activities other than diving on holiday

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While I like to dive, I'm personally getting a bit bored with dive holidays which don't really offer anything else to do except dive dive dive and drink drink drink in the bar afterwards. Does anyone else feel the same? Are there operators you know that offer more activities and such as what? Do you think there are lots of divers out there who feel the same and want to do other things, such as visiting local villages and learning about the culture of the place or do most people just want to get their money's worth by diving every second that they can?
 
Although I don't want to sound like a prude, I feel an operator is asking for trouble if it "advertises or promotes" drinking as aprt of the dive trip. There is documented evidence of the negatives of drinking and diving. It's awful hard to draw a line about what is or isn't. We offer other activities i.e. Costa Rica trip this summer. On Friday, after 5 days of dives (multiple days, multiple dives) we include a day long "canopy tour' that gioves everyone something to do that allows off gassing before our return flight on Saturday.
 
Another interesting point. There is a local "dive club" that took a trip to Cozumel last summer. The cost of the trip did not include diving, but did advertise free alcohol. Where's the responsibility here?
 
So are you suggesting that dive resorts should be alcohol free? People should be responsible for their own actions and what they do or how much they do. Besides that, Cozumel is not just a dive destination. More people go there and don't dive than do. How is this not responsible?
 
Many inquiry posts on this (and other) boards reflect this quandry.

My "favorite" Caribbean Resort (CCV) steadfastly refused for years to do "happy hours", just for the same reason that many States have barred them. Accessability leads to overconsumption. The resort made a choice- it was up to divers to also make that choice by selecting the resort.

When you boil it down, there are precious few "dive-dive-dive" vacationers out there. Most folks want a little bit of everything. I have seen this on many ski trips run by clubs and coucils as well. The sport is one thing, but the vacation is quite often perceived as a "total package".

On one end of the spectrum is the cruise ship diver. Look at it from the ocean's perspective. Twice this week this diver flopped in, swam around, then left. In between times he climbed rock walls and wished he could still shoot skeet off of the fantail. He entered the water as an A Group diver each time. Sayonara.

Or the diver that does his one, two... maybe even a third each day then goes out and drinks like a college kid. Most vacationers fit close to this category. Two dives a day, a warm shower, maybe a hot tub, a couple of cocktails and nighty-night.

Certain (and very few) Caribbean Islands demand more than a "Friday Off-Gassing" island tour, so you really don't need a car, nor should yuou expect to find any real island culture that doesn't have MTV as a soundtrack.

Jaded? Yes I am, but when I pay money to travel, I am there to do what I can't do back home. I can sit on the back porch and drink beer all summer, I can go to the local Zoo (or whatever) If I am travelling and there is truly a unique non-scuba activity that can't be done on a offgass Friday", I'll consider it, but peer pressure and alcohol are not a factor.

I'll be doing 5x a day and making sure that night dives are scheduled.

Not everyone is looking for the same thing, and I say, God bless 'em, it's just really unfortunate that posters don't come to the boards with that as part of their profile, or at least, in what they post by asking for recommendations. I do find that most partiers underestimate their "down time" and overestimate their bottom time.

That said, more than "operators" who offer such diversions, maybe it is a better querry to ask which ISLANDS and locales offer such diversions?

I can think of the Tubing thru the Caves on mainland Belize, or from the Bay Islands the mainland excursions that include white water rafting or visits to the jungle ruins and pyramids. Some resorts offer sailboats and motorized watersports, all the way up to Club Med.

Now that would be a good choice for a resort that also offers diving, Club Med or Sandals. I remember a time when they were a resort that offered something else entirely, but times change and bodies sag. I think Hedonism II is the next to accept ARP Cards.

That brings up another point- the dive traveller is getting older. This is simply not a poor man's sport. True, you will have the traveller who has a West End Roatan Budget and wants info on other bargain location in the Mar Caribe. It is usually a very short thread. A lot of overuse of the words "reasonable" "affordable" "on a budget" etc., much like the unwillingness to do a reality check on their own "party quotient".

I cater to the posters and individuals that I dive with who are the dive-dive-dive types. That's the key- you gotta find the folks that move at your tempo.

I recently did a group from TX and we went to a remote destination in the Philippines. It amazed them that I did every possible dive, over a period of 10 days that totalled 45 some dives. A few were not far behind. Funny thing, that hondo diver group was pretty tight knit socially while on scene. Others jumped on bus trips into the 'rain forest' tours, coming back- all they could do is ask about the dives they missed. Seems like the tour was a bad choice compared to what they missed. I don't know, I have no basis for comparison other than their reports of "I'd rather been diving".

Everyone should get what they want. After skiing for 50 years I will say that we have, hands down, the best skiing conditions and infrastructure anywhere in the world, right here in the US. I still do Euro trips, but skiing there is (and should be) secondary to the experience.

There are resorts that offer some diving. Then there are are dive resorts. There are some resorts that think of themselves or portray themselves incorrectly. Some are Dorian Grey types.

You have to know what you want, what you are, and state it as such.
 
Wow...that was a long answer. :) but overall correct.

Its all about marketing. Find what you want, do what you want and see what you want. If you don't want to go there....don't. But don't think that you have the right answer for everyone. If someone wants to go to the place to party....go party. If you want to dive....go dive. But don't make a moral or social judgement on others who don't see it the way you do.
 
I don't mix dive trips and vacations.

If I go to dive - we dive - my kids agree with this approach.

If we go vacationing - we don't dive.

Diving is not a vacation - its a requirement to survive life.
 
Unfortunately, budgets and time dictate that diving is part of vacation for many of us. I got back into diving, after a 9 year hiatus, because my wife and I were taking a cruise and the reefs of Grand Cayman were stirring the old passion in me. I dive every chance I get now, including at the zoo cleaning the aquariums. I am going on my first all-diving trip in March and am looking forward to the experience. I have gone for a weekend at Gilboa but that doesn't compare to a week in Key Largo. The rest of my vacation is at Disney with my son and wife.

As Roatan Man states, different strokes for different folks. I think for many of us, age has a lot to do with it. As young adults, our parents may be footing the bill, or we may be fresh out of college, unmarried and tons of money to put towards diving. I'm going on 32, 2 kids and a wife. That kind of keeps you from doing many of those all-dive trips, though I would make sure wherever we vacationed, a dive is involved. If I even thought about leaving my wife with the kids to dive the entire vacation, she'd shove my regulator in places it wasn't meant to be and then she'd pack in my doubles for good measure. Once the kids are grown, you have more time and probably more money and it is dive dive dive because your days are counting down.
So it's like this:

20-something - dive dive dive
30 to 40-something - dive, do what your wife tells you, sneak in a night dive
50 to 60-something - dive dive dive
70-something - unless you're really lucky (and healthy) you're doing those jungle tours

There are exceptions to the rule but I bet that covers a large percentage of us.
 
I do like to mix 'em up. Some upcoming vacations will be diving only (with SI's only to eat and sleep), and some will includes other activities. Some cultures of the countries I visit are of little interest to me (hey, I'm being honest) while others hold a lot of interest.

When my wife and I plan a vacations, we take all these factors into account. We'll even return to countries that boast crappy diving because there are those other activities that we enjoy, and still have the opportunity to get a dozen dives in.
 

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