Dominica or Saba?

[lucidblue]

Now with Dominica, the diving was also really fun, lots of smaller sea life to see. We stayed at the Castle Comfort Lodge which was less touristic then Fort Young but that looked like a nice place too. We either took a local taxi or walked to places to eat, very informal and laid back.

Christine, can you recommend any good restaurants in Dominica? Heading there at the end of March and staying at Castle Comfort Lodge. Thanks!

 

[ChristineH]

That is great, you will enjoy Dominica a lot, we ate at a place we walked to from our hotel, only took about 5 minutes and we think it was called the Green Flash. We also ate at Fort Young and there was one other place we can't remember the name but the locals will tell you - it is across from Fort Young. We ate at the hotel a lot (service was a little slow but hey...its the islands!!). Let me know your trip goes...have lots of fun!

 

[AndyJH42]

I wrote a dive report for Dominica in March last year. I doubt much has changed, the pace of life is slow in Dominica. We had an excellent time.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/lesser-antilles/217656-trip-report-dominica-2008-a.html

 

[Bequia Beachlizard]

I can only talk about Saba, and only above the water as I was not certified the last time I was there. If Saba is your choice, you can spare yourselves the airflight issues by going direct to St Maarten and then picking up the high speed ferry which runs daily to Saba. It leave from Pelican Bay at about 9:30 am and arrives an hour later in Saba. Return would be at 3 pm on your chosen day. Ferry runs about $50 one way and there is no baggage restriction.

As far as accomodations while on Saba, we stayed at Scout's Place (an easy walk from Juliana's) and sampled various restaurants around Windwardside. Scout's has a very nice restaurant as well and is worthy of checking out.

Wherever you stay, you are sure to enjoy Saba, as long as you are into peace and quiet and tranquility!

Donna

 

[RTRski]

I've been to both as well and you've gotten plenty of good advice from the prior posters. I'd have a hard time calling it myself. I think the diving in Saba might have been a bit better than Dom, but not by a heck of a lot. Both are equally 'hard' to get to (Saba usually on the WinAir from St. Martin vs. the ferry, which limits baggage; Dominica has a longer overall flight time but you can connect via Am Eagle from SJ).

Saba there's definitely "less" to do than Dominica, in that its much smaller and more laid back. The hiking is all pretty much vertical. Dominica has the rivers and waterfalls and such. Neither is known for beaches, although Dominica does have some they're just a bit hidden and totally pristine/noncommericallized as yet.

As much as I would love to dive with the Mike's at Saba Deep again, I'd probably have to say if we were to go back to either (vs. somewhere new) for a vacation, we'd end up in Dominica because the wife likes a bit more than 'diving' on the menu and -- being bigger -- we feel like we "missed" more on Dominica that would warrant going back. (I know darn well we missed a lot on Saba too, but with the scale difference there's just more to miss on Dominica.) Plus we feel like we made a good friend there as well, so that's another enticement.

Both are stellar diving though. Very similar in having extremely steep pinnacle or wall volcanic formations with very healthy coral cover, although both have their shallows with busted-up coral as well. There's some subsistence fishing around both, but we found pretty good fish life. In Dom there's the chance for whale and dolphin sightings depending on time of year, and in Saba there was a chance for larger sportfish (tuna/wahoo) and shark sightings at the deep pinnacles. Neither one had particularly large cattle boat operations or extremely long boat rides to the sites - both islands emerge so steeply from the ocean floor (which gets so deep in a hurry) that the good sites aren't that far away.

Regardless of your pick for THIS year....file away the other for a future year.

 

[relaxandfun]

SABA was great. Nicer dives are deep such as 100 ft + if you go there make sure you dive Neadle .

 

[Revid1]

Dove with Sea Saba and did my nitrox certification with them. Very good operation. The pinnacles were great with a lot of men in suits cruising the tops. We stayed at Queens Garden for a week, what a great place, but we felt like we were the only ones there. We hiked into town. Very safe island. We will return but will probably stay closer to town. Some great sea food and island run.
I want to go to Dominica, though.

 

[PAShark]

When people say the dives in Saba tend to be deeper than Dominca, how deep are we talking about. My wife and I are both experienced divers but we're also photographers. With the deeper dives there's less to see and a shorter time to see it. Too many times when we hear people talk about deep dives it's just a macho thing. Really, if you want to see things and take pictures, most of the time there's no benefit going much deeper than about 60 feet. We are also trying to decide on Saba or Dominca in September or October. Anyone have any opinions on the weather at that time? Thanks.

 

[Walter]

I didn't find the diving at Saba to be particularly deep. I made 15 dives, only 5 of them exceeded 100 ft, the deepest only to 110. I had one dive in which my depth never exceeded 35 ft.

 

[jefsan]

When people say the dives in Saba tend to be deeper than Dominca, how deep are we talking about. My wife and I are both experienced divers but we're also photographers. With the deeper dives there's less to see and a shorter time to see it. Too many times when we hear people talk about deep dives it's just a macho thing. Really, if you want to see things and take pictures, most of the time there's no benefit going much deeper than about 60 feet. We are also trying to decide on Saba or Dominca in September or October. Anyone have any opinions on the weather at that time? Thanks.

The normal two tank dive in Saba will be one of the pinnacle or deeper sites for the first dive followed by a shallow 30-60 foot dive. The pinnacles are spectacular and well worth seeing. You will not be dissappointed. We get lots of photographers on the island and they all are very impressed with all sites.

Weather wise September or October are in the Hurricane season with September being the peak. That being said if there is not a storm in the area the diving conditions are really the best of the year. Great vis and water temp. October is Sea and Learn month on Saba so you get the added bonus of free presentations by marine biologist and other experts in the evenings. We are going down for two weeks in October this year.

PM if you have any further questions