could use some Turks & Caicos insights

[Carlos Danger]

TCI was a great trip for us. We really wanted to dive Grand Turk, but since the international airport is on Provo, we broke our trip into two parts. The first seven days were spent in Grand Turk, where we stayed at the the Osprey and dove with Blue Water. The last five days of the trip were spent in Provo where we stayed at Caribbean Paradise and dove with Caicos Adventures. The whole trip was truely awesome, and really provided for a diverse experience while also being the perfect setup for the return trip. Grand Turk is very quiet and charming with amazing diving, while Provo is very spead out and much more commerical with great beaches and restaurants. Links to the related websites are below, and our dive video from this trip is in the signature at the bottom. Hope this helps!

Turks Caicos Resorts | Caribbean Hotels | Osprey Beach Hotel

Grand Turk Scuba Diving: Blue Water Divers, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands

Caribbean Paradise Inn - Best Hotel at the Turks & Caicos Islands

Dive Bahamas, in Turks & Caicos Islands, With Caicos Adventures! Dive Bahamas for Incredible Sites & Experiences!

 

[wheeda]

I tried to do shore diving on Provo in Turks and Caicos. I failed due all the dive shops refusing to rent gear for shore dives.

I have an 8 year old who is Scuba Ranger certified with SSI. This allows him to go to 12 feet in pool like conditions. This is different than PADI which just plain requires a pool. I preparation for this trip I contacted the dive shop (who I won't name at this time) to try to line up this experience for my child. They said that "a quality scuba ranger experience could be had a Coral Gardens". However they said they were unwilling to rent gear because they didn't like cleaning it, and they couldn't guarantee that an instructor would be available. The dive shop didn't have any 50s, but they had 63s.

Based on this feedback I prepared for the trip. I rented a BC and reg set for my child and brought it with us. A bought him a wetsuit. I got additional traning for my child. The additional training consisted of several dives in 46 degree water with 1 to 6 feet of visibility with his SSI scuba ranger instructor. His instructor happened to be going on the same trip. I buttered him up and got him to agree to take my son on a couple of dives. I thought I had everything lined up.

When I got to the dive shop in Provo, I went in and said, "Ok, I want to rent some tanks." They said they didn't rent gear to anyone for any reason. They listed several reasons for this:
1. It is illegal to shore dive, and renting me gear would create legal liability for them.
2. It is an agreement between the shops to never rent gear.
3. The snuba lady goes there but has a special permit.

I asked them to source the illegal idea. They refereed me to the department of environment. I called the department of environment and talked to Paul Dickens. He said I was free to shore dive anywhere including Coral Gardens. Apparently one or more of the dive boat operators will pull people out of the water and harass them if they see them shore diving. I got the impress that this happens most often at coral gardens.

At this point I'm mad. I don't like being lied to. I spend a good deal of time and money lining up this experience for my son. Additionally, I wanted to get some extra dives in cheap.

I talked to the dive shop. On the last dav of diving the shop manager agreed to take my son out. He didn't charge me for it due to the trouble I had lining it up. This was nice of him. Due to this, I'm not naming the dive shop, who I was otherwise happy with.

If shore diving is important to you, don't go to Provo in Turks and Caicos. Perhaps there is decent shore diving there. Perhaps it is bad. Due to collusion and lies from the dive shops, I wasn't able to find out for myself. If you really, really want to shore dive there, bring all your own gear including tanks and weights.

 

[editmojo]

Have you looked at AquaMarine Beach houses? They have small single bedroom apartments with full kitchens right on Grace Bay. I can highly recommend them. Not sure how prices compare with Club Med.

Probably the best dive op on the Island (IMHO) Is Flamingo divers but they may be closed in September. You'd be right down the street from Turtle Divers which is a fine op too. You'd probably want a car as only a few restaurants are within walking distance. Plan on $125 for 2 tanks as most of the good sites are 45-60 min boat ride.

The club med boats only seemed to go to the reef right out front of the resort. And if you've done any resort diving you know what your're getting into. We dove it one day it was ok, lots of sharks and turtles but the fathers sites were in much better shape.

 

[Ms. Ann Thrope]

I thank all of you for your responses and will file away all info for possible future trips. For this one, I am booked at Club Med--and a friend has decided to join me, so I guess I have a dive buddy, though she hasn't been diving in a few years. We still haven't decided for sure on a dive op, but Caicos Adventures looks promising if we don't cheap out and go with the Club Med option. I think Flamingo is indeed closed during our planned time down there.

Editmojo--what do you mean by "if you've done any resort diving, you know what you're in for." I'm not sure I have, or not for a long time. Our most frequent trips are going down to Cozumel a couple of times a year and getting on a little 6-pack boat with divemasters who mostly know us a bit and are willing to let us dive our dives and stay as long as we can or care to. Unless the dive is deep, I feel shorted if the dive ends up being less than an hour. I don't think I've been on a boat with more than 6 other divers in probably 15 years--though I don't have a huge problem with hanging back or whatever to stay out of the crowd, I am concerned about having unnecessarily conservative bottom times foisted upon me. I'm also still concerned about Club Med's reputation for taking people only to the closest reefs--one day of sharky, turtley diving on an average reef doesn't sound bad, but I'd like a little variety. Is it that the close-in reefs are damaged, or are they healthy but just not as scenic as some of the other spots?

 

[editmojo]

I dived with Couples and Sandals quite a while back as it's included in their AI packages. You are on a larger boat and taken to the most convenient sites which are usually heavily dived. These ops did not require computers and probably have other corporate liability concerns so the dives were usually turned at 30 min or so. I was a newer diver at the time but was usually back on the boat with 1400-1500 psi. We did have one DM that let us guys with computers dive as we liked towards the end of the week. Several times at the more crowded sites we'd come back with an extra diver or short a diver as they would get confused in the crowd and get on the wrong boat.

You'll be there in low season so I wouldn't expect big crowds and I have no experience with Club Med but I would call or email and see what their policies are. You also don't have to dive with them. Like I said, Flamingo is great and will pick you up at the resort if they are open. There are many other ops on the island that have the same service. It's a small community and all the shops know each other. If one op is full they can usually tell you who has room. If you do get to dive with Flamingo Say hi to Jayne and Mick from Minnesota Joe.

Have fun. It's a great Island with great diving.

I should also add the resorts are mostly on the north side of the island and some the better sites are south of Provo. I believe Caicos Adventures and several others dock at the south marina. It makes it easier to get to the better sites.

 

[baitballer]

Rumour has it that Club Med will be closing shortly for a major overhall and then re-opening as a family based resort not adults only. I assume they have looked at how popular Beaches is and decided to try that market. If you wait a few years you could stay at the new resort that is being debated about at the moment, it will be three buildings, two of them 22 stories high and one 28 stories high! You will be able to see it from every dive site in the TCI!