US Virgin Islands

[wcosue]

I'm not sure this is the correct form but it looks like the closest to the location. If not would someone please direct me to the proper form.
I looking for info on diving on the US Virgin Island for the summer of 2019. Were the dive sites damaged by the hurricane in 2018? Any favorite dive sites? Any suggestions and directions to find information would be appreciated. Thanks in advance

 

[diversteve]

They;re actually part of the Lesser Antilles so moved there.
Lesser Antilles

 

[They call me Tater]

I believe St. Croix has the best diving and multiple good dive shops. Sweet Bottom and N2theBlue are my favorites.

There is a great deal of variety and there have been numerous reviews you can search for here on SB.

 

[drrich2]

You probably won't be diving 'the' U.S. Virgin Islands in one trip; you'll probably dive one. St. John has a reputation (judging from online posts) for good snorkeling, but doesn't seem to be a popular dive destination. So you're picking between St. Croix and St. Thomas.

Did a family trip to St. Croix in 2017, and stopped one day of a cruise years before.
St. Croix Research Report Aug. 2017 - St. Croix Research Report Aug. 2017 Long story short, good trip. Hopefully I've provided the info. you need, aside from the fact my trip was pre-hurricane.

Been to St. Thomas on cruise ship stops a few times; dove twice, 2-dives finishing up OW cert. on referral in 2006, 2-dives for fun 2012. They picked me up at the pier, fun, so good and comforting that my wife (who dove in 2006) was put at ease and had a positive experience (not always easy to accomplish); don't recall named sites in 2006, but in 2012 dove Armando's Paradise and Navy Barges.

My impression of diving from the very small sample size of 4-dives; roughly 40 feet deep over flat bottom, roughly 50 foot viz., some nice reef and decent life, warm water and current wasn't a problem. The shoreline is beautiful in places, viewed from the boat.

Topside, they drive on the left. St. Thomas is a big deal as a shopping center in the Caribbean, and a major cruise ship port, so there's lot's to buy and a lot of topside excursions to choose from. We visited 'Coral World' on one stop and liked it. On another we took an excursion to visit St. John.

I seldom if ever see trip reports for 'dedicated dive trips' on ScubaBoard where someone spent a week in St. Thomas just to dive. Plenty of discussion related to cruise ship stops. I liked the diving in Key Largo better (again, 4-dives is too few to judge St. Thomas well).

Since St. Thomas seems to offer so much topside and good diving, too, I wonder why it's not featured in more dive trip reports here.

Richard.

 

[JackD342]

I believe St. Croix has the best diving and multiple good dive shops. Sweet Bottom and N2theBlue are my favorites.

There is a great deal of variety and there have been numerous reviews you can search for here on SB.

Sweet Bottom in St. Croix is owned by friend's of mine, transplants from Chicago. I have never been there to be able to recommend the diving, but I can certainly recommend the people.
As I have researched trying to justify a trip to St. Croix, I can add a little detail. First, don't expect to find a bunch of dive resorts, and certainly not Sweet Bottom. They are a dive shop, no lodging attached. (The Marriott where the first iteration of the shop was located is still not open to the public again, so they now have a second place and no longer need to operate out of a container.) With Sweet Bottom expect to be doing shore diving. They don't have their own boat, but I am told the wall immediately offshore is very good. They can book you onto some of the other boat operators or even guide/instruct you on another op's boat, but you will need to drive there yourself.

 

[TN Traveler]

I will admit to being partial to St Croix since I live here about 40% of the year. But then again, I bought here because the diving was very good (not Cozumel, Bonaire or Curaçao, but as good or better than the other islands).

The island offers a variety of dives, from shore diving at pier (one of the best 20 ft dives you will do), to shallow wrecks and reefs on the west, deeper spur and groove reefs leading to the wall on the north side (Davis Bay and Cane Bay) and then there is the wall at Salt River (frequent large peligics). Plus lots of other sites (http://soileiragusgonta.com/wp-cont...x-usvi-19-dive-sites-usvi-gotostcroix-com.jpg).

There was damage from Hurricane Maria, but things are returning to normal. There is not a dedicated dive resort but then again that is not bad since the island has many, many great restaurants.

On second thought, don’t come here, I don’t want to lose the “non-tourist “ feel of the island.

 

[MargaritaMike]

I have about 250 dives in St. Croix back in 1997-98. I really enjoyed the diving. I was down there so much that I got bulk rate on diving. I haven't been there since 2002 so I don't know what it's like currently. The people were GREAT then or else I wouldn't have gone back so much. I can't imagine that changing too much. The pier in Fredriksted IS one of the best 20 ft dives you will ever do (or WAS at least). I had a couple of favorite dive shops but I don't know if they still have the personality they had then. Michelle at Dive Experience is great. I also did some diving with St. Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventure (S.C.U.B.A.).
I did find it a bit disconcerting that they drive left hand drive vehicles as used in most places while having left side driving as used in England, Ireland, and others. Low beams shine to the right which is where the oncoming traffic resides. Two issues can arise. 1) If you are use to left hand drive, you're on the wrong side of the road, and 2) if you're use to driving on the left side of the road, the steering wheel is on the wrong side. I still have visions of turning out of the airport onto the divided highway - THE WRONG WAY!!! Scary!
Good Luck. The diving is great.

Cheers -

 

[diversteve]

St John took a hit in a recent hurricane. I'm pretty sure I saw a post from Cruz Bay Watersports last August indicating they were still only running a limited schedule.

In general terms most of the St Thomas diving is the reefs/wrecks south or the shallow dives on the East End. I only know some of the in town shops from discussions here - popular choices seem to be Admiralty or Blue Island.

Moving east - there's a shop at the Marriott Frenchman's Reef. The same shop also does the cruise dives afaik so those might be limited depth/time dives to accommdate that schedule. I don't know the name of the shop.

St Thomas Diving Club is at Bolongo Bay resort - been by there but not dove there.

Still farther east is one of few shore dives at Coki Beach. It's pretty shallow and gets decent to the right past Coral World - the current also picks up there. Coki Dive is onsite and they also boat dive.

Another couple miles is Red Hook Diving in Red Hook. The shop is just off the dock where they keep their boats. They dive the Cays in that area as well as around St. John. Cow/Calf Rocks is a known shallow dive, Carval Rock supposed to be the best but it's very weather dependent, we tried going out there but settled on Congo Cay which was sort of average. Diving in that area is shallow, lots of fans/soft corals - we didn't see a lot of fish, a few stingrays and 1-2 small sharks.

There's also a dive shop at the Ritz-Carlton. Hull Bay farther north is supposed to be an average shallow dive - there's a shop there also.

If you're looking for quieter - look to the East End. Some nice beaches also but no shore diving that we saw except at Coki. It takes about 30-45 mins. to drive there from Charlotte Amalie/the airport.

There's a car ferry from Red Hook to St John if you wanted to check it out one day. Takes about 30 mins. Or the fast ferry from Chalrlotte Amalie stops there also - on it's way to the BVI's. Which are more of the same diving just more of it.The Rhone is there and a couple of the St Thomas shops go there weekly.

You can also transit to the BVI's in under a couple hours via the ferries - they leave from Red Hook or downtown. Virgin Gorda at least took a hit in the last hurricane also - I saw photos of the area around Leverick Bay and a lot of the houses were flattened. As was Necker Island - Richard Branson's resort across the channel. Gorda is very quiet, has excellent beaches and better restaurants than it's size indicates since there's a lot of villa's. DiveBVI is a shop I often recommend - they're at several resorts, took us to the best of the area for diving and are just nice people.

 

[islanddream]

We went to St. Croix in June 2016 and dived with Cane Bay Dive Shop. They used to have a facility at Cane Bay but it got wiped out by Hurricane Maria. They now operate out of their shop in Fredriksted. We absolutely loved the diving in St. Croix and would go back in a heartbeat. At that time the reefs were lush, healthy, and beautiful. The Cane Bay crew were awesome, safety conscious, and entertaining. One of our favorite dives was the Fredriksted Pier. This is a dive NOT to be missed! We only got one dive at that location on our last dive day and wish we would've had known about it at the beginning of the trip. We would've gone back and night-dived it several times and requested it as a dive site during the day.

We rented a condo through VRBO with another couple. It was about a 10 minute dive from the dive shop at Cane Bay. When we go to St. Croix again, we'll have to stay closer to Fredriksted since that's where the dive shop is operating now.

I can't say enough good things about the St. Croix people, the dive shop, and the diving. I can't wait to return!

 

[jonhall]

Have been diving in St Croix several times, last time 2012, and highly recommend it as long as it has recovered from the hurricanes. St. Thomas is the commercialized island while St John is mostly national park with fewer places to stay.

N2theBlue dive op is located by the Frederiksted pier and can set you up for shore dives of the pier. It is a great dive (others have posted the best 20' dives you can do) with lots to see day and night, but I would say it is more in the 30-40' foot range. N2the Blue also limits divers on their boats, 6 I believe. Good op. I get pictures that are taken almost daily on Facebook and things look great.

There are several topside activities as well as a casino on St. Croix. Search some reviews on SB. @drrich2 put together a thread of everything St. Croix, which he gleaned from reviews of others as well as his experience.