Best place to do a liveaboard in December?

[cbm32]

Fiji should be a very attractive option, given that it is a 10 1/2 hour direct flight from LAX. It is a redeye flight too and so you get there in the morning ready to go (assuming you can sleep on a plane).

 

[DreaLeigh]

I am not certain about the specific conditions in December, but I've been to both Maldives and Thailand, and if you can pull it off I highly recommend Maldives. It is extremely expensive, not always easy to get into the country, AND the water there is like nothing I have ever seen. Amazing, diverse underwater life. I was there in July, and I'm not sure how much conditions fluctuate through the year, but just walking down the piers to our bungalows, there were white mantas, black and white tip reef sharks everywhere. Further out there were a lot of grey sharks too. It is somewhat of a whale shark nursery there due to the lack of predatorial sharks; we swam with two adolescents (about 35 ft) for about 30 minutes each. Beyond these, there are tons of morays, barracuda, grouper, and just about every other type of tropical fish I could have imagined.
I've spent a lot of time in Thailand in my previous, non-diving life. It too is lovely and the diving is supposed to be fantastic in many different places. Ko Tao is a great diving island.

Good Luck!

 

[robint]

Palau........... Dec-Feb is shark mating season. YOu are guaranteed sharks, lots of them, every dive.

 

[letsgomaldives]

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[BSOD]

While it does take a while to get to the Maldives from the West coast, it's not 48+ hrs, or at least not necessarily. It took me 35 hours from getting through security at SFO to stepping on to the tarmac in Malé, and that's including a few hours in Seoul and an 8.5hr layover in Singapore (tip: the in airport hotel is well worth it after the long flights). LAX might be a bit further, but not 12+ hours further.

Back to the original question, I've been to both the Maldives and Palau in Decembers, haven't dived in Thailand.

In the Maldives, there wasn't really a whole lot of macro stuff, at least as far as I noticed or was(n't) pointed out to me by the guides - a few nudis, porcelain crabs, some shrimps. Then again, I'm usually more interested in the bigger stuff. Mantas and whale sharks were around though, along with a decent amount of other fish/sharks/eels/etc. Sharks weren't uncommon, but we didn't see them every single dive. If your time/budget allows, back to back 1 week liveaboards might be a good idea, or book some time at an island to get some more dives in (although from what I recall, resort diving there can be rather pricey, to be on par with the other resort costs). Flying that far for just a week is a bit iffy IMO in terms of cost:benefit. I did two back to back liveaboards on the same boat, and they went to some different sites the second week.

Palau, saw sharks every single dive. Macro, I don't recall seeing much, being more enthralled with the bigger stuff. Good chance of seeing mantas, but I'd be a bit doubtful of seeing a whale shark there (though it is the ocean, so ya never know). One note is it may start to get crowded in late December. When I was there in early-mid Dec, it was pretty slow/empty (of tourists), but more people started arriving towards the end (for Christmas/New Years holidays).

 

[ocdiver1]

Hi all,

My boyfriend and I are trying to plan a dive trip for late December. The only thing that we have decided is that we would like to do a liveaboard. We are having a hard time narrowing down where to go. If we are going on a trip we want to go where the conditions are going to be amazing. We dive frequently here in California in the cold so for a vacation we definitely want to do some warm water diving. We have talked about Palau, Maldives and Thailand. My boyfriend is really into underwater photography, particular macro so we would like to go to a place that has a mix of macro and pelagic life (I would love to see mantas or whale sharks). What are is everyone's experience with diving around the world in December? Where would everyone recommend?

Thanks for the input!

You aren't going to get much macro in the Maldives, in Thailand December would be off season for mantas and whale sharks, and in Palau you'd have to very lucky to get a whale shark. I'm not sure you're going to have an easy answer for one place that's going to combine all those things in December...but another place to throw into the mix is the Socorros in Mexico..by far the closest option to you. In December, the water is still warm, you will have guaranteed as many multiple manta and shark encounters with up to 7 different types of sharks, including schooling hammerheads. It's one of the few places I've ever seen a whaleshark on scuba, and while it's not known for that, Nov-Dec is the most likely time for them. Unfortunately, zero macro on this trip, but if you wanted to combine diving a couple of days diving in Cabo San Lucas before or after the liveaboard, you'd catch some there. December might work for whale sharks in Sogod Bay in the Philippines, although you might have to set for just snorkeling with them...and Sogod (or many choices) in the Philippines are fantastic for macro...I don't know where you'd a have great chance of mantas thought. If you could change your plans to do something in April, Thailand would be a good choice for the possibility of all three in one place.

 

[ronscuba]

When you say Socorros in December is warm, what temps are you talking about ?

 

[Heg]

December thru Mar-April in Fiji /Pacific region is the wet/cyclone season. It will be hot and very humid.

Saying that, if you are ok with this, it's a fantastic place to dive. The Nai'a is by all accounts a fantastic boat (we are looking at booking for next year). We have dived in Bligh Waters (the Nai'a offers some dives in this area) and can attest to the diving being some of the best we have ever done . That said, we usually go to Fiji in April /May or October, so can't comment on what the vis will be like in December.

 

[Quero]

You may have to decide whether you want to satisfy your b/f with the macro photo opportunities or if he is going to satisfy your craving for big animals.

In December, my recommendations, in no particular order, taking weather and sea conditions into account:

• Thailand--mostly reef fish and macro. (Last season we had mantas as early as November, but typically they come later in the winter--February-ish. Whale sharks are quite rare.)
• Maldives--mostly reef fish and big pelagics--not much in the way of macro. I am a macro photographer, and I had to change my shooting habits on my recent trip there. Whale sharks and mantas are predictably seen.
• Raja Ampat--lots of macro (lots) plus lots of mantas, but no whale sharks, though you could get to Cenderawasih Bay, not too terribly far away but a logistically complicated venture, and see them there.
• Philippines--lots of macro, and some sharks, especially at Malapascua. No mantas, but possibility of snorkelling with whale sharks at the places they feed them.

 

[ocdiver1]

When you say Socorros in December is warm, what temps are you talking about ?

80..maybe a little warmer even if your lucky