Ambergris Caye or Turks & Caicos Dive trip?

[NightRaven77]

Ok.....im lucky...

I have a choice of a dive trip to either Ambergris Caye or Turks and Caicos !!

We are leaving in early June...

Which would you choose and why?

 

[Hoag]

For TCI, are you looking at Provo, Grand Turk, or a Live Aboard?

 

[NightRaven77]

For TCI, are you looking at Provo, Grand Turk, or a Live Aboard?

Most likely it will be Provo...

 

[Hoag]

In that case, I have stayed at what is now the "Ports of Call" hotel (when I stayed there, it was a Best Western), and I dove with Dive Provo. (The hotel & the dive shop share a parking lot, so it doesn't get much more convenient.) Dive Provo is a concierge dive service and I had a very good experience with them. Many of the sites require a fairly long boat ride out (45 minutes to an hour), but the diving was great. It is mostly wall diving and the sandy "shallows" are 40 feet deep or more. When I was there, the reefs were full of life and there was the usual big stuff off in the blue and occasionally closer (sharks, rays, turtles, etc.).

After the diving is done, pack up your "boat bag" and leave it on the boat. Overnight they will rinse, dry, and secure your gear and it will be waiting for you on the boat the next morning.

If you wind up going to Grand Turk, I highly recommend a place called "Bohio", but more on that if it looks that you might be heading to Grand Turk.

BTW, the Turk & Caicos Explorer is a lot of fun and great diving too. You really can not go wrong with any of those options.

 

[Ray and Pam]

Ambergris Caye was awesome snorkling inside the reef 20 yrs ago and still is. Diving outside the reef is good for a couple days then it's all the same, nurse sharks hounding you and the same topography. Diving inside the reef is probably better. We should have gone to the outer islands but couldn't afford it. At least if you stay in AC take a trip to the out islands on one of the big boats, wished we had. Do it early incase you want to again. \
It's always a good time to do the fishing, snorkling, beach and beer fish cookout.

If we went to Turks and Caicos or Belieze again, I would look at the LOB if thats your thing, we haven't yet.

 

[mcohen1021]

I think they are both comparable. From a cost perspective, Ambergris is cheaper. The food and drink prices will kill you in Provo. The only way to go to Provo affordably is via Club Med and the food is very good (and I hate AI food).

Ambergris: Contact Reef Adventures for packages - Ched Cebral is awesome
Providenciales: Contact Flamingo Divers - Mickey and Jayne are also wonderful

 

[swimbody]

T&C's. I would rather huff farts than ever go back to Ambergris Key.

 

[tridacna]

T&C's. I would rather huff farts than ever go back to Ambergris Key.

Quite a statement. (I'm on your side here). Curious to know why?

 

[swimbody]

Perhaps it was the time of year, the company we were with, or the fact that everywhere I went there was a bunch of scab covered American alcoholics all just dying slowly there on that key. The diving was meh on the ocean side of the reef and there were tons of nurse sharks that followed everybody around looking for food that has obviously been handed out over the decades. The place has obviously been a little bit battered by storms and there just was not an abundance of fish. The structure that you get in a place like Roatan or Cozumel was far better. We had to go through a cut in the reef which was very wavy. I don't typically have any problems with those conditions but my wife was green to and from. Just not my place.