Best value location for PADI Certification

[zich6]

From Idaho, you might find it cheaper to fly to Pacific destinations than Caribbean.

Places like Bali are very inexpensive to stay in, especially outside the tourist areas.

Or spend a weekend in Seattle....

Something to think about. Thanks.

 

[Snoweman]

I second Cozumel. You will get drift dives in, which are a lot of fun. Enjoy!

 

[zich6]

I second Cozumel. You will get drift dives in, which are a lot of fun. Enjoy!

Thanks. Any experience with Scuba Life dive shop?

 

[Snoweman]

Thanks. Any experience with Scuba Life dive shop?

I have not. I have only dived with Tres Pelicanos (folks refer to them as 3P on this board). Great folks. You would probably have to look pretty hard to find a bad operator in CZM. They are there, but there are many highly thought of operators. Get on the Cozumel forum and start searching around. You can't go wrong with 3P, though.

 

[zich6]

I have not. I have only dived with Tres Pelicanos (folks refer to them as 3P on this board). Great folks. You would probably have to look pretty hard to find a bad operator in CZM. They are there, but there are many highly thought of operators. Get on the Cozumel forum and start searching around. You can't go wrong with 3P, though.

Thanks

 

[diversteve]

One aspect of any southeast asia flights from Idaho has to be the travel time/flight expense to get there. Thailand is known for cheap everything once you get there. I have no personal experience but had a friend who owned a dive business there.

From Idaho regionally best value has to be south Florida or Cozumel. Probably Coz as you just fly south through a hub in TX. Or south Florida since you could do things like stay at a Motel 6 like property and drive to any number of dive shops/boats locally.

Roatan and Utila are also very inexpensive once there. Flights to Roatan run about $200+ more than other Carib destinations.

Go where there's a lot of dive training done. Usually there's very inexpensive accommodations.
On Roatan that's the West End. There must be a dozen dive shops there - all competing on price.
Even the hostel Chillies has it's own affiliated shop - Native Sons. The entire West End is about 2 miles long so everyone walks. Lots of dive training done in the area and dives are cheap - about $35/boat dive now.

Anthony's Key Resort has extended their Buy one Get deal. I understand you can buy 1/2. That would get you a week of diving - class probably extra. But they'll pick you up at the airport and it;s all included. Nicer resort and you can dive with the Dolphins there for about $125.

Utila is even cheaper/smaller. There are dive schools there and cheap acoommodations - I think it's still possible to get a room for $20mt Plus many of the shops have dorms for advanced students. You can either fly into Roatan and ferry over weekends or fly into San Pedro Sula and catch a local flight over. Has to be during daylight - no lights at the Utila airport.

It's my opinion that Roatan/Utila shops/resorts try to hold down the prices since the flights are higher. I rented a 3br house, sub-rented two of the bedrooms to my buddies, did a week of boat dives and ate at the better restaurants for around $1500. Our flight was about $800 more. You could do it for 1/2 that.

Getting back to Coz - my friends stay at Villablanca Garden hotel because they're cheap. There's 3-4 dive shops walking distance nearby and all offer package deals. there. It's a little out of town and a more expensive cab ride. The cheap way to Cozumel is the "bag drag" from Canucn - details are in a post in the Coz forum here. I have not but understand there are some inexpensive rentals downtown walking distance to the pier/dive shops.

Also look at Ambergris Caye in northern Belize. They do a lot of dive training there. Southwest flies into Belize City and there's a ferry that I believe is about $40.

Grand Cayman is one of the most expensive dive locations in the Carribbean so I wouldn't consider it.

hth,

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

So let me just share a few thoughts. They may not be directly related to the question you ask but you may still benefit from them.

I did my Open Water from a local PADI instructor. He was trying to build a community of divers (his future customers) so he went to great lengths to make sure that we were adequately trained otherwise he would have to baby sit us after our certification. For my PADI AOW, I decided I wanted to fly somewhere to do the course instead of getting a local instructor. My PADI AOW instructor knew that I was a visiting customer that he would never see for the rest of his life. He also realized that is I was poorly trained for my deep diving portion and ended up killing myself in the future then it would happen miles away in another part of the world. Didn't bug him one bit. He was a good baby sitter for the guided dives but not a good instructor. The only lesson I learnt was scuba training is too serious to be mixed with "vacation." I always seek training from people I can go to once the training is over. Once you are sufficiently trained then you can travel anywhere you like but training needs to be from someone with whom I can meet once the vacation is over.

During my trips to the Caribbean I also witnessed Open Water courses being conducted in Roatan, Utila, Bonaire. There was a huge difference in the way they were run in vacation resorts as opposed to how they are run in dive shops. People running dive shops were retailers who had put in a lot of investment. Instructors teaching at resorts were often younger, party animals! They are great people to hang out and have a blast and my dive vacations would be dull without them but teaching is a very specialized skill and these kids were party animals teaching Boyles Law! Do keep in mind that this is an honest statement coming from someone who has posted quite aggressively against the dive shop culture in the US. Knowing what I know now, if I was getting certified all over again I would find someone who was either local or someone that I could frequently travel to and learn from him/her. If it had to be a travel and learn arrangement then the person would have to be a legend you know. John Chatterton or Steve Lewis types.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[zich6]

One aspect of any southeast asia flights from Idaho has to be the travel time/flight expense to get there. Thailand is known for cheap everything once you get there. I have no personal experience but had a friend who owned a dive business there.

From Idaho regionally best value has to be south Florida or Cozumel. Probably Coz as you just fly south through a hub in TX. Or south Florida since you could do things like stay at a Motel 6 like property and drive to any number of dive shops/boats locally.

Roatan and Utila are also very inexpensive once there. Flights to Roatan run about $200+ more than other Carib destinations.

Go where there's a lot of dive training done. Usually there's very inexpensive accommodations.
On Roatan that's the West End. There must be a dozen dive shops there - all competing on price.
Even the hostel Chillies has it's own affiliated shop - Native Sons. The entire West End is about 2 m

Thanks, great advice.

 

[zich6]

So let me just share a few thoughts. They may not be directly related to the question you ask but you may still benefit from them.

I did my Open Water from a local PADI instructor. He was trying to build a community of divers (his future customers) so he went to great lengths to make sure that we were adequately trained otherwise he would have to baby sit us after our certification. For my PADI AOW, I decided I wanted to fly somewhere to do the course instead of getting a local instructor. My PADI AOW instructor knew that I was a visiting customer that he would never see for the rest of his life. He also realized that is I was poorly trained for my deep diving portion and ended up killing myself in the future then it would happen miles away in another part of the world. Didn't bug him one bit. He was a good baby sitter for the guided dives but not a good instructor. The only lesson I learnt was scuba training is too serious to be mixed with "vacation." I always seek training from people I can go to once the training is over. Once you are sufficiently trained then you can travel anywhere you like but training needs to be from someone with whom I can meet once the vacation is over.

During my trips to the Caribbean I also witnessed Open Water courses being conducted in Roatan, Utila, Bonaire. There was a huge difference in the way they were run in vacation resorts as opposed to how they are run in dive shops. People running dive shops were retailers who had put in a lot of investment. Instructors teaching at resorts were often younger, party animals! They are great people to hang out and have a blast and my dive vacations would be dull without them but teaching is a very specialized skill and these kids were party animals teaching Boyles Law! Do keep in mind that this is an honest statement coming from someone who has posted quite aggressively against the dive shop culture in the US. Knowing what I know now, if I was getting certified all over again I would find someone who was either local or someone that I could frequently travel to and learn from him/her. If it had to be a travel and learn arrangement then the person would have to be a legend you know. John Chatterton or Steve Lewis types.

Just my 2 cents.

Very wise, thanks.

 

[diversteve]

I believe if you sign up for PADI e-learning there's a code the shop you might do your dives thru provides so they can access your records. At least it used to work like that. Probably add them later when you decide where to go also.