I think I prefer atlantic. More green, nature, better beaches, yet at the same time maybe even slightly less hot due to the direct trade winds from the north-east. I imagine the north coast will win most votes
Definitely the North for us, as we like it a little less crowded. The beaches are good, the mountains are here, Lots do if you want it and the weather is better for us, But everyone has their own opinion....
water? water. then there are sharks. admittedly they do not come close to the shore but they are there. my theory is that they have their ways to get rid of the witnesses...
on a more serious note: plenty of sharks between DR and PR. and plenty of sharks off the coast of POP, in the deep water. after the plane crash in the 1996 that happened shortly after take off from POP the bodies of passengers were found to be mangled by sharks. and last year or so there was a fisherman in SD who was found floating in the caribbean sea half eaten (he drowned first thou).
My wife just learned to swim and i got her out into chest deep water last year with the assurance there are no sharks, I was bumped once years ago in Canada in waist deep water between sand bars it went one way i went the other up onto ankle deep sand bar. I had not been back in the ocean since until 25 years later when we came to the DR for the first time in 2009. Guess it is swimming in the pool for me and wading in the knee deep. The scariest thing in the world is a human being bent on destruction the next scariest is something you can't see but know is out there!