God but I hate Christmas in the UK!!

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God but I hate Christmas in the UK!!
So my wife and I are looking to go and do some diving abroad over the christmas and new year period where it is hot and sunny with stunning vis.

We both enjoy and prefer liveaboard diving but if the shore diving is good then liveaboard is not neccessarily the be all and end all. Although if shore based then we would need to be able to do other stuff whilst on shore as we are not the sort to enjoy sitting on a beach frying!

So the point of this thread is to pick the brains of you good and well travelled people for recommendations of locations. In the past we have dived Red Sea, Thailand, Vietnam, Oz, New Zealand, Maldives and along the East coast of Africa (Mozambique and SA).

If you were going away for some good diving at that time of year and wanted warm conditions with amazing viz where would you go? Which companies can you suggest?

Thanks' for taking the time to read this thread.

 

[tvictory]

If you've never dived in the Caribbean or the Bahamas, then that would be an obvious suggestion. Consider Turks & Caicos, where there are excellent liveaboards from Provo and laid-back land-based ops on Grand Turk. Bonaire hase excellent shore diving and no beaches. San Salvador in the Bahamas has great visibility, beautiful walls and big fish.

At most of the best dive destinations (including liveaboards) there is little to do if diving isn't your reason for being there. If "shopping" is your preferred land-based activity, you should pick a destination where cruise ships call regularly.

 

[Louie]

Yep, Christmas in the UK, I remember those... would rather not...crowds, drunken office parties, crap food from supermarkets, mindnumbinginly bad TV programmes...losing my will to live...

Good job you're going abroad.

You didn't mention how much time you had so I'm going on the two-three week assumption.

If you want to just dive, dive and then dive some more, then a liveaboard would be the best thing. Have you done the more "southern" bits of the Red Sea - out of Marsa Alam toward the Sudan Border? There's wonderful diving and it'll be hot and sunny on the boat.

You mentioned you've dived Thailand. Have you done the liveaboard out of the Similans or Burma Banks? I've no experienced on these but even very experienced divers have told me they enjoyed them and the variety of marine life was good. Being Thailand, they'll be relatively economical.

If you have the time and are willing to travel the distance, splash out a bit, there is Papua New Guinea. For a great variety in diving with corals in good condition, I really enjoyed the eastern area of PNG. If you do a bit of destination hopping, you could squeeze in other adventures with diving (cayaking, hiking or a cultural adventure).

Have a look at the sections in SB on the various destinations you're considering if you haven't done so already. There are many helpful contributions from people.

Good luck and let us know what you decide.

 

[siikik]

Yep, Christmas in the UK, I remember those... would rather not...crowds, drunken office parties, crap food from supermarkets, mindnumbinginly bad TV programmes...losing my will to live...

How is this is different from any other place?



Ken

 

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Louie wrote
Have a look at the sections in SB on the various destinations

SB?

 

[vladimir]

SB is ScubaBoard.

I'd be thinking Indonesia if I were you: London--Singapore--Bali--Bimi, sail back to Bali via Komodo National Park, spend a few days in Bali at Tulamben or Menjangan, back to Singapore--Manado, 3 or 4 days diving Lembeh, back to Singapore, back to London. I guess you could use Bali as the hub if they have the direct flights.

 

[tadeotadeo]

San Andres Island and Old PRovidence Island are two overlooked destination that may fit your needs

 

[uwatecdiving]

Only four hours from the UK what about Tenerife, we have sunshine and diving all year round. Vis is normally around 25+ metres and water temperature in December will be around 20 degrees.
We have a fantastic stingray dive in 20 metres which is very popular with all levels of experience, we have a couple of wrecks, lots and lots of fish and from November to April we usually see Angelsharks.

There are plenty of restaurants where we are in Costa Del Silencio which is on the south tip, 10 mins by car or bus from Los Cristianos and Las Americas. Plenty of other things you can do apart from sitting by the pool and on the beach.

Recommendation is Tenerife Dive which is owned and run by David and Yvonne, est 2002.
YT

 

[Aquapro Dive Services]

Well I live in Cairns (Great Barrier Reef) but learnt to dive in UK, so kno wwhat youmean by Xmas diving!
Obviously southern hemisphere its summer, so look to south for that warm water diving.
Here its a great season and the Minke Whales are out too.
Otherwise Thailand is awesome and quite cheap too.