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

[saltwater taffy]

One place that has been on my list of places to go is Grenada
Grenada offers rich and varied dive sites with some truly pristine coral reefs and the largest ship wreck in the Caribbean, the 600 Ft. Italian luxury liner, the Bianca C.. Grenada offers beautiful rain forests, hot springs, waterfalls and great beaches. Grenada has the famed Grand Anse beach from which to relax and recover from your rain forest trek or morning of diving.

Good luck to you and a very happy anniversary.
SWT

 

[Ber Rabbit]

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

-Chris

We stayed on Saba at the Gate House, a beautiful hotel from which you can even see the airport. It's kind of fun to stand on the balcony and look down to watch the planes come and go. The hotel is owned by a French couple who go out of their way to make your stay enjoyable. Michel is a chef and he makes a wonderful lunch or dinner in the French restaurant at the hotel. They have an outstanding wine list (100+ wines) if you are into that sort of thing and I can personally vouch for the champagne, the three of us polished off two bottles our last evening there.

I highly recommend Victor as your taxi driver, he's friendly and will bend over backwards to make sure you enjoy yourself. We went to JoBean's glass shop but they weren't open yet, he knew where to find one of the employees so she could come open the shop for us. It doesn't get any better than that!

We dove with Saba Deep and the two Mike's are wonderful to work with. They even went out of their way to mail photos to me before the trip so I could see what their operation looked like. One day we were the only ones on the boat so we asked if we could do a shallow site in the morning instead of a deep dive and they were happy to oblige. Big Mike is full of interesting stories, I think that man has been everywhere and done everything. Another plus is the restaurant above the dive shop, you can stop in before your dive and order lunch and when they see the boat coming back from the first dive they will start making your food so it's on the table right after you arrive and you can easily have time to eat before returning to the boat for the next dive.

If you go make sure to stop at the Sacred Heart Church and see the mural, it's breath-taking.

Enjoy your anniversary no matter where you go!
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

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

You are asking the near impossible. I would venture that Cozumel migh fit most of your bill (I know, I know, technically not the Caribbean). Anse Chastanet is romantic and the diving is nice (above average diving but not much above average) but unless you want to drink or fry on the beach there is not much to do topside. Turks is world class diving but not much to do topside but fry and drink. The boat rides are long too and your honey may get impatient when you leave after breakfast and return at two or three. Little Cayman is also world class diving and the boat rides are a lot shorter but once again unless she's into the book and beach scene there is not much to do. Best advice: Teach her to dive and go to Little Cayman!!