Southeast Coast Diving

The beautiful beaches and excellent diving draw travelers above and below the waves here. If you're a diver, make sure you arrange your excursion with a dive operator rather than on a party boat.

Dive Center Casa Daniel. This PADI dive center has an excellent, long-term reputation (since 1991) for professionalism and safety, and the European dive instructors are multilingual and fun. You will be safe in strong, wide-in-the-beam dive boats. They do it all: lessons from a resort course to advanced open-water and rescue diving, certifications, wall diving, cave diving, night diving, and all the typical excursion areas. Among their dive sites are Dominicus Shallow, Tortuga, and a major dive, St. George's Wreck (a cargo ship named for a saint that sank in 1990). They also offer full-day excursions to Saona Island at least biweekly. Area hotel pickups are free. Calle Principal 1, , next to Hotel Bayahibe, Bayahibe, La Altagracia, 22000. 809/833–0083; www.casa-daniel.com.