We had a destination wedding in Punta Cana this last week. The wedding was on Wednesday, so we went down on Saturday, and dove Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, on the southern coast at Biyahibe. Biyahibe is a great little town on the southern Dominican Republic coast, to the SE of La Romana (which has an international airport). Overall, I think it is cheaper than Cozumel, but about an additional 1.5 hour flight. Flights, food, and drinks were noticeably cheaper, except for tequila. But we always drink rum in the Caribbean. The food, except for one restaurant sucked, so advantage Cozumel.
Most of the dives are shallow (30-60 feet), and the topography is very much like Tormentos, or the east side of Cozumel, Kenworth sized coral reefs, with small mixed coral in between. The shallow reefs have much more life, and undamaged coral, that was a plus. But there aren't any multistory reefs like Palancar.
We used John, at ScubaFun, for our dives. Very good shop, recommended by ScubaBoard, professional, and with decent equipment. Nitrox is a bit tough to get. They rely on you, the diver, to pick the mixtures, test the tanks for percentage, pressure, and IB. Thank God, that CHIEF Jr. paid attention in nitrox class. The first two days were shallow, but we decided to pick our own shit to do on the last day. They loaded up 4-5 other divers on the same skill level.
The first dive was a sunken freighter in about 130 foot of water, really cool, more for working on bouyancy. The second was to my first colonial shipwreck. Saw cannons, muskets, and cannonballs.
Anyway, I would say it is worth the trip.
CHIEF