Coco View Trip Report: March 29-April 5

[cmcdarris]

Bali1,

Thanks for the GREAT detailed report on CCV. I am looking for a place to take my wife (self-proclaimed Glamour Diver), my 16 yo daughter, and soon to be 14 year old certified son. I have been researching CCV vs. Bonaire. Primarily, I am looking for a great locale that will provide a safe environment for my 2 new divers. I am becoming sold on the idea of CCV, and your article provides great reassurance.

I have two quick questions for Bali1 or anyone else:

1) As a family, we like to explore. Is there much opportunity to see the area - hike, canoe, etc?

2) Also, personally, we are not picky eaters, but it scares me to think of eating in the same place every meal for a week. (21 meals - yikes if it's bad.) Can someone comment more on the food situation? Are there other places nearby to eat?....or are you just so hungry after all the diving that cardboard tastes good?

Thanks.
Charlie

 

[robint]

exploring from CCV.... not really. They have kayaks (free) that you can paddle around the nearby area, but not much else. CCV is on its own little island. They do have some "tours" that you can sign up for to explore different things on the island but we didn't take any of them as we were happy to just stay at the resort, dive and eat, nothing more.

Food - it is actually pretty good. Meals are served family style and buffet, so you can eat as much as you like of what is there. There is always a salad bar, lunch and dinner. Breakfast varies a little but always meats and usual egg dishes as well as breads, pancakes, waffles, omelettes to order.
Here are a couple of the daily posted menus:

I know that they will also fix special meals for people with special dietary needs. Our first trip there was a man who was on a specific bland diet and they made him a plate of food every dinner in the kitchen..looked to me like he might have a digestive disorder. Every night he would walk in and they would bring out his plate for him.

If you haven't seen my trip report from last summer, you can read it here:
http://www.rnrscuba.net/2013_Roatan/2013CoCoView_TripReport.html


the diving is PERFECT for new divers.
My videos are here: https://vimeo.com/album/2443620

 

[DeputyDan]

You can rent a driver to take you anywhere you want to go on the island (Roatan) - including for any meals.
The resort also has daily sign ups for various off site activities - zip line, island history tour, trip to west end, shark dive.
The Coco View staff will often arrange one night out - where you can have dinner at a different location - you have to pay extra.

Have been to both (Coco View and Bonaire) more than once- if the trip is about diving - you can't beat Coco View. If you want other activities as well, I would go to Bonaire.

 

[Bali1]

There are some off resort activities you can pay for. The CCV site lists several excursions which they will set up for you. We did the dolphin snorkel at AKR which was actually quite fun, despite my usual reservations against such things. It was nice to drive to the other side of the Island. The area around AKR looks even more tropical and overgrown than the CCV area - I guess they get more rain that side. Take a look at the possibilities.

Other than that we stayed put, and no one in my family minded at all. We usually travel very actively so this was unusual for us. I think we got so relaxed and into the diving that we did not feel the need to explore at all. Unless it was underwater! The week went by too quickly in any event.


Regarding the food. The diving will make you hungry and the food was overall good enough and varied enough that each of us had no more than one meal we were not crazy about. The rest of the time seconds were the norm and occasionally we all over-ate since the meal was terrific.

I set up the girls with Patty at dockside for a morning boat dive to get them into deeper buoyancy training and she was fantastic. Between the DM and Patty/Jim at Dockside you will get one of the best environments for newer divers I have ever seen. You really cannot go wrong here. I never felt that my family was ignored or in any kind of danger zone at any time. The Front Yard is easy to navigate - I let my 11 year old lead a dive there - and it just offers so much for divers of any experience level. Hope this helps. I can't say enough about the place. My wife is very resistant to returning to vacation spots as she is always looking for something new. This is the first location in 20 years she WANTS to return to without hesitation. That tells me a lot about CCV.