You might want to rethink that one. Stayed at Paradisus two years ago and although the resort was nice, the room was INFESTED with roaches. Also, got "tourista", prayed to die, spent most of my time in the bathroom with my "little friends" las cucarachas. I think one of the problems might have been that the food at the restaurants was left out in the open, in the heat, with a lot of flies around. Someone also suggested that they might be rinsing the fruits and veggies in tap water, which, is a no no in a place like the Dominican.
The beach was lovely, but the resort caters to families, and most were Latin. The end result was that there was loud "salsa" type music blasting all day long on the beach where groups were taking "macarena type" line dance type of classes and it became really annoying after the first day. They were having a blast and that was good but it's hard to relax on a beautiful beach with tinny hectic music blasting. Don't even think of breaking out a book or taking a snooze under a palm tree- can;t happen there.
6 months later, stayed at Secrets Excellence, clean, no roaches, better food, didn't get sick. No music blastin on the beach, smaller resort, less crowded beach. The surf was very rough up on that end of the beach, my husband and I are both divers and we stayed out of the water because you really got knocked around too much to swim. One caveat is that Secrets doesn't allow children, so if that's an issue-
I didn't dive on either stay- so I can't give you advice on that.
(Sorry to scare you about Paradisus, but I had heard they had a roach problem before we went and my travel agaent assured me it was just a rumor, and that someone probably saw one bug and got hysterical, next thing you know it's all over the internet.)
Not true, there were so many roaches right out in the open it was frightening. I wish someone had been honest with me!)
Anyway, if you want to get an all around overview of other peoples' experiences in Punta Cana, a good idea is to go to Tripadvisor.com. What we found is tht Punta Cana is a great value destination with a lot to offer, but you have to be very careful as the accomodations can run the gammit from wonderful to horrific. We met folks on the beach who were staying at rather large resorts there and having some real "third world" issues like toilets backing up, and a lot of gastric problems. Research, research, research, and you will have a great vacation. Okay, lecture over.
That website probably won't cover the diving thouroughly either, but will give you a lot of information about the different resorts and the good and the bad.
I'd like to hear about anyone who's gone diving in Punta Cana as well. My husband is hinting about taking another trip there to golf and there is good diving, I would try it.
I don;t think it's a big dive location at all, but I'll wait to see how the other Scubaboard members cash in on that topic.
Let us knw what you decide and whatever you choose, have a safe and fun trip!
