If you are immune to noise, you will most likely find this place to be very nice. The apartment is very clean and well equipped, and the hosts - who live upstairs - are very helpful. The surrounding facilities with access to several sea water pools, lounge chairs and palapas/umbrellas are excellent. It is, however, a very noisy location, and we don't understand how some of the previous reviewers can describe it as a quiet place. The building is next door to the Whala! Hotel, which has loud music every evening till 11 pm, and there is often loud music during the daytime as well. In addition, the boats that take tourists from Bayahibe to Saona Island pass very close to the coast, and most of them have noisy engines and many play loud music. More than 100 boats pass by for about 3 hours in the morning and return during 3 hours of the late afternoon.
In addition, we had noise from the balconies of the buildings behind us, where sometimes people were talking on the balconies till past 1 am. To top it off, the owner would occasionally practice playing the guitar on the balcony above us. That was thoughtless, as the owners otherwise tried to reduce the noise for us by letting us move into the other unit downstairs facing away from the hotel, which reduced the noise level a bit.
In addition to the noise, the boats create a lot of waves, which makes swimming in the ocean a bit unpleasant for a large part of the day. The waves also make the water unclear, so snorkeling is not very good. There are some corals and fish off the coast, but nothing to write home about.
We stayed for 4 weeks. Since we chose this place for the prospects of getting peace and quiet and clear water for snorkeling we were obviously disappointed. However, if you are satisfied with sunbathing, swimming in the pool, enjoying the uncrowded facilities, watching the beautiful sunsets, and you don't care about the noise, then you will like this place.
