A few more specifics on what your wife needs would be helpful.
Yes, 5
* has a defined meaning. Did you really want that?
I want to experience the best (besides the Red Sea). Which would you recommend?
Boy, are you in for a shocker. The Red Sea is interesting, maybe in the top 10, but the best? Hardly. Lots of good wreck dives, but if you were hoping to stay at a 5
* hotel and get to the best of the Red Sea~ it just aint happening.
I swayed to that point to suggest that your logic and search might be on faulty footing from the get-go.
Also, my wife likes to be pampered so a 4 or 5 Star hotel/resort would be nice. Any ideas if I can get both wishes?
It really does not exist.
This is an oft discussed topic here on SB. Bottom line is that where there is great diving, there are no 5
* resorts, nor any 4
*. You have to spend big money and go to the South Pacific for the fleeting few that exist. In the Maldives, you can find 3
* offerings, and the diving is good.
Where you find the few 4
*, nd this is very universal in the industry, the dive-op is a secondary consideration. People do not go to these upscale resorts to dive. These places start at $2500 per person for the week. Sometimes diving is extra.
The best option may well be to charter a private catered yacht, also well discussed here on SB.
I would also skip Roatan in your quest, but unlike Lori, I believe that Roatan rates in the Top 5 in the Caribbean for diving along the South Shore. But there are absolutely no lodgings anywhere on the island that are any better than a 3
* and that place is brand new and offers no in-house diving.
Fancy accommodations and "good" diving simply do not coexist.