Best Dive Island

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Not being sure if you were on a cruise when you dove St. Maarten before or stayed on the island I'll share that my first time on St Maarten I stayed and dove near Simpson Bay and I wasn't too impressed. The second time I stayed in Phillipsburg and dove with Scuba Fun (which may not be back in operation yet due to 2017 hurricanes) located in Great Bay where the cruise ship docks. I really liked the sites around Great Bay much more than around Simpson Bay.

Already posted about St. Johns in post #4.

Yes I did st Maarten on a cruise. We did the fish bowl first and a wreck second. Forgot was the name was.
 
You can snorkel the pier too; it’s a great place to snorkel for the non-divers in your group.

I've been told the pier is closed to snorkeling/diving when a ship is in port.
 
The Frederiksted pier dive in St. Croix is nothing short of amazing. I could do that dive every day on my vacation not get tired of all the little critters. I remember that diving was not permitted when a cruise ship is at the pier. I would check with N2Theblue or Cane Bay Scuba about the rules. The diving around Cane Bay and Salt River is good. We saw a quite few reef sharks, but not an abundance of marine life compared to Bonaire or Cozumel.

In Feb we did a dive vacation in St. Vincent. It is a small critter destination. If you are looking for sharks, rays or turtles, you may be disappointed. However, the macro findings were more abundant than other places I have visited in the Caribbean. We saw frogfish, flying gurnards, juvinille trunkfish, jawfish and a sea horse. St. Vincent had the most vibrant and healthy reefs that I have encountered in the Caribbean. I was very pleased with Serenity Divers. Small boats and great dive masters.

I have not visited the other islands that are on your itinerary.
 
I've been told the pier is closed to snorkeling/diving when a ship is in port.

I've heard that too. I misunderstood your post and when you said "They do a morning dive from the pier the cruise ship docks at" I thought that meant that you would be able to dive the pier.
 
The Frederiksted pier dive in St. Croix is nothing short of amazing. I could do that dive every day on my vacation not get tired of all the little critters. I remember that diving was not permitted when a cruise ship is at the pier. I would check with N2Theblue or Cane Bay Scuba about the rules. The diving around Cane Bay and Salt River is good. We saw a quite few reef sharks, but not an abundance of marine life compared to Bonaire or Cozumel.

In Feb we did a dive vacation in St. Vincent. It is a small critter destination. If you are looking for sharks, rays or turtles, you may be disappointed. However, the macro findings were more abundant than other places I have visited in the Caribbean. We saw frogfish, flying gurnards, juvinille trunkfish, jawfish and a sea horse. St. Vincent had the most vibrant and healthy reefs that I have encountered in the Caribbean. I was very pleased with Serenity Divers. Small boats and great dive masters.

I have not visited the other islands that are on your itinerary.


I'm delighted to read this about St. Vincent as I had a similar and very delightful experience diving Bequia, a few years back.
 
I've heard that too. I misunderstood your post and when you said "They do a morning dive from the pier the cruise ship docks at" I thought that meant that you would be able to dive the pier.

I meant they are located at and leave from the pier. I'll be clearer in the future :wink:
 
So far this is our tentative plan...

St. Crox USVI- Diving/snorkeling
St. Johns, Antigua-Beach day
Castria, St. Lucia-Climb Gros Piton
Bridgetown, Barbados-Catamaran Sail
St. George, Granada- Dive/snorkel
Kingstown, St. Vincent-Mount LIamuiga Volcano Hike
Basseterrie, St. Kitts-Dive/snorkel
 
I'm delighted to read this about St. Vincent as i had a similar snd ver6 delightful experience diving Bequia a few years back.

I am hoping that with the new airport in St. Vincent, it will attract more tourists and increase the frequency of flights to the island. We really enjoyed St. Vincent and the lovely people on the island. We took a day trip to Bequia and fell in love with the place! My future vacation plans would include splitting time between the islands.
 
I jumped out in Barbados in March of this year for 2 weeks. The shop was in Bridgetown. I had a lot of fun.

The stav is a big wreck, but it's pretty deep with the bottom around 133'.

The diving was pretty good. I did about 19 or 20 dives total. I haven't been to the other islands you mentioned so it would be hard to compare. Maybe see if you can do 4 islands if she can snorkel on the 4.
 
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