Destination Advice

[Aaron Hill]

Hello!

I am a new member, looking for help planning a May trip with my daughter. Being from Montana I have relatively few dives, but feel very comfortable in my skills and poise. My daughter will be newly certified, probably getting her checkout dives on our trip. This is a bit of a “once in a lifetime” opportunity - a gift for her at high school graduation.

I have logged dives in Honduras, Belize and Hawaii, and we are looking for a bit more exotic location for this trip. We have looked at Niue as well as the Matava resort on Kadavu, Fiji. We want extensive snorkeling and nearby diving. Topside we look for sea kayaking and such, not much interest in comfort or technology.

Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks! Aaron

 

[In2theabyss]

Welcome! Never been to any of them so no help to your question but they all sound like great trips..hope you all have a great time no matter what you decide!

 

[Olddiver1950]

Congratulations to your daughter on her graduation and congrats to you for getting her through and getting yourself through as well! So, my wife and I have dived in Fiji, Thailand, Phillipines, Komodo, indonesia, BVI, Red Sea, Cayman, Bahamas, Maldives, Belize. Wife's favorite is either Maldives or Indonesia. But those are long trips. We spent a week of shore and boat diving in Bonaire and loved it. I think it depends on what you are looking for, land based or liveaboard. For a newly certified diver I recommend Bonaire. Great diving, great people, great atmosphere and land based. Easy shore diving and access to boat diving. Buddy Dive Center or DIVI Dive Center. If you're looking for liveaboard then Maldives hands down but that involves some hook dives but if nervous about current you could skip those. (never dive over your skills comfort) The healthiest coral we have seen is Indonesia. There are some currents there and large water temperature swings there but the coral and aquatic life there is amazing. But that was a liveaboard. Little Cayman was a great place for land base for kayaking and also some boat diving. Lots to think about but you can't make a wrong decision. After all you will be traveling and diving with your daughter. It doesn't get any better than that! Stay safe and enjoy !

 

[aquacat8]

Would you like to adopt another daughter... a bit old?

 

[aquacat8]

Seriously, have fun! what a great present!

 

[lowlysubaruguy]

Trip of a lifetime there’s a difference between an amazing trip and the trip of a lifetime
For a fact I’d be headed to the Philippines
Would I take my teenage daughter I can’t know. There are some things travelers need to be aware of in the Philippines however I’d feel safer in most of the Philippines than parts of New York or LA even Seattle or Portland have some undesirable locations after dark.

I think people that see the Philippines at a young enough age will fore ever have there lives changed in a good way. Its literally living the discovery channel live 24/7 for the whole trip.

You will find everything you asked for in your post and a lot more. From amazing dives beautiful scenery beaches a lifestyle that you cannot imagine until you have been there.

You need two weeks the travel and transfers from islands will eat up a lot of time, you’ll also need one or more days to begin the recovery from the jet lag and time difference when you get home this actually takes a few weeks. You’ll find yourself sitting at the table at 2 am eating lunch and won’t be able to sleep, off and on things you don’t read about in the “vacation of a lifetime brochure”

Myself I’d limit the trip to two or three islands. For me Boracay, Negros and bohol. Boracay is an unknown now that it’s been revamped but I’d hope it is still a lively festive place. Personally you could just dump me and my gear on Boracay and I’d be fine, Negros has a number of decent dive outfits, sipaway is a small island that’s a wooden boat ride away from the mainland from San Carlos they have great accommodations if you don’t want to be crowded any way. We stayed in San Carlos and took day trips to sipaway used pedal cabs and a motor cart to get around. There was a travellers advisory for the southern end of Negros when we were there so we did not get far south we did a full day tour of the island it was amazing. By travellers advisory the US stated they would not send in troops to save you if you were kidnapped or worse so there’s an underlying awareness you need to grasp. However I’m reading that Negros is not experiencing this now.

In the end the six of us returned home patiently waiting our next trip back. For a fact it was the trip of all of our lifetimes so far and were working on plans for round two.