When I vacation dived exclusively, I never realized how much work diving was. Now it consumes an ENTIRE Saturday from packing the car at 6AM to hanging the rinsed gear at midnight. Nothing else I do is that much work! . . .
. . .
On a side note, we're going to Grand Cayman in December and my husband found a valet diving shop that basically handles everything for you. When he told me that I was a thousand times more excited to dive on vacation, lol. Someone else hauling around those heavy tanks for me and I just have to show up, check it out, strap in, and go? Yes, please! :biggrin:
So it's possible to make some tradeoff between effort and expense. You can do all the work yourself on a Saturday at minimal cost, and get in an hour of local bottom time for all that effort. Or you can use up a week of hard-earned vacation time, spend a lot of money, and let others do much of the work for you. Neither of these extremes is palatable to many divers, and I guess those are the ones who drop out. It seems to me there is a sweet spot between these extremes for the lucky few who are able to achieve a balance of effort and expense by living conveniently close to great diving and getting a little help with the less fun parts.