Asking for Turneffe dive resort recomendations

[chillyinCanada]

I just returned from 2 weeks in Turneffe. Stayed at Blackbird Cay Resort. The new villa rooms were the nicest I have ever stayed in. All rooms have screened in porches. The food is very good with an emphasis on native Belizean dishes. Blackbird is owned by a wealthy Belizean family and the staff seems to really like their jobs. The reefs are diverse and healthy. Underwater species diversity is good to very good. The divemasters spear lionfish which show up later at happy hour. The price was lower than Turneffe Island Resort. Now that I have stayed at both, I prefer Blackbird as it was smaller, fewer people, and fewer rigid rules to chafe. The single supplement was waived because I stayed longer than a week.
The Covid test in the airport - walk up, pay $75, get a nasal swab taken, wait 15 minutes and assuming you are negative, they hand you the report that the airline will require of you to board your plane.
The biting bugs of Belize - and they are everywhere except Half Moon Caye - are called doctor flies. They are like deer flies that bite people - slow enough to whack, though. Hydrocortizone and Benedryl creams are inneffective so avoidance is best.

Did you have air conditioning?

 

[Zonicles7]

Yes. Gree Mini splits in all rooms. Forgot to mention. Blackbird is planning to sink a boat to create a nearby dive site. Most dive sites are 3 to 5 minutes from the dock with surface intervals on land. 2 tank dive to the Elbow dive site. A full day to the Blue Hole, Aquarium and Playground dive sites with a barbeque on land.

 

[lowflyer]

Yes. Gree Mini splits in all rooms. Forgot to mention. Blackbird is planning to sink a boat to create a nearby dive site. Most dive sites are 3 to 5 minutes from the dock with surface intervals on land. 2 tank dive to the Elbow dive site. A full day to the Blue Hole, Aquarium and Playground dive sites with a barbeque on land.

Sounds like BCR has improved. I suspect COVID and the summer months are keeping the number of people staying there down.
When I was there several years ago a lot of the surface intervals were on the dive boat, and there were so many people there that finding a place to sit at dinner time was a challenge. That was the end of Feb.

But the dive guides and dive sites were good.

Glad you had a good experience.

 

[chillyinCanada]

I don't understand why they'd have to sink a boat to make a dive site around that area. Or are they trying to create a site for shore diving?

 

[Downing]

TIR had a sunken boat site when we were there years ago. I don't know the back story so it may or may not have been done on purpose.

In any case, it wasn't impressive. To begin with, it was a small boat, maybe 14 feet, and by the time we dived there it had wasted away to just a few remnants and some cables laying around. It wasn't so much a destination as just a spot on the ocean floor to glance at as you passed by. I'm sure it was more interesting earlier on. It's almost certainly completely gone now, except the cables, at this point

 

[chillyinCanada]

TIR had a sunken boat site when we were there years ago. I don't know the back story so it may or may not have been done on purpose.

In any case, it wasn't impressive. To begin with, it was a small boat, maybe 14 feet, and by the time we dived there it had wasted away to just a few remnants and some cables laying around. It wasn't so much a destination as just a spot on the ocean floor to glance at as you passed by. I'm sure it was more interesting earlier on. It's almost certainly completely gone now, except the cables, at this point

There was a sunk boat site off Ambergris Caye. It didn't even look like a boat but was a great place to find the resident green moray and its pals.

Then a hurricane moved it and it was more buried. And then another hurricane uncovered it. Then, another hurricane moved it. I don't know what became of it after that.

 

[James Stelzer]

There is an additional Turneffe resort now - Belize Dive Haven - A Scuba Divers Paradise Resort on Turneffe Island - Belize Dive Haven. I believe there are some other threads on it.

I went to Blackbird back in 2017, it was a pretty good trip. I'd have to say that I enjoyed the diving around Long Caye the best (Blue Hole trip area). They used smaller boats typically for the diving (only complaint there is no shade), and only used the Newton to transport us to/from the island and to the Blue Hole. I saw they built some new cabanas this last year that look pretty nice. I know they are under new management, as the folks that were there during our stay had left shortly after.

I'd shoot for the Aggressor if I were you, or look into staying at one of the two places on Long Caye (Itza Resort, and Huracan Diving) but be prepared to not have AC on Long Caye.

Do not go to Divehaven resort, turneffe, just got back canceled trip early. I'm a single dive and talked directly to managers Shawn , I got there and out of 90 some rooms I was the only person there!!! Thing were not open or cleaned. bug infected beaches. And prices were all higher then advertised. No refunds
But the diving is allsome. Must better then in san pedro.

 

[Downing]

James, you might want to consider starting a new thread detailing your experience there.

Frankly, I'm not surprised. ScubaBoard actually signed up to have their annual shindig there a few years ago. It was very controversial at the time with a number of members saying this resort was not ready for prime time. The place was brand new back then, and the early reviews were not pretty.

The folks in charge kept defending their decision saying that they had vetted the place, that there was plenty of time for the resort to get ready, that the resort knew that its future hinged on the success of this event, blah blah blah. Luckily or not, depending on how you look at it, the get together ended up being cancelled due to Covid.

The early reviews were mostly that the place was a ghost town with practically no guests, that even so it was still understaffed, that the food wasn't good and the rooms were dirty, stuff like that. There was a suspicion that the few good reviews were written by the owners, lol. The timing of their opening couldn't be much worse due to Covid. I'm surprised it survived.