Toadie
Contributor
So I'm back....
On Saturday I returned from the Dominican Republic and I'm pleased to say that the diving was pretty good. Now I've been there before and I had remembered it fondly. I was also shocked to see that many of the posts on here basically tell you that the Dominican doesn't have anything to offer. In any case, if you're planning on going to the Dominican you'll find the information in this post valuable. If you've have recently been, please chime in and share your experience.
Ok, so I'm heading down to the DR for a friends wedding and I come here to see what there is in Punta Cana. Sadly I find that the diving won't be very good so I take it upon myself to find the best dive sites and work with several dive shops.
My preliminary dealings with the dive shops resulted in the following...
The resort I was staying with in Punta Cana has Scuba Caribe and would not go anywhere other than Punta Cana, so they kicked themselves out automatically.
Scuba Caribe in Bayahibe had planned dives for the week and I could tag along, so that ended that.
Dressel Divers had the dive excursions I wanted and they were out of Bayahibe but they would only do certain excursions on certain days and you basically fit into their frame work or you don't go. Since I was at the mercy of the wedding party that didn't work for me.
Scuba Fun out of Bayahibe responded to all of my emails once I called them and found out the details (They were in the process of establishing new management) and were great to work with. I can honestly say that Scuba Fun let me build the trip that I wanted and gave me the best diving the Dominican has to offer.
On top of that, they worked with me (a little bit) on price but they were cheaper than every other shop and I felt that the service was better than the bigger shops.
Now you need to remember that when you go to the Dominican your schedules are typically within 60 minutes... so that mean that if you need to be there at 8:30 am, you'll probably leave for diving around 9:30 and if you are cabbing it, you should tell your cabby to pick you up 60 minutes after the dive shop tells you that you'll be there. Remember... you're on vacation, you're in the Dominican, and most of all... You're diving.
On with the report...
Day 1 - I arranged transportation on my on and I decided to take a taxi every day from Punta Cana to Bayahibe due to the over whelming response from our tour operator, the hotel, and the dive shop not to drive. It took about 15 minutes in the taxi before I realized that it wasn't a conspiracy... you really don't want to drive there. So, for 140 US each day I with the help of Scuba Fun arranged a taxi. Now this is a pretty important point. John (the owner of Scuba Fun) helped me out greatly with the taxi negotiation and I believe he saved me a total of 90 bucks. Yes, the taxi is expensive but remember I'm driving 180 kms per day in a taxi.... so while it's tough to swallow the fee, 140 is a good deal. My thanks to John on this one. Needless to say, my party is picked up at 6:30 am each day, taken to Bayahibe, and taken back to the resort after diving. Money well spent.
The first day we dive the St. George and multiple reefs. Good wreck, about 96 ft average and the visability was excellent. There wasn't a lot of fish life but the wreck was nice, minor penetrations. The reefs had some nice surprises, smaller fish, eel, etc
Day two we head out to Catalina for the wall and the aquarium. Much better plant and coral life, and in general more sea life. Our third dive was on Dominicus reef where we came across a massive rock lobster, and several eels.
Day three we headed out to shark point, catalinita, and Sanoa. The first dive we saw the biggest sting ray I've ever seen (body was about 3 to 4 feet wide) and a nurse shark. Sanoa had a decent lunch, excellent beach and on the way back we hit a star fish field, and the Penon dive site. Much better life at this site, multiple eels, eagle ray, crabs, fish, etc. To cap it all off we did a night dive along Bayahibe and saw some great fish.
Now I am skimping on some of the details but here's the gist for you. The Dominican is not known for "big fish" but if you look, you will see some great life. I can honestly say that I had a great dive trip and each day only got better. More importantly the staff at Scuba Fun were friendly and great to work with.
The process started with Corina who speaks 6 languages (I'm in awe of her) and she helped me coordinate everything from Colorado. Everything went smoothly.
From there I met with the guides/instructors/dm's and I feel like an *** because I can't remember the two Dominican guides but they were all very good and Ann and Cedric really made the trip enjoyable.
The boat operators didn't really speak much english but Johnny cracked me up and seemed to be having a good time because he spends most of it singing.... I'm not sure to who.
John the owner of the shop was great to deal with and helped put an American spin on the Dominican life.
All in all the diving was great, the staff were great, and the shop I chose to deal with I think made all the difference in the world.
If you want my opinion, when you're in the Dominican look up Scuba Fun if you want a flawless dive trip.
www.scubafun.info
By the way, I paid for all my dives, I just believe in promoting good service. If you would like more specific information about which reefs, what I saw, etc, feel free to ask or pm me.
Vince
On Saturday I returned from the Dominican Republic and I'm pleased to say that the diving was pretty good. Now I've been there before and I had remembered it fondly. I was also shocked to see that many of the posts on here basically tell you that the Dominican doesn't have anything to offer. In any case, if you're planning on going to the Dominican you'll find the information in this post valuable. If you've have recently been, please chime in and share your experience.
Ok, so I'm heading down to the DR for a friends wedding and I come here to see what there is in Punta Cana. Sadly I find that the diving won't be very good so I take it upon myself to find the best dive sites and work with several dive shops.
My preliminary dealings with the dive shops resulted in the following...
The resort I was staying with in Punta Cana has Scuba Caribe and would not go anywhere other than Punta Cana, so they kicked themselves out automatically.
Scuba Caribe in Bayahibe had planned dives for the week and I could tag along, so that ended that.
Dressel Divers had the dive excursions I wanted and they were out of Bayahibe but they would only do certain excursions on certain days and you basically fit into their frame work or you don't go. Since I was at the mercy of the wedding party that didn't work for me.
Scuba Fun out of Bayahibe responded to all of my emails once I called them and found out the details (They were in the process of establishing new management) and were great to work with. I can honestly say that Scuba Fun let me build the trip that I wanted and gave me the best diving the Dominican has to offer.
On top of that, they worked with me (a little bit) on price but they were cheaper than every other shop and I felt that the service was better than the bigger shops.
Now you need to remember that when you go to the Dominican your schedules are typically within 60 minutes... so that mean that if you need to be there at 8:30 am, you'll probably leave for diving around 9:30 and if you are cabbing it, you should tell your cabby to pick you up 60 minutes after the dive shop tells you that you'll be there. Remember... you're on vacation, you're in the Dominican, and most of all... You're diving.
On with the report...
Day 1 - I arranged transportation on my on and I decided to take a taxi every day from Punta Cana to Bayahibe due to the over whelming response from our tour operator, the hotel, and the dive shop not to drive. It took about 15 minutes in the taxi before I realized that it wasn't a conspiracy... you really don't want to drive there. So, for 140 US each day I with the help of Scuba Fun arranged a taxi. Now this is a pretty important point. John (the owner of Scuba Fun) helped me out greatly with the taxi negotiation and I believe he saved me a total of 90 bucks. Yes, the taxi is expensive but remember I'm driving 180 kms per day in a taxi.... so while it's tough to swallow the fee, 140 is a good deal. My thanks to John on this one. Needless to say, my party is picked up at 6:30 am each day, taken to Bayahibe, and taken back to the resort after diving. Money well spent.
The first day we dive the St. George and multiple reefs. Good wreck, about 96 ft average and the visability was excellent. There wasn't a lot of fish life but the wreck was nice, minor penetrations. The reefs had some nice surprises, smaller fish, eel, etc
Day two we head out to Catalina for the wall and the aquarium. Much better plant and coral life, and in general more sea life. Our third dive was on Dominicus reef where we came across a massive rock lobster, and several eels.
Day three we headed out to shark point, catalinita, and Sanoa. The first dive we saw the biggest sting ray I've ever seen (body was about 3 to 4 feet wide) and a nurse shark. Sanoa had a decent lunch, excellent beach and on the way back we hit a star fish field, and the Penon dive site. Much better life at this site, multiple eels, eagle ray, crabs, fish, etc. To cap it all off we did a night dive along Bayahibe and saw some great fish.
Now I am skimping on some of the details but here's the gist for you. The Dominican is not known for "big fish" but if you look, you will see some great life. I can honestly say that I had a great dive trip and each day only got better. More importantly the staff at Scuba Fun were friendly and great to work with.
The process started with Corina who speaks 6 languages (I'm in awe of her) and she helped me coordinate everything from Colorado. Everything went smoothly.
From there I met with the guides/instructors/dm's and I feel like an *** because I can't remember the two Dominican guides but they were all very good and Ann and Cedric really made the trip enjoyable.
The boat operators didn't really speak much english but Johnny cracked me up and seemed to be having a good time because he spends most of it singing.... I'm not sure to who.
John the owner of the shop was great to deal with and helped put an American spin on the Dominican life.
All in all the diving was great, the staff were great, and the shop I chose to deal with I think made all the difference in the world.
If you want my opinion, when you're in the Dominican look up Scuba Fun if you want a flawless dive trip.
www.scubafun.info
By the way, I paid for all my dives, I just believe in promoting good service. If you would like more specific information about which reefs, what I saw, etc, feel free to ask or pm me.
Vince
