Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic - dive ops & activities for non-certified divers?

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My husband and I, along with two other couples are going to Puerto Plata in December.

One of the guys is certified (although he hasn't been diving in years and is looking for his c card), and one of the couples is not certified but thinks they'll probably do Discover Scuba. I'm trying to convince them to get certified before the trip, but I think they are happy doing DSD.

It looks like most dive shops in the area have a day trip to Rio San Juan. I was thinking that this would be a good excursion for everyone as it is mostly shallow, has good snorkeling, beaches, etc. I'm leaning towards Merlin Divers, but I'm also thinking of Northern Coast.

I figure that my hubby & I will do something closer to Puerto Plata the next day, maybe one of the wall dives. I'd like to do the Zingara wreck, but since we are doing our AOW next weekend and don't have a lot of experience, we will probably want to avoid going that deep until we have a few more dives under our belts.

Does anyone have any suggestions for dive ops? Merlin? Northern Coast? Diwa Dominicana (they have glowing reviews on tripadvisor)?

 

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Anyone??? Bueller??

 

[Lionfish51]

Not sure where that is, we were in Bayahibe, La Romana which is the Caribbean side, we dove with the best dive shop on the island! Scuba Fun! Johnny and the gang were un real! Picked us up in AM at Viva Dominicus Beach, at dives end kept our gear and washed it! We were the ONLY divers all week! Slow season, we will go back and ONLY dive with them! 809-833-0003-info@scubafun.info tell them Rick and Lynne told you
ask any questions, be gald to help, Rick

 

[Bhtmec2]

Bayahibe and La Romana is the place to dive. The north shore is lacking so much....

If you are stuck to the north shore the sites you mentioned are OK for that area.

 

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Thanks for the help... unfortunately we are stuck in Puerto Plata. Already booked with our resort. We planned this trip in March of this year, before we were even considering diving. We would have canceled the trip altogether and gone somewhere with better diving, but our friends that are coming with us had already purchased their airfare.

I think that since we're still new, just getting in the water where it's warm and the visibility is decent that we'll have a good time.