We stayed at the Barceló Punta Goleta hotel, near Cabarete in January 2004. The hotel beach is near Punta Goleta, where the offshore reef that follows Cabarete's long bay approaches land. There was snorkelling to be had at Punta Goleta when the sea was calm, which was unfortunately not often;  even then the sea clarity was only fair. However, since the reef was rarely visited, the corals and sponges were in good condition. We saw tangs, butterflyfish, groupers and wrasses.

A 15-minute taxi ride took us to Sosúa where there are several snorkelling spots, some accessible by small boats which ply from the beach. The biggest reef is just offshore, and  larger craft moor just off the reef for snorkellers to enjoy it, but it is unneccessary to use these since we finned to it in about 3 minutes off the sand. Once again the sea could be rough, but when it was calm the clarity improved day by day. Some of the corals were damaged, but there were still beautiful ones. Fish abounded, including large shoals of tangs, goatfish and sergeant-majors.