Bayahibe and Catalina Island

Bayahibe was a fishing village and still partly is, sitting on a small bay on the southeast coast at the edge of Cotubanamá National Park, and it has become the country's main diving base. Catalina Island, half an hour offshore, has a wall that drops from about ten metres to well beyond recreational depth in a single step, covered in gorgonians and sponges, with the shallow reef above it good for snorkellers on the same trip. The Saint George wreck, deliberately sunk in the bay, sits upright and intact enough to penetrate. The park itself protects dry forest, caves with Taíno rock art and the mangrove coast, and Saona Island's long white beaches are the standard day trip everyone in Punta Cana ends up taking.

What you actually see

• Catalina's wall - the drop-off dive covered in gorgonians and sponges.
• The Saint George wreck - the upright sunken ship in the bay.
• Cotubanamá park - dry forest, caves and Taíno rock art.
• The fishing village - boats on the beach and the working side of the bay.

When to go

December to April has the calmest sea and best visibility; summer is hotter with a hurricane risk from August into October. Saona day trips leave early and return mid-afternoon. Catalina fills when cruise ships anchor off it, so check the schedule if you want it quiet.

Honest expectations

Catalina receives cruise ships that anchor offshore and land passengers on the beach, which transforms the island on those days; the dive sites are unaffected but the shore is not. Saona trips are extremely commercial, with music, rum and hundreds of people on the same sandbar. Bayahibe itself is small with limited nightlife.

Nearby

Saona Island is the classic day trip; Punta Cana is an hour east.