Barbados Dive Operator Recommendations

[Duck Outta Water]

I have used Hightide several times because they are the only place on the island that can provide nitrox. They have picked me up from ridiculously far from their operation. Nice group and service is excellent. Actual diving is fairly basic typical Barbados pontoon boat. I would recommend them but have to caution that I haven't found anyone in Barbados that compares to good operators at other Caribbean locations. Given that Barbados isn't a major diving location and really isn't worth travelling to just for the dives that is understandable.

Appreciate the information, thanks a bunch. I know that Barbados isn't exactly a prime diving location, but when you're traveling with family and they're not all divers, you learn how to compromise. I'll be happy to see what I get to see and do what I get to do.

Thanks,
Duck

 

[KathyV]

I have used Hightide several times because they are the only place on the island that can provide nitrox. They have picked me up from ridiculously far from their operation. Nice group and service is excellent. Actual diving is fairly basic typical Barbados pontoon boat. I would recommend them but have to caution that I haven't found anyone in Barbados that compares to good operators at other Caribbean locations. Given that Barbados isn't a major diving location and really isn't worth travelling to just for the dives that is understandable.

Barbados looks lovely but it has never had a reputation as a dive destination but I don't know why, what is the diving like? Are the reefs shallow, or distant, or boring, or overfished, or do you have to contend with heavy currents?

 

[drrich2]

Appreciate the information, thanks a bunch. I know that Barbados isn't exactly a prime diving location, but when you're traveling with family and they're not all divers, you learn how to compromise. I'll be happy to see what I get to see and do what I get to do.

Thanks,
Duck

That sentiment was expressed before - in an old 2011 free access Undercurrent article. Here's a teaser quote from the article I linked:

"The time comes in every diver's life when he must at least once vacation to a nondiving destination to please the family. Barbados, I discovered, fills the bill -- and you can get a few decent dives as well. If the white sand beaches don't impress you, then the palms swaying in the breeze flanked by colorful blooming trees surely will. By Caribbean standards, Barbados is likely one of the better destinations for beginning and intermediate divers, having a large number of small tropical fish, colorful hard corals, and gigantic sea plumes, much black coral, even a big wreck. When I went in July, water was a consistent 83 degrees, and on land, it was usually in the mid 80s."

 

[Duck Outta Water]

I don't think that Barbados will be a BAD dive location, but I think a lot of people consider it a BLAND location. Sure, it's not the 'best' of any particular type of diving, there's not an overabundance of reef sharks, etc....but it does have a lot of scenic reefs, short boat rides, some wreck diving, and a fair amount of turtles. From what I've read, that's good enough for me.

But I'd like to get back to my original question, and that is which dive operator to use. Right now we're leaning toward Dive Hightide Watersports. They're close to our resort, they provide transportation, and they work with the Barbados Sea Turtle Project.

 

[sheeper]

Barbados is lesser known for diving. Which is unfortunate. I've been diving there quite a number of times. Some nice wrecks to dive and lovely reefs. Lots of turtles were on the reefs every time I've been there and lots of various tropicals.
My favorite operator is Barbados Blue (Barbados Blue Watersports - 5 Star Dive Resort, Snorkel Tours & Jetskis). They are highly active in marine science and environment issues as the owner, Andre, is actually a marine biologist.
They run a great operation and i highly recommend them both as a diver and as an active teaching pro and dive industry executive.

 

[Adrouault]

Went with Barbados Blue yesterday. The only coral formations I saw were on the wrecks. The rest was just sandy bottom. We were in the area they usually go diving, a 5 minute boat ride from the Hilton.
The crew was good. I was just a little disappointed.

Is there any fantastic diving here on the island?

Everything else about Barbados is great. Good food, friendly people etc. Just underwhelmed by the diving.
I finished my OW in Guadeloupe last week, and there was so much more to see there.

I want to find out if there is any great diving here, because I'd love to come back.

 

[RTodd]

I have dived with Barbados Blue and had the same experience of a mostly sand dive. Barbados just doesn’t have spectacular reefs. The reefs are on a relatively flat bottom and get progressively deeper with sand in between. I think there are generally three reefs. Vis can be pretty variable verging on bad by Caribbean standards. Not a bad place to dive just doesn’t compare favorably to other Caribbean locations. However topside has some nice hotels beaches and restaurants.

 

[Duck Outta Water]

Well we got back from Barbados, and I did three days of diving with Dive Hightide Watersports. Not sure where you folks were diving on sand, but we did get to see plenty of healthy coral and wildlife. By the sound of it, a lot of dive operators are working near the Carlisle Bay area, and that's mostly sand with some boats sunk to create artificial reefs. These attract some fish, but there's not a lot of coral there.

If you're planning on going to Barbados (and we plan on going back), ask your dive operator to take you farther north up the west coast. Anything between the Stavronikita and the Cement Plant -which themselves are great dive locations- will give you what you're looking for. If you're leaving from Bridgetown and you're at the dive site in less than 20 minutes, you're missing out. That was another reason I chose Hightide, location. They were close to our hotel, and right in the middle of the dive sites on the map.

I'll post a full report with pictures when I can, but I can tell you Barbados is worth the trip, if you do your homework.