Cheap and quick from Ohio

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

bvbellomo

Contributor
Messages
504
Reaction score
139
Location
United States
# of dives
100 - 199
I live in Cleveland and like to take big scuba trips. If I am not spending over $1000 on flights and taking 2 weeks off work, I am in a quarry.

Spirit offers cheap direct flights to:
Kingston Jamaica
Cancun
Aruba
St. Thomas Virgin Islands
San Juan Puerto Rico
Punta Cana Dominican Republic

Is there anything worth doing a 3 or 4 day trip?

While I love Cozumel, it isn't suitable for a cheap quick trip. I either need a layover and then a flight to Cozumel (expensive and too much time), or a direct flight to Cancun + bus to Playa + Ferry (cheap and even more time). I'd be lucky to get 4 dives in a 3 day weekend.
 
A trip report from St. Thomas was referenced in another post asking about that area. It's from a few years ago but seems the poster really enjoyed the trip:

Trip Report: St. Thomas 2022

Piqued my interest in diving there if I ever had the opportunity.
 
Diving local might work in Sonora California, but I live in Ohio. The water in my yard gets pretty deep in the Spring as the snow melts, but not deep enough.

Quarry dives are a over 2 hours and 30 minutes driving each way if I stop to pick up a tank and return it. The water is cold, the quarries are small, and there isn't much to see.
 
You should do Cleveland to JFK about 150 rt and Jet Blue to Bonaire current one way special at $89 or $98 ( not a typo) . You could round trip to Bonaire for under $500

Cancun, you could do the bag drag and be on Cozumel 4-5 hrs after you land for another $100 bucks or so.(Public bus to Playa del Carmen Ferry to Coz)

St.Thomas was nice but have not dove their in 30yrs so cannot comment on current situation.
 
Diving local might work in Sonora California, but I live in Ohio. The water in my yard gets pretty deep in the Spring as the snow melts, but not deep enough.

Quarry dives are an over 2 hours and 30 minutes driving each way if I stop to pick up a tank and return it. The water is cold, the quarries are small, and there isn't much to see.
I drive 3 hours to Monterey, you have the Great Lakes right next to you.
 
While everyone is different, with different airline schedules as well, I find it hard to beat Cozumel for international travel even if I have to do the "bag drag" from the Cancun airport. Just have to be sure to fly into Cancun with plenty of time to catch the ferry over (usually not that hard), and then schedule your flight back late enough to allow for the bag drag -- I usually try to have my flight leaving CUN at 12:30 or later. If you are looking to maximize the number of dives, many dive ops offer afternoon 2-tanks, twilight 2-tanks, and night dives (night dives are great there!). Theres also a dive op who does blackwater dives there fairly often. Another (and cheaper) alternative is to do morning 2-tank boat dives, then do afternoon and/or night shore dives from somewhere like Hotel Barracuda, Tikila, Hotel Cozumel by Wyndham, Blue Angel, etc.

Another option worth considering is SE Florida. I believe Spirit flies to Fort Lauderdale then you'd need to rent a car (pretty unavoidable in SE Florida) -- I'd drive up to the Palm Beach/Riviera Beach area (there is an airport, PBI, there but don't believe Spirit goes there). Then if you plan accordingly with the Blue Heron Bridge (BHB) tide chart you can do morning 2-tank boat dives and then follow up with afternoon/evening/night dives at BHB depending on the time of high tide. Frankly, of the places I've dove so far (see my About on my profile) honestly I'd place SE Florida as 2nd to Cozumel but above the other Caribbean places that I've been. You can find BHB tide charts online at either the Force-E scuba or Pura Vida divers websites, among others.

Forgive me if you already know this, but I just want to mention that once you start adding anything more than a personal item (backpack, etc.) I find that Spirit starts to quickly become less affordable than other airlines -- especially if traveling with your own scuba gear, but they even charge a good bit for a carry on bag. Related to that, I believe Spirit limits checked bags to 40 lbs. rather than the 50 lbs. most other airlines allow, which for me makes it impossible to bring my own gear - even after drying a day my slightly damp gear seems to be around 49 lbs., YMMV.

I can't comment on some of your other areas, but I'll say I haven't heard anything good about diving in Aruba, Jamaica seems a mixed bag of reviews (may want to search ScubaBoard), and for Puerto Rico I've heard you'll need to drive hours West or East from San Juan to find good diving.
 
St Thomas diving is meh. Beats sitting home and diving puddles. You can get a cheap hotel in Charlotte Amalie. Winward Passage hotel used to have packages with pick up from one of the dive shops. Plenty of restaurants walkable from that location. Only a few miles from the airport, shuttle over, no rental car.

The diving was shallow, hard bottom, not a ton of fish. Have seen more sharks diving St Thomas than anywhere else to date. There is some good diving, but further out, subject to weather and customer mix.

No passport required for USVIs.
 
I believe Spirit limits checked bags to 40 lbs. rather than the 50 lbs. most other airlines allow
This has changed recently. From their website:
BAG DIMENSIONS:
Personal Item (included with your fare):
Smaller than 18"x14"x8"
This is something like a laptop bag or purse

Carry-on bag: Maximum of 22”x18” x10” (56x46x25 cm)
including handles and wheels

Checked bags: Maximum of 62 linear inches (158 cm)
(length + width + height) including handles and wheels
and maximum of 50 pounds (22.6 kg) in weight
(Italics mine)

The a-la-carte pricing definitely does tend to eat into the price differential from other airlines though. Flying on Spirit in a way that is economical but doesn't drive you crazy is a bit of an acquired art. However, it's still often the cheapest option for us if we need a quick trip to Florida...
 
Spirit is not my choice of airline. They had a severe delay once and left me completely stranded another time. CLE isn't the best airport either. This is what I have to work with. Delta is my favorite, but a direct flight to Atlanta just gets me warmer puddles. United has direct flights to Cancun and Fort Lauderdale. If I want a cheap and quick trip, it is probably on Spirit. I can expand my choices pretty far if I consider 1 layover, but then the cost and time make it so I may as well take a full week. If I do that, then I get close to the big expensive 2 week trips I've been diving on.
 

Back
Top Bottom