La Romana things to do

[AmandaKaye79]

What are some things to do in la Romana Dominican Republic? I've tried to search this board, but I can't seem to find anything!

[AmandaKaye79]

? anyone?

[rtfnl]

Some people are doing Dreams. I'm going in December and will see if there is anything at the port that is reasonable. What I've read is there is very little to nothing to do at the port. Read some of the Miracle oll calls for ideas.

[crewsweeper]

Supposedly you can grab a taxi to Altos de Chavon, an old movie set of a French Medival village that has shops and restraurants and it's fairly reasoanble in cost. Some Carnival folks do the Catalina private beach excursion. Bayahibe beach gets mixed reviews and is a bit of a trek, but Dreams seems to be a great A.I. at $65 pp.

[blue_water]

Hi Amanda,

I was struggling with this as well and we considered the trip to Santo Domingo but decided to leave that for when we stay in La Romana. But I found some helpful info on TA, CC's sister site, and I took the liberty of pasting a post below from Frequent Floater that was in another thread because I thought it was very helpful (especially after reading all of the negative posts from people who are too lazy to do any research).

 

We will be taking the Saona and Paradise Beach tour as recommended by Denise on TA and Frequent Floater.

 

Freq Floater took the La Romana tour with Seavis tours out of Bayahibe and went to Saona and Paradise beach along with a starfish sand bar along the way. Said it was a very beautiful area. There are a few pics along with Frequent Folater's post on this thread if you want to see them:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1501210&page=4

 

 

Originally Posted by Frequent Floater

I hate to see the negatives about the port in La Romana. It is like many other industrial ports. It is another cruise ship companies port, therefor their rules. Only their ships tour vendors are allowed to come directly into the port area. Once you know that, you know what to expect. Our cruise stop there was some of the first so it was trial and error finding reviews from other cruisers to tell us about it.

The walk to the taxi's is not that bad. Once you know what you are doing and ask others about the taxi fares you will be prepared. Seavis told me is SHOULD be $10 per person round trip. Once we got to the gate I told the gate lady I needed 4 vans with 10 pax each which filled the van. The gate lady (police) said it was $150 per van, so this was the standard rate apparently back in March.

I am sure for those that take some extra time to research things on the web, you will be so happy to get off the ship and see this beautiful place. I spent hours checking everywhere and found trip advisor to have some really good into.

I am sure the gate police are getting better aquainted with the process of handling those pax that are wanting to use the taxi service. It did take us a few extra minutes with the language barrier but all in all it was just fine.

Bayahibe is a 25 minute ride from the port for those that would like to do a tour on own. I agree that going to Dreams is just like staying on the ship but much less expensive. If you are beach people, try to get to one of the beachs from Bayahibe. They are beautiful!!

Saona is a small beach village and the residents are so friendly.

Paradise beach is, well paradise. A nice snorkeling "pool" just near the part of the beach where the Pirates of the Caribbean jungle scenes were filmed.

Think it was over 30-45 minute boat ride, I really can't remember for sure but do know it was quite aways. We also stopped a few times to get some history and play with the starfish on a sand bar.

I do not know if there are private boats that can take you there, we used Seavis which had good speedboats to get there and back. I am sure they can help set up other smaller tours as well since they have boats that take up to 24 pax. If not they are good to suggest other options with other vendors.

[Frequent Floater]

I indeed did use Seavis tours in Bayahibe for my groups day of fun, eat, drinks and beauty while in La Romana.

First let me say, this is MY opinion only.

 

My frustration trying to find info on this port was few and far between back 2 years ago. This was on the first cruise of a B2B for us back in late March 2011.

Because I had my group of 40+ persons on the first leg with us, I wanted to find a fun active tour for all of us.

That is what this group is used to doing. We are not the resort hotel types nor do we care to sit on the ship when in port.

We deposited this sailing a year in advance so I had lots of time to research. I think I spend a months time looking everywhere for advise about what to do in La Romana.

Now remember my experience was for a group, not just a couple.

I needed to find a company that could charter a tour for the entire group of us. This sometimes makes a difference.

I was lucky enough to find several great reviews about Seavis tours from individuals on the Trip Advisor boards.

I had one gal tell me that the port was inclusive to the AIDA cruise line (think thats it) and that the only taxis, buses etc. allowed into the port area where for ONLY that lines tours.

I knew right there that getting a private charter bus for the group would be troublesome so we opted to use the port taxis.

I can say that if you find something you want to do, ask the tour vendor to get you the current taxi rate. Then expect it to change a tad bit. There is a language barrier unless you speak Spanish.

Once you port, you walk up a small hill to a gate where the head of taxis awaits you (AKA the gate police by many posters). She asks how many and where to. In my case I needed 4 vans with 10 or 12 in each van and did not want anyone else in with us or any of my group thrown in with other persons going different destination. Again this is my experience so I can't speak about other individuals that may have been traveling by self. I imagine that no taxi leaves that area until its full or you pay the full van fare yourself.

The trip to Bayahibe is about 20-25 minutes. It is a small place but if using Seavis all their employees wear turquoise shirts. Apparently we could not get thru to our driver "Seavis tours" but we all did manage to make it there fine.

I suggest that you also ask you tour vendor if they contact the taxi to return and pick you up. I make it a point to get a business card from the taxi driver just in case!!!

I know there are other companies in and around Bayahibe that rent boats.

I am only comfortable with well know companies that have no issues faxing me their bonding and insurance info. Seavis was more than helpful with everything I asked of them.

If you have any questions just ask.

[Paumavista]

There is more information searching LaRomana or Bayahibe (and some of the other locations near by) on TripAdvisor dot com

We made a connection with a fishing company in Bayahibe to charter a boat for our family (group of 6) to do some fishing and snorkling for the day.

You can ask and post your questions on Tripadvisor the same as here - I find the people very helpful....you can also email someone privately/directly by clicking on their name (I REALLY like that feature).

Judy

[blue_water]

There is more information searching LaRomana or Bayahibe (and some of the other locations near by) on TripAdvisor dot com

We made a connection with a fishing company in Bayahibe to charter a boat for our family (group of 6) to do some fishing and snorkling for the day.

You can ask and post your questions on Tripadvisor the same as here - I find the people very helpful....you can also email someone privately/directly by clicking on their name (I REALLY like that feature).

Judy

 

That's the point we've been trying to make p. Leslie is also a great resource on TA for the area and offers excursions and ideas.

 

We would hate to have someone spend the day on the ship or think that a resort is their only option just because others say that. Sometimes research (especially too much research) can spoil the excitement of seeing a new place. But in some cases it's an important part of ensuring you don't have a wasted day when you only get one chance. Information is often the difference between a blah experience and a great experience.

[Notion_of_the_Ocean]

Bayahibe Beach, Saona Island/Catalina Island, Altos, Day Pass, or Ship Excursion (am I missing anything?).

 

I loved La Romana it has unspoiled charm of the Caribbean.... that being said it is not a spontaneous "show up and go with the flow port". If you don't decide exactly what you want to see ahead of time, then stay on the ship because you won't see anything.

[T. Advisor King]

I have no idea why someone posted to this 3 years after the previous post.

 

All that said, I will say that we also struggled with what to do here. We are more "do-it-yourselfers" and the advice we got was that this wasn't the place to rent a car and go somewhere.

 

It also seemed, for whatever reason, that there wasn't anywhere compelling to go. We were on a B2B with 6 other ports (so 8 stops in total, including one duplicate). Since many of them had spectacular beaches, we didn't think that a beach was the best option here.

 

Ultimately we took the ship's tour (the only one on the 8 stops) called Aquaticriders and were pretty happy we did. The boat part (up the Chavon River) was a lot of fun. Definitely contrived and of no cultural or historic significance, but just fun. The portion of the excursion containing the "tour" of Altos de Chavon was okay, but not great. There was a lot of being herded around, only to stand around for what seemed like forever, before being moved on to something else, being given a 2 minute spiel and then being herded to somewhere else to stand around. I would recommend it, but mainly for the boat ride part.

[blue_water]

No biggie, and this older info is as relevant as anything we write today. Freq floater guided me toward Seavis and I too learned a lot from folks on TA after doing more research. So bringing this old gal to life may help others...:D

 

We ended up taking the Seavis Saona Island excursion and it was one of our best days in 13 years of cruising. Small, fast motorboats make it possible to cover the distance in the amount of time available to cruisers. The Natural Pool with the starfish was neat, and the beach at Saona was beautiful.

 

While staying at Dreams in Bayahibe last April we took the Pro Excursions Catalina Island/River Chavon/Casa De Campo excursion on their gorgeous new luxury cat the Quetzal. What an amazing day that was!

 

Certainly a beautiful area with many pristine beaches as well as the natural pool, mangroves, and Rocks of Piton, and Catalina was very nice. Anyone spending their day at Dreams is missing the natural beauty around them and settling for a very small beach instead.

Edited August 26, 2014 by blue_water

[cruiseaway7522]

http://www.seavisbayahibe.com/saona_special_e.htm

[Frequent Floater]

No biggie, and this older info is as relevant as anything we write today. Freq floater guided me toward Seavis and I too learned a lot from folks on TA after doing more research. So bringing this old gal to life may help others...:D

 

We ended up taking the Seavis Saona Island excursion and it was one of our best days in 13 years of cruising. Small, fast motorboats make it possible to cover the distance in the amount of time available to cruisers. The Natural Pool with the starfish was neat, and the beach at Saona was beautiful.

 

While staying at Dreams in Bayahibe last April we took the Pro Excursions Catalina Island/River Chavon/Casa De Campo excursion on their gorgeous new luxury cat the Quetzal. What an amazing day that was!

 

Certainly a beautiful area with many pristine beaches as well as the natural pool, mangroves, and Rocks of Piton, and Catalina was very nice. Anyone spending their day at Dreams is missing the natural beauty around them and settling for a very small beach instead.

 

So glad you enjoyed your tour with Seavis as much as we did. I am happy to see this info brought back up years later as it is still one of those we talk about often as most memorable.