2 month dive vacation - Central America or South East Asia

[finn121]

Hi everyone

My friend and I are have a bit of a first world dilemma. We are both planning to go off on a backpacking/diving trip in January 2020 for 2 months and cannot decide between Central America or South East Asia. For a central America trip we were looking at Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Belize and Mexico. The South East Asia trip would be maybe Philippines and Indonesia.

Bit of background:

• Both are competent divers with over 100 dives (both PADI rescue cert)
• Budget of $5000 and ideally don't want to do liveaboards as they use a lot of the budget
• Have both dived Bali and Thailand (my friend has done the Philippines) so have already ticked those off
• Would like to see some larger fish i.e. sharks

Can anyone shed some light if they have been diving in both areas and let us know the pros and cons of each?

Thanks for the help.

 

[lowwall]

Wow. This is going to be a fun thread to watch. I'd suggest Central America just because it'll be new to both of you. Don't forget Honduras (which is between Belize and Nicaragua), although January is out of whale shark season. You can still see them in Mexico in January, but only from Baja California which is at the opposite end of the country from the usual Yucatan dive destinations.

If you go to SEA, you could do part of it as a safari trip in the Philippines. IMO, it's the ideal way of backpacking and diving. You get to dive and see a new places on land, and travel is by dive boat instead of the hassles of developing world public transit. THe only disadvantage is you can't stay at a place if you really like it. But you can always loop back at the end of the safari.

 

[flyboy08]

$5000 will gooooooooooooo soooooooooo much further in SE Asia!

 

[Lorenzoid]

Save Central America for a non-diving trip. SEA diving is far better.

 

[Bump_Head]

I had spent 8 months diving around Central America and have been diving all around SE Asia for the past year.
I’d highly recommend travelling the Caribbean coast of Central America. Say start in Yucatan Mexico for cenote, Bull Shark and drift dives around Coz.
Take the ferry to San Pedro, Belize for some island diving. Next up, Bay Islands, Honduras. From there to Corn Islands, Nicaragua and finally the Carib Islands off Columbia.
The diving is brilliant however there won’t be much left of your $5000. The memories are priceless

 

[Hank49]

Lot of options. For pure diving's sake, I'd go to eastern Indonesia. Ambon, Seram Islands. The cold blast of water from the Indonesian thru Flow is unreal.
But airfare from anywhere USA to there will probably suck up 40 - 50% of your budget.
A "backpackers" spot here in Belize is this place.
Glover's Atoll Resort, Belize
Slow and easy and probably the best diving in Belize. Also, wahoo are running off there in January. The owner is a very good fisherman.
If I were doing this, I would choose a couple spots in either area and just hang out and dive. There are some sites I could happily dive every day. The coral looks the same but the variety of fish can change with the tide.
Also, packing up and transferring to a new place takes time and money.

In any case, I would bet you're going to have a blast.

 

[KathyV]

Have you considered the Red Sea? I don't know about backpacking options, but the diving is great and I would guess that the airfare from Europe might be reasonable.