Location: Bayahibe
Top Things to do in Bayahibe
8 Things to Do in Bayahibe That You Shouldn't Miss
Just 10 miles east of La Romana lies the fishing town of Bayahibe. Here, divers will find spectacular coral formations and three shipwrecks: the Atlantic Princess, St George and Coco. In the national park, nature enthusiasts will find lagoons and wildlife, including a variety of birds. There is much to do, but the inviting, soft white-sand beaches are perfect for travelers seeking relaxation.
Restaurants in Bayahibe
1. Saona Dreams - Saona Catamaran
Overall Ratings
4 based on 167 reviews
Leaving from Bayahibe by catamaran you will go to the most beautiful island of Dominican Republic: Saona. At the program: activities, swimming, free time on the beach, where the nature will offer you her most beautiful colors. Buffet and drinks included
Reviewed By Mrtravelbee - Los Angeles, California
This is a must do drinks are strong, cruise is fun, amazing snorkeling, Food is fantastic, over all you will not be disappointed in this trip.Hola Thanks for your review Regards
2. Altos de Chavon
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 1 reviews
Altos de Chavon, is an architectural wonder, a 16th century replica of a Mediterranean village perched high above the Chavón River. The village was designed by Dominican architect Jose Antonio Caro, and created by Italian master designer and cinematographer Roberto Coppa. Dominican artisans handcrafted the stone pathways, decorative ironwork, furniture and enchanting buildings, reviving almost forgotten crafts of metal work and stone carving. Under Coppa's direction, each stone was hand cut, each wooden door frame was handcrafted and each wrought-iron detail hand-forged. Construction of the village began in 1976 and the village was inaugurated in 1982 with the concert of Frank Sinatra at the Amphitheater. Altos de Chavon was built as a center of culture for the Dominican people.
Reviewed By WorldTravelerTWD - Washington DC, District of Columbia
I visited Altos de Chavon as part of an all day tour that also went to Catalina Island. It is an interesting place to spend a couple hours. The views from the Terrace over the river are very nice. I visited a bit early in the day before the restaurants were open. However, there a couple nice museums.
3. Rio Chavon
Overall Ratings
4 based on 268 reviews
Reviewed By Jenny W - Birmingham, Alabama, United States
Our boat ride with lunch was part of a day long excursion from Punta Cana. The boat ride was relaxing with lovely scenery along the way. The lunch was very good; started with a conch salad and yuca croquette followed by grilled shrimp, rice, yuca with carrots, bell pepper and onion. There is an option of chicken for those who cannot eat seafood. In the right season, the meal is lobster instead of shrimp. The trip includes (seemingly) unlimited drinks. I chose white wine (very good), my husband had the Presidente beer, others in our group chose rum and Coke; bottled water is also provided. On the return trip, the music is turned up and dancing is encouraged; tour guides, drivers and waitresses are the encouraging partners. There is a porta - potty on the barge.
4. National Park of the East
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 538 reviews
Reviewed By Gaston02 - Geneva, Switzerland
Wild and savage Exellent coastal sight. Lots of mosquitos though. So be prepared with decent protection. Shore is wild and very nice. Better to be visited with a boat and stop time to time
5. Crazy Wheels
Overall Ratings
4 based on 118 reviews
Reviewed By PurplePumpkin1951 - Portland, Maine, United States
I went with a large group of people and I have to say, I had a great time. We traveled through the sugarcane fields in buggies and through parts of a local town or two. I really enjoyed seeing how people live and would recommend this excursion to others.
Some things I think you should know about this excursion:
Safety isn't really a top priority for this company. They care, but they could definitely care more.
3 of the group's buggies didn't have brakes. The buggies stopped, they just didn't stop by use of brakes. The rest of us had brakes.
Goggles (at the very least) are not provided by the company. You must bring your own, or wear sunglasses. Sunglasses are not sufficient enough to keep dirt and dust away from your eyes.
Bandanas are not provided by the company. You must bring your own or buy one on site. As a tip to the company I would suggest buying buff-style bandanas in a massive bulk, to save on price, and then selling everyone their own souvenir bandana within the ticket price for this excursion. It is a necessity to wear something over your mouth and nose to prevent inhaling all the dust and dirt you'll encounter on this excursion.
Water was not offered. Not once. The company doesn't seem to understand that many of its patrons are from cooler climates. The Dominican Republic, even on its most average (and even coolest) of days is still much warmer than the average temperature days for its patrons. Water should be offered at the start of the event, because we travel quite a distance to get to the starting location. Water should be offered in the middle of the event, and any stopping points during the event. And water should be offered at the end of the event and as we get on the bus to depart the excursion.
The excursion was advertised as specifically ... bringing us to see sugarcane fields and to travel through them on the farming roads within the fields, and that we would be stopping at "an authentic" local's house where we would be offered local fruits and chocolate, and have an authentic cultural experience with local residents within their family home. This was ... absolutely not what happened. At all. I cannot stress this enough. We were brought to a large outdoor-type 'building'. It was a framed building but it had no walls. It had a palm tree leaves roof, and was authentic to the region, but it was an outdoor market. Not a residence. No one lived here. There was fruit, but it wasn't a cultural experience, there was no chocolate, there were no family members here ... this whole trip was to sell us local artwork and carvings, not to bring us to experience local culture. I will tell you that the description is why some of us actually signed up. We're from a rural state and we ATV all the time. We didn't go for the buggies or the 4 wheelers, we went for the sugarcane fields and the cultural experience. So be aware of that. Also, the bathrooms at this location were ... ok. There are 2, but 1 would not flush. So we had a super large group, and another pretty large group was already there before us... and 1 of the 2 toilets wouldn't flush. In addition to this, when we were done "shopping" at this outdoor market we went to return to our buggies and the group that arrived before us - which were on 4 Wheelers, not buggies - got into our buggies at the instruction of their guide, and our group was left standing there without a ride back to where we started. It was very awkward. It was remedied, but it was just a really strange thing to happen. Why we all couldn't just get back into the buggies we arrived in was somewhat of a mystery. The problem isn't the buggies, it's that our helmets had been sized for our heads. Our seatbelts had been sized for our bodies... and some of us needed help to get these things situated because they're so used they can't be adjusted without assistance of the guides. It's not a complaint about the equipment, it's just a heads up to the company that this is why people were kind of put off. And then 3 of the buggy drivers in our group wound up with buggies that didn't have brakes. Their original buggies had brakes. The ones they wound up in, because the 4 Wheeler drivers took off on our buggies... didn't have brakes. It was kind of a disaster. But, I will say the tour guides managed to keep things calm and, eventually, we all made out ok.
Communication, as a whole, everywhere in the Dominican Republic, is an issue. It’s not just here at Crazy Wheels, but it was evident here, as well. A fine example would be the one I wrote just above - where the 4 Wheeler group took our buggies and left, leaving the original buggy drivers having no idea what was going on. No one told us that would be happening. No one told us what was happening *when* it was happening. All we could do was stand there and watch people get into our buggies and drive off. We didn’t know what was going on. We didn’t know if we still had helmets, because they took those, too.
When I say “communication” is lacking I don’t mean that they speak another language and it’s a language barrier, or language gap. That’s not what it is. It’s that - as an example - we didn’t know there was no water on site. Someone should have told us that before we arrived, and when we arrived. We didn’t know there would be children asking for money in the sugarcane fields and we should bring them pens and pencils and school items. We didn’t know the ATV drivers would be switching to buggies and we might lose our buggies and helmets. We were told we would be going to a local resident’s home to experience the local culture, but this is not at all what was scheduled for us to experience. See what I mean? It’s not a language gap. It’s a failure to communicate effectively.
Photography/Videography - There is a guy on a motorcycle who speeds up ahead of all the buggies so he can capture everyone smiling and waving with his camera/go pro. But honestly, how many times do we want to see ourselves smiling and waving? And then midway through the excursion when we’re at the marketplace hut building he comes up to everyone and asks for, I think it was $50? For whatever he was selling. We couldn’t really understand him, but he tried hard to explain it. We didn’t want it because it was impractical. We’re waving in one picture. We’re waving in another picture. We’re waving in the same buggy we were in, in both photos before, again in this photo. So we weren’t going to buy a photo/video package. And when we told him that he immediately lowered the price to, I think it was $30. And we thanked him but still let him know it wasn’t for us. Then he lowered it again to $17. Still. No thank you. He was disappointed, but what can we do. And then when we got back to the starting point he sold a few photos, I think it was 5, to people for (I think it was) $13. The main problem with the purchase is we didn’t know what we were being sold. Photos? Video? And what does it look like? He wanted us to commit at the halfway point and we didn’t know what we were buying, nor had we seen any examples of what we would be buying. If it was video, was it coming with background music? Was it coming on a thumb drive? An SD card? In what format? In what video resolution? Communication… it needs to be better.
Some Great Things About This Excursion
Hugo, the main tour guide, was amazing. He spoke 5 different languages and he had a clear grasp of English, there was no doubt. He had a great sense of humor and was really in touch with the group he was leading. As opposed to one of the other guides, who was nice enough, but who communicated, to my husband, not to use his left foot for the brake while using his right foot for the gas, by walking up to him, using a stern tone and smacking his left leg off the gas pedal. We laughed at his communication style, but do you see the difference? Hugo spoke English. If there was an emergency (3 buggies had no brakes, remember? and we drove through towns with children eagerly running out to wave at us, as an example of how things could go wrong quite quickly) Hugo would have been able to communicate effectively. The others? I’m not so confident.
Sugarcane Fields - the sugar cane experience was excellent! Thank you for fresh sugar cane! It was so tasty and the presentation was wonderful. Hand cutting it with a machete and letting us hold it while you cut it? That was fantastic! I would love to experience that again.
Driving us through the town was incredible. I am deeply appreciative of this experience. Thank you so much. We enjoyed seeing the houses people live in and the streets they live on. We enjoyed getting out into the community. It was the best part of the day.
There were many guides with us so I felt safe and had a feeling if someone tried to separate us, for some reason, or take advantage of our group, for some reason, that there would always be someone from the company there to make sure we were protected from danger. This is very important and this company did a super fine job at making sure we were all kept together and between them at all times. They flanked us on the sides, in front and behind, at all possible times. They blocked traffic from running into us when we crossed the roads, as well. As far as “safety” goes, in this arena they were excellent and I encourage them to please keep up the good work. It is important for your customers to feel safe, above everything else.
It was fun. That’s the biggest take-away from this experience. Yes, we expected a thing or two which we didn’t get to do, but overall? We had a great time and would absolutely recommend this excursion to others.
6. Altos de Chavon School of Design
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 49 reviews
Located in a small Mediterranean-style town, this school trains top Dominican artists in a wide array of fields.
Reviewed By FishFoodie1 - Boca Raton, Florida
Want to study art? It doesn't get any better. Wonderful 1976 stone reproduction of quaint Italian village. Get creative and get inspired!
7. Altos de Chavon Regional Museum of Archaeology
Overall Ratings
4 based on 44 reviews
Reviewed By retireeVancouver - Vancouver
This museum is behind the Catholic Church in the village of Altos de Chavon. It is very well air conditioned so staying a while to look at the displays and read the informative signs (in English and Spanish) is very doable. The museum is impressive in its appearance inside with museum quality display cases and signage. I found the display cases detailing the peopling of the island the most informative as my information in that area was lacking. Flints and stone tools, typical of ancient peoples were on display as well as a hollowed tree trunk used as a boat for their voyages. Even the more familiar story of the European explorers (like Columbus) who came to this island was interesting. Allow at least a half an hour if not more in order to read each information card and to examine the artifacts in display cases.
8. Public beach of Dominicus at Bayahibe
Overall Ratings
4 based on 1 reviews
Reviewed By Bryan T - Rhoose, United Kingdom
Right next to our hotel, Dreams La Romana, so walked along the beach most days. Nice sandy beach with easy access to the sea which was never rough or overwhelming.
Beach facilities provided by the locals were acceptable with everyone friendly. The beach has a car park to the rear & at one end is the village of Bayahibe with small restaurants & bars. Far end of beach can be crowded early morning with lots of people leaving on boat tours. But after it is more relaxed...lots of sun & sea.
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