best dive shop to use ambergris cay, belize

[Island Hoppa]

hey again everyone

ive pretty much made my decision to head to ambergris cay on aug 8 for 12 days. anyway just curious as too the dive conditions at that time of year. will they be ok? not sure if that peaks into the rainy season or anything. also curious as to which dive shop to use. which would you all recommend. thanks a so much again.

 

[TJ O'Dwyer]

I used Ambergris Divers and they were great. Safety orientated and alot of fun. Larry was a great DM. Will use them again later this year

 

[Ecologic Divers]

Island
There are several good dive centers in the island. First i would look at who is afiliated with a diving agency, PADI, SDI, SSI . you will find most dive centers are NOT associated with an agency they are instructors with a boat.
My reccomenation of course is us ecologic divers, other than us i would look at Amigos del Mar, they are the oldest and largest DC on the island. Another would be Belize diving Adventures, they have a new boats and handle small groups.
PM. if you have specific any questions
steve

 

[peterbj7]

Depends how you define "best" and also to a degree how experienced you are. AquaDives will probably be the cheapest and they have their own big boat for atoll trips, the largest on the island. Amigos have a gold-plated reputation and have a good boat for atoll trips, and will "do everything" for you. Both of these are large so may have more divers on boats, that that doesn't necessarily follow (especially at that time of the year, which is quiet). Against that there are several smaller operators which will give you a good personalised service - Steve's Ecologic Divers is probably the largest and busiest of these, then (in terms of size) ourselves, with Chuck 'n Robbie and Belize Diving Adventures (I hope that's right - I mean Everett and Enes) being very small but excellent. And you won't hear many/any complaints about Bottom Time or Patojo's.

Although most dive centers will pick you up at most hotels, you may prefer a shop that's close by. For that it obviously depends where you'll be staying. If you're not in town but are "up north" then several other operators come to mind.

You can maybe get some ideas from http://ambergriscaye.com/ and http://www.belizeforum.com/. Unless you're remote and effectively have little choice, I'd make enquiries now but don't book anything, then walk the beach once you're here and get a feel for the different operators - they're mostly not far apart. If you pay up front (eg. a package with accommodation) and then can't dive for any reason (health & weather are principle reasons), or just want to change operator, you probably won't get refunded for dives not taken.

As Steve said, not all dive centers are recognised by the training companies. This may not matter to you, but something to bear in mind. Also, although a real dive center has to have a boat and divemaster (there are some "booking shops" which don't even have that, but make their money on commission by booking you with an actual dive operator), quite a few don't have compressors or tanks but rent tanks from others. Again, may not matter. If you want to dive nitrox your choices are again restricted.

 

[Jeff88]

My wife and I have dove with Chuck & Robbie's (www.ambergriscayediving.com) on our last 2 trips. I highly recommend them. They are a smaller size dive outfit that usually has smaller diver group sizes. On our last trip to AC just last month there was no more than 5 divers on the boat on any of the 3 days we dove with Robbie.

 

[seadoggirl]

I dove with Ramon's and was delighted.

 

[Ecologic Divers]

As peter said, there are few who have nitrox. Protech being the only one that i am aware of that will give you different mixes. Also true, most dive centers rent or buy air from protech or Amigos. We are one of the few who own our compressor.
Who every you choose will do a great job for you while you are a guest on the island.
have fun

 

[Island Hoppa]

hey guys

thanks so much for everything so far cant wait to get there. anyway i am prob heading down with 2 other guys, so a total of 3 of us. we are all experienced PADI DMs that worked all over thailand, east and west coast and are young. early 20s, so we were just looking for the all around pretty good dive shop that isnt that expensive. plan on doing as much diving as possible in about 10 days. thanks so much everyone.

 

[peterbj7]

A couple of corrections. I should have included Ramon's in my list. They are undeniably good, but tend to serve Ramon's Resort guests more than walk-ins, and also tend to be pricier than other operators. And Bottom Time is by far the oldest of the existing dive operators - the owners of several of the others started out with Bottom Time as DMs.

Also, no-one has answered your question about dive conditions. If there isn't a hurricane or other storm, and there usually isn't, the high summer months mid-June to mid-Sep offer dead calm seas, warm water (hot really - up to 86F), brilliant very hot sunshine, and only light breezes. Good sun protection all the time is a must - remember that we're only 18 degrees from the equator and the sun is directly overhead every day. You shouldn't find any pica-pica or other nasties in the water. In fact, conditions are ideal and it's a mystery to me why more people don't come at that time. But they don't, which for you is both good and bad. Good because there won't be any crowds; bad because many businesses close down for lack of customers, and those that are open may not attract sufficient guests to put on certain trips or activities.

That's if there isn't a storm. In the unlikely event that we do have one you may find you can't go out for several days, and afterwards sea conditions are murky. In extremis the island may be evacuated, which will be the end of your holiday. Statistically that's very unlikely but it is possible, so do get trip insurance. The last time we had to evacuate (actually the only time since we opened in 2002) was in 2005, when there wasn't a mandatory evacuation (they can happen) but all businesses on docks closed for a week or so. That was when Wilma passed by, and although it did a lot of damage up the coast in Mexico all we had here was high seas. High enough to cause extensive dock damage, though. We had very so-so diving for a week or two afterwards.

I hope that helps. There are lots of weather-related web sites you can get specifics from. If you can find any guarantees on what the weather will be this year please let me know!

 

[trplr]

I dove with Chuck & Robby last time and Amigos the time before last. Both were good but Amigos gets the extra thumbs up for all the little things they do. Dont get me wrong Chuck & Robby's outfit was a good experience but all those little things do add up.

puller