Diving Sosua

Diving Sosua and the surrounding areas are considered home to some of the best diving spots in The Dominican Republic. Sosua is located in the region of Puerto Plata on the North Coast and hosts a variety of great dive attractions for beginner and advanced divers.

Not a certified diver? From resort courses to Dive Master – and all levels of certification in between, our prefered Dive School Partner Aqua Adventures By Scuba Dive Sosua can accomodate you, whatever your requirements or desires.

Enjoy from over 20 of the best known dive sites in the country, with package rates available to our clients. Read on to find out more about the best dive sites in the area and what time of year to visit.

Three Rocks and Coral Gardens

Three Rocks is a favorite for resort divers or first time divers. It is three coral rock pinnacles that sit in sand, on one side 4 meters (13 feet) deep and on the other 7.5 meter (25 feet). Since it’s all sand around the coral, less experienced divers don’t have to worry about breaking or hitting the coral and can still see anything from big fish to the tiniest of shrimp. More experienced divers can start here and go down into the Coral Gardens where you can reach depths of 24 meters (80 feet) and some really nice patches of soft corals with lots of fans and whips. Here you can normally find the spotted sand snake eel, which is a meter long eel that lives in the sand just leaving its eyes out of the sand to catch unsuspecting fish swimming along the reef.

Canyon

Located right in middle of Sosua Bay, this dive is also a favorite for novice divers as it starts in about 10 meters (33 feet) of water and can go up to 30 meters (100 feet) down in the bay. Here you can find an encrusted anchor from maybe hundreds of years ago that many just swim over as it is so encrusted in rock, some very big barrel sponges and a protected number of reef fish! This dive is called the canyon as you can swim through the canyon and head either north or south.

La Puntilla

This site is a shallow dive of 9 meters (less than 30 feet). It has some interesting swim through and passages between the huge rocks that have fallen from the wall to create an interesting dive spot where you can find barracudas, rays and other fish that seem to like the rocky surge here close to the wall.

Mini Wall

A 5 minute boat ride from Sosua Beach – this site is also called Calle Sin Salida or El Matadero which means Dead End Street or the Slaughterhouse – the latter because there used to be a slaughterhouse in the area that threw all their waste into the water and this brought in a large amount of sharks and fish. But it has since gone and with not enough food, it’s very rare to spot sharks here. The coral pinnacles are in a maze between sand patches and a slight slope that drops down to 30 meters (100 feet). On an average dive of 15 meters (50 feet) you can spot anything from tuna to seahorses.

Airport Wall

A 15 minute boat ride from Sosua Beach heading west, this is a 12 – 28 meter (39 – 92 feet) dive. The Airport Wall is considered by many one of the best dive spots on the island. One has the possibility of doing 5 tanks or different dive profiles depending on experience or what you would like to see. The wall has an unbelievable array of coral life both hard and soft, and an abundance of marine life from large Jewfish to the smallest little shrimp that live on the whip corals. Also you can go away from the wall and find some large pinnacles and tunnels that you can swim through that will take your breath away!

Zingara Wreck

A 15 minute boat ride from Sosua, heading east, a 30 meter (100 feet) long freighter that was sunk on purpose for diving by a dive shop owner named Hans in 1992, sits in 35 meters (117 feet) of water. As it sits in open ocean its affected a little by the currents and harsh winter swells but even so it has an abundance of marine life including a few that call this home like a big green moray and big great barracuda. Since it is a deep dive we like to do this as a multi-level dive going from the wreck to the reef that sits south of the wreck, making a 35 to 40 minute dive and not just a 17 minute dive on the wreck!

Day trips to Manzanillo, Haiti and Laguna Dudu are often organized for groups on request. Longer trips to Bayahibe and other locations in The Dominican Republic can be arranged for groups looking to do so. The image below was taken on the wreck in Manzanillo in late 2017. Tay does not affiliate with Tottenham Hotspur football club, he wore the shirt as a practical joke.

The best time of year for Diving Sosua is in the summer time (June- August) when the oceans are calmer and clearer. Second to that is the winter from December until March during humpback breeding season when you can both hear and see the lovely creatures migrating from the North Atlantic to calve in the bay in Samana, Dominican Republic. That being said, the visibility on the north coast is rarely bad, and it can clear up from one day to the next, so basically any time of the year is perfect for diving Sosua!