Dominica, yes-no-maybe ??

[robstone]

We have been to Bay Islands and Bonaire (I agree with all the posts that Bonaire is a great place with the best shore diving available)

Are looking to the eastern Carib in late Feb 06- for a change and because of concerns about vis due to hurricanes in west.

Any current info on vis in -say Roatan or Cozumel would be appreciated.

The 2 places we are considering are Turks and Caicos -specifically Provo- and Dominica.

I see a fair amount of dive info on T & C, but little re: Dominica. We have contacted a small dive resort there- Castle Comfort- that sounds pretty nice and they talk about shore diving.

Questions: what about Dominca as a dive spot? any experiences with castle comfort or any other dive resorts/shops? water conditions? temp? vis? marine life- large/small plentiful? Is there really decent shore diving?

The rest of the island looks like a nice change from desert islands like Bonaire. True?

Thanks

 

[ryanc65]

Dominica is the reason my wife and I got certified for scuba diving. Now let me explain why.

As you may know Dominica is not as commerical as many other Carribean islands. It is mostly rainforests. There are a lot of waterfalls and hiking. There are no white sandy beaches. Anyway, we had been to Dominica twice on cruises. We liked the natural aspect of the island so much, we wanted to go back. As it turned out, a local dive shop was planning a december trip to Dominica(2004). We wanted to learn to dive and we wanted to go back to Dominica. So, we got certified and made that our first dive vacation.

We spent 8 full days on the island. We had 5 days of diving And we spent the off days hiking. We hiked to Middleham falls, Sari sari falls, Trafalger falls, The Boiling Lake, etc.

The diving consisted mainly of wall dives. We also dove a couple pinnacles and a couple reefs.

Water temp was 79-81 in december. I had a full 3/2 suit that was fine for me.
Visibility was always good. 80 feet plus.
Marine life in Dominica is small. There were no real large fish.
We did all of our diving on the Carribean side of the island and from a boat. We dove from a boat, but the boat was rarely more than a couple hundred feet from shore. I know they said they had some shore diving, but we did not do any.
The people were all friendly, especially the divemasters we dove with.
We stayed at Fort Young Hotel.

If you would like some more info, let me know.

I am new to this forum, but I plan to post some pics from my Dominica trip. I have a couple on my website as well.

Ryan

 

[pelan-pelan]

We are going in the summer. Have been speaking to people who have been to Dominica and found out:-

Three hotels in a row - Castle Comfort, Anchorage and Evergreen CC and Anch have dive operations. They share same house reef. Apparently not v spectacular - but it is difficult to tell with house reefs. If you're prepared to hang and wait you can see amazing things on a dull bit of reef - on the other hand you can get very bored!

Spoke to a couple who had stayed at Anchorage and they had enjoyed and would go back. Someone else said something about cruise boats and people from the cruises filling up the dive boats at Castle Comfort - and possibly other dive operations. But the dive operation at CC has been recommended by others.

And the inland hiking etc has been much recommended.

The only other thing that might be of slight interest is that people who travel to and from Dominica a lot have a strong preference for via Barbados airport rather than via Antigua airport.

 

[ScubaKay]

Hi Rob,

I visited Dominica in November. Loved it! It is a gorgeous island - lush and green, mountains and rainforests.

We stayed w/ Anchorage and dove with them as well. I would highly recommend this hotel/dive center and would return to them again. Why? The facility was lovely (brightly colored building, dining area, common areas), the water-front rooms all have balconies and you can listen to the water crashing on the rocks all day, it was very convenient. The staff was friendly and helpful. The dining areas were right on the water - casual and relaxing.

The dive center at Anchorage was quite personal/intimate. Each day, there were 4-5 divers total on our boat (including us). (Granted - this was the tail end of the off-season - last week of November). Whereas when we looked over at the Castle Comfort/Dive Dominica boats, they were loaded with 20-35 passengers! I'm sure they had high safety standards (appropriate ratio of dive masters to divers), but it still seemed like a cattle boat.

The diving itself was lovely. Lots of gorgeous coral reef formations, steep wall dives. Lovely small critters and pretty fish, lobsters, crabs - but no large fish/sharks/etc.
The vis was "okay". Not nearly as clear as Cozumel or the ABC islands. But that's okay - because most of what you'll be looking at is just 2 feet in front of you - the small critters and coral formations. Great for macro photography. We didn't bother with shore diving nor night diving -- got our fill with the day dives. Though we did see a few folks do some twilight/night dives right off the hotel dock of Castle Comfort. I heard that batfish are a neat local sighting in the waters there. The water, btw - is very warm - we used a 3M, but most folks stuck with swimsuits.

We dove only in the south part of the island - Scotts Head/Soffriere. Very convenient from Anchorage Hotel - just a 5-10 minute boat ride. There are also dive centers/sites in the middle and north parts of the island. By chance, we met the owner of Cabrit's Dive Center (in the north part of the island - Portsmouth) and he was a pretty nice guy, so I imagine the dive shop there is also pretty good.

Note of advice: Dominica is amazing - one of my favorite islands -- but it's not for everyone. More geared to the road-less-travelled folks, off-the-beaten-path, etc. Why?:
- no major hotel chains. Mostly small mom&pop inns. Not luxurious - but still personal and intimate. THe beds were rather uncomfortable, and the rooms rather stark -- but clean and convenient. THe hot water was more like room temperature. But all of this was okay for us to compromise on because of everything else the island offers - especially solitude!

- driving is treacherous! we rented a 4X4 Suzuki Escudo (the small one) -- a MUST for the island. Most of the roads are one-lane (not one-lane per direction, but one-lane period), twisty turny curvey hilly, with sheer dropoffs on one side and mountainside on the other, with fast crazy drivers aiming right at you. It's scary as heck, but quite an adventure! If you have been to Maui -- think of this like the Road to Hana - only 100 times worse.

- no nightlife. bring a book, a scrabble board, or checkers and relax and have fun! chill out by the pool or lounge area, have a Kabuli beer and kick back.

- Plan to stay at the hotel for dinner. Why? The driving! Unless you are courageous enough to brave the scary roads in the dark. Then again...in February it might be lighter around dinner time.

There are endless opportunities for exploring, hiking, etc. I'm sure you'll figure out the more common spots (i.e. touristy/well-known) - but there's also a lot of off-the-beaten path, not so well marked spots.

If you go to Scott's Head to visit -- be sure to eat at Chez Wen. She is a wonderful, cheerful local woman who runs her own tiny food shop - the place has about 6 tables - is intimate and small - but fantastic.
In Portsmouth, the Purple Turtle Beach something is great too - a bit bigger and right on the water. The tuna and plaintains were really good.

 

[DCDivenut]

I grew up on Dominica and returned there after a 9 year absence to get certified! Diving in Dominica is absolutely amazing! Actually, the new Rodales just rated it #1 in the Caribbean. However, the previous post has lot of good info. It is not for everyone. There really are no big hotels, much less mega-resorts. Their is actually a lot of nightlife, it is just not tourist oriented, and perhaps not the best thing to try on your own, unless yu are VERY comfortable. The people are really friendly and Dive Dominica is a great op. I have also herad good things about Nature Island Dive as well.
If you go, you will not be disappointed! On my checkout dives I saw frogfish (thats right plural!) flying gunards and a batfish, all right off the dock of Dive Dominica! I am seriously not kidding!

 

[DougY]

Hi,
I have been to Dominica 3 times, once to hike and twice to dive. For diving I stayed once at Castle comfort and once at Fort Young, both times diving with dive dominica which is the dive shop for castle comfort. I think its a great island, the scenary is amazing and the people very friendly. Dive dominica is a great outfit they have 3 boats of different sizes and if you are diving with them you will generally be on the same boat with the same divers every day. Generally the cruise ship people go on a different boat. If you stay at castle comfort you can dive off their dock its OK there are a few fish and graden eels its not amazing but a good way to spend an hour.

The diving in Dominica is good there are loads of dive sites last trip I did 12 dives at 12 different sites. Frog fish , sea horses, eagle rays, turtles and a lot of fish. On the way back from one of the dives 2 dolphins played around the dive boat and even though it was time out of their day the boat crew stopped the boat and let us watch them for a few minutes until they swam off.

I hope this helps
Doug

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Here's a recent thread - a search will turn up additional posts on Dominica.

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=114347

We just returned from Saba and Statia, and I compared Statia to Dominica in our vacation diving experience. No waterfalls on Statia though. We would easily return to either location - but there's always more places we haven't been yet than we have been!

 

[MarkUK]

Dominica is a fabulous island. I have been twice. I have dived with Dive Dominica, Anchorage and Nature Island dive and they are all slick, professional outfits. DD and Anch tend to dive around the Soufriere crater/Scott's Head area, as do NID, but the latter also go around the Head to the other side, where you get very different underwater topography and bigger fish, such as trevally, tuna, eagle rays, etc.

Have stayed in the Fort Young, Anchorage and Castle Comfort, and all of them are nice. The latter two are more simple dive hotels, but the Fort Young – particularly the rooms along the front facing the sea – is more plush. Great cocktails!

There is lots to do on the island as well as dive – you can hike, swim in waterfalls, etc. Wacky Rollers do a great island tour in 4x4 Landies, and also do something called River Tubing. Basically, you go down the river through mild rapids sat in tractor-tyre intubes. A lot of fun, and they are waiting for you at the end with a mean rum punch...

Dominica is far less commercialised than virtually any other Caribbean island and is better for it. Well worth a visit, particularly if you like the little stuff – loads of frogfish, seahorses, nudis, etc.

Mark

 

[SCBeachRealtor]

My girlfriend and I went to Grand Turk this past April and it was great! There were dolphins, large and small turtles, manatee, and lots of beautiful coral gardens and really cool caves and swim-thru's! The island was small- but still had a few shops and restaurants that were good! We stayed at the Osprey Beach Hotel and it was awesome! We stayed in room #45 and it was perfect for us! 2nd floor and had an incredible balcony view. The restaurant there was great and so were the service and the people on site. The local life is a bit poverty stricken and there are lots of animals that seem to have no real homes (the island dogs and cats)... but the accommodations and the immediate scenery and amenities were great! They also had wireless internet around the pool! We would be going back on this next trip if we hadn't been so recently. The Grand Turk Inn seems to be really nice too! The owners (sisters) took in an abandoned puppy we found out by the lighthouse and she "Nikki" is doing so wonderfully now in her new home! The diving was great and we went with Mitch at Blue Water Divers! Everyone was great! Have a great time wherever you go! Jenn.

 

[Brewone0to]

We have a dive shop in Tampa sponcering a trip to Dominica. It is not all inclusive for the food though. What is the typical lunch and dinner cost at FT Young resort?
Just wondering if the 280 added for inclusive per person is well worth it.
Email energizedbunnny@aol.com if you dont mind.

Thanks