Florida Dive trip locations for brand new OW divers

[bradlw]

Looking for suggestions for a great place to take my soon-to-be-certified family for their first dive. (and my first dive as a very long-time rusty but experienced diver)

Timeframe for the trip will be August (yeah, I know...storm season), and I'm looking for ideas for places that are driving distance from NE Florida (St Augustine area)

Diving is not going to be the primary focus for the whole trip, so I'm looking for other things to do/see in the area. Will probably only end up doing something like a 2-tank charter and then spend the rest of the week (or long weekend?) doing other stuff. (my wife is not overly into Diving)

I'm doing a rusty diver refresher with them as they take their OW class, and their checkout dives are planned for the springs (Blue Grotto and Rainbow River)
so I'm thinking salt water.

I used to enjoy diving the Ft Lauderdale area for the wrecks and deeper dives, and to a lesser degree I used to enjoy the keys, primarily the upper keys. It's been many years though and so I'm completely unfamiliar with the dive operators now.

I'm thinking maybe up around the West Palm or maybe Jupiter area for some drift dives. I remember those being easy and fun for new divers.
but I'm leaning more towards the upper keys, mainly because I've never taken my kids to the keys before and they're Florida natives!

 

[oldschool45]

Blue Heron Bridge is in that range. I would suggest the Keys for some easy diving. I took my wife the the Springs after her OW(in Marathon) for some more experience before throwing her into deeper/drift/current dives off of Broward and Palm Beach. Keys are a little more expensive but there may be more stuff to do, Key West and fishing.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

Molasses Reef, Looe Key Reef -