Anybody been to Salt Cay?

[scubawife]

I'm starting to think about possible destinations for my spring (March or April) trip and Salt Cay looks interesting. Nothing much to do but dive and relax. Has anyone been there? If so, where did you stay and who did you dive with? Was it worth the hassle of getting there?

 

[Tom Winters]

I saw it on the horizon from Grand Turk. Grand Turk was pretty much the quietest island I was ever on - then I read that people on Salt Cay go to Grand Turk for shopping and excitement. It sounds a little too relaxing even for me.

 

[Alex777]

I spent my honeymoon there (4 years ago). Salt Cay Divers was, and probably still is, the only dive operation. My wife and I were the only 2 divers. The dive op was very good - relaxed, friendly, etc. Start by phoning them. We phoned them to book our diving before we had our accomodation lined up (which shows our priorities!), and they booked that for us too - a beachfront place, essentially a motel, whose name I have forgotten. It was clean & in good repair. There was 1 restaurant open (excellent food & service) and 1 place to go for a drink at night.

You go to Salt Cay to DIVE - there's nothing else to do there. For a change of pace, you snorkel or swim. The diving is not challenging - reef & wall dives in clear, warm water. The reefs were in fine condition. Bring all the gear you need - don't plan on picking anything up on the island.

 

[scubawife]

Thanks Alex! When I was looking around the internet last night I found 2 dive shops - Salt Cay Divers and Reef Runners. There also seems to be a handful of simple but nice places to stay and a few decent restaurants. I'm a bit concerned about the small plane though. Can you bring your dive gear or are there low baggage weight restrictions?

Easy diving is fine as long as it's good. Lush reefs and lots of fish. Doesn't have to be deep or challenging.

 

[rpodos]

I just got to Grand Turk today. Yep... *quiet*. Most of the noise is made by Mitch, the owner of Blue Water Divers, who evidently wants to be a musician as much as a diver.

I'll ask around about Salt... I'll be on the internet most evenings for the next week, so let me know if there is anything specific you'd like me to check out.

BTW, for anyone who happens on this thread, I am going to be asking a LOT of questions about the whole area... I want to get beyond the standard moorings and dive sites. For instance, I was looking at a satellite map last night, and I was like "WHOA! What the heck THAT island to the southwest?" Great Inagua, third largest of the Bahamas! I have never even heard of a diver going there! And yes, a good reason why not, it's basically salt, but who knows about the diving? And I could SWEAR I say a huge pod of something on the approach to GT, but evidently it's a flat that nobody dives... everybody usually just does the wall here.

We'll see what we can find.

 

[grumpygrouper]

Hi
It has been three years since I have been to Salt Cay(but I have been diving there three times). I always dive with Salt Cay Divers, I have been very satisfied with them. They have been business the longest. The plane is a puddle jumper but I have carried 50# dive bag with out any problem. Once they tried to tell us our bags were overweight and that it was 30$ extra in cash. When we tried to pay in travelers checkes all of the sudden our bags were not that heavy.

I am thinking about making a trip to South Caicos and Salt Cay this fall.

 

[Zebra mussel]

I'm starting to think about possible destinations for my spring (March or April) trip and Salt Cay looks interesting. Nothing much to do but dive and relax. Has anyone been there? If so, where did you stay and who did you dive with? Was it worth the hassle of getting there?

We spent 5 or 6 days there a couple years ago. There are 2 Dive operations on the island....or at least there were at the time.It is VERY laid back. Not a particularly beautiful island,but very interesting in its own right. Its like you stepped back in time 100 years. Diving is good. Grand Turk is much better. We combined it on a trip to Grand Turk and South Caicos. You can fly to Grand Turk or arrange for a boat. In my opinion,it was worth going to and the planes were not a problem. If I went back,Iwould only spend a few days there and move to Grand Turk. There is NOTHING to do on Salt Cay. There are a couple of restaurants,but you need to tell them well in advance you are planning on eating with them....sometimes the day before. Anything more than a week there would get boring for me.....but thats just me. I dont remember the name of the place we stayed,but if you want to send me a private message,I will find it for you. The accomidations were very nice. It is a very friendly and safe place. Well worth the effort.

 

[scubawife]

Thanks for the info! rpodos, where have you stayed on Salt Cay, and how does the diving from Grand Turk to Salt Cay compare? We travel with our gear, an underwater camera set up and a video set up, so my biggest concern is the flight over and if we can bring all this stuff.

 

[rpodos]

Sorry for any confusion, sw (fellow NYer?)... I have not been to Salt Cay, but can ask around for any info you want here on Grand Turk.

Uh, and while I do intend to visit Salt Cay, I am very much a big fan of Grand Turk as of today.

 

[scubawife]

We've been kicking around the idea of Grand Turk as well. Especailly with the under 4 hr flt from JFK to Provo. When you get back, could you post or PM me about the diving, who you dived with, where you stayed, etc? If I can arrange 10 days and we do decide on Turks, then possibly split the time between Salt Cay and Grand Turk. Provo just doesn't really appeal to me, especially after reading about the longer boat trips to the better dive sites.

Again, thanks everyone for the info.