Caribbean help needed -- diving and topside, romantic.....

[large_diver]

I am having a hard time picking a location.....planning a 15th anniversary trip. Non diving wife. Looking to combine good diving with a location where my lovely wife can hang out topside during the first half of the day and not be too bored. Looking for a Caribbean location. I don't want to say money is no object, but will pay $$$ if the situation is right.

Originally we were looking at Turks & Caicos, but lack of non-diving stuff to do made us consider other options.

Next on the list was Dominica (wife loves to hike).....but almost all accomodations on this beautiful island are fairly spartan....some have pools, but they are small. No beach to hang out on, etc. Don't want to make wife hang out each morning in the Caribbean equivalent of the Motel 6.

Next up was Anse Chastanet in St. Licia. Atmosphere looks to be exactly what we are looking for...but most folks say diving is rather average. Wife's comment was, "why travel all the way down there if the diving is only so so....we should go somewhere where there is diving you are excited about and that has atmospheric/romantic accomodations...and preferably some natural beauty/hiking opportunities.".

Diving in places like Little Cayman and T&C excites me, but worried that my lovely wife will be too bored.

So....any suggestions....especially for resorts with the same kind of atmoshere as Anse Chastanet? Again -- focusing on Caribbean only.

I know I may be asking the impossible here. Thanks.

-Chris

 

[Damselfish]

Young Island (on a private island just off Saint Vincent) would be a great anniversary trip and the diving is great. Dive Saint Vincent does mostly 2 tank morning dives although afternoon and night are available if there are people that want to go. Nice beach and pool and exploring the little island itself is fun (small but steep so it can still be a workout!) Pretty island and you could hike the volcano, just have to work that around your diving as it's >4000 ft.

 

[detroit diver]

Chris,

If your wife likes to hike, I can think of no better place than Saba. The diving is spectacular, and the hiking is truly incredible. It's quite a romantic place also. No beaches, but it has everything else, including great food, wonderful people.

Whereever you decide, happy anniversary!

 

[large_diver]

Damsel -- thanks. someone just recommended Young Island to me over on scubadiving.com -- looks very interesting....

Jack -- I'll look more into Saba -- thanks. Let me know if you've stayed somewhere there that you enjoyed.

-Chris

 

[smokey braden]

dear large diver,
are you dead set on the caribbean?
there is maui.
regards,
smokey

 

[large_diver]

Will likely be doing a Hawaii trip with wife and kids sometime in 2005. Focusing on Caribbean for this trip to keep travel time from Boston at least somewhat manageable.

 

[Barracuda2]

Tobago has what you're looking for:

Blue Water Inn - Very romantic - dive operation on site.
Beautiful topography & flora (especially in Feb.)
Deserted beaches - great snorkeling & diving (rent a car)
Rain forest hikes and waterfalls
Beautiful, friendly people in quaint villages throughout the island
On a scale of 1 - 10 the diving is 7 (some drift diving)
Night spots in Scarsbourgh and Crown Pt.

My favorite island - My $.02

Barracuda2

 

[detroit diver]

I haven't stayed there. I was only on the island for the day, but fell in love with it.

Damsel -- thanks. someone just recommended Young Island to me over on scubadiving.com -- looks very interesting....

Jack -- I'll look more into Saba -- thanks. Let me know if you've stayed somewhere there that you enjoyed.

-Chris

 

[Yazmeen]

I haven't stayed there. I was only on the island for the day, but fell in love with it.

As the non-diver in our couple, I can highly recommend both Saba and Young Island. Saba has marvelous hiking trails and several nice restaurants. The locals are lovely people. If you go, your wife must hike up one road to go visit "Jo Beans" in her glass factory and see her exquisite work. If she's into laceworks, Saba lace is lovely and highly prized. The local women who do it will be glad to give her a lesson and discuss their work, which is very fairly priced.

Young Island is essentially being stranded on Gilligan's Island with better accomodations and a 4 star chef!! (Seriously, the trip is worth the daily, fresh baked bread selections alone. I went into withdrawl for it when we got back). Hubby did his first resort course there and the marvelous gent who is dive master for Dive Saint Vincent inspired him to take up scuba, and now ten years later, he's an addicted diver. To sum up the level of service at Young Island, we still get a Christmas Card from them every year even though we visited in 1994. We plan to go back. On Young Island you'll have your own cottage. No air conditioning, because you don't need it. You shower is open air (but private). Its just an amazing experience. When we went to Kona/Hawaii, we chose the Kona Village resort with its "hales" because it reminded us so much of Young Island. You can't go wrong with Young Island, and your wife can tour St. Vincent and spend some time there. You can also take a "sail-away" to nearby Mustique and Becqui. Its a great vacation. Here's the link:

http://www.youngisland.com/

 

[rje634]

Next up was Anse Chastanet in St. Licia. Atmosphere looks to be exactly what we are looking for...but most folks say diving is rather average. Wife's comment was, "why travel all the way down there if the diving is only so so....we should go somewhere where there is diving you are excited about and that has atmospheric/romantic accomodations...and preferably some natural beauty/hiking opportunities.".

So....any suggestions....especially for resorts with the same kind of atmoshere as Anse Chastanet? Again -- focusing on Caribbean only.

I know I may be asking the impossible here. Thanks.

-Chris

Chris here is a response that I sent to someone inquiring about St. Lucia:

Which post did you see? I think I put up two post one to scubaloon's thread that had more info about the Dive operator. here is the link to that post.
http://www.scubaboard.com/showpost....344&postcount=4

The Windjammer was a great place, a bit out of the way, but beautiful. We had one of the villas, a timeshare trade. They will offer freebies to listen to their timeshare presentation, it's mildly high pressure but if you don't mind killing 3 hours you can choose from several trips or activities. We did the day sail on the endless summer, it's a full day you get lunch, see the Pitons, the sulfer springs, and swimming off a beach (if you want to snorkel there bring your own stuff). There resort offers some free activies, a snorkel trip (which we did, not bad) bannana boat rides, tubing rides, etc.
The restaurants at the Windjammer are good, we were not on the All Inclusive because we like to dine all over. Yes we went to the Coal Pot very good, also try Big Chef Steakhouse, And there is a good indian restaurant in Gros Inlet (I'm not sure of the location or the name, sorry look at the guides they list them all). You have to take a taxi to the restaurants its about 20 to 30 EC$ 10 to 20USD. The concierge will make taxi and restaurant reservations for you.

The dive op at the Windjammer Didn't return my calls so I went elsewhere and was glad. When we got there we looked at the dive op to see if we should dive with them part of the time. The boats were small the owner was having some sort of relationship crisis and really didn't care about the dive charters while we were there. Dive Fair Helen was great though (they are across the inlet from the Coal Pot by the way right be the Vigie airport) they picked us up at the Windjammer at 8:10AM every day and were never late. Return varied on dive sites. DFH was one of the few dive ops that go to the Anse Chastanet marine park every day. This is the best diving on the island. As far as water temp it was between 78 and 82, we wore 3mm just because we dove 4 straight days and after alot of dives your core temp starts to go down.
I reserved with DFH before we left and got 10% off for pre-booking. Look at the link for my other post for the copy of an e-mail from DFH with all there info, and check out there website www.divefairhelen.com

Hope it helps...