Fantastic trip .. staff we amazing .. island was beautiful .. and especially liked the river trip on the way back .. would definitely do this again

The worst! I even read the “don’t book this excursion reviews” and still gave it a chance. The reviews were right from the weird transfers, to long hot day they just leave you on a beach with 200 other people. The only saving grace was the snorkeling it was ok.

Bus never showed up left us stranded for hours and wouldn’t respond but left us on read. DO NOT BOOK was a complete waste of time. Told is to be there at 7am and never showed up

Do not book this tour. The tour company never contacted me. I tried msging and calling them on whatsapp. They never came to my hotel to pick me up, no communication. I've complained and requested a refund from them and TripAdvisor and still almost a month later no response. AVOID!!!!

We met Alan at our resort, RIU Republica! We appreciated your friendliness and knowledge! Thank you for chatting about diving and suggestions for future dives with you. We really appreciated you touching base with us the following day to see how we did and if we enjoyed it😁 Shadia was our excellent dive master! We really appreciated you sharing your knowledge with us! We had an absolutely fantastic day! The dives to the Wall and to the Aquarium were beautiful! Seeing the seahorses was absolutely awesome! Thank you for being so easy to chat with and so friendly! We enjoyed and appreciated every moment! Judy and Gord Vaughan

Absolutely amazing. Lots of beautiful scenery and snorkeling was fun. They provide you with everything however you can bring your own gear. The buffet food was decent and the open bar was decent. Get prepared to pay extra for Pina coladas, specially drinks, photos from the camera guy, seafood.

If I could I would rate this with 0 stars! We took 4 trips by different operators in our time in DR and they were all amazing. This was in every word HORRIBLE! We got to the docs at La Romana at 9.30 as instructed by the tour operator. We were labeled with color string and put into different groups to wait. Thankfully I speak some Spanish as nobody from the tour organization spoke English - despite the fact I marked an English-speaking tour. Most of the people got put in two other boats and they left, including the divers with whom we were supposed to have a joined tour to two snorkeling spots - for which we paid extra. But there was no boat for us.. and we waited.. and waited.. and waited.. Then all of a sudden one of the boats that had left half an hour ago returned, and we were told to board this boat, which was already FULLY PACKED with passengers. People were in shock and were calling their organizers if they could cancel... Of course, nobody answered and we were pushed on this fully packed catamaran. There were about 100 people on the boat, the tour was marked as 50max. As the boat was at least one time over capacity there were not enough life vests and we could not leave the marina. We started sailing along the marina and collecting life vests from other docked boats. When ALMOST EVERYBODY had one, we started our way. The Wests were torn and covered in filth. At this time it was already 11:00 am and we were nowhere close to our destination. The crew started drinking alcohol the minute we left the marina. They did not offer any drinks to the passengers. I asked about our second snorkeling spot, and they just laughed at each other. At this point, I realized that this was their normal habit and contacted the tour operator, and made it clear to them that the whole information they provided on this page was misleading, but they dismissed me and said that I got what I booked. At this time we arrived at the aquarium. They told us we had 35 minutes to snorkel. Can you guess how much time 100 people need to get to the water through 1 ladder? About 30 minutes, yes... Thankfully we had our snorkeling gear with us as the gear they were handing out was extremely old and dirty. We finally got into the water. I recorded everything with my camera .. ALL 7 MINUTES in the water. They packed us back on the boat and off to Catalina we went. We arrived near Catalina. There were about 5 full boats beside us, and 4-speed boats with a capacity of 10 people that take you there. It took another hour of waiting until we were boarded on the speed boat and taken to the island. We arrived at 1:30 pm on Catalina. Until this time, no water or drinks were offered to us. On Catalina, the food was very basic. We could see other tours on very well-organized beaches in nice beach bars - ours was falling apart. They ran out of beer in half an hour, as the crew drank it all on board. They had cheap rum that was packed in Barcelo rum bottles. Thankfully we had 3L of bottled water with us, as Catallina was extremely hot, compared to all the other islands we visited. Food was basic, edible but very basic. We had the VIP package as we were promised 2 snorkeling spots and a lobster. Then they told us the second snorkeling spot is Catalina Beach, not the Wall where the reef is. The beach had a safety net of 5x5m, people were packed one on another. Where there was no net, speed boats were running like crazy. Everything was misleading, there was no option to snorkel on Catalina - at least not on the site where they took us, you could not see anything in the water there and it was not safe to swim outside the nets. It was 2.45 pm when they gathered us like cattle again and said we were leaving. We waited for another hour before the speed boat took us to the Catamaran. We waited for another half an hour before everybody was back on board and headed back to La Romana. By this time some of the passengers were already extremely drunk. No water, heat, and cheap rum did its work. One of the ladies told me that she got drunk intentionally just to survive this terrible trip. Then the storm hit. They put the music to the max. Lifewest was not distributed. The water was pouring into the boat, from high waves and the rain. Then they did an animation of dancing in this weather, let me say again, NO LIFEWESTS WERE GIVEN AT THIS POINT. The waves were about 3m high. People were falling all over the boat as they were dancing drunk on 5cm of water on the floor—a total trip from HELL. When we got to the port, the life west was distributed as we could not enter the marina without having them on. I think this operator should be fined and closed down as they have no regard for the safety of the passengers. 100 people could not get off that boat fast enough. TERRIBLE TERRIBLE. DO NOT BOOK THIS. I booked this only because it said that

We never got de pick up confirmation, we had to call for confirmation. The day of the tour the driver was 30 minutes late and we had no number to call or someone to contact, at the port we had to wait at least 45 minutes to get on the catamaran and nobody explain us what we had to do. There was so many people at the catamaran that we had to sit on the floor and the drop off at the island took more than an hour and a half just because we were too much people, they only worry to full the catamaran than the security or entertainment of us. For lunch, there was variety of food, but wasn't enough for everyone... for example, the meat and the fruit was empty very soon. They had no organization.

All was great! Except that instead of 1 hour snorkling we stayed much longer and I got totally sunburnt. As I did it for the first time and no one told me that it is forbidden to stay on open water for so long. So after trip I am suffering a lot

We had the best day going to Catalina Island from La Romana! Fernando was the best! He made it fun and went beyond to make everyone feel good and comfortable throughout the entire day! The snorkeling was fantastic! The lunch was included and was very good. I would go again in a heartbeat!

Had a great day snorkeling 🤿 and the island 🏝️ was beautiful. It was a long day but very much worth the experience. We Would do it again in a heartbeat...

My husband not complaint is the sea was rough on the way out. Snorkeling was fun, the beach was a piece of paradise. The guide was top notch. If I had friends coming or the DR for the first time I would 100% take them on this tour

The beginning of the excursion wasn’t so great. Event said we left at 9:30 and when we arrived they made us all wait outside standing for 1 hour. Then another group came for the same excursion and they let them on right away. Once we got on the boat we still had to wait for people who were late. There were also people who were standing cause no seats were available. To me the boat was too packed. Once we arrived to the snorkeling location they only gave us 45 min to snorkel which felt like 20 min if you ask me. Every other part of it was ok. I had more fun coming back then anything. And Pedro was the best one to help us.

Great tour, traveling with older teens, perfect amount of time snorkeling and relaxing on the shores of Catalina Island. Fun time taking photos on the beach, they came out great and worth the extra charge.

Booked through Coming2 with ISLA CATALINA GO EXCURSIONS starting from La Romana. Arriving at the docks, the German tour leader with the charme of a prison director ushered us right on the Catamaran without even being allowed to go to the toilet. The Catamaran was completly overloaded with people, no sun protection, not enough space to sit down comfortably, no apparent safety procedures. Don't worry about the "open bar", if you are among the lucky few who don't get seasick on the rather long ride to the island, better don't have any drinks before the snorkeling. The Catamaran stopped at a snorkeling place, that admittedly has great crystal clear views to the bottom with lots of fish and one guide takes some food along, so you can observe the fish frenzy. Really a beautiful experience but beware: The crew will just hand you any snorkeling equipment and usher everyone hurridly into the sea without further explanations. The sea is not calm, you have quite some waves and a few people didn't even make it in as they got shoved back onto the stairs. Don't expect any help there from the staff and if this is your first time snorkeling and/or in a rough sea, then you'll need guts to swimm out and do the snorkel. Arriving at the island, you'll be asssaulted by hundreds of bloodthirsty horse flies. Not sure if insect repellent has any effect at all, in our case it was either getting bitten a thousand times or stay in the water and hope to not get a sun stroke. People resorted to staying in the water with towels on their heads to protect from the sun, as staying on the beach was just being food for insects. The staff will do photo shootings and then sell you the digital photos for 100$ the package or 10$ per photo. "Hopefully" you also buy a pineapple or coconut for 10$ to pose with it for photos. Best thing to do on the island is to protect your head, put on sunscreen factor 5000, hope to grab some fitting snorkel equipment as the waters close to the beach really have a nice corral bank and quite a lot of nice fishes to watch. While the beach is nice as such, it's not an upgrade vs the hotel beaches you'll have anyways. If there is anything at all to rescue from this trip, then it is to book a private dedicated snorkling tour with qualified guides, safe boats and sun protection.