Caribbean Dive Comprehensive Resources-- Must be out there!

[jpslim]

Hi all,

Planning a long 4-5 day weekend at the end of Sept/first week Oct to celebrate. Finace and I are planning the trip strictly around diving-- we want the best diving we can get. She has done Coz, Bay Islands, Turks @ Caicos and Bahammas, for me it is the first trip there.

Here's the thing, there MUST be a site or list out there there talks about all the different regions and what types of dives are there are, what you should expect to see, prices etc.

I know this topic has been covered here lots, so I hate to make the forum reproduce all the information again to advise us where to go. Thought or ideas??? Or if not, I'll take the advice

Thx.

 

[scubaotter]

With the time you have allowed for vacation I would suggest Coz. Wonderful diving, a fun place to be and, not too expensive.

If you were taking a week or more I would suggest Bonaire. Bonaire is wonderful for new and old divers alike due to the nature of shore diving. You can dive the site that you feel comfortable with and on your own schedule.

No matter where you go have a great time!

 

[large_diver]

A couple of ideas...

Scubadiving.com has a bunch of useful general travel information on diving destinations around the world. Look for the travel link close to the top of the scubadiving.com home page.

Another idea is to get an on-line subscription to undercurrent.org. Some of the content is free (namely the general destination information). The added value of the subscription is that you get on-line access to their traveling divers' "chapbook", which has diver reviews of operators and accomodations, what the diving is like, etc.

You can use other non-diving resources to check on accomodations and topside activities. tripadvisor.com has useful reviews/ratings of accomodations, although like any "open posting" on-line review resource, you have to realize that you have no idea who is posting the information on there. I also use fodors.com & frommers.com for general travel information.

One suggestion -- if diving is your focus = Little Cayman. Not based on experience (haven't been there yet myself)....but I'm in the middle of researching a dive trip, and that is one of the destinations that is high on my list if diving is all you want to do. That is hurricane season, however....

Hope this helps.

 

[Damselfish]

I'm a Carribean dive junkie, and I don't think there is one good place to get all the info, you have to research many sources to piece together a picture for yourself based on what you care about. Even if something looks like one good source, it is usually biased in some way.

The trick for a short trip to the Carribean from Boston is finding someplace reasonable to get to so you don't spend all your time traveling (and arrive pooped!) For a major airport there are surprisingly few direct flights to the carribean, practically none to the places with the best diving, and sometimes the connections are lousy.

If the idea is to try someplace your fiance hasn't been, I'd suggest Grand Cayman, it's relatively close and painless to get to and you can sometimes get pretty good fares. (Where on GC is a whole 'nother discussion on which much has been written here.) Little Cayman would be great, but the extra flight to get there makes it less desirable for a short trip. T&C is also not too bad to get to and is some of the better diving IMO, if your fiance wants to go back there.

I had heard direct flights from Boston to GC were starting, and just looked this up. Cayman Airways is starting direct flights from Boston, but not until 10/29 and only down on Sat and back on Fri/Sat, so that doesn't help you.

I'd suggest trying Bonaire and/or Curacao sometime, but maybe not for a long weekend. Getting to Bonaire is much easier than it used to be with Air Jamaica but it's still several more hours flight time.

Puerto Rico is easy to get to from Boston, but once you get there you have to travel to get to the better diving there. Possibly the same could be said about the Bahamas, though I haven't done that. Bermuda is another short trip I've thought about doing but that probably doesn't get you the diving you want.

 

[large_diver]

Good point about Little Cayman -- I forgot that they are planning a shorter trip.

Another factoid -- there are direct flights from Boston to Provo (Turks & Caicos), but these flights are normally only on Saturday (American Airlines) -- 1 in each direction. At least you could have a direct flight in 1 direction.....

I've been to Bermuda within the past few years -- easy to get to and a great place for a quick getaway....but not where I would go if diving is the #1 focus.

 

[jpslim]

Thanks, this is good input. I've heard Undercurrent is a good resource as well. My choice would be Coz, but she has been there and so want to go somewhere new for her. I think GC is probably the call-- a bit cheaper than LC from what I gather (a flight shorter and more dive competition). T&C could be good, but she has done that as well.

Getting out of Boston is a pain, but tix to caribbean are very cheap right now in general, only have to worry about the heat and the hurricanes. Whatever, it's a risk you take. Does visability change a lot now versus say Feb?

So, I'lll check out the sites and have already read a lot about places to stay and shops to use on LC/GC. I hate making people repost stuff that is out there already. Thanks!

BTW-- Large Diver and Damsel-- dove old garden beach this weekend and while we totally screwed the first dive the viz was really good in the shallower areas off to the right. But lobsters were small, and that's what we were looking for.

Seth

 

[large_diver]

OGB -- nice. I was there with my buddy on Thursday evening -- we did 1 daylight and 1 night dive. Vis was kind of average 10 feet+, but nice night for diving. Highlight was seeing 2 small juvenile sculpin (3-4" long).....I definitely would have missed them in daylight....but at night while observing things more closely, was able to pick them out. Very well camoflaged...

 

[jpslim]

that's cool. I would like to do the night dive, but viz is tough enough for me in the day! what's the rule about lobstering at night? I assume it is a no-go (sun-up to sun-down). Also do you know if you can grab the jonah's crabs or do you need another permit?

 

[beachcomber]

I just got back from Bonaire. It's as easy to dive there as shopping at Wal-Mart. One draw back-- all the perfect dive sites began to look the same after the 20th dive of the week. I hear that the dives on the rough side of the island are worth swimming through some heavy surf. I did not try too hard to talk my buddy into it though.

Beachcomber

 

[Damselfish]

that's cool. I would like to do the night dive, but viz is tough enough for me in the day! what's the rule about lobstering at night? I assume it is a no-go (sun-up to sun-down). Also do you know if you can grab the jonah's crabs or do you need another permit?

one of the nice things about diving at night here - you don't expect to be able to see.

yeah, no lobstering at night. They're nocturnal buggers, too easy then.