Easy, Excellent Dive Destination From Phoenix?

[Randallr]

I'm going to be in Phoenix working in late February, and would
like to leave immediately from there for a dive vacation. What great dive destinations are reasonably easy trips from Phoenix? My ideal is a non-stop (and not extraordinarily expensive) flight. It looks like Cozumel and much of the Caribbean aren't so easy to get to from there.

 

[diversteve]

Some options:

Cancun is 5-6 hrs. each way thru Houston.
Cozumel is 7hrs. thru Denver on Frontier - if you're coming back here afterward, the return is to a regional airport SE of Phoenix - Williams Gateway (AZA) - about a 30 min. ride to downtown in traffic. Otherwise it's 18 hrs. back thru Denver.

Some of the Caribbean is possible - look at places USAirways serves since we're a hub city.
We can get to Provo (Turks/Caicos) in 8hrs thru Charlotte - there's also one 8hr AA flight thru Dallas - Sat only.
Curacao is 8hrs. via MIA but the flight arrives at 8:15PM.
St. Croix is also possible in 8hrs. with a 9PM arrival - one flight only, the rest are multiple connections.
Grand Cayman also but it's either a 2AM departure or an 8:30PM arrival. - relatively inexpensive though $582 r/t.

Roatan is 6+hrs. thru Houston on United. 5:30AM departure puts you there at 12:45PM. We've done it twice recently. You can continue on to Utila via the ferries arriving on Utila at 5PM. Long day but it's broken up by about 2 hrs. on Roatan plus 2 ferry rides.
Belize on United thru Houston is 5-7 hrs if you're willing to pay a little more.

Everyone one of these ^ options are 1 stop with typical layover times.

The only non-stops I'm familiar with from here are to Hawaii.
Maui, Honolulu, Kona or Kauai are direct. Honolulu is $500 r/t, the others $650. The return back from Kona is an all night flight.

Check all your options here: http://matrix.itasoftware.com/search.htm

 

[koozemani]

San carlis on the sea of Cortez. 6-7 hours if you drive from phoenix. Or you could fly into guaymas, Sonora and hop over to San Carlos(just up the coast). I could recommend a good dive op and great place to stay there. Or head down to la Paz.

If you want to stay in the US head out to la jolla or Catalina.

The water will be cold that time of year at all of those destinations. Hawaii is an option, but not cheap.

 

[Mike]

I 2nd using the Matrix software. You can plug in destinations in seconds and find your options very quickly by sorting the results to direct flights only. Houston and Miami are the big gateways to the Caribbean, Phoenix not so much.

I'm pretty sure you can find direct flights from Phoenix to Puerto Vallarta and Cabo.

 

[Laurie S.]

San Carlos, of course.

 

[stcroixscuba]

If the Caribbean is what you've been thinking about trying, it's not as crazy of a flight schedule as you might think. I'm seeing a package rate as low as $1456 to St. Croix. That's for 7 nights in the hotel, 5 days of diving (two-tank boat dive per day) and roundtrip airfare on American Airlines connecting only in Miami. That was for mid week travel in late February and was per person based on double occupancy. As a single the rate is coming up as $1831. The fares change quite often. If you're interested in knowing more PM me and I'll help you plan some world class scuba diving under the U.S. flag here on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.

 

[tracydr]

If you don't mind cool water, our favorite is Catalina Island. Fabulous diving on shore in the dive park. Winter has great visibility and prices.

 

[merxlin]

Check out Loreto, Mx and dive the Sea of Cortez. Dolphin Dive Center - Loreto, Baja California Mexico Padi Suba Diving