Shallow Caribbean Diving Destination

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Messages
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Location
Miami, Florida
# of dives
200 - 499
I am looking for a shallow destination in the Caribbean for my mother and I to go to over my spring break in the middle of March. While I am an experienced diver my mother is a bit of a nervous diver and generally prefers a maximum depth of about 40 feet. I've spent a lot of time diving in Curacao and Bonaire and I live in Florida so I would prefer to go somewhere else. I really want to go somewhere with a healthy reef, abundance of marine life, and a variety of shallower sites that my mother will feel comfortable diving. Any recommendations anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated.
 
There's a lot of good shallower diving in the BVI's - here's a link to the dive site page for DiveBVI with depths on each island sub-page.
Dive Sites | Dive BVI
The Chimney was one of the best dives we did - 45' to the sand. And there were many others. We dove with them about 5 years ago. I still recommend them as the same people still run it.

Fly into St. Thomas and ferry over - they have fast ferries that run almost on the hour. We stayed on Virgin Gorda, it's really quiet and peaceful but a little pricier. Tortola is bigger/busier.
 
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Any of the resorts along the Southern shoreline of Roatan offer very shallow walls that drop vertically from 5'>90' to a sandy shelf. Lots of life and activity very shallow among the coral heads, and just over the edge. I seldom go beyond 45fsw in many, many dives there.

See Barefoot Key, Fantasy Island, CoCoView, Reef House Resort.

The intact, upright Prince Albert Wreck (in front of CCV and FI) bottoms out in 35' at the bow and 65' at the stern, she tops in 22'. That's what anyone would call shallow.
 
Many spots at Grand Cayman, especially the shore dives at Sunset House, can be kept above 40 feet. Devil's Grotto is worth going back to over and over. I have a Canon D10 that is rated to 10 meters, so I enjoy taking it out for shallow dives. The Oro Verde wreck has a max depth of 54' and is tucked into a shallow (35'?) reef. Your Mom could dip down if she is comfortable or stay at the reef. Cheeseburger Reef is 38'. Pageant Beach is 36'. Entry from shore can be a problem, so boat diving is the easiest way to go. Entry at the Sunset House is easy and you can rent tanks/weights there too. I keep mentioning SH because I've stayed there a couple of times and always enjoyed the shore dives and the staff (should I mention their bar? try their Cayman Lemonade). Staying on 7-mile beach is pretty, but I prefer the diving convenience at the Sunset House.
 
Roatan, the reefs on the top of the walls is 20-40 ft. The dive masters take the more experienced divers down the wall and back to the boat along the top. Those who wanted to stay shallow just followed along at the top or just stayed near the top of the wall. You can pick your depth. A great place to gradually introduce her to deeper dives.

Bonaire, you can do your own thing on the shore dives. She would need to be OK with diving with just a buddy. Often there will be no one else at a dive site. The reefs start at about 20 feet and gradually get deeper.

I do my dive trips with my sons. Its such a great family activity. Have fun.
 
There's a lot of good shallower diving in the BVI's - here's a link to the dive site page for DiveBVI with depths on each island sub-page.
Dive Sites | Dive BVI
The Chimney was one of the best dives we did - 45' to the sand. And there were many others. We dove with them about 5 years ago. I still recommend them as the same people still run it.

Fly into St. Thomas and ferry over - they have fast ferries that run almost on the hour. We stayed on Virgin Gorda, it's really quiet and peaceful but a little pricier. Tortola is bigger/busier.

Yes, BVI is famous for being a bit shallow - we have only about 2 or 3 dives which just scrape briefly below 100 feet. Most diving is in the 50-60 foot range, and there are plenty which don't go below 40 feet.

That being said, I suspect that most Caribbean destinations will have a sufficient number of shallow sites to keep divers happy for a week without going below 40 feet.
 
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