RussR
Contributor
We spent Thanksgiving week in the Dominican Republic and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. After reading the reviews of both the diving and the resorts I did not have high hopes.
We arrived in Santo Domingo, if you can get a direct flight to La Romana do so, and was met not by a mob of helpers as I was led to believe, but by the representative of our transfer operator and after a short wait were loaded into our bus for the 2hr trip to our hotel. It was either a 2 hr layover in Miami or a 2 hour bus trip so I chose the direct flight and bus trip (less chance for things to go wrong I thought)
We arrived at out hote Viva Wyndham Dominicus Beach (Viva Wyndham Dominicus Beach) and were shown to our room, a beach front bungalow an upgrade thanks to a last minute sign up onto Wyndham by request. If you are staying at a Wyndham you HAVE to join this, it makes things much eaiser especially in these all inclusive resorts. (https://www.wyndham.com/wbr/join.wnt)
The resort was perfect as I was traveling with my non-diver girlfriend. The food was OK, the drinks tasty and the service was the best of any all-inclusive I have been to (Sandals Jamaica, Maeva Tulum Mexico ). Never were we left waiting for service. They had a main restaurant tht was buffet and 4 or 5 restaurants that were specialty and needed reservations (again Wyndham by request made this easier)
We ate at each of the restaurants and the food was good, service was great. Not 5 star dining by any account so if you are a foodie I would suggest somewhere else.
The beaches are gorgeous and water was warm and clear the Dominicus also has a house reef for snorkeling where we saw baby eels, scorpion fish, lots of reef fish, juvenile spotted drums, lizard fish, and a few creepy crawlies that I have no idea what they were
Diving .
Again I was not expecting much so I booked a six pack of dives (3 day x 2 tank diving) with Scuba Fun in Bayahibe (SCUBAFUN Bayahibe, Dominican Republic), The shop/boat were a 5 minute ride from the hotel and Scuba Fun arranged transportation to and from.
The diving was much better than I expected. We saw lots of juvenile fish and a bunch of macro subjects
I spotted my first unassisted nudibranch and Pipefish on this trip!!
We saw stingrays, Spotted Drums (juvenile and adult), Scorpion fish, Arrow Crabs, Cleaner Shrimp, Puffers, trunk and cow fish and many others along with the usual reef suspects (surgeon fish, tangs, snapper etc) the coral were healthy and pretty colorful, vis was approx 30-50
All in all this was a good trip, I dont think I would go for an exclusive dive trip but for a relaxing vacation with decent diving this was a great spot
Did I mention that the price could not be beat?!
I have a lot of places still to go and dive but I will return to the Dominican Republic some day
We arrived in Santo Domingo, if you can get a direct flight to La Romana do so, and was met not by a mob of helpers as I was led to believe, but by the representative of our transfer operator and after a short wait were loaded into our bus for the 2hr trip to our hotel. It was either a 2 hr layover in Miami or a 2 hour bus trip so I chose the direct flight and bus trip (less chance for things to go wrong I thought)
We arrived at out hote Viva Wyndham Dominicus Beach (Viva Wyndham Dominicus Beach) and were shown to our room, a beach front bungalow an upgrade thanks to a last minute sign up onto Wyndham by request. If you are staying at a Wyndham you HAVE to join this, it makes things much eaiser especially in these all inclusive resorts. (https://www.wyndham.com/wbr/join.wnt)
The resort was perfect as I was traveling with my non-diver girlfriend. The food was OK, the drinks tasty and the service was the best of any all-inclusive I have been to (Sandals Jamaica, Maeva Tulum Mexico ). Never were we left waiting for service. They had a main restaurant tht was buffet and 4 or 5 restaurants that were specialty and needed reservations (again Wyndham by request made this easier)
We ate at each of the restaurants and the food was good, service was great. Not 5 star dining by any account so if you are a foodie I would suggest somewhere else.
The beaches are gorgeous and water was warm and clear the Dominicus also has a house reef for snorkeling where we saw baby eels, scorpion fish, lots of reef fish, juvenile spotted drums, lizard fish, and a few creepy crawlies that I have no idea what they were
Diving .
Again I was not expecting much so I booked a six pack of dives (3 day x 2 tank diving) with Scuba Fun in Bayahibe (SCUBAFUN Bayahibe, Dominican Republic), The shop/boat were a 5 minute ride from the hotel and Scuba Fun arranged transportation to and from.
The diving was much better than I expected. We saw lots of juvenile fish and a bunch of macro subjects
I spotted my first unassisted nudibranch and Pipefish on this trip!!
We saw stingrays, Spotted Drums (juvenile and adult), Scorpion fish, Arrow Crabs, Cleaner Shrimp, Puffers, trunk and cow fish and many others along with the usual reef suspects (surgeon fish, tangs, snapper etc) the coral were healthy and pretty colorful, vis was approx 30-50
All in all this was a good trip, I dont think I would go for an exclusive dive trip but for a relaxing vacation with decent diving this was a great spot
Did I mention that the price could not be beat?!
I have a lot of places still to go and dive but I will return to the Dominican Republic some day
