Boca Chica, DR

[sup]

I'm going to be in Santo Domingo in January and was planning to stay a couple extra days and do some scuba diving. I won't have a car, so I'm thinking Boca Chica is the place. Is this a relatively safe area? I'll be a solo middle aged female traveler who speaks zero spanish but can definitely pass for hispanic until I open my mouth.
Also, if anyone can recommend a dive shop and clean, safe, inexpensive lodging, I'd be much obliged!

Alternatively, if anyone can tell me how to get from Santo Domingo to Bayahibe and about how much that would cost, I could just dive there which I've heard is way better. (ETA: renting a car is not an option.)

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

Boca Chica isn't the safest place in the DR. I wouldn't go there, especially as a single female.

You have a couple of options to get from Santo Domingo to Bayahibe.
https://www.rome2rio.com/s/Santo-Domingo/Bayahíbe or you can hire an airport transfer company but it would probably be the most expensive but it will be the quickest and least amount of a hassle.
Bayahibe has the best diving (and it's very good) in the Dominican, there is reef diving, wall diving wreck diving and even a cave dive. I always dive with and highly recommend Scuba Fun, they are located in the village of Bayahibe. Diving in Bayahibe with ScubaFun
This is the village of Bayahibe's website. Bayahibe | Bayahibe Village
Here is a map of the village.

 

[sup]

Boca Chica isn't the safest place in the DR. I wouldn't go there, especially as a single female.

You have a couple of options to get from Santo Domingo to Bayahibe.
https://www.rome2rio.com/s/Santo-Domingo/Bayahíbe or you can hire an airport transfer company but it would probably be the most expensive but it will be the quickest and least amount of a hassle.
Bayahibe has the best diving (and it's very good) in the Dominican, there is reef diving, wall diving wreck diving and even a cave dive. I always dive with and highly recommend Scuba Fun, they are located in the village of Bayahibe. Diving in Bayahibe with ScubaFun
This is the village of Bayahibe's website. Bayahibe | Bayahibe Village
Here is a map of the village.

The cost of getting to Bayahibe makes it not worth going. I’d rather use that money going to a better dive location.

 

[sup]

Alright, well in the unlikely event that someone reads this thread, I will post an update on my trip. I did go to Boca Chica after my work trip to Santo Domingo. I used a private driver that was highly recommended by multiple people that I work with and he charged $60 to drive me one way from the Sheraton SD to Boca Chica.

I dove with Tropical Seas Scuba. The owner is Swiss and I have no idea what nationality the dive master was because he didn't talk to anyone. It was kind of weird. The brief was given by the shop owner before we boarded the boat. The dive sites were just maybe a 5 minute boat ride and we returned to the shop between dives, which I really appreciate because I get sea sick. Diving didn't start until 9am, then there was another dive at 11 and 1pm, but actually they started kind of late which was surprising for a Swiss shop imo. The shop had nice gear and provided tea and coffee in the morning and between dives, but no food. The dives were relatively inexpensive, I think it came out to something like $32-33 per dive; I did four dives over two days with my own gear. I also tipped the DM and captains another $30.

The reef was kind of stressed. This was my first time seeing bleached coral, which I was surprised to see at the end of January. The bleaching was mild; just part of some of the coral was bleached and it looked like it was recovering. According to the shop owner diving there in the summer is like diving in a cauliflower garden, and bleaching is completely normal for that area. Vis was pretty good, I'd guess maybe 60 feet or so? There were some fish but nothing like most dive locations, you can tell they don't take care of their reef and even the lion fish were pretty small.

Boca Chica itself was not unsafe, but it was sketchy. It seems to be a place where gross old European men go to find young Dominican prostitutes. I was approached by touts a couple times but they were not aggressive. People were generally respectful of my personal space and I never felt like I was being sized up as a target or seen as just a wallet with legs like you get in some places, though I think YMMV if you're a man. The town is full of Italian restaurants and has some really great Neapolitan pizza.
I stayed at the Batey Hotel, which was clean and charming but didn't have anything really in the way of security, which displeased me greatly, especially when the maid walked into my room while I was naked after a shower, like what the actual ****? There's no chain or bolt or anything except the flimsy doorknob lock, and also the safe in the room didn't work. The restaurant at the Batey hotel was lovely and the breakfast was pretty good for a free breakfast.

I guess if I were in Santo Domingo again I would go back and dive here again. I mean, it was cheap and safe enough, though I would find a different hotel. Tbh, the hotel choices aren't great, if I'm just going to dive for one day I'd go back to Santo Domingo and stay there.

I hope someone finds this helpful.

 

[sup]

I was recently back in Santo Domingo and wound up there over a weekend so of course I decided to make a few more dives at Boca Chica. Stuck with Tropical Sea Divers. They have moved a couple hundred feet down the street into a new shop which is not all that different from their old shop. I have surmised that the dive master is French and only really speaks French, but he was nice enough and does seem to understand some English. The reef was in much better shape this time with a lot more fish and no bleaching. I did not stay overnight; I just ubered back and forth to Santo Domingo each day, this was despite everywhere online reporting that uber drivers would try to scam you out of extra money. I had absolutely no problems with my uber drivers, each trip cost about $20-25 each way, plus I tipped about $10 per ride because their rates were so low compared to private drivers and taxis. Just thought I'd throw this in here in case anyone else finds themselves in Santo Domingo for the weekend and is considering doing some scuba diving.

 

[Eric802]

Did you stay at a more secure hotel this time? Ah, nevermind...saw that you went back and forth. Glad you figured out a good way to do it!