Can Bahamas be be as good a value as coz for diving and stay?

[loady]

Friends, Last minute trip. Apologize about cross posting. I’ve got a budget of about $3,000 max for a week including hotel, diving, dining. Is there a clear winner - Bahama v Cozumel July and august? And if Bahamas which is the best low budget island and hotel , resort , operator? I’d like to do three or more dives a day and be in a sold two plus star hotel that gets good reviews. Will be flying in from Miami and they out to Southern California. Thanks in advance.

 

[ggunn]

Friends, Last minute trip. Apologize about cross posting. I’ve got a budget of about $3,000 max for a week including hotel, diving, dining. Is there a clear winner - Bahama v Cozumel July and august? And if Bahamas which is the best low budget island and hotel , resort , operator? I’d like to do three or more dives a day and be in a sold two plus star hotel that gets good reviews. Will be flying in from Miami and they out to Southern California. Thanks in advance.

Another factor, of course, is the relative quality of the diving in both places. I know nothing about the diving in the Bahamas, but I am confident that others in here can comment from experience.

 

[GreggS]

From the diving I've done in both places, Coz is your better choice. Although I've only been on one trip to Bahama, which was a liveaboard diving in the Exuma Keys, the reef structures are much better and extensive in Cozumel.

 

[-JD-]

You might consider a Blackbeard's LOB cruise if a little roughing-it adventure is appealing. Probably around 2K with a night at the marina before departure, food, diving, "room" and tips.

Like @GreggS trip they run in the Exumas. I found mine very enjoyable with varied diving. They are diving on your (buddy\group) own with no DM.

 

[GreggS]

You might consider a Blackbeard's LOB cruise if a little roughing-it adventure is appealing. Probably around 2K with a night at the marina before departure, food, diving, "room" and tips.

Like @GreggS trip they run in the Exumas. I found mine very enjoyable with varied diving. They are diving on your (buddy\group) own with no DM.

Yeah, it was a Blackbeard's we were on. Roughing it is the operable word. But it was an experience and for the price, it's hard to beat. And the food was fantastic but I suppose that's going to vary depending on the cook. Ours was great that week.

 

[Johnoly]

... best low budget..... to do three or more dives a day .....

While not impossible to arrange an afternoon boat in one of the more populated Bahamas islands......You will need 5-6 people to make the boat run in the afternoon. Do you have that many divers with you to pay in advance for that afternoon boat?

If not,,I would take @-JD- & @GreggS advice and see if Blackbeard's has space.

 

[GreggS]

While not impossible to arrange an afternoon boat in one of the more populated Bahamas islands......You will need 5-6 people to make the boat run in the afternoon. Do you have that many divers with you to pay in advance for that afternoon boat?

If not,,I would take @-JD- & @GreggS advice and see if Blackbeard's has space.

As I said earlier, for price, it's hard to beat. And you can dive 3 times a day with a 4th (night dive) a couple of days.

One thing I forgot to mention in my first post is that air is the ONLY gas option on Blackbeard cruises, at least in the Bahamas. That's another reason most dives are so shallow is to keep you within NDLs due to so many dives in a short period of time. They advertise you can do as many as 19 dives in a week but it's actually 5 days of diving.

 

[Rob9876]

Like others above, in the Bahamas all I've done is a Blackbeard's liveaboard cruise in the Exumas Cays (leaving from Nassau). We did as many as 5 dives a day, and it was pretty good diving -- though not as good as Cozumel. From everything I've read (a decent amount) liveaboard diving is better than land-based options in the Bahamas.

Though I'm glad we did that, I prefer both the diving and the top-side activities of Cozumel.

@loady will you be by yourself or have a buddy with you? Was not sure if that $3K budget was for 1 person or more?

One reason I ask is that Scuba Club Cozumel might be a good option given your parameters -- here's their latest special. However, most of their advertised rates seem based on double-occupancy, so you may need to contact them to find single-occupancy rates. SCC has boat dives and unlimited shore dives. Some people love it, and some people don't -- mainly because they use bigger boats with more people, rather than the 8-pack fast boats that many Cozumel dive ops use.

Another option is what I did on my last dive-focused trip: Dive with a good dive op (I've done about 10 trips with Tres Pelicanos (3P)) and stay at Cozumel Hotel & Resort (Wyndham) which was less than $100/night for the room including daily breakfast buffet. While Cozumel Hotel does have an on-site dive op (Dive Paradise) I prefer the smaller, fast 8-pack boats that 3P has, and I really like their people (from good communication while booking, to nice office people, and divemasters good at finding small critters, etc.). After looking at prices separately online, I ended up getting a hotel + diving package deal through 3P that was the best value for me. We went with the breakfast option and not all-inclusive, because there are so many good restaurants in Cozumel with reasonable prices. Cozumel Hotel does have shore diving available -- you just rent tanks & weights from their on-site dive op (believe it was $15).

 

[Matt B]

I would say go to Cozumel, IMO, everything is better, Diving, Food, Locals. We have dove in the Nassau area a few times on work trips and it was actually horrible on the last trip staying at Sandals. Enjoy

 

[MidOH]

No.

And I'm not even impressed by CZM diving. Cheap dining, is too hard of a plus, for the Bahamas to beat.

Plus the whole park aspect, is really cool.