Marina Casa de Campo

Clearance comes to the boat, which is not how the Dominican Republic normally works

This matters because it is not the Dominican Republic's normal pattern. General cruising guidance for the country describes clearance running through four separate authorities, and cruiser forum accounts elsewhere on the coast describe visiting each office in turn, with informal fee variation a recurring complaint. Casa de Campo's on-site process, where a Marina Officer collects the yacht's documents and passports and brings the officials back to the pontoon, is reported consistently by Dockwalk and echoed in search-indexed noonsite material, though noonsite's own page could not be loaded directly for this piece and is cited at one remove.

Fly the yellow quarantine flag and the Dominican courtesy flag until cleared. A general entry fee of USD 10 per person for a 60-day visitor's card applies country-wide; total clearance costs specific to Casa de Campo were reported in the region of USD 120 to 201 in secondhand cruiser accounts, which is wide enough that a captain should treat it as a rough planning figure rather than a quote. A dedicated shore agent, Dominican Republic Yacht Services, is based directly at the marina and is the practical route most serious operators use, though nothing found states an agent is a strict legal requirement for a private yacht.

A basin built for 76 metres, with an entrance that is not fully documented

The 4 m draught figure is repeated by Dockwalk, superyachts.com and marine-project.com, which gives it reasonable weight, but a Southern Boating feature separately describes a draught of up to 16 feet, close to 4.9 m, without reconciling the difference. For anything drawing over 4 metres the sensible approach is to confirm with the harbourmaster before arrival rather than rely on either published figure.

No independent source describes a specific navigational hazard at the breakwater itself beyond the standard practice of being met and guided in by a marina dinghy, which suggests the entrance is straightforward for a vessel within the stated draught. What is less clear is capacity: the marina's own site and Dockwalk both say 350 berths, a separate marina blog post and the Superyacht Services Guide say 370, and Wikipedia says 400. None of the three figures is confirmed by a fourth, independent count, so a reader should treat the true number as somewhere in that range rather than a fixed fact.

The resort's own hurricane guarantee is written entirely for hotel guests sheltering on land. It says nothing at all about a boat in the water.

Berths over 30 metres are not simply bookable

Booking in the ordinary case runs through the marina's own Harbourmaster or Marina Concierge by phone or email. For a larger vessel, Marine Project's own listing describes securing exclusive availability for its clients through direct port management channels rather than a public reservation system, which is a genuinely useful, non-marketing data point: it tells a captain that a call ahead, or a broker with an existing relationship, matters more here than at a marina that takes bookings off a website.

No source found gives a minimum advance-notice window or states plainly whether transient berths for smaller yachts are generally available or usually full, so that remains an open question best answered by calling ahead of a planned arrival rather than assuming either answer.

No published rate, anywhere, for any size of berth

That private listing, for a 140 ft by 35 ft slip, quotes USD 225 a night or USD 5,500 a month, which works out to roughly USD 1.60 a foot a night for that specific large slip. It is worth citing because it is the only number that exists, but it is a private resale, not the marina's own pricing, and should be read as an indicative proxy rather than a rate an owner can expect to be quoted.

For context, a roundup of nine Eastern Caribbean marinas found four of them published no rate at all, from Port Zante in St Kitts at USD 0.75 to 1.00 a foot up to IGY Lagoon Marina in Sint Maarten at USD 1.50 a foot. Casa de Campo's silence on pricing is therefore consistent with a genuine regional pattern rather than an outlier, but it still means an owner cannot budget for a season here from public information alone, and has to ask directly.

A real shipyard on site, scoped to mid-size refit rather than the largest hulls

IBC's stated trade list, electrical, hydraulic, hull painting, fibreglass, carpentry and propeller work among more than 25 specialisms, is genuinely broad, and its Azimut and Benetti network membership means it is a recognised service point for those brands specifically, not a generic yard claiming general competence. Provisioning is handled through the marina concierge with complimentary delivery to the boat, and a marketing manager quoted in a Southern Boating feature described security as good enough that owners leave boats open without concern, which is a real, named quote but should be read as the marina's own promotional voice rather than independent verification.

The 120 tonne travel lift figure, separate from IBC's 300 tonne crane, points to a real ceiling. Nothing in any source claims Casa de Campo can haul and refit a large superyacht on site, and the reasonable inference, not a sourced statement, is that bigger project work still travels to Puerto Rico, Florida or back across the Atlantic. An owner should treat the on-site shipyard as strong for mid-size and routine work and confirm capability directly for anything larger.

Golf, an artists' village and the calendar that actually drives the marina's traffic

Restaurants at or near the marina include La Casita on the Paseo del Mar for Spanish tapas and paella overlooking the water, and SBG for regional seafood and Peruvian-style ceviches and tiraditos, both within walking distance of the pontoons. La Piazzetta, the resort's original and most celebrated restaurant, sits in Altos de Chavon itself, a short drive rather than a walk, alongside the shopping plaza Piazza Portofino and its own smaller restaurants. After dark, Genesis at Altos de Chavon and two further venues, Onno's and Good Vibes, cover the resort's nightlife, though nothing found suggests a dedicated crew or yacht-specific scene distinct from the resort at large.

The Dominican Republic Open on the PGA Tour Champions runs 10 September 2026 on Teeth of the Dog, the LINKS Invitational runs 14 to 19 October 2026, and a 30th anniversary Caribbean Golf Classic and a 12th Latin America Pro-Am both return in 2026, though the Latin America Amateur Championship the resort has historically hosted rotates away to Lima, Peru this year. Billfish season, February to May, is the other real anchor on the calendar, with one recent season reported at over 400 blue marlin releases across 18 boats in 61 days, though a specific 2026 tournament date could not be confirmed at the time of writing.

The hurricane hole claim is marketing, not an engineering study

The protocol confirms a written and telephone warning system, a designated on-site shelter, the Flamboyan Conference Center, and a credit or refund guarantee for stranded or evacuated hotel guests. None of that answers the question an owner actually has, which is what happens to a boat on the pontoon when a storm is forecast. Marketing copy describing the marina as operating normally in the season is a promotional claim, not a wind or surge exposure study, and no independent engineering assessment of the basin's storm safety was found anywhere.

This is a real gap, not a small one, given how heavily the marina's own material leans on the hurricane-season framing. An owner planning to base a yacht here through the June to November window should ask the marina directly, in writing, what its actual storm plan is for a vessel in the water, rather than infer safety from the resort's guest-facing hurricane guarantee.

The honest downside

Berth count varies from 350 to 400 depending on the source, and draught from roughly 4 to 4.9 metres. None of this is necessarily wrong, but a buyer comparing Casa de Campo against another Caribbean base should treat every headline figure as a range rather than a single confirmed number. General Dominican Republic clearance bureaucracy remains real even with an on-site process smoothing it, and informal fee variation has been reported anecdotally, if not specifically confirmed at this marina.

The deeper gap is in the record itself. For a marina this prominent, a search of Dockwalk, The Triton and general trade press turned up no independent, named captain or owner discussing the actual berthing, clearance or hurricane-basing experience here, only day-charter and fishing-trip reviews that answer a different question and marketing quotes from the marina's own staff. That silence is worth stating plainly to a reader rather than filled in with charter reviews that were never about this question.

Для кого: An owner basing a yacht in the southern Caribbean through hurricane season who wants clearance handled at the dock and a resort's worth of golf, dining and an artists' village around the berth, and who accepts that the marina does not publish what any of it costs.