Florida Dive trip locations for brand new OW divers

[bradlw]

Looking for suggestions for a great place to take my soon-to-be-certified family for their first dive. (and my first dive as a very long-time rusty but experienced diver)

Timeframe for the trip will be August (yeah, I know...storm season), and I'm looking for ideas for places that are driving distance from NE Florida (St Augustine area)

Diving is not going to be the primary focus for the whole trip, so I'm looking for other things to do/see in the area. Will probably only end up doing something like a 2-tank charter and then spend the rest of the week (or long weekend?) doing other stuff. (my wife is not overly into Diving)

I'm doing a rusty diver refresher with them as they take their OW class, and their checkout dives are planned for the springs (Blue Grotto and Rainbow River)
so I'm thinking salt water.

I used to enjoy diving the Ft Lauderdale area for the wrecks and deeper dives, and to a lesser degree I used to enjoy the keys, primarily the upper keys. It's been many years though and so I'm completely unfamiliar with the dive operators now.

I'm thinking maybe up around the West Palm or maybe Jupiter area for some drift dives. I remember those being easy and fun for new divers.
but I'm leaning more towards the upper keys, mainly because I've never taken my kids to the keys before and they're Florida natives!

 

[oldschool45]

Blue Heron Bridge is in that range. I would suggest the Keys for some easy diving. I took my wife the the Springs after her OW(in Marathon) for some more experience before throwing her into deeper/drift/current dives off of Broward and Palm Beach. Keys are a little more expensive but there may be more stuff to do, Key West and fishing.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

Molasses Reef, Looe Key Reef -

 

[FreqFlier]

I'm thinking maybe up around the West Palm or maybe Jupiter area for some drift dives.

Most if not all WPB/Jupiter/Boynton dive ops require Nitrox cert and some require AOW certs due to deeper dive profiles. Drift diving in general is not recommended for freshly minted OW's. Get a guide if you still want drift dives.
I'd say upper keys is the best option for OW's. Book with Rainbow Reef in KL or Key Dives in Islamorada, both will put a guide with you for free.
Amoray is a good option too, it's somewhat of a "dive resort" with lodging and diving combined (and discounted). Boat leaves from their own dock literally steps away from your bungalow.
Lots of fun stuff to explore on dry land in upper keys too.

 

[gamon]

I used to enjoy the keys, primarily the upper keys. It's been many years though and so I'm completely unfamiliar with the dive operators now.

It's easy there's a lot less of them now. Along with coral and fish.

I'm thinking maybe up around the West Palm or maybe Jupiter area for some drift dives. I remember those being easy and fun for new divers.

Many would disagree that drift diving, which involves complexities such as jumping off a live boat precisely when directed, and immediately initiating a negative decent in strong currents in depths to 100', in visibility such that you often cannot see the bottom as a frame of reference, which end with possibly ascending with no line, to be considered a more advanced form of diving as compared to, say, jumping in whenever you're ready, splashing about on the surface for a few minutes, then descending and following a mooring line down to a brightly lit 40' reef and swimming around under the boat that never changes its position.[/QUOTE]