My fiancee and I just returned from 3 days of diving with Triangle Diving, located at the Grotto Beach resort. We didn't stay at Grotto Beach but rather rented an apartment about a 10 min. bus ride away so we could save money by cooking for ourselves.
I add my vote of confidence to others here who have had good experiences with Triangle. However, what we found is that one can't expect the kind of customized and personal dive experience that you might get in a place more dedicated to diving. What I mean is that Triangle's boat--a large one, no six-pack here--had a mix of cruise ship people diving just for the day, families with children, some of whom appeared to be doing their OW or Jr. OW, someone doing Rescue Diver exercises, people like us who were vacationing for a few days, and the random local or two who buy a year's "membership." People like us who were diving for several days in a row and were in Bermuda for pretty much the sole purpose of diving were the tiny minority. So, you can imagine that there are lots of people of different experience levels and objectives in the water at the same time. At this point, you may be thinking I am going to complain. Ah, on the contrary, considering the diverse group aboard the boat creating the potential for it becoming a miserable or at least mediocre experience, Triangle did an admirable job accommodating everyone. Triangle had plenty of staff aboard. My fiancee and I went along with a DM and one other person on some dives and a local couple on another. If we had wanted to go off on our own, I'm sure that would have been fine. We were given no time limits, which is sort of a double-edged sword in that, while we could be first in and last out and get an hour of bottom time if we wished, it seemingly took forever before everyone was back on the boat and ready to go, and consequently, the 2-tank dive trip can take a long time. The first day, we were told to arrive at 2 pm (there was no morning dive that day), we finally left the dock around 3 pm and were in the water for the first dive at 4 pm, the second dive at 5:30, and not back at the dock until about 7 pm. The second day we were told to arrive at 9 am, left the dock more punctually at 9:30 am, were in the water for the first dive at 10:30, the second dive at 11:50 am, and not back at the dock until around 2 pm. I can see why the boat does not go out for both morning and afternoon dives. But I shouldn't complain about how leisurely, no-rush and stress-free it was, because I recall having grumbled about dive operations that rush you in and rush you out.
We dived a reef and a wreck each day. We saw two of the highly regarded wrecks: the Pelinaion and the King George. The third day was the Taunton. The reef dives are pretty good, with big sea fans and soft coral. Not really loaded with fish, though.
This was our first trip to Bermuda, as we were encouraged by some low airfares from Atlanta that we found. So we didn't know what to expect, other than the bits and pieces we had read. If we had done more research, we would have stayed an extra day rather than having inadvertently left on the day of Bermuda's 400th anniversary celebrations. We had read Bermuda is expensive, but we still weren't prepared for $60 lunches (that's a sandwich with fries and two beers for each of us) and the few dinners we ate out being accordingly higher than that. We definitely did the right thing by staying in an apartment and cooking for ourselves, as we must have saved loads of money over staying at a hotel and restaurants. Of course, grocery store food isn't cheap, either. We spent our off days touring around the island by bus and ferry, visiting the Aquarium, walking the Railway Trail, and snorkeling. We checked out the towns of St. George at the east end of the island, Hamilton in the middle, and Dockyard at the west end. Not much of interest to us, and St. George and Dockyard can go from ghostly deserted and largely locked up on a Saturday night when no cruise ship is docked to swarming with people on a Monday when a ship is in. We enjoyed neither extreme.
Bermuda was interesting, but we'll probably opt for seeing more of the Caribbean before we consider returning to Bermuda.
I add my vote of confidence to others here who have had good experiences with Triangle. However, what we found is that one can't expect the kind of customized and personal dive experience that you might get in a place more dedicated to diving. What I mean is that Triangle's boat--a large one, no six-pack here--had a mix of cruise ship people diving just for the day, families with children, some of whom appeared to be doing their OW or Jr. OW, someone doing Rescue Diver exercises, people like us who were vacationing for a few days, and the random local or two who buy a year's "membership." People like us who were diving for several days in a row and were in Bermuda for pretty much the sole purpose of diving were the tiny minority. So, you can imagine that there are lots of people of different experience levels and objectives in the water at the same time. At this point, you may be thinking I am going to complain. Ah, on the contrary, considering the diverse group aboard the boat creating the potential for it becoming a miserable or at least mediocre experience, Triangle did an admirable job accommodating everyone. Triangle had plenty of staff aboard. My fiancee and I went along with a DM and one other person on some dives and a local couple on another. If we had wanted to go off on our own, I'm sure that would have been fine. We were given no time limits, which is sort of a double-edged sword in that, while we could be first in and last out and get an hour of bottom time if we wished, it seemingly took forever before everyone was back on the boat and ready to go, and consequently, the 2-tank dive trip can take a long time. The first day, we were told to arrive at 2 pm (there was no morning dive that day), we finally left the dock around 3 pm and were in the water for the first dive at 4 pm, the second dive at 5:30, and not back at the dock until about 7 pm. The second day we were told to arrive at 9 am, left the dock more punctually at 9:30 am, were in the water for the first dive at 10:30, the second dive at 11:50 am, and not back at the dock until around 2 pm. I can see why the boat does not go out for both morning and afternoon dives. But I shouldn't complain about how leisurely, no-rush and stress-free it was, because I recall having grumbled about dive operations that rush you in and rush you out.
We dived a reef and a wreck each day. We saw two of the highly regarded wrecks: the Pelinaion and the King George. The third day was the Taunton. The reef dives are pretty good, with big sea fans and soft coral. Not really loaded with fish, though.
This was our first trip to Bermuda, as we were encouraged by some low airfares from Atlanta that we found. So we didn't know what to expect, other than the bits and pieces we had read. If we had done more research, we would have stayed an extra day rather than having inadvertently left on the day of Bermuda's 400th anniversary celebrations. We had read Bermuda is expensive, but we still weren't prepared for $60 lunches (that's a sandwich with fries and two beers for each of us) and the few dinners we ate out being accordingly higher than that. We definitely did the right thing by staying in an apartment and cooking for ourselves, as we must have saved loads of money over staying at a hotel and restaurants. Of course, grocery store food isn't cheap, either. We spent our off days touring around the island by bus and ferry, visiting the Aquarium, walking the Railway Trail, and snorkeling. We checked out the towns of St. George at the east end of the island, Hamilton in the middle, and Dockyard at the west end. Not much of interest to us, and St. George and Dockyard can go from ghostly deserted and largely locked up on a Saturday night when no cruise ship is docked to swarming with people on a Monday when a ship is in. We enjoyed neither extreme.
Bermuda was interesting, but we'll probably opt for seeing more of the Caribbean before we consider returning to Bermuda.
