Punta Cana, Dominican Republic - Diving and sightseeing recommendations?

[corvettejoe]

I've been reading some of the reef/wreck diving info on here already, but have some more questions not just related to diving about the area:
I posted this on another forum, so just ignore the reef/wreck diving unless you feel like giving more info than other posts on the subject.

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The wife (non diver) and I are planning a trip to Dreams Punta Cana (NOT the Palm Beach location). We stayed in their Tulum resort a year ago and absolutely loved it. We were wanting to see a different country/settings this time and were checking out the DR. We're looking to go in late aug/early sept.

Some questions we have:

Sight Seeing/Shopping
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I understand it's a VERY poor country, and most people that have visited the cruise ports have stated they didn't really care to get off here. We, however, will be flying to Punta Cana and taking a car/shuttle to our resort (located just north of the city by about 20 miles).

How safe are these areas to be in?

We were thinking of just getting the resort shuttle, or (like we did in Mexico) we rented a car so we could go places... is there anywhere safe we could drive around to on our own, or should we try to book a group trip with others? Should we just skip the rental car and take the resort shuttle?

We would also like to see about going somewhere (no idea where) to do something (no idea what... jungles? mountains? certain town? some historical place? good place to shop for local stuff?) and are looking for places we may be able to go safe on our own (with a rental car) or, again, if we should just go with a group somewhere.

Diving
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I want to do some reef diving, our resort supposedly has a dive shop on site, but I am open to other suggestions close by in the area. I love big reefs, wrecks are a huge plus, but I need stuff within rec limits (no trimix). Some deco wouldn't be an issue for me.

I also want to book a cave dive, but there don't seem to be as many shops with very good info on this, or I am not sure who to trust. I could use some good recommendations! Also... recommendations on the nicest caves to see (that isn't a day drive away, we will be on the east coast). I'm full cave/sidemount, but not looking to do any crawl spaces or nasty caves. I want to do a relaxing enjoyable dive and see cool decorated caves. I am not opposed to some of these sherpa/donkey trail sites, that sounds pretty cool/adventurous. I would be going by myself on the day I cave dive, and the wife will stay at the resort... so I may need a shop that can take me wherever and don't mind diving with a small group, or one-on-one with a good guide.

I dove one-on-one with a guide in Tulum and had a GREAT time and experience in the caves. I am looking to replicate that great experience in DR. We also had a car in Tulum though, so it made it easier to get to the dive shop.

I'll just be bringing basic gear, mask/snorkel/fins/backup lights/spools/etc, and my monkey rig (just a homemade harness with the sidemount bungees, no BC) for OW diving. So I would need to rent a sidemount BC, can light for a cave dive and tanks.
We're flying Jet Blue, and we may just bite the bullet and pay for an extra bag ($80 round trip?) and then I could take all my own gear and only need to rent tanks. Not sure what I will be doing for that yet ... I've never flown with a Can light, so not sure how to deal with that and it's large battery.

Anyhow... any advice would be GREATLY appreciated.

If the advice isn't good, we may just end up back in Tulum again. We liked it enough to go back again.

 

[Leftyjeb]

Hey CorvetteJoe,

My wife (a diver) and I just got back from a 12 day stay at Excellence Punta Cana. It was our honeymoon- and it was unbelievable! Here are my thoughts to your questions:

#1- I'm sure that no place is 100% safe, but I also feel that those who say Punta Cana is less-than-safe may not have been there for a while. My wife is fluent in Spanish and we spoke to about a dozen Dominicans on the matter. Since tourism is by far and away the DR's #1 source of income, the message is pretty clear here: be nice to tourists. There's a notable police presence and the people were absolutely delightful. It's my guess that safety has improved over the years, but the reputation has lagged. That said, we ventured from our resort on;y a few times and were careful about our decisions.

At your resort, there will no doubt be several reps who offer literally dozens of different excursions: diving, sailing, snorkeling, ATVs, parasailing, rainforest hikes, booze cruises, etc… The list is endless.

My tip: Don't plan anything in advance in this regard. Meet with the reps, ask questions and once you know what you want to do ask them for a ride back to the airport (which can cost about $70 you'll find). When we booked out dives, my wife asked the rep for a ride back to the airport, she called her boss and they set it up for us instead of losing us to the rep sitting 6 feet to her left.

#2- Diving: The most offered dive trip is out of Bayahibe (it's an hour long bus ride, but kind of nice). A boat brings you to Catalina Island, which sits in Caribbean waters for two dives: "the Wall" and "the Aquarium". We did this and loved it. This might be a good option for you and your wife as several people on our charter were non-divers. They had their own snorkeling itinerary. The trip comes with a pretty decent beach buffet and a brief (1-hour) stay on the remote Catalina Island, which is very pretty.

I shot video of our trip. I hope you like it.
[video=youtube;i078s8FyB0U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i078s8FyB0U&list=UUPdHauWrnKdHjwh_XJ5kntw& feature=c4-overview[/video]

All in all, we loved our trip to the D.R. The people were lovely, the country is beautiful and we loved our diving experience.

Oh, our dive charter was with a company called "SubAquatic". They were great. They served us chicken soup, and lots of cheap rum and beer (after the dives, of course.)

Have fun.

---------- Post added March 3rd, 2014 at 08:40 AM ----------

By the way, the waters were much clearer than my GoPro footage would suggest. As a rookie to warm-water diving, I didn't take any measures to make sure my GoPro didn't "fog" up. So, it looks a little hazier than it really was.

---------- Post added March 3rd, 2014 at 08:45 AM ----------

One more tip: We signed up for a sport fishing charter, too… I much would have rather had a second day diving.

I grew up on the ocean (my dad was a lobsterman, tuna fisherman in mid-coast Maine). The fishing in the Atlantic waters off Punta Cana/LaRomana in the winter is a little insane. Like, 15-foot swells the entire time. We didn't get a single bite. We heard tales of other boats getting marlin, but that was it. The boat (which was pretty beat) was spewing some pretty toxic diesel fumes in our faces for hours. There was no escaping it.