Bahamas/Turks & Caicos: Off beaten path?

[Tim Ingersoll]

I am doing Turks and caicos in june , seven nights for around 750 a person including air. (Comfort Inn) Diving will be extra and we are staying 4 to a room but Thats about as cheap as I could find. Diving there is expensive but worth it.

Four to a room! Yikes. The beach is very comfortable at night.

 

[mike_s]

When I was there in November I found this not at all to be the case. A 5 day package at $535 is entirely reasonable especially considering other dive packages around the area and they dive four times a day. We were over there during thanksgiving and Bill invited us to sit with him at the big game feast, he was a nice guy and knew how to run a good dive operation. I wouldn't hesitate to go diving with undersea again.

Well, I don't know if I caught him on an off day or what. But he was a complete idiot when we went into his shop....

I went in there ot get air fills (at $8 or $9 bucks a fill -- ouch!!) and there
were four of us and we had always wanted to do the "swim with the dolphins"
thing, which he offers. He charges $125/person for this and my group was
ready to sign up for it and they asked me to find out about it while I was in
the dive shop.

So while paying for the air fills and asked him about it and where he did them.
The reason I asked where was to figure out if it was a long boat ride or was
somewhat local. He starts back at me by saying that boaters were always
trying to figure out where he did his dolphin trips to and to screw him out
of not getting paid. What an idiot. Here I was getting ready to spend
$500 bucks with him for 4 people and he's grumbling at me with a smart
*** attitude. I went back to our boat and told the others and the captain
of our boat said "yep, that sounds like Bill".

Ironically, we left port later that afternoon and ran into the pod of dolphins.
We all hopped in the water snorkeling and swam with them for about 30 minutes.
Pretty funny that Bill's poor customer service attitude screwed himself out
of a sale and we ended up doing it for free by accident. We all felt some humor
in that.

Now I've read several other positive reviews of him and his shop, but I wasn't impressed by his "big ego" attitude.

 

[wscdive]

The four to a room wont be bad unless they screw up and give us one king instead of two queens!! Its my wife and I, my son and his gf. (I was already told i have to sleep with my son, I dont want to sleep with all of them)

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

The four to a room wont be bad unless they screw up and give us one king instead of two queens!! Its my wife and I, my son and his gf. (I was already told i have to sleep with my son, I dont want to sleep with all of them)

I'm leaving that one alone.

 

[saildiver]

I'd love to dive in the Bahamas or Turks & Caicos but have been put off by the ridiculous prices or the cruise-ship tourism. Anyone have any idea whether a operation or locale exists that:
1) Offers good diving close by,
2) Has accomodation that is simple and comfortable, yet not astronomically expensive,
3) Is off the beaten track (e.g., well away from places like Nassau), yet not virtually impossible to get to.

I'm not necessarily looking for a resort; a nice dive shop near a little hotel, B&B, or inn would be just fine. With hundreds of islands between the two nations, you'd think places like this would be a dime a dozen, but I've not come across any such options.

Thanks!

South Caicos has a dive resort that is inexpensive,on a charming Island(but no serious night life except the local pool hall,jumpups and dominos),but has a great pool to off gas in, great views from the resort deck,and some of the best diving in the carribean with short dive boat rides,walls that rival Little Cayman,bigger fish and rays than Little Cayman,and the dive shop and harbor are right next to the resort (unless they moved it)...sounds like just what you are looking for. While we were there we did some hiking to the east and snorkling and beaches were superb-with no one but ourselves. Had a great time,but it is a poor Island (don't expect a 5 star resort-more like 2 1/2 stars when we were there-but the over all trip was a 10-and the people were dear. It has been several years since we were there so you may want a more recent review (see undercurrent)...Peace...Saildiver.

 

[nipi]

Agree with saildiver. South Caicos has, in my opinion, the best diving out of West Caicos, Provo, Grand Turk & Salt Cay but I hear that the resort (Ocean Haven?) where we stayed, has shut.

Otherwise, Salt Cay is way off the beaten path.