Feb dive destination recommendations

[Saltyhawg]

My wife and I are trying to plan a dive vacation somewhere in the Caribbean in late Feb/early March. We aren't really interested in night life/shore activities, just want to dive and hang out. We have been to Cozumel (definitely will be going back later next year) and Ambergris Caye, Belize. We found some cheap flights to Grand Cayman but I don't know how good the diving is or how expensive it is there. Are there any particular places less likely to encounter weather issues that time of the year? Looking for some direction.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[drrich2]

Bonaire & Curacao are below the hurricane belt and far south, so their weather/water conditions don't vary all that much through the year from what I understand (I've been to Bonaire 8 times, at some different months, not much difference).

From what I've read, if diving & hanging out are your main interests, Little Cayman (Little Cayman Beach Resort) or Cayman Brac might serve you better; do a Search for threads & you'll see people claiming they offer better diving than Grand Cayman. Grand Cayman tends to win out on topside amenities. If you don't care about topside amenities, well...

Richard.

 

[KathyV]

Weather in the Caribbean is usually pretty good during that time of year (the hurricane season runs from June to November.)

I love the Caymans but the water is too cold for me (70s) during that time of year. If that is important to you then you might want to look further south at Bonaire or Curacao where the water will be in the 80s.

If the water temp doesn't bother you then the diving is very good in the Caymans. The Caymans are expensive but if you plan carefully you can mitigate some of the expense. When we are on Grand Cayman we stay in an apartment, on the water but not the 7 mile beach, and we prepare our breakfast and lunch meals. We mostly do shore dives and snorkeling and a few boat dives on GC. You could also look at the dive/accomdation packages offered by Sunset House or the all-inclusive Cobalt Coast resort if you want to do a lot of GC diving.

When we are Little Cayman or Cayman Brac we stay at small, diver-dedicated, all-inclusive resorts like the Little Cayman Beach Resort or the Cayman Brac Beach Resort. Here is a link comparing the 3 Cayman islands:

The differences (for a diver) between the 3 Cayman islands - Cayman Islands Forum - TripAdvisor

 

[Bratface]

Mexico, Roatan, most of the Caribbean islands would be good choices as far a weather. Personally, I would chose Roatan or Bonaire. It's eat, sleep, dive at those destinations.

 

[drrich2]

On the issue of expense in the Caymans, an all-inclusive resort can help you get a pretty good idea as to what your costs would be.

Same goes for doing a live-aboard; you guys open to that?

Big question: how many dives/day do you want to do, for how many days running?

Richard.

 

[Saltyhawg]

Would like to dive for 6 or 7 days and do as many dives as our frail old bodies will let us. We did 17 dives in 6 days in Sept on a trip to Kona. Definitely open to a live aboard. Looked at the Aggressor fleet and Bahamas, St Kitts, and a couple of others were booked. They did have openings for Belize and Caymans. We also looked at Coco View in Roatan and it looked like 4 dives a day would be pretty easy to do with the 2 drop off dives each day. I also looked at Akumal, MX but don't know anything about the diving there.

KathyV what were the temps when you were in the Caymans in winter? One of the websites said 79-81 degrees during that time which is 3mm shorty for me.

 

[diversteve]

Grand Cayman is very expensive. All food definitely is since it's all imported. And you've chosen the end of high-season so rates will still be elevated till about April 15th/May 1st.

A third quieter option is the Reef Resort - an AI on the much quieter East End. There's only 3-4 resorts/condo complexes out there, 3 dive operators - including one at the Reef and 7 restaurants + 1 food store. And a 45min. drive for everything else back in Georgetown - which is a busy cruise port. It's not unheard of for 4-5 ships to be in port the same day in winter months. Also Seven Mile Beach which is the west side of the island is also very touristy/busy. Cobalt Coast - the north side AI - is far enough for that not to be a factor. Sunset House - the other semi-AI (dives, room, breakfast in their package) is a little south of Georgetown so relatively quiet. At night after the cruisers leave, you can walk to very good restaurants in south Georgetown pretty easily.

Diving off Cayman is excellent. The North Wall (Cobalt Coast) especially. Dive in Cayman, Grand Cayman Diving, Cayman Islands Scuba Diving show more in videos than I can describe. IMO the best shore dive on Cayman is Turtle Reef - under a mile from Cobalt Coast to the west. Sundivers is on-site there for tanks - it's co-located with the Cracked Conch restaurant. Cracked Conch Grand Cayman Ocean Front Seafood Restaurant and Tiki Bar

If you're considering Roatan/Cocoview consider Anthony's Key also. It's a little nicer, the amenities are better (small beach, pool on the Key) and they do 3 real boat dives instead of 2/2 drop like Cocoview. The shore dive is better at CCV though since they've got the Albert Wreck just off the resort and the wall. The AKR shore dive is shallow for a long way out.

One advantage to AKR currently is they have a BOGO going on in 2016 across all their amenity levels. 2 for 1 Travel Deal | Anthony's Key Resort | Roatan | Honduras - I'd pop for a Superior class room since that means Air-Conditioned. Even in late Feb/Mar it could be a little steamy - we were there the end of March and some days it was very hot/humid - the AC is nice since it dries the air. One thing to price on Roatan also is the flights - this close to your travel time you likely won't find much under $700 or so. For more on AKR the ScubaBoard trip was there last year - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/scubaboard-invasion-2014-a/

Both resorts are pretty isolated so generally quiet at night. I've been to AKR once at night when it seemed like the only person we ran into twice was the night watchman. Although the restaurant was open, it's up the hill on the mainland side not the Key. One small advantage to AKR is it's a five minute cab ride to the West End if you tire of the AI food or want to do a little shopping etc. Some people spend all week at CCV and never see any of Roatan except thru the shuttle windows. Wouldn't be for me personally, I like to experience the people/places where I dive.

 

[KathyV]

...KathyV what were the temps when you were in the Caymans in winter? One of the websites said 79-81 degrees during that time which is 3mm shorty for me.

I remember feeling cold the only time we went there during the spring and the water temp was in the mid to upper 70s. Maybe it was an unusually cold year? Hopefully someone that travels to the Caymans often in the winter/spring can give you a better estimate.

If you are open to the idea of a liveaboard then you might consider the turks and caicos - both the explorer and the aggressor have boats that operate out of provo. That's the best way to dive that area IMO. But the water temps will be similar to Caymans and T&C is also quite expensive. The diving is great, sharks and other large animals, including eagle rays, on just about every dive.

Belize is also a good liveaboard trip and the water will be warmer.

 

[Rocky112]

Nobody mentioned Dominican Republic so to have it here. The yearly weather is very pleasant and water temperature is around 84F/29C with a great visibility. During a day outside temperature can go up to 86F/30C and during a night down to 66,2F/19C. As for the diving just be sure that you will go to the Caribbean side of the island (south coast). In DR you won´t find many of the big beauties but you can observe a lot of sea creatures and healthy corals, but you can get lucky and see something really spectacular.

 

[diversteve]

While the T/C Explorer is a good suggestion - what Kathy may not realize is that from Jan 16th to April 9th, Explorer moves the boat to the Silver Banks to Snorkel with the Humpbacks and does no diving during those trips. Aggressor does also from Jan 23rd to April 2nd. Those are the only two boats there.

Book your trip with Explorer Ventures - Availability
Aggressor Fleet - The Ultimate in LiveAboards

For future reference, thanks to Mike Southard, here's one of the better T/C Explorer trip reports I've seen. We saw everything he did but the dolphins - although we heard them once. Saudio's Trip Reports

If you're interested in the Cayman Aggressor I'd book as close to March as you can. Earlier in winter sometimes the weather keeps them from being able to cross over to Little Cayman and Cayman Brac so they spend the whole trip circumnavigating Grand Cayman instead. Most of which you could also dive with 3-4 select dive operators. Probably not as reasonably though.

Of course if they do cross, you get the best of Cayman diving - Bloody Bay Wall off LC and the Tibbetts wreck off Brac. The Tibbetts used to be a Russian destroyer and the guns are still intact. Bloody Bay Wall is arguably the best dive in the Cayman Islands.