Saona Island by Bus: Getting to Bayahibe on Your Own

Saona Island by bus in five facts

1. Saona Island is part of Parque Nacional Cotubanamá, a park that spans La Romana and La Altagracia provinces, according to the Ministry of Environment.
2. Tourist boats to Saona leave from Bayahibe.
3. The bus takes you to La Romana: about 115 km from Santo Domingo and about 100 km from Punta Cana via Higuey, according to our data.
4. From La Romana to Bayahibe it is about 26 km, about 25 minutes by car, by taxi or local guagua on your own.
5. The boat trip to Saona is arranged separately: we handle only the bus.

What Guagualine handles and what it does not

We handle the bus to La Romana, from Santo Domingo or from Punta Cana, with the exact stop and time in your confirmation and WhatsApp support. We do not handle the La Romana to Bayahibe leg, because we have not found any company that publishes its own timetable or stop for it, which is why Bayahibe is not yet one of our destinations. Nor do we sell or handle the speedboat, the catamaran or the Saona Island tour: that is arranged with a tour operator. We are an independent intermediary with no agreement with the operators, and the transport contract is always with the company on your ticket.

From Santo Domingo: bus to La Romana, then Bayahibe

According to its own social media posts from November 2023, Expreso Romana links La Romana with Santo Domingo. It is about 115 km and around 1 hour 45 minutes by our estimate. The departure point in Santo Domingo comes with your confirmation, because that company does not publish a written address in the capital. In La Romana the bus stops in the city centre, and from there Bayahibe is about 26 km away. In total it is about 140 km by road to Bayahibe and a little over 2 hours of travel, not counting waits. That is the short answer to how far Saona Island is from Santo Domingo: about 140 km to the boat pier, plus the boat crossing, which depends on the tour. Assisted booking for this leg is from 19 USD per person, and if you travel on your own you pay the fare directly to the company. The details are on the Santo Domingo to La Romana route page.

From Punta Cana: two guaguas via Higuey

Our Punta Cana to La Romana route is two local guaguas with a change in Higuey, about 100 km and about 2 hours 40 minutes including the change, by our estimate. These guaguas leave when full, not at fixed times, and you pay cash if you travel on your own. With the assisted booking it costs from 19 USD per person. A detail from the map: from Higuey, Bayahibe is about 40 km away and La Romana about 50, according to OpenStreetMap routing, so going through La Romana adds about 35 km compared with the direct road. We do not handle a direct guagua from Higuey to Bayahibe because we have no source for one. The two ways of making the trip from Punta Cana, with their pros and cons, are in our guide Punta Cana to La Romana and Bayahibe.

The last stretch: La Romana to Bayahibe

This leg is on your own, by taxi or local guagua. It is about 26 km and about 25 minutes by car without traffic, according to OSRM routing on OpenStreetMap run on 22 October 2026. We do not give fares for this trip because we have not found any company that publishes them: with a taxi, agree the price before you get in. Bear in mind that Bayahibe is in La Altagracia province, not in La Romana province, even though La Romana is the town you travel through to get there.

The boat to Saona Island is a separate tour

Saona Island is a protected area within Parque Nacional Cotubanamá, which was called Parque Nacional del Este until 2014 and is the protected area with the most visitors in the Dominican Republic, according to a 2023 note from the Ministry of Environment. Tourist boats to Saona and to Catalina Island leave from Bayahibe, as another note from the same ministry in May 2022 records, and it also mentions the national park entry wristbands used in Bayahibe. So when you arrange the tour, ask whether park entry is included and what time it leaves. Since local guaguas have no fixed times, the sensible plan is to sleep in Bayahibe the night before rather than stake the boat departure on a connection. Guagualine does not sell the tour or the boat.

Sources and how we checked

That Saona Island belongs to Parque Nacional Cotubanamá, its former name and that it is the most visited protected area in the country come from the Ministry of Environment note published in 2023 on the Presidency website, read on 22 October 2026. That the boats to Saona leave from Bayahibe and the entry wristbands come from the May 2022 note from the same ministry. The distances from La Romana and from Higuey to Bayahibe come from OSRM routing on OpenStreetMap on 22 October 2026, without traffic. The distances and durations of the bus legs are our estimates, and we label them as such. We give no departure times because we have no verified timetable for these legs. We are not the website of any transport company or tour operator. We handle Santo Domingo to La Romana from 19 USD per person and Punta Cana to La Romana from 19 USD, with secure payment when you book and a full refund if we cannot get your ticket.