Dominican republic

[goldfish05]

hello everone. I am planning to visit DR in nov. I am looking to do a few dives. with some one who has never dived before. Any good padi places around we are looking to stay at the velerobeach resort. has one ever stayed here? Any adivce on this area in general would be great!

 

[DRsharky]

Hello,
Velero beach, is it in Cabarete on the north coast? If it is, the closest diving is in Sosua, about 15 minutes drive, there is no diving from Cabarete itself - no motor boats allowed by Cabarete beaches.
A good dive shop is Northern Coast diving, ran by Mark - an American guy or Merlin ran by Jurgen - a German. Both are very good dive shops. I helped them with diving for 2 years while I was living in Cabarete.
If you haven't booked your hotel and don't like windy conditions and wavy oceans (great place for kiting and surfing though), you should consider starting to dive on the couth coast, where the Caribbean water are much much calmer.

 

[goldfish05]

ok thanks it depends sometimes i am ok on rough water other times i am not. but as soon as i am not and i get it out of my system i am good to go for a dive.

 

[kancho]

Are there any shore diving on Sosua beach.. Is $120 for a 2 tank dive normal. It seems a bit overpriced for a rowboat type charter. Any thoughts I will be in Puerto Plata next week

 

[DRsharky]

You can go shore diving if you know the area, but the problem is you cannot rent a tank. It's not like in USA and Canada that you come to a dive shop and get a fill. The dive shops sell dives and the fill and weights are included in the price.
Well $ 120 seams little higher then it used to be. When I lived there the price was 35 USD for a single dive, if you bought more, the price was even cheaper. Go diving with Merlin or Northern coast in Sosua. I used to work with both of them and they were good.

 

[trigfunctions]

We were in Sosua a couple of months ago. We stayed at the Sosua Bay Club hotel, which is right on the beach.
Sosua Bay Hotel - Sosua Bay Club Puerto Plata Specials

We dove with the dive shop that is associated with the hotel:

http://www.dolphindivecenter.com/

Both were good operations and we got pretty good deals. It was very convenient. The diving is OK, not great. you can also snorkel in the bay for free any time, but I don't know about shore diving.

 

[DRsharky]

If you would like to see what to expect around Sosua, look at the Dive sites on the north