Trip Report: Dominican Republic (La Romana)

[UnderwaterBumbleBee]

Last Wednesday we arrived home from back to back trips to Cabo San Lucas and then the Dominican Republic. The two trips could not have been more different including our experiences with the dive operators we booked with.

In the Dominican Republic we were staying at the All Inclusive Dreams La Romana for a friends wedding. We don't usually stay at all inclusives and I really wasn't interested in diving with "resort divers". After researching online and several email communications later we booked 4 days of diving with Diving DR and could not have been more happy with our decision to book with them.

The owners Vlad & Denise are fantastic, so much fun to talk with and very customer service oriented. They both have great senses of humor, Vlad dishes it out and Denise puts him in his place! We didn't get a chance to dive with Vlad because "cough, cough" he was sick and suffering from sinus problems. However, Bruno, our Brazilian divemaster was excellent and really one of the best we have ever been diving with. The conditions were pretty good and it was easy diving but he was still very safety oriented, gave great dive briefings, swapped out our tanks for us and generally very nice to talk with. Additionally they rinsed and stored our gear each day at their shop. They also dropped us off at our hotel with all our gear on our last day so we didn't have to lug it 5 minutes down the beach.

Inside their shop they have a great painted mural on the wall pointing out all the dive sites along with beautiful photos taken by Vlad to get you excited for diving. We were fortunate enough to have the boat completely to ourselves ( I think the max people they take out is 5) for our four days and we were "the boss".

The condition of the coral on almost all of our dives was in excellent shape. It was better than other Caribbean destinations we've been to that are more known for diving. Beautiful and plentiful sea fans among lots of other coral types, a good amount of fish life (mostly smaller fish life). We saw eels, huge puffers, stingrays, one very large eagle ray swimming away from us, a large nurse shark, sleeping octopus, two wrecks, a pair of pelagic fish and more. I was really pleasantly surprised by how good the diving was and very happy we took our dive gear. It is absolutely worth it.

They were especially worthwhile if you are a more experienced diver looking for a better experience than what you will have with "resort diving". They were worth every penny and I would absolutely consider coming back to the Dominican Republic just because of the service and experience we had with Denise, Vlad & Bruno! It will be hard to not expect that type of service & having our own boat when we travel to other destinations. We may have to come back just so we can dive with Vlad!

Photos to be uploaded soon!

Scuba Diving Dominican Republic

 

[UnderwaterBumbleBee]

Photos are up: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - bumblebeeimages' Photos | SmugMug

 

[KentFromPGH]

Thanks for the trip report and photos. The first full week in September my wife and I are staying at Dreams - we usually don't do AI resorts but the price was right from Delta Vacations. We are diving with Diving DR and can't wait.

Did you do any of the optional day trips like Catalinta, Catalina or Saona?

 

[UnderwaterBumbleBee]

Kent-

We went to Saona which is give or take 30 minutes by boat. There was a little of that red algae on some of the coral out that way. They also took us through the mangroves by Saona but two larger boats had already come through and we didn't see any manatees. Honestly, I was surprised at how good the diving was off the boat closer to our hotel. In front of Iberostar, Viva Shallows was a really great dive. Shallow but loads of stuff to see. We also did two wrecks in one day, a deeper one at about 118 feet and a shallow one near Dreams which the top of the boat rests in about 9 feet of water which had a ton of fish life around it. You will love Denise & Vlad. It's a really easy 5 minute walk down the beach. Definitely try the Cuban restaurant next door to them (Ropa Vieja was excellent), it was a much needed break from the AI food.

You should take your gear out and snorkel at least once off the hotel beach. We did that on the last day we were there, around the corner from the pier is the best spot (10-15 feet from the pier). There's some shallow coral where loads of fish are hanging out, lots under the pier as well. Lots of nursery's full of baby fish. I saw a large scorpion fish, big trumpet fish and at one point I turned around and there was a school of 13 squid behind me.

Other things to mention about Dreams/Dominican:
-Our friend's Travel Agent said it was a 40 min ride from Santo Domingo, it's actually 2 hours and I believe even Punta Cana is close to the same.
-Food at Dreams is seriously overrated online (facebook, tripadvisor,etc...) They have a ton of European visitors so their menu is catering to a wide variety of visitors. The Buffet is your main choice for breakfast and lunch since most other restaurants aren't open then. They open at 7am and we didn't have to be at the diveshop til 9am so that was good. The seafood restaurant was really not good and be prepared that some meals at the restaurants could take 2 hours. The French restaurant was really good, excellent steak. The Italian was also very good. Good Sweet & sour pork at the Asian place but in general I found most of the food to have been mediocre and really hyped up online.
-For the most part, all of the staff was very friendly and they all answer with "it is my pleasure". You almost always get a hello passing staff around the resort.
-They do a good job of twice daily maid service mid morning and around dinner so you always have towells and drinks stocked in your mini fridge. They have a HUGE wall safe which you pick a four digit pin for. I've never had a safe that big, I could fit my digital SLR camera and a zoom lens, wallets, phones, ipod and more.
-We were in building 4 which has a very central location to everything.
-They have a really pretty spa with outdoor gardens and a cool jacuzzi
-It was INCREDIBLY hot due to the humidity (on the water it was great though).
-While we had one inexperienced traveler in our group who complained, we thought their bugs were very minimal and they must do a good job of spraying. We had very few bites and barely noticed them at all. The worst was at the Dominican restaurant which is on their beach, it felt like sand fleas.
-The beach is powder sugar white sand with beautiful palm trees everywhere. Really calm waters when we were there which seemed to be the norm. Warm water temp, pretty good visibility.
-Ask for a Mama Juana if you go to the bar. The signature Dominican shot.

 

[Nesher]

UWBB:

Thanks for the trip report. Sounds like you had a wonderful time.

 

[DRsharky]

Thank you for the great review and for diving with us. It was fun talking to you and having lunch together. I really hope you come back so I can personally dive with you !

 

[Nesher]

UWBB:

Hey A? Should I put the DR on my destination lists? Short or long?

 

[Gtoph]

UWBB:
Hey A? Should I put the DR on my destination lists? Short or long?

It was pretty decent diving, and the DR is -relatively- cheap, maybe not on the short list, but medium list? I think Curacao again, or another liveaboard somewhere is on our short list. Definitely the pacific (fiji, maldives, png, etc) is on our long (when we hit the lotto) list. Where are you off to next?

 

[Randy43068]

Thanks for the great report!!

 

[Randy43068]

damn server...