Amy Slates, Key Largo. cheap. good novice diving.
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I have been looking for somewhere to dive in mid-March over spring break.
Hi Scot758,
Here's a great scuba diving option for your Spring Break...
Truth Aquatics is an award winning liveaboard dive fleet, offering unique diving experiences around the California Channel Islands. We've a fantastic 5-Day Dive trip to San Clemente Island already scheduled for March 22nd. With all your meals and air fill included it's a great option for this coming Spring Break.
Please, do not hesitate to contact us for more information.
Let's dive!
From what I understand, very different places. Florida, depending on time of year, can be warm water. I'm not sure about March. California diving reports I see on the forum basically seem to run between cold and colder. It's said the California boats generally don't put a dive guide in the water, so if you aren't up on independent navigation you might want to hire a private guide so budget that if you go.
Given your posted dive count (< 25 dives so far), I'm thinking the Florida Keys could be good for you. Shallow reef diving. Pretty good viz. Fishy. When I dove with Rainbow Reef Dive Center back in September 2013, I took advantage of their best special, 10 2-tank boat trips, that let me stuff 20 dives into 5 days, $600 + tax & tips. And while a number of Keys dive op.s don't put guides in the water at no extra charge, Rainbow Reef does. That's about as cheap as I've seen boat diving get.
I flew from Nashville to Ft. Lauderdale for around $450 plus baggage. Don't know what airfare would run you. And factor in the need to rent a vehicle. I don't know the cheapest accommodation there; I stayed at Courtyard Marriott for convenience, since Rainbow Reef Dive Center was at the end of the parking lot. Hotels are often cheaper per person if you pack some people into the room.
But that Key Largo trip was about the cheapest I've been on, relative to the number of dives I got to do. My only issue would be finding out what water temp.s are likely and how likely bad weather is to knock you out of diving that time of year.
Richard.
---------- Post added January 11th, 2015 at 11:05 PM ----------
P.S.: If you really want a lot of dives cheap, are you aware of the option to take a trip on Blackbeard's, the roughly $1,000 + tips, etc... 'camping at sea' live-aboard offering? When you budget, remember that's food, housing & a lot of diving crammed into a week, hauling you around to various sites, and hopefully you wouldn't have to live in a car. If you were ready to live in a hostel, sounds right up your alley. Been awhile since I checked, but at least out of Nashville, I don't think airfare to get there was bad.