Question Dive Operator Recommendations in St Maarten

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DiveProKoko

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Hey, guys! My wife and I have a trip booked to Dutch St Maarten this summer. We're looking to reserve a few days of diving for the trip. It'll be our first time there, so I wanted to know if anyone has any good or bad experiences with any of the dive ops on the island. Any recommendations are welcome. Also, if there are any dive sites there we don't want to miss (or that aren't worth the time), that would be helpful as well. I'm not expecting Bonaire or Curacao, but interested in what you think. Thank you!
 
Dove French side back in 2010 with Octopus when they still existed. @oceanava might have some info as she lives? works? there.
 
I went diving with Ocean Explorers for a week in 2013 and was very pleased with their operation. Although I have been back for a day by cruise ship, I haven't been diving there since then, so I can't speak to the quality of the diving these days. Located at Simpson Bay, OE is an excellent dive op and they have consistent positive reviews on Trip Advisor. They are one of the few privileged dive operators licensed to do a dedicated shark dive. Back then, I didn't have a camera, and they had a photographer on staff that would take photos for you and then you can purchase the package. Very reasonably priced for a ton of great photos.

I stayed at the Atrium Beach Resort, which was a very short beach walk to OE. Decent condo-style resort with a kitchen, air conditioning, and security on the property, which is important on St. Maarten wherever you stay.

A trip over to Maho Beach provides great plane spotting, watching them come and go. The attached photo is not altered. This is how close the planes come in. It's a fun day at the beach!

Couple of travel tips:

Don't drink the tap water, no matter who tells you it's safe. It is not!

If you rent a car, be ready for an adventure in driving. Since there are no sidewalks on most streets, you share the road with cars, bicycles, motorcycles, and pedestrians. It's a bob-and-weave situation. Lots of horn honking. It's not the aggressive honking we do in the U.S. but a short beep-beep to let whatever moving obstacle is in your path know that you're there. I didn't rent a car except for one day when I took a non-diving day trip to the French side, which was very nice. The rental cars are in really poor condition with a lot of body damage, so be sure to take pictures inside and out of the whole car before you leave the lot.

I know this is more than you asked, so excuse my long-winded post. Have a great time!
 

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we like to use Dive Adventures in simpson bay. you can book with them thru Aquamania.

we have used a bunch of other shops over the years. ocean encounters as mentioned above has a good reputation. they are also in simpson bay.

if you get a nice day with relatively calm seas a trip over towards st barts is fun. i thnk they call it moon hole? there are also some decesnt wreck sites. i am bad for names. caribe ? proselyte ?

the shallow dive near divi is usually a waste of time as is creole rock imho.

where will you be staying ?
 
I went diving with Ocean Explorers for a week in 2013 and was very pleased with their operation. Although I have been back for a day by cruise ship, I haven't been diving there since then, so I can't speak to the quality of the diving these days. Located at Simpson Bay, OE is an excellent dive op and they have consistent positive reviews on Trip Advisor. They are one of the few privileged dive operators licensed to do a dedicated shark dive. Back then, I didn't have a camera, and they had a photographer on staff that would take photos for you and then you can purchase the package. Very reasonably priced for a ton of great photos.

I stayed at the Atrium Beach Resort, which was a very short beach walk to OE. Decent condo-style resort with a kitchen, air conditioning, and security on the property, which is important on St. Maarten wherever you stay.

A trip over to Maho Beach provides great plane spotting, watching them come and go. The attached photo is not altered. This is how close the planes come in. It's a fun day at the beach!

Couple of travel tips:

Don't drink the tap water, no matter who tells you it's safe. It is not!

If you rent a car, be ready for an adventure in driving. Since there are no sidewalks on most streets, you share the road with cars, bicycles, motorcycles, and pedestrians. It's a bob-and-weave situation. Lots of horn honking. It's not the aggressive honking we do in the U.S. but a short beep-beep to let whatever moving obstacle is in your path know that you're there. I didn't rent a car except for one day when I took a non-diving day trip to the French side, which was very nice. The rental cars are in really poor condition with a lot of body damage, so be sure to take pictures inside and out of the whole car before you leave the lot.

I know this is more than you asked, so excuse my long-winded post. Have a great time!
Thank you for the info! I have heard of OE and they are on the short list. I think the guy running them used to run Octopus (?) before that folded and they had good reviews as well when they existed. Anyway, thanks for the heads up on everything. Appreciate it!
 
The guy running Octo passed away...
 
we like to use Dive Adventures in simpson bay. you can book with them thru Aquamania.

we have used a bunch of other shops over the years. ocean encounters as mentioned above has a good reputation. they are also in simpson bay.

if you get a nice day with relatively calm seas a trip over towards st barts is fun. i thnk they call it moon hole? there are also some decesnt wreck sites. i am bad for names. caribe ? proselyte ?

the shallow dive near divi is usually a waste of time as is creole rock imho.

where will you be staying ?
Hey, Rick! Thanks for the info. I had heard there were some good places off the windward side, if you can get the right weather so thanks for confirming that! We're going in the summer, so hopefully the seas will be favorable. For some strange reason, all the dive sites in SXM have now suddenly been plotted in my Google Maps. Weird. I must have clicked something looking for dive sites there. Oh well! :) We are staying in a villa we found on VRBO. It's in the Indigo Bay area, so it seems fairly located between Phillipsburg and Simpson Bay area? We'll have a car as well.
 
Hey, Rick! Thanks for the info. I had heard there were some good places off the windward side, if you can get the right weather so thanks for confirming that! We're going in the summer, so hopefully the seas will be favorable. For some strange reason, all the dive sites in SXM have now suddenly been plotted in my Google Maps. Weird. I must have clicked something looking for dive sites there. Oh well! :) We are staying in a villa we found on VRBO. It's in the Indigo Bay area, so it seems fairly located between Phillipsburg and Simpson Bay area? We'll have a car as well.

you're welcome.
yes you are correct that indigo would be about half way between simpson bay and philipsburg.
good thing you have a car as there won't really be anything around where you are staying.
as was stated above.....the owner of octopus diving is no longer with us. i am not aware of the current owner of ocean explorers ever running octopus. but i could be wrong.

the only slight down side of ocean explorers (unless something has changed) is that they do not have a peir. so you need to wade in and out of the water to use the boat. for some it is nt a big deal but it might be tougher on those with mobility issues.

dive adventures uses the peir at the simpson bay resort boardwalk. they also pick up divers at divi.
 
you're welcome.
yes you are correct that indigo would be about half way between simpson bay and philipsburg.
good thing you have a car as there won't really be anything around where you are staying.
as was stated above.....the owner of octopus diving is no longer with us. i am not aware of the current owner of ocean explorers ever running octopus. but i could be wrong.

the only slight down side of ocean explorers (unless something has changed) is that they do not have a peir. so you need to wade in and out of the water to use the boat. for some it is nt a big deal but it might be tougher on those with mobility issues.

dive adventures uses the peir at the simpson bay resort boardwalk. they also pick up divers at divi.
Thanks again! Not a problem on the OE issue with no dock. We're accustomed to that stuff (wading out), so not an issue, but it's good heads up for sure. I'll check out Dive Adventures as well. We're looking really hard at SXM Divers only because they have a really nice RIB and we usually prefer small boats. Any info on them at all? They've gotten great reviews, but first hand knowledge is always appreciated! :)
 
Thanks again! Not a problem on the OE issue with no dock. We're accustomed to that stuff (wading out), so not an issue, but it's good heads up for sure. I'll check out Dive Adventures as well. We're looking really hard at SXM Divers only because they have a really nice RIB and we usually prefer small boats. Any info on them at all? They've gotten great reviews, but first hand knowledge is always appreciated! :)
sorry i have not used that shop before.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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