OP
Carribeandiver
Guest
Well, I stayed at Bay Island Beach Resort last January and have another trip planned for Oct 27 through Nov 4 where I will again stay at Bay Island Beach Resort.
I was met at the airport and wisked through customs. When I arrived, I got in line like everyone else. A minute or two later, someone called my name and said come with her. Zip, just like that I stepped out of line, got my bag and waived bye to the customs hassle.
We did the same thing returning. Apparently, the BIBR people are pretty well known and customs allows their guests special treatment.
Bay Island provides very adequate accommodations, the staff is very friendly and helpful, the rooms are spacious, nothing elaborate, but very comfortable. The diving is awesome, shore diving available 24 hours a day, 4 boat dives a day plus a couple of night dives offered during the week.
The owners at Bay Island put on a pig roast and crab race on Wednesday night (it might be Thursday, I forget). The whole island is invited and people from everywhere show up. We had celebrities like the local radio disc jockey, the local doctor and nurse from the nearby hospital, and much to my surprise, many people from other resorts.
As for the crab race, participants put up $10 for 3 crabs. The crabs are poured out of a bucket into the center of a big circle and the first one over the outside line wins.
Half the money goes to the local schools and the owners put the pressure on the winner so he donates his half. So, all the money goes to the local schools.
The dive masters are GREAT, the boat captains are nice, the dive instructor is very nice and again, all the staff is very helpful, friendly and goes out of their way to make your stay fantastic.
There is always something planned for the evenings, one night there is a history lesson of the island (which is only interesting for about 10 minutes then you want to head out to something else).
One night is a slide show of fish we can expect to see. I won that but it was pretty easy since I dive the carribean alot and see these fish all the time. I won a bar tab for my knowledge.
I took my AOW and EAN courses there and while very cheap ($250) for both, I cant say they were courses that pushed me to my limits. I did gain some experience with a 127 foot dive where I had to perform some motor tasks at depth, and did about 3 navigation dives where I did gain some basic understanding of how to use the compass underwater; and I did do a very pleasant casual night dive with the instructor, and one kinda worthless peak buoyancy dive which did nothing but have the instructor remove 2 #s from my BC and signal OK.
For the Nitrox course, I had a short lecture, read the book for 2 days and took a test.
The real benefit is I got to dive Nitrox all week with no extra charge when the Nitrox upgrade for the week is around $90 or so. (I told you the $250 course fee was cheap)
Bay Island Beach Resort is on the Spooky Channel so shore diving is very interesting. The beginning of the channel lies about 50-75 yards off shore and is a pretty easy snorkel. There is a cable running along the bottom so you cant get lost and the channel runs from a shallow 30 feet to a max depth of 90 feet. The coral closes in in some spots so you are almost encompassed in a full overhead for a short distance.
The wildlife in the channel is abundant and the reef is spectacular.
I was met at the airport and wisked through customs. When I arrived, I got in line like everyone else. A minute or two later, someone called my name and said come with her. Zip, just like that I stepped out of line, got my bag and waived bye to the customs hassle.
We did the same thing returning. Apparently, the BIBR people are pretty well known and customs allows their guests special treatment.
Bay Island provides very adequate accommodations, the staff is very friendly and helpful, the rooms are spacious, nothing elaborate, but very comfortable. The diving is awesome, shore diving available 24 hours a day, 4 boat dives a day plus a couple of night dives offered during the week.
The owners at Bay Island put on a pig roast and crab race on Wednesday night (it might be Thursday, I forget). The whole island is invited and people from everywhere show up. We had celebrities like the local radio disc jockey, the local doctor and nurse from the nearby hospital, and much to my surprise, many people from other resorts.
As for the crab race, participants put up $10 for 3 crabs. The crabs are poured out of a bucket into the center of a big circle and the first one over the outside line wins.
Half the money goes to the local schools and the owners put the pressure on the winner so he donates his half. So, all the money goes to the local schools.
The dive masters are GREAT, the boat captains are nice, the dive instructor is very nice and again, all the staff is very helpful, friendly and goes out of their way to make your stay fantastic.
There is always something planned for the evenings, one night there is a history lesson of the island (which is only interesting for about 10 minutes then you want to head out to something else).
One night is a slide show of fish we can expect to see. I won that but it was pretty easy since I dive the carribean alot and see these fish all the time. I won a bar tab for my knowledge.
I took my AOW and EAN courses there and while very cheap ($250) for both, I cant say they were courses that pushed me to my limits. I did gain some experience with a 127 foot dive where I had to perform some motor tasks at depth, and did about 3 navigation dives where I did gain some basic understanding of how to use the compass underwater; and I did do a very pleasant casual night dive with the instructor, and one kinda worthless peak buoyancy dive which did nothing but have the instructor remove 2 #s from my BC and signal OK.
For the Nitrox course, I had a short lecture, read the book for 2 days and took a test.
The real benefit is I got to dive Nitrox all week with no extra charge when the Nitrox upgrade for the week is around $90 or so. (I told you the $250 course fee was cheap)
Bay Island Beach Resort is on the Spooky Channel so shore diving is very interesting. The beginning of the channel lies about 50-75 yards off shore and is a pretty easy snorkel. There is a cable running along the bottom so you cant get lost and the channel runs from a shallow 30 feet to a max depth of 90 feet. The coral closes in in some spots so you are almost encompassed in a full overhead for a short distance.
The wildlife in the channel is abundant and the reef is spectacular.
