My brother graduates high school this may and I promissed him that we'd take a trip before he heads off to college - the guy is graduating with a 4.0 GPA and a near perfect ACT score - guess he got the brains in the family. HA!
At any rate - we decided that we wanted to give Scuba a try. We just recently finished our open water and I'm going after my advanced open water this month. Taking a trip to Florida with my instructors to do the cert dives for that, but that will be my first ocean water dive. My trip with my brother will be his first ocean water dive. And we're trying to figure out where to go, where to stay, what to do. I know we can't do it all - the world is covered with too many good locations - so I'm just looknig for a great well-rounded trip. I plan to take a full week or more from work so a 7-9 night stay is probably the time frame that we're looking at. We're considering renting BCD's and Regs from our local outfit - something calming about personally knowing the guys that do the work on that stuff - and hauling them with us. (Might be nice to see how much of a nuisance that is before rushing out to buy a lot of my own gear).
Since it will be his first trip - I wanted to keep a balance of some topside activities along with the diving. Some of the activities that have sounded like fun (besides diving of course) are deep sea fishing, clear river kayaking, temple hikes, maybe a big animal dive of some sort, windsurfing, great restaraunts, beach activities, etc. I know we won't have time (or probably the energy) to do all of these things - and I think an evening or four of sitting in a hamock with an umbrella drink and a book sounds nice.
Of course, he's 18 going on 21 and he's interested in a little night life. I'm almost 30 and a little less concerned - but it is my hope to really do something great for him for such a succesful high school career (I'm going to be broke if he does this well in college - LOL). I've heard mixed reviews about all-inclusive - would like to be able to try different things - but also like to have an idea what everything would cost up front so I don't have to concern ourselves with carrying lots of money with us. I've already started the process of ordering passports so we're good to go in that regard - and I've sent in the applications for PADI dive insurance as well.
So, essentially, what I'm looking for is - where should I go? What should I do? Is there anything I forgot? Recommendations and warnings. That sort of thing - to make the trip as memorable as possible.
At any rate - we decided that we wanted to give Scuba a try. We just recently finished our open water and I'm going after my advanced open water this month. Taking a trip to Florida with my instructors to do the cert dives for that, but that will be my first ocean water dive. My trip with my brother will be his first ocean water dive. And we're trying to figure out where to go, where to stay, what to do. I know we can't do it all - the world is covered with too many good locations - so I'm just looknig for a great well-rounded trip. I plan to take a full week or more from work so a 7-9 night stay is probably the time frame that we're looking at. We're considering renting BCD's and Regs from our local outfit - something calming about personally knowing the guys that do the work on that stuff - and hauling them with us. (Might be nice to see how much of a nuisance that is before rushing out to buy a lot of my own gear).
Since it will be his first trip - I wanted to keep a balance of some topside activities along with the diving. Some of the activities that have sounded like fun (besides diving of course) are deep sea fishing, clear river kayaking, temple hikes, maybe a big animal dive of some sort, windsurfing, great restaraunts, beach activities, etc. I know we won't have time (or probably the energy) to do all of these things - and I think an evening or four of sitting in a hamock with an umbrella drink and a book sounds nice.
Of course, he's 18 going on 21 and he's interested in a little night life. I'm almost 30 and a little less concerned - but it is my hope to really do something great for him for such a succesful high school career (I'm going to be broke if he does this well in college - LOL). I've heard mixed reviews about all-inclusive - would like to be able to try different things - but also like to have an idea what everything would cost up front so I don't have to concern ourselves with carrying lots of money with us. I've already started the process of ordering passports so we're good to go in that regard - and I've sent in the applications for PADI dive insurance as well.
So, essentially, what I'm looking for is - where should I go? What should I do? Is there anything I forgot? Recommendations and warnings. That sort of thing - to make the trip as memorable as possible.