Best snorkeling, Easter and Riulette

[www.djhein.nl]

Hi there,

First....fantastic BB. I am reading along for some time now and now it''s time to make a post.

We''ll be leaving for Playa del Carmen in 5 weeks (31st of April) from The Netherlands Europe. Before we visited Curacao (9 on scale 1-10), Aruba (9,5) and Dominican Republic (near the capital) (4 on scale 1-10) and I have some questions left...maybe some of you know the answer?

-We love to snorkel, Where are the best places to do so? We love renting a Jeep and exploring beaches etc. so what are good directions to go to?
-We have booked the Riulette. So we stay at either one of the 4(?) Riu hotels. Does anybody have experiences (positive or negatove) with this concept? We thought that probably they all were OK since we don't care whether we stay "on the beach" or not.... Never mind a short walk...
-We are leaving on Easter (31st March). I have some guidebooks and some mention Easter as a VERY busy period. Others don''t mention it at all? What is it like then? For me it's all the same so not a problem if it is crowded but I'm curius what to expect? I know for instance that in the Dominican Republic it is forbidden by law to use motorised watersports during this week. Also the roads are very dangerous (day and night) because of drunk drivers?
-Is it wise (concerning both the crowd and the drunk drivers (if there are any specific this time of a year as the DR) to make reservations for a jeep like vehicle? WOuld you rent a vehicle (I am not very fond of organised tours etc)....

I am curious looking forward to your input...

Kind regards,

Hein van der Wielen
The Netherlands

[james]

-We love to snorkel, Where are the best places to do so? We love renting a Jeep and exploring beaches etc. so what are good directions to go to?

I put up quite a bit about this on the forum if you search for snorkeling. The jeep idea is a good one, though a VW beetle (still made here) will get the job done as well on a budget.

-We have booked the Riulette. So we stay at either one of the 4(?) Riu hotels. Does anybody have experiences (positive or negatove) with this concept? We thought that probably they all were OK since we don't care whether we stay "on the beach" or not.... Never mind a short walk...

They are AI resorts, so I lump them all together. You'll likely want to hang in town. I looked at your site and it seems you are up for fun.

-We are leaving on Easter (31st March). I have some guidebooks and some mention Easter as a VERY busy period. Others don''t mention it at all? What is it like then? For me it's all the same so not a problem if it is crowded but I'm curius what to expect? I know for instance that in the Dominican Republic it is forbidden by law to use motorised watersports during this week. Also the roads are very dangerous (day and night) because of drunk drivers?

I cannot speak for the AI resort, but town will be comfortably full, which is to say fun and happening, most likely.

I've posted quite a bit on driving.

There are no restrictions here during the holiday.

-Is it wise (concerning both the crowd and the drunk drivers (if there are any specific this time of a year as the DR) to make reservations for a jeep like vehicle? WOuld you rent a vehicle (I am not very fond of organised tours etc)....

vehicles are handy outside of town, not necessary in town.