Dominican Republic Diving and Rafting?

[trigfunctions]

Hi all - we are thinking about visiting the Dominican Republic in November this year. Our main interests are diving and whitewater rafting or tubing. What is the best area for diving? We like all kinds of diving but like wreck diving the least. Looks like there are good deals in La Romana for lodging. Does anyone have experience with Sunscape Del Mar in La Romana? Many thanks! trig

 

[cork2win]

We're going to DR on Thanksgiving day for 10 days. We're staying on the North Shore in Cabarete. I think you'll find that DR is not a prime diving destination, but there is diving to be done. Unfortunately you have to travel the country to get to some of the best sites. I've read that the best diving is in the NorthEast area of Samana. Also some very good diving in the SouthWest area, but not much else to do there. For Rafting/Canyoning/Mountainous type stuff your best bet is the North Shore.

These are some good threads on the DR. The first has a link to ScubaDiving magazine where an excellent review of DR diving was done.

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=155750&highlight=dominican
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=126747&highlight=dominican

 

[DocVikingo]

Hi trigfunctions,

IMHO, one should take location reviews in magazines like Scuba Diving with a very large grain of salt. Having had a regular column in SD for several years, I can tell you they are extremely reluctant to say anything even the least bit negative about a destination, dive op, resort or dive site. After all, they rely on advertising for their existence (subscriptions are but a drop in the financial bucket) and what's good for the scuba industry at large is good for them. I've yet to see a location review by a scuba mag that accepts advertising that I thought was comprehensive or balanced.

In any event, I've dove the DR on a number of occasions. The best tourist accessable diving is out of the La Romana/Bayahibe area. For a location review, see the Jun '03 issue of Undercurrent http://www.undercurrent.org/UCnow/issues2003.shtml or go to "awooosh" at http://www.awoosh.com/Doc Vikingo's Resource Page/Bayahibe.htm (neither involves any advertising). I was there earlier this year and the management at ScubaFun has changed, but little else.

The Iberostar Hacienda Dominicus in this area is the nicest all-inclusive resort I've seen in the DR. Just don't dive with the onsite op, Dressel. I did walk over and check out Sunscape Del Mar and it looked decent, but certainly not up to the Iberostar's standards.

Have fun.

DocVikingo

 

[trigfunctions]

Thanks for the info Doc and cork2win. Does anyone have any thoughts on the risk of schistosomias from rafting in the Dominican Republic? The CDC says it is a risk, but it seems that there a lot of tourist trips to the freshwater areas of the DR.

We heard about the risk of schistosomias in St. Lucia so we didn't swim in the fresh water. Now we realize it is in the Domincan Republic too. Even if the risk is low, the disease is so nasty it is pretty scary.

 

[cork2win]

Thanks for the info Doc and cork2win. Does anyone have any thoughts on the risk of schistosomias from rafting in the Dominican Republic? The CDC says it is a risk, but it seems that there a lot of tourist trips to the freshwater areas of the DR.

We heard about the risk of schistosomias in St. Lucia so we didn't swim in the fresh water. Now we realize it is in the Domincan Republic too. Even if the risk is low, the disease is so nasty it is pretty scary.

I'm sorry, I don't know anything about schistosomias. There's a board Here where a lot of people who actually live in the DR post. They might be a good group to ask.

Question for Doc if you don't mind. We've already got our trip booked to Cabarete. We're leaving Thanksgiving day and staying for 10 days. This is our first "big" vacation and it was supposed to be the honeymoon we never had. Hubby told me to plan wherever I wanted to go, but his only request was that it be someplace we could do some diving. When I planned the trip I wasn't certified so I was more interested in finding "decent" diving, but other stuff to do as well, like nightlife and onshore activities rather than focusing on good diving.

The DR seemed like the best of both worlds at the time (from my limited knowledge of what makes good diving). It's cheap to stay there, I hear Cabarete has a great nightlife, there's plenty to do on land (horses, canyoning, mountain biking, etc) and I thought there was decent diving. Now after reading so many reviews about DR diving and now that I'm certified and know more about the sport, I'm worried that we're going to be severely disappointed with the diving. I've gone as far as considering cancelling our trip, paying the cancellation fees, and booking somewhere else (although where I have no idea since it took me forever to decide on DR in the first place).

Am I crazy? For me, this will be my first time in the ocean, and my first time diving somewhere other than an Ohio quarry. Will I be disappointed? Hubby dove in Cozumel years ago and I know that's going to be hard to top, but will he be disappointed? I don't plan on diving every day, but I imagine we'll make 10-12 dives while we're there. Will we run out of diving options? Should we bite the bullet now, pay the fees and book somewhere with better diving? Or is the diving in DR ok enough that we'll be happy with our current plans? Just trying to gauge the reviews of the diving there. I know a seasoned diver would probably find it disappointing and therefore review it less favorably then maybe someone less experienced. If you were a new diver and diving there, is it worth it?