from our trip to Punta Cana. Since there didn't seem to be much info out there about diving I thought I would come back on and answer my own qhestion for anyone else that was wondering about the area.

As some had suggested, the water is very rough in Punta Cana. It is not the best conditions for diving. The beaches are great and the water is fairly calm there. There was a reef a few hundred yards out. Each diving trip involved going outside this reef and as soon as you crossed it there were high swells and rough water. Add to that we were usually taken out in a small open boat with either only us or just a few other divers. It seemed that other dive operators also mostly used these small open boats. On one trip there were enough divers for the dive operator to use a cataraman which was much better.

Even with the bigger boat several people got seasick even before the first dive. There was always a rush to put on equipment as soon as we got to the dive location. There wasn't much in the way of equipment checking or organization. On several dives the dive operator told people to get in the water and get to the bottom quickly before getting sick; we would meet up at the bottom. The dive masters also did not seem to believe in safety stops on the second consecutive dive. All of the divers would wait at 15 feet and the divemaster would surface and get in the boat and leave us. They also regularly took divers through narrow caves and into a sunken ship, which definitely made my wife nervous as we are both novice divers.

The boats used almost never had a ladder. You would take all of your equipment off in the water (the rough water) and then have to hoist yourself into the boat.

All in all, it was still diving. The visibility was usually about 50 feet and there were some fish and coral to see. There is a large shipwreck in Punta Cana we dove on and actually swam into. The shipwreck is in shallow water, and some of it is above the water. Because of this they will only dive there on especially calm days.

I think the small boats can be attributed to the fact that it is not a popular scuba destination and it's simply not feesible to run a large boat for only a couple of divers. The dive operators were pleasant and although there was a bit of a language barrier they tried.

Would I recommend this as a dive destination, absolutely not. I also would not recommend it as a place to learn to dive. If you like to dive and happen to be going there and want a chance to dive it's not bad. If you get seasick easily you better skip breakfast before going out.

We also took a trip to Catalina Island. A 2 hour bus ride from Punta Cana but it is in the Caribbean. The island is an underwater nature preserve. Calm seas, 100+ foot visibility and countless fish and coral to see underwater; including lion fish. If you go to the Dominican Republic and scuba dive or even snorkel it is a place worth checking out. From out hotel is was $105 for the day for snorkeling and $185 for the day for scuba. The trip included the bus ride, 2 dives, and lunch and a hang out on the island.

[DRsharky]

Thanks for the report. I get lots of email asking about diving around Punta Cana and since I live on the Caribbean side and never went diving on the east, I'll save the link to your view and pass it on.
I am glad you liked the trip to Catalina Island,
Do you remember which dive shop you went diving with?

[Robert van Brussel]

Going to Punta Cana (Bavarro Beach) in August and looking to do some diving while there.

Can anyone make any recommendations?

Also, going to be staying at the NH Real Arena if anyone has any input on that resort.

thanks


Hi,

just for your information the dive ops at your hotel are managed by SeaPro.
Just check SeaPro Dominican Republic.

Nice Dives

Robert

[miken64]

I will be in Punta Cana next week. I am considering diving with either Promarine or Dressel Divers. Definiately want to dive Catalina Island. Has anyone dove with either of these operators recently? I would like to hear what you think of them before I make a decision. Thanks.

Mike

[katemrn]

Two couples are flying into Punta Cana in February. Three of us are divers and would either like to stay in a house/condo and get half day / two tank dives in. Would it be unrealistic to get a rental car, stay in Punta Cana, and and drive to Bayahibe? I certainly don't want to have terrible dive conditions just to say we dove. Are the seas more calm in the south?
Thanks,
Kate

[DRsharky]

Hi Kate,
Bayahibe is about hour and half drive, so it is possible to do it. You can either rent a car that is around 50 USD per day, or you can take a taxi. We just found a new taxi service that charges about 120 USD for return trip (Punta Cana / Bavaro to Bayahibe and back). If you need more info contact my wife Denise at info@divingdominicanrepublic.com. Our clients mostly end up using the taxi, driving here in Dominican Republic is not easy sometimes (unless you've done it before) and after the dive they usually want to relax.