you only have two shops/charters to choose from in Destin
ScubaTech
Emerald Coast Scuba
ScubaTech has an "oil crew boat" that is decent size.
Emerald Coast has a converted sport fisherman type boat.
If you drive an hour (approx) east, you'll hit Panama City and there you have a choice of about 4 to 6 charter operations and a decent selection of wrecks.
There you have
Panama City Dive Center
Dive Locker
Panama City Dive Charters (by Pat Green here on Scubaboard).
Better Bottom Time Charters
plus one or two others.
If you head West, over in Ft Walton is Scuba Shop. (don't know anything about them).
about an hour or 1.5 hours west, you hit Pensacola and you have a lot of charter operators there. Several favorites there including MBT Divers, Scuba Shack and H20 Below charters.
You can easily find all the above operators in Google.
Middle of November, I wouldn't expect any of the charters to be running much during the week days unless they can meet the minimums. Water will still be decently warm but topside suface interval wind can be undesirable. January will bring more of the same but cooler and less chances of going out. You can always hit shore diving though if they boats don't run.
Shore Diving in Destin is mostly done at "Destin Jetties" at the finger jetty on the east side of the pass. You enter that area from the parking area on Holiday Isle. It's quite a walk. Preferred diving time is high slack tide +/- an hour or so. A few people might shore dive the brigde, but that's about it.
A short drive will take you to shore dives at Morrison Springs, Vortex Springs, and St Andrews Jetties. All of these are about an hours drive from Destin and all are good dive sites.
Hope this helps.
-Mike
