Review of Scuba Diving in the Dominican Republic - Good or Bad?

by Roy
(N.Y.C.)

I think that I found a good school in the Dominican Republic to get my PADI scuba diving certification.

I notice that you do not mention the Dominican Republic on your web site. Is it not a good place for scuba diving?

Hi Roy,

I have been scuba diving in the Dominican Republic a couple of times. I actually write a little bit about in on my all inclusive page.

However, as you have noticed, I have yet to write a full review on scuba diving in the Dominican Republic - but rest assured it is on my to-do list (which seems to get longer every day).

The long and short of it is, in my opinion, that DR is not the best place in the Caribbean to go scuba diving in terms of marine life, health of coral, etc. However, that being said, if you are going the Dominican anyway, it should be fine for doing your open water dives for your certification.

On those dives, you are more concerned with performing the skills needed to get your certification. Your attention will be focused on that aspect of your diving and "sightseeing" will pretty much be secondary. So by all means, go for it.

We are actually going back to the Dominican Republic on a group trip in February and will try and get some diving in while we are there. I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm glad you decided to get your certification. If you have time, please drop us a line and let us know how it went.

Dianne

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by: Anonymous

Hi,

If I understand your question correctly, you would like to know if you can dive in the DR without having completed your PADI certification course (you still have to do your 4 open water dives).

The answer would be no - as far as regular dives go. Until you have completed the certification course, you are not allowed to go diving on a regular dive. However you could take a resort course if that is offered. It usually involves a few hours of pool and/or class time and then a shallow dive. Depending on the resort, you could do the "resort" dives at that resort for the remainder of your stay.

You can find more information on our site at:
https://www.scuba-diving-smiles.com/scuba-diving-resort-courses.html and

https://www.scuba-diving-smiles.com/scuba-certification-vs-scuba-resort-course.html

Hope this answers your question. Let me know if it hasn't.

Dianne
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by: Anonymous

hello,

I have half of my padi certification for open water diving. I have done all the class room material and pool time required, I just have to do my 4 dives. I wanted to do my dives back home in Canada and just do leisure dives in D.R. Is it possible to do dives here without a full certification?

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