Tim Ingersoll
Contributor
Just got back from a trip with a friend to Dominica last night. Overall a great trip.
Travel. Flew from Rochester to Newark, Newark to Antigua, Antigua to Dominica. Lessons learned: 1) I booked the trip in July, 2009 through Travelocity. If they route you on different airlines (US Air, Continental, Liat for the three legs of the trip they will have to issue paper tickets. Your itinerary willl say "This is an e-ticket no paper ticket will be issued". So they sent me paper tickets in July and I promptly forgot about them cause the itinerary I printed had the quote above printed on it. So....we got to the airport, to the gate....and couldn't go because we didn't have the tickets I set aside over six months ago. Long story short we had to rebook and ended up losing some vacation time. Disaster averted becuase we didn't get angry and got the gate agent to rebook us on a later flight so I could go find the paper tickets. Attitude is everything when you travel. 2) Don't let anyone tell you that you can't make your flight. We landed in Antigua and had one hour to clear immigration, get the bags, clear customs, recheck the bags with Liat, clear security and make our flight from Antigua to Dominica. This is not enough time. I left my buddy to wait for the bags and jumped the Liat checkin line to check us in. By the time we got the bags to the Liat counter they had paged us three times to the Liat departure gate. The ticketing agent said "Your bags will never make it and neither will you". My response was that we were going down swinging. We jumped every line with excuse me's and I'm sorries and actually made the flight. The bags showed the next day.
We had reserved a car to make the one hour trip from Melville Hall Airport to Roseau where we were staying. It was just getting dark when we landed and I opted immediately to spend the $70.00 for a cab and not try to drive it. Good choice. It was pitch black and there were no road signs. The roads are extremely narrow and had some of the steepest grades I've ever seen. Driving would have been impossible. Take the cab and rent a car for a day or two if you are so inspired. Leave the driving to the people who know the roads.
Lodging We stayed at the Fort Young Hotel and used Dive Dominica which has a small office on-site. Their main office is a mile or so down the road at Castle Comfort Lodge. Fort Young Hotel is the finest on the island and well worth the investment. We had an balcony/oceanfront room on the third floor that overlooked the cruise ship pier. It was modern, clean and had all the amenities you would expect. We spent quite a few afternoons at the pool and really enjoyed the view of the cruise ships coming and going right out front of the hotel. The hotel seemed empty and we usually had the pool to ourselves. There is a bar/restaurant and a fine dining restaurant. We ate at both and I give them high marks for food and service. We used the tour desk to book acitivites and Sonja was very helpful. The staff was wonderful and attentive. Overll I have nocomplaints about the lodging. Please remember that this is the West Indies. It is considered rude to start a conversation with anyone without asking them how they are doing today or something similar. If you start being rude you will receive the cold shoulder. If you are warm and engaging you will receive warm and engaging service.
The diving. We used Dive Dominica for all dives. They were attentive, professional and a very very good op. Extremely safety-oriented. We dove three days of two tank boat dives. Most of the diving was around Scott's Head. Overall impressions were that the diving is good to very good. We saw nothing big except one Southern Stingray and turtles on the surface. There tended to be lots of juvenile reef fish but adults were few and far between. I usually associate this with overfishing but I could be wrong. We spent alot of rewarding time critter hunting and saw lots of banded coral shrimp, Flamingo Tongues, bristleworms, seahorses, arrow crabs and such. It was alot of fun if a little different from what we were used to. We also did the dive site Champagne where the volcanic activity causes gas to bubble up through the seabed. There was also a newly discovered wreck from the seventeenth century nearby where some cannon, chain and other detritus was still identifiable. I would rate the diving in Dominica as a seven. I would rate the op Dive Dominica as a nine. Water temp was 82 degrees F. Visibility ranged from 25 feet to 75 feet. There are some really nice walls around Scott's Head and the reef is very healthy. All dives were approximately an hour.
Other activities. We went canyoning with Extreme Dominica for two days. This involved rappelling into a river gorge and then combining rappelling, jumping, wading, swimming and simple rock climbing/body positioning to move down the gorge. In a word. . .DO THIS! It was truly awesome. Extreme Dominica is extremely professional and safety conscious. It was the experience of a lifetime and a great topside activity to provide a counterpoint to diving.
The island. Dominica is covered with rain forest. There are no bugs. The people are wonderful. The diving is above average. The canyoning is outrageously fun. The only downside is the travel to and from can be stressful. Watch your connection times if you have to change to Liat.
Travel. Flew from Rochester to Newark, Newark to Antigua, Antigua to Dominica. Lessons learned: 1) I booked the trip in July, 2009 through Travelocity. If they route you on different airlines (US Air, Continental, Liat for the three legs of the trip they will have to issue paper tickets. Your itinerary willl say "This is an e-ticket no paper ticket will be issued". So they sent me paper tickets in July and I promptly forgot about them cause the itinerary I printed had the quote above printed on it. So....we got to the airport, to the gate....and couldn't go because we didn't have the tickets I set aside over six months ago. Long story short we had to rebook and ended up losing some vacation time. Disaster averted becuase we didn't get angry and got the gate agent to rebook us on a later flight so I could go find the paper tickets. Attitude is everything when you travel. 2) Don't let anyone tell you that you can't make your flight. We landed in Antigua and had one hour to clear immigration, get the bags, clear customs, recheck the bags with Liat, clear security and make our flight from Antigua to Dominica. This is not enough time. I left my buddy to wait for the bags and jumped the Liat checkin line to check us in. By the time we got the bags to the Liat counter they had paged us three times to the Liat departure gate. The ticketing agent said "Your bags will never make it and neither will you". My response was that we were going down swinging. We jumped every line with excuse me's and I'm sorries and actually made the flight. The bags showed the next day.
We had reserved a car to make the one hour trip from Melville Hall Airport to Roseau where we were staying. It was just getting dark when we landed and I opted immediately to spend the $70.00 for a cab and not try to drive it. Good choice. It was pitch black and there were no road signs. The roads are extremely narrow and had some of the steepest grades I've ever seen. Driving would have been impossible. Take the cab and rent a car for a day or two if you are so inspired. Leave the driving to the people who know the roads.
Lodging We stayed at the Fort Young Hotel and used Dive Dominica which has a small office on-site. Their main office is a mile or so down the road at Castle Comfort Lodge. Fort Young Hotel is the finest on the island and well worth the investment. We had an balcony/oceanfront room on the third floor that overlooked the cruise ship pier. It was modern, clean and had all the amenities you would expect. We spent quite a few afternoons at the pool and really enjoyed the view of the cruise ships coming and going right out front of the hotel. The hotel seemed empty and we usually had the pool to ourselves. There is a bar/restaurant and a fine dining restaurant. We ate at both and I give them high marks for food and service. We used the tour desk to book acitivites and Sonja was very helpful. The staff was wonderful and attentive. Overll I have nocomplaints about the lodging. Please remember that this is the West Indies. It is considered rude to start a conversation with anyone without asking them how they are doing today or something similar. If you start being rude you will receive the cold shoulder. If you are warm and engaging you will receive warm and engaging service.
The diving. We used Dive Dominica for all dives. They were attentive, professional and a very very good op. Extremely safety-oriented. We dove three days of two tank boat dives. Most of the diving was around Scott's Head. Overall impressions were that the diving is good to very good. We saw nothing big except one Southern Stingray and turtles on the surface. There tended to be lots of juvenile reef fish but adults were few and far between. I usually associate this with overfishing but I could be wrong. We spent alot of rewarding time critter hunting and saw lots of banded coral shrimp, Flamingo Tongues, bristleworms, seahorses, arrow crabs and such. It was alot of fun if a little different from what we were used to. We also did the dive site Champagne where the volcanic activity causes gas to bubble up through the seabed. There was also a newly discovered wreck from the seventeenth century nearby where some cannon, chain and other detritus was still identifiable. I would rate the diving in Dominica as a seven. I would rate the op Dive Dominica as a nine. Water temp was 82 degrees F. Visibility ranged from 25 feet to 75 feet. There are some really nice walls around Scott's Head and the reef is very healthy. All dives were approximately an hour.
Other activities. We went canyoning with Extreme Dominica for two days. This involved rappelling into a river gorge and then combining rappelling, jumping, wading, swimming and simple rock climbing/body positioning to move down the gorge. In a word. . .DO THIS! It was truly awesome. Extreme Dominica is extremely professional and safety conscious. It was the experience of a lifetime and a great topside activity to provide a counterpoint to diving.
The island. Dominica is covered with rain forest. There are no bugs. The people are wonderful. The diving is above average. The canyoning is outrageously fun. The only downside is the travel to and from can be stressful. Watch your connection times if you have to change to Liat.
