Diving in Bayahibe Dominic Republic with Scuba Fun

[Jeff Loflin]

I just came back from a great dive trip to Bayahibe D.R. I was diving with Scuba Fun in Bayahibe. The diving was great, cool wrecks from 21 feet to 145 feet and nice reefs. The employees at Scuba Fun where very friendly and knowledgeable of all the sea life and great dive locations. Most of the boat rides are less than 10 minutes from The dock and the dock is only a few hundred feet from the dive store.
the dive store is in the center of town with everything you need with in walking distance.
I would recommend Scuba Fun as a dive center if you are going to Bayahibe and if you have not been to the D.R yet Bayahibe is one of the best if not the best dive location in D.R.

Scuba Fun also rented me a penthouse apartment to stay in while I was diving with them for a week, which I would rate a solid 10. Great safe location, easy access to everything. The penthouse is very clean and very well maintained. It has everything you need for your vacation. The furniture is better then most condos I have stayed in before. I would recommend this property to everyone. It is very large and plenty of room for 4-6 people. You can't go wrong renting this property for your vacation, and diving with Scuba Fun. I will be going back in a few months.

 

[Scuba_Noob]

Heard plenty of great things about ScubaFun. Unfortunately, I didn't stay at Bayahibe while I was at DR, so it was a long bus ride there with the other op with which I went.

 

[drrich2]

Glad to hear you had a good time. Never got to dive Dominican Republic; did an ATV excursion there one day on a cruise ship stop to Samana, which I'm told isn't a good dive destination.

Any thoughts on how the diving on your trip compared to other places you've been in the Caribbean? You mentioned wrecks; how was the reef? See any large animals?

I'm trying to get a feel for how it stacks up against other destinations, like Cozumel, Bonaire, St. Thomas, etc... Is it mainly one of those places for the seasoned traveler who wants a new place, or should it be on the radar of fairly new tropical traveling divers?

Richard.

 

[Scuba_Noob]

When I dove the DR in Bayahibe, which is considered one of the best spots in the DR, there were very few large creatures - one eagle ray and a few other smaller rays. Mostly there were reefs and corals with smaller, colorful fish. It wasn't bad diving, but there was some obvious dead reef areas. I did six dives there.

From what I've heard, Cozumel and Bonaire are better for seasoned divers. I would pick those before diving the DR again. DR, I would say, is more attuned to newer divers, as it's quite easy diving.

 

[dfx]

Heard plenty of great things about ScubaFun. Unfortunately, I didn't stay at Bayahibe while I was at DR, so it was a long bus ride there with the other op with which I went.

That's exactly what we did when we were in the DR. We stayed in Bavaro which has so-so diving, but had one day of diving off Bayahibe with 3 dives. It was beautiful, several stingrays, spotted morays, lobsters, the obligatory lionfish, huge trumpetfish, a sleeping/hiding nurse shark that I couldn't get a good picture of, and lots of other stuff that I don't even know what it was. I'm a photo noob, but my pictures from that day are here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/106134712562512294055/albums/5846679074461759825

We went with Dressel Divers off the Iberostar resort. I liked the diving in Roatan better, but I'd go back to Bayahibe in an instant anyway.

 

[Dhboner]

I have dived in Bayahibe 3 times and would describe the diving as decent to really good. The wreck of the St. George is great (an old Russian freighter) and I would put Penon reef and the Catalina Island wall right up there with any dive. You won't get the marine life or the huge pinnacles you get in Cozumel but it is still a great dive destination especially for new divers. There is virtually no current and lots to see in shallower depths. I have always dived with ScubaFun and can't say enough good things about them.

 

[DRsharky]

Dominican Republic is not a place to see big stuff, even though I did see a hammerhead shark twice (during the 5 year period I've been here), nurse sharks and reef sharks. But it seams they disappeared since the last storm we had last year. Now for the past few years we see occasionally humpback whales (between February and March) , as a matter of fact there was a mother and a baby last week by Saona Island. But there is no guarantee you will see any of these big creatures. You will see turtles, sting rays, eagle rays, morey eels.

The wall by Catalina island is not what is used to be, most of the time very busy with many divers and snorkelers and also getting damaged by many visitors from the cruise ships. My favorite is El Peñon and St George wreck

If you are into cave diving, then there is lots to see in DR, according to divers that went cave diving in Mexico (never done that) the caves here are better.

 

[drrich2]

Thanks for the input on the diving and how it compares to other places. On my cruise stop, I enjoyed seeing the lushness of the island. I went to Trip Adviser to look up Scuba Fun and looks like they're highly rated by a number of past customers. Their web site didn't list accommodations that I could find, so I guess if you want their help with that, you'd need to contact them. Good to know.

Richard.

 

[Torontonian]

We'll be on a cruise trip with a port stop at La Romana. Don't know the geography well there. Is it close enough to tryto get to one of those dive ops, to do diving in Bayahibe? We're in port on Aug. 27, 9am-5pm, from Carnival Freedom ship.

Thanks.

 

[DRsharky]

La Romana port is about 15 minute drive from Bayahibe where most of the trips start.