Diving sites near Orlando

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I lived in Orlando until recently. I can attest that it is not a very convenient locale to dive openwater out of. On your itinerary its doable but not easy. Morning dives out of the locations mentioned will mean you need to LEAVE Orlando/Disney area anywhere from 6am (Jupoter) to 5am (Ft Lauderdale/Delray) for 730 show/830 go. You would be back to the dock about 1130, back in Otown around 2pm.

I would suggest a day diving the springs around Orlando (there are MANY and most are diver friendly) and one day drive for an OW boat dive. I have been out with most of the ops mentioned and never had a bad experience. Competition is pretty fierce so they want to treat you right!

All dive ops listed are on the east coast, to far from Tampa (west coast) unless you want to invest a full day including drive time.

For a unique Tampa area dive consider going down to Venice Beach. There is an entire forum devoted to Venice Beach Fossil Divers. Go find a Mega Tooth!
 
I have just returned from a fortnight out in Kissimmee and did 2 morning dives with Plunger at DiveClearwater last Thurs and Wednesday before. I cannot recommend them highly enough and Capt Rod certainly knows his stuff

The bad news for you is that they are only doing morning dives at the moment as i was hoping for some afternoon dives myself after seeing their website
It is an early start as I was in the car at 6 am both days for a 7.30 show/8.00 go but it is an easy drive from Kissimmee/Orlando


One option to consider is taking the wife and kids with you, as I did last Thursday. I know it's an early start but the location of the Plunger couldn't be better for non divers. It is right on the beach at Pier 60.They just went for some breakfast when we got there and hit the beach at about 9.00. I was back at 12.30/1.00ish to join them and we all had a great day all round
It was so good that we will be going back when we are out again in August

After last week I can't understand why the Gulf side is not mentioned more often by people recommending trips from Orlando. I'll admit that there isn't as much life as FL/Keys way but it's not as if you don't get to see anything...got some great shots of a sting ray and barracuda last week as well as loads of other stuff to make it more than worthwhile. I'll be making a trip down South in August too for a couple of days but for the day trip, Clearwater ( and especially Capt Rod and the Plunger) have won me over


Good luck
 
Can you guys tell me how the oil spill is affecting diving both in the Gulf and on the east coast of florida? I'm also planning to travel to Orlando (May switch to daytona beach also if the diving is better there) for a week in Mid November and would like to dive. However, I want to plan ahead of time on where to go. Anyone have any opinions on which side of Florida to dive on given the spill and also aquatic life to see. This will be my first time diving while staying somewhere, we've done all of our diving at cruise ship ports.

Thanks
Dave
 
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If you want good vis (40+ ft) then stick to the Keys or SE Florida. The vis in the gulf and up north on the east coast off Daytona isn't nearly as good as the Keys and SE Florida. For the most part, the only people that dive north of Ft Pierce are the lobster/spearfish crew and they don't seem to mind 10' vis. :)
 
great, thanks. Any idea if there are any good dive operations closer to orlando than Jupiter? That is about a 3 hr trek from our hotel. We'd end up getting another hotel there and dive 2 days if not.

Thanks
Dave
 
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This May I drove down to West Palm Beach from Orlando area, leaving about 6am, done 2 dives and drove back the same day, getting back around 7pm, pretty tiring day.

I also dived over 2 days the previous April and stayed 2 nights in the marriot courtyard, much better option as we were not rushing about :D
 
great, thanks. Any idea if there are any good dive operations closer to orlando than Jupiter? That is about a 3 hr trek from our hotel. We'd end up getting another hotel there and dive 2 days if not.

Thanks
Dave

We live near Heathrow (north of Orlando). It takes us just under 3 hours to get to the Riviera Beach Marina (Palm Beach) from our house. It should take closer to 2 hours 15 minutes if you're staying in the Dismal World tourist area. We take I4 south to the turnpike, turnpike to Jupiter, hop over onto I-95 down to Palm Beach.

We normally drive down Saturday morning, do 2 afternoon dives, stay overnight and then do 2 Sunday morning dives and then drive home Sunday afternoon arriving home by 4 PM.

Makes us appreciate the liveaboard dive trips. :)
 
I live in Orlando and make day-trips to go dive in West Palm / Riviera Beach. It's about three hours each way, but I skip the turnpike. I refuse to spend $20 in tolls just to save 15 minutes. I take SR 528 ($1.50 tollbooth if you get on at SR436, but two other tollbooths if you get on at I-4) to I-95 and cruise 95 south all the way down to WPB. As long as you aren't doing it during weekday rushhour traffic, it's only a few minutes longer than the Turnpike and a hell of a lot cheaper!

I've also done day-trips to Venice Beach, which is about 2 1/2 hours away, with no tolls. The vis is nothing to write home about, but finding fossils is fun!

The only close and convenient diving to Orlando is typically spring dives, which aren't very exciting for an ocean-loving fish-watcher like me, but I dive them anyway because they are close and cheap and full of water and more exciting than my apartment swimming pool.

Blue Spring in Orange City ($15 per diver, OW to 60') is only about 35-45 minutes away from downtown Orlando. Alexander Springs in Altoona ($6 or so per diver, OW, max of 25') is about 1 hour away.

If you're going to be stuck at the parks anyway and don't mind the 'fishtank' experience, you could always do EPCOT's DiveQuest. That way you can combine your family's want to do the parks with your dive. :wink:
 
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