Best diving on a liveaboard hands down is....

[drrich2]

Absent knowing the OP's tastes/priorities, here's one of the free offerings at Undercurrent - on Wakatobi. From what I understand an expensive place. Of course, I'm cheap. I used to hear the Maldives spoken of in glowing terms, but NWGratefulDiver's posts on Your dream scuba trip around the world would lead me to research it in more depth. A number of destinations were discussed in that thread.

Richard.

 

[KeithG]

Question was best liveaboard diving hands down. As much as I like diving in the Caribbean, it falls very short of the best diving in the world.

Agreed!

But to split hairs since I am in a pissy mood: scow in PNG vs luxo-liner in the Caribbean. Which one wins?

Liveaboards have at least 2 components:
- the boat (and crew)
- the dive sites
- and maybe the "dive crowd"?

I was once on a scow (no longer in service) and it would not have mattered what the diving was like, that trip sank to the bottom. I would also claim that a wonderful boat with really crappy dive site would also sink to the bottom of the list.

I think most sane divers would not rank the Caribbean as the best diving in the world. But it does have some very nice boats that balance things out. And the short fly time for us also gets included in the calculations.

Everyone (should) has their own criteria for wonderful.

Our trip to PNG was "wonderful-ish". Great diving, okay boat (we did 2 back to back 1 week trips on a Dancer, Rabual to Walindi) but the travel was hell. We sat in Port Morseby for 6 hours waiting for a plane that never took off, spent a very short night listening to downtown gun fire before getting to the boat 1 day late. This was after 24 hours of flying.

I think we have mostly forgotten about the travel headaches and so will likely look to the pacific in the coming years. so many fish!

 

[drrich2]

Diving4Ever and HillJoe88 brought up the subject relative to the Galapagos that the OP's profile gives a total dive count under 50, and what's sometimes reported about the Galapagos might not be a good match for that. I spoke with one of my instructors, who's done a Galapagos trip, and she posted a trip report - Galapagos Diving & Humboldt Explorer Trip Report Aug. 30- Sept. 8, 2010.

Cold, some significant wave action topside, current, the need for more exposure protection & thus lead than many people are used to, something to think about. I hope to someday try a live-aboard out to the Channel Islands off California (e.g.: one of the Truth Aquatics boats), which I hope would be a kinder introduction to cold water oceanic diving.

I'm told Cocos Island offers big animal action with warm water, but it's a long ways out, and aren't the conditions also somewhat rough?

My concern about Komodo would be current; I'm big, chubby & I have more cross-sectional area for water to push than my lean, athletic buddy. That said, walking an island viewing wild Komodo dragons in their native habitat would be cool!

People mature as divers at different rates. Some people with 50 dives could dive rings around me, so I mean no offense. I suggest we be mindful of who this trip might be best for.

Richard.

 

[going2aussie]

Everyone, sorry for not posting back sooner. My apologies. In terms of dive numbers, I think I'm at about 40. I need to get my act together and dig up the logs from PADI. I have my basic cert, the advanced cert and a number of courses like EANx, BBP, etc. I did my certification in the Pacific Northwest US in cold though I've mostly dove in warm water. That mostly was on a liveaboard on the GBR and then a few trips to Roatan.

I've heard of the Red Sea diving, but I'm a little leery of hanging out in Egypt at present though it would let me knock off yet another continent.

My preference would definitely be more to pelagics I would say. I would prefer to not dive anywhere too cold or overly technical, but if I have to in order to get better diving I could. Spending the day getting in and out of a wet suit just isn't overly appealing to me.

Hintermann, as I understood the OP, his airfare is essentially free, paid with airmiles. So my comment was recommending using those airmiles to pay for a flight that would otherwise be expensive for us to a destination at which the liveaboard itself is relatively economical.

I'll likely book international first or business class to pimp it up and then travel cheaply when I get there. That usually leads to better social interaction. I know liveaboards cost money, so I just want to make sure I use the money wisely.