Diving Aruba

[masonak1298]

Going to Aruba for the first time. Is there good diving there?

 

[johnny_bravo]

Can't say first-hand about Aruba but I've been to both sister islands (ABCs) of Curacao and Bonaire and the diving is superb in both. I'm sure conditions are similar in Aruba.

Cheers.

-J.-

 

[mike_s]

Aruba's got good diving. But it's a small island and beleive me that every question about it has alredy been answered. Use the search function here and look for Aruba and trust me that it'll answer every question you've got about Aruba.

Enjoy!

 

[Paco]

I dove at Aruba three years ago. In my opinion, based on the dives our op took us to, it was a very nice dive destination. The coral reefs that we saw were nowhere near as impressive as, say Cozumel. I don´t remember any swim-throughs or large coral heads. We did see lots of fish and there are quite a few wrecks. In fact, the largest wreck in the Caribbean is off Aruba. There are some WWII wrecks and some intentionally sunk things (planes and such). I think we saw large green morays on practically every dive and literally hundreds of trumpet fish of all sizes. I don´t think I´ll go back there, but I don´t regret the trip in any way.

I have heard that Bonaire and Curacao are better dive destinations. I can´t say from experience because I´ve not yet dived in those destinations.

Hope my impressions are helpful.

 

[allistoy]

Try Clice at Divearuba.com he is an excellent small boat operaton and goes to all the good spots. The diving is good anywhere down by the refinery end up to the large ship dockage area. I like doing drift dives along this stretch of Aruba you can hit 2 planes and 2 boat wrecks and some decent reefs while drift through this area. We go there every year for the Christmas and New Years holidays, it's a great island for partys at that time of year.

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

Aruba has some very good diving, alot of wrecks. I always use Romeo from Native Divers (www.nativedivers.com).He is a native Arubian and only takes out 5 or 6 divers at a time and will usually ask which sites you want to dive.

 

[tstormdiver]

I dove in Aruba a couple of years ago whilst on a cruise in Nov. The cruise line went through Pelican Adventures. It was a decent outfit. Since it's the only diving I've done there, I don't have anything to compare it to. We dove on a wreck at about 75' & some surrounding coral heads. Very good diving, good vis. Their vehicles to get us from the ship to the shop wasn't in the best of shape, but it ran. I really enjoyed the one dive I did do there.

 

[Ice9]

If you don't have a place yet, I recommend the Holiday Inn Sunspree. Its not all that awesome, but Pelican Tours has a pier right on the beach there, and they have a great dive operation. I'm planning on returning there in Feb...

 

[Canadian.Diver]

I dove there last christmas, it has great diving, lots of wrecks. The island is small so very easy to get around. Because of the great wrecks I'd have to say it is a toss up between Aruba and Coz for me. I went with Mermaid divers because of the great pricing, and they always had lots of water and soft drinks and watermelon which is my absolute after dive snack. The crew is friendly if not a little boastful, each day their number of dives would increase by at least 50 dives from the day before, usaually by 100 or more, its not perfect but I never dove with a dive shop that was. Great value for your money. I would go back to Aruba in a second. Have fun!

 

[gangrel441]

As said above, Aruba is largely known for its wrecks. The Antilla is the most popular. It is a Nazi freighter that was captured and scuttled off the northwest side of the island. Pretty much every kind of marine life lives on that ship.

The reefs are nice in Aruba, though in our experience, neighboring Curacao blew them away. Do some diving, but don't let it get in the way of enjoying the rest of the island. They do Land Rover tours through the Northeast side of the island, which is all national park. Oranjistad is a very lively little city, the food is outstanding, the casinos are very nice, and the beaches are beautiful.