Advice please?

[dacruz831]

So I am a brand new diver just got my open water. I plan on doing some dives before in PVR in a few weeks and a few in Thailand in June.
I want to take a solo trip the 1st week of September byself and do some diving. I have narrowed it down to Curacao and Ambergris Caye.
Ambergris Caye will be easier to get to, but Im worried about weather and being too boring.
Curacao is harder to get to but looks like may be too touristy.

Considering being early September and I wont have buddies to do shore dives with, what should I go for? Can i pay people to be my shore dive buddy LOL?
Thanks so much!!

 

[Robert H. Diver]

Well, we went to Blue Hole, it was terrible, but Half Moon Cay was awesome.
I found Ambergris Key surprisingly good for what it was. It was 22 years ago, but the reefs were as healthy as anything else in the Caribbean (remember, I was chartering in the Flower Gardens, so it's tough to compare coral health with anything else), we took my dad and step mom to Shark Ray alley, it was just decent spur and groove diving.

The bonus was that we made life long friends with the boat crew, and have been back a number of times to dive with them. They made Mel a gift of a conch shell for blowing. I liked it and will continue to go back.

I have not been to Curacao, so have no comparison.

The reefs were still healthy and beautiful last month. I’d go again right now if I could. The Blue Hole stalactites were good, it’s kind of a dive once and your good dive. Half moon Caye and the aquarium were fantastic though.

 

[gmerick]

Been to Ambergris 3 times. Once unaccompanied, twice with LDS trips. Ramon's x 2, and Sunbreeze Hotel/Ambergris Divers 1x. On all trips there were some unaccompanied divrs. No shore diving. The boat operators were all OK with matching up compatible buddys. For the most part, the group followed the dive guide, but the group was rather loose and free, so buddys were essential. Both operators had Nitrox. The reef is just several hundred yards off shore, but boat traffic and shore break tend to make shore diving prohibited, although I did do a shallow dive near the pier to adjust trim and check out my gear.
Two days (out of 20) the weather in December/January prevented diving on the reef, but several operators consolidated on one of Ramon's 42' Newtons, and guests willing to corkscrew on 8' seas for two hours each way ended up with great diving on Turneffe.

 

[ZzzKing]

With your status as a newly minted diver, I would steer clear of Curaçao unless you are going with others. As said above, dive ops in Belize will have people on board that you can buddy with. You may want to just hang at San Pedro and dive the local reefs. You typically do the dive then return to the dock for your surface interval because it is so close. The Blue Hole is well past basic open water diver depth so if you decide to go on that day trip, you can skip the first dive. The other two are nice, though possibly a little advanced. The Turneffe trip is also a little advanced. Maybe save those for a future trip. If you can afford it, hire a personal dive master to be your buddy. Finding insta-buddies can be a crap shoot.

 

[Damselfish]

With your status as a newly minted diver, I would steer clear of Curaçao unless you are going with others. As said above, dive ops in Belize will have people on board that you can buddy with.

Dive ops in Curacao will also have people on board you can buddy with, assuming you are on a boat. Or like most places the DM. And there is the Dive Bus.

 

[ZzzKing]

OP mentioned shore diving In Curaçao. If boat diving, you are probably correct. No real shore diving in Belize.

 

[schuylerclark]

With your status as a newly minted diver, I would steer clear of Curaçao unless you are going with others. As said above, dive ops in Belize will have people on board that you can buddy with. You may want to just hang at San Pedro and dive the local reefs. You typically do the dive then return to the dock for your surface interval because it is so close. The Blue Hole is well past basic open water diver depth so if you decide to go on that day trip, you can skip the first dive. The other two are nice, though possibly a little advanced. The Turneffe trip is also a little advanced. Maybe save those for a future trip. If you can afford it, hire a personal dive master to be your buddy. Finding insta-buddies can be a crap shoot.

I dived at both Turneffe and the Blue Hole as an OW diver as part of a guided group. I still feel fine about that even after completing my deep cert. The reefs off San Pedro are also plenty to keep you occupied.