Good spot for family dives with beginner divers?

[jsisemore]

Hi kjp99,

I was in a similar position as you last year. My daughter was 13, and we were having a hard time finding someplace for her first ocean dives that would be shallow, safe and affordable. We finally decided on Key Largo, because the dives were perfect for beginners - shallow, minimal current with lots to see. Southwest usually offers great airfare deals through FLL, plus there were lots of family friendly topside activities for our surface intervals.

We also decided to go with a dive guide for her first ocean dives. We felt that someone who knew the area would be able to advise us on the best dives for her skill/comfort level. And it also put my mind at ease having an experienced divemaster on hand. It turned out to be THE best decision we could have made. We contacted mseleneous (at divewithelena.com) and she was great - not just with my daughter but with the whole family! And my daughter was a lot more comfortable and receptive to constructive feedback coming from Elena than from her parents.

I really agonized over trying to find the right place for my daughter's first ocean dives, so I know what you're going through trying to find the best fit. I'd be happy to share how it went with us - what we did right, what we did wrong, and what we probably shouldn't have stressed about - ha! Feel free to send me a PM if there's any way I can assist. But definitely consider Key Largo - and Dive With Elena. I think they're both a great fit for a diving family!
June

 

[diversteve]

Edit: This was significantly revised after the next post was made.

Just providing some comparison info since I have dove at both locations.

I used to wonder why it seemed Bonaire was spoken of much more often than Curacao, and seemed a much more popular dive destination. After all, if it's 'just as good,' plus easier sandy beach entries, and some dive sites have facilities to use, and there are more other things to do, plus cheaper airfare to get there, seems like ol'Curacao ought to blow poor old Bonaire out of the water.

In some ways it does. Non-dive especially - there's nightlife, better restaurants (and a lot more of them), casinos, the Seaquarium, Ostrich Farm, historical monuments and forts. And way better beaches - most are also dive sites.

That doesn't seem to be the case. I've been to Bonaire 7 times; have yet to hit Curacao. I've asked about it, read over threads about it, and you may want to do a search for some threads where there's good discussion about the difference. Points I recall are:

1.) Bonaire's west coast has a shore-line hugging highway that takes you right along near the ocean, with yellow rocks marking dive sites. Easy to find sites, and quick to go place-to-place.

So does Curacao - but they're red. And not consistently found - many seemed to be a rock nearby that was painted over. None I saw were labeled either.

3.) Some of the sites have facilities, but also charge a fee to use the site. I've seen people try to downplay that, or give the impression that the facilities are worth the small cost. But in Bonaire, I'm used to pulling into a dive site and diving FREE.

IIRC the fee was around 10 guilders - $5.60 U.S. For that there's an on-site dive operator, showers, lockers, sometimes a changing room, bathrooms, a snack shop or restaurant and if over ironshore a dive dock. They also waive the fee if you rent tanks/weights from them. One other nice thing is if asked, the operators will watch your vehicles. So no theft issues like on Bonaire.

Curacao also has at least a dozen "free dive sites" - they have no dive related facilities at all. Several have no facilities. For those you can either haul tanks or get them at Relaxed Guided Dives if heading west. Discover Dive in Lagun also has a truck height loading dock. It's one of the no-fee sites since the diveshop is at the entrance and the beach is a block away.

I can't think of one site on Bonaire outside of the resort areas that's similar. I can't even recall one with a bathroom.

4.) It is more practical to get a large number of dives in at a variety of named sites in Bonaire in a given time frame than it is in Curacao.

Probably but not always. We managed 4 dives/day several times during the week. 5 if we night dove. While the drives are longer, some sites are within a mile of each other - many times a different fork off the same minor road. And although you do drive back to the main road, often the next turn-off is also the next dive site. So with a little planning you can cluster dives.

Also if you use all your tanks and decide to do another dive - chances are you can rent them at the site. We decided one day to night dive the afternoon site - after having dinner at the site's restaurant and having tanks left out for us by the on-site dive op that night. Not as easy on Bonaire.

After a week of diving on Bonaire, it all started to blur together. We didn't see much differnence at most of the sites between the Hooker and the Salt Pier. Once my buddy asked "Haven't we dove this site already this week - I had to think about it. Curacao has more variety IMO.

5.) When I have asked about a 'turn key' operation like Buddy Dive on Bonaire (they pick you up & return you to the airport, and you rent your truck onsite), I've been told Curacao doesn't have exactly the same thing.

Lions Dive is very similar to Buddy Dive - except nicer. With a real beach. They don't have airport pickup but you can reserve a car thru them and pick it up at the airport. I'd prefer not having to wait for the Buddy shuttle on either end. Not a true AI but neither is Buddy. Although you can add a 2 or 3 meal plan at Lions Dive - does Buddy offer that?

The Sunscape full AI (ex-Breezes) has airport pickup, car rental on-site and an Ocean Encounters shop onsite also. Not the best shore dive from what I've read. There is nowhere near the profusion of on-water dive resorts like Bonaire but most of the major hotels and many of the condo/apt. complexes also have on-site dive operators. All West Apts. in Westpunt - hough not dive resort specific - is usually all booked by divers. Go West Diving is on-site there. They boat dive out to Watamula - one of the best.

Plus I hear Watamula, Mushroom Forest, and the Kittiwake are pretty great. Also, Curacao is simply stunning and if you are going with non-divers/non-snorkelers they are going to be a lot happier.

We chartered a boat (7 of us) to dive Mushroom Forest. On the way out, the guide talked us out of it and took us to Lost Anchor - a drift dive - to look for seahorses instead. He said that the coral on coral at MF means that small fish are easy targets as there's less places for them to hide. So unless you want to see the weird reef structure, the dive is over-rated in his opinion.

Superior Producer? Kittiwake is the dive-prepped ship they put down recently on Grand Cayman's west side.

 

[diverjen]

SB is being weird about quoting. Kittiwake, Superior Producer.... it was obviously late for me too when I posted! Point being it sounds like Curacao has some great dives, too.

Oh and I love reef structure! :chuckle:

Thank you for always contributing diversteve you are an invaluable resource!

 

[Frosty]

kjp99 I can't help you with advice if you are intending to stay stateside or close by.
But for a combination of easy dive training location and adding in more challenging dives for hubbie without hesitation Id suggest Port Vila in Vanuatu. Theres enough dive diversity to keep him happyish whilst still being around you with your training

 

[bcleveland]

The upper keys are an excellent choice. My family did a few vacations there, my younger daughter and wife did their open water certification dives there.
There are almost too many good choices for dive ops. I can recommend Elena (see post #5 above).

 

[scubadada]

Hi kjp99,

I was in a similar position as you last year. My daughter was 13, and we were having a hard time finding someplace for her first ocean dives that would be shallow, safe and affordable. We finally decided on Key Largo, because the dives were perfect for beginners - shallow, minimal current with lots to see. Southwest usually offers great airfare deals through FLL, plus there were lots of family friendly topside activities for our surface intervals.

We also decided to go with a dive guide for her first ocean dives. We felt that someone who knew the area would be able to advise us on the best dives for her skill/comfort level. And it also put my mind at ease having an experienced divemaster on hand. It turned out to be THE best decision we could have made. We contacted mseleneous (at divewithelena.com) and she was great - not just with my daughter but with the whole family! And my daughter was a lot more comfortable and receptive to constructive feedback coming from Elena than from her parents.

I really agonized over trying to find the right place for my daughter's first ocean dives, so I know what you're going through trying to find the best fit. I'd be happy to share how it went with us - what we did right, what we did wrong, and what we probably shouldn't have stressed about - ha! Feel free to send me a PM if there's any way I can assist. But definitely consider Key Largo - and Dive With Elena. I think they're both a great fit for a diving family!
June

I have dived Bonaire, Curacao, Grand Cayman, and Key Largo. For a first family scuba vacation, with 2 recently certified divers, I would go with the recommendation for Key Largo. There are many, very nice, shallow reef sites as well as the Benwood for wife and daughter or all 3. For the more experienced husband, there are the excellent dives of the Spiegel Grove, Duane, Bibb, and Eagle.

It might be a very good idea to dive with a DM/guide, at least for the 1st few dives. I believe a few operators in Key Largo put a DM in the water while most do not. Going with Elena would likely give the most personal attention and assistance. I had the pleasure of diving with Elena and Pete off a boat in Boynton Beach a while back.

One potential drawback to Key Largo in March might be the water temperature. I would expect it to be in the 70s, perhaps even the lower 70s at that time of year. Adequate exposure protection and maintaining warmth is crucial to having a good experience. I would be wearing a full 5 mm wetsuit with or without a hooded vest at those temps.

The water temps would likely be reliably higher at the other locations discussed. I did most of the early post certification diving with my son, and then with my wife and daugher, in Grand Cayman. Both my children were certified at 12 years old. Grand Cayman has a large number of excellent operators and having a DM in the water is universal, or nearly so.

Best of luck in your decision and enjoy your diving as a family,

Craig

 

[freewillie]

Best diving vacation I've had was the Beaches resort at Turks and Caicos. There is a newly remodeled resort with the same company in Jamaica at more reasonable prices. The locations are all inclusive with food and alcohol but diving is also included with 2 tank AM dives and 1 tank PM dives. When I totaled the cost of my last dive vacation to Maui and Kona the price is actually very reasonable.

For beginners that's where my then 13 yo daughter learned to dive. The beginning classes to out to appropriate level reefs generally around 40 feet or so. Nothing difficult or advanced.

After certification we did a family vacation to Maui and Kona. In Maui we took boat out to Molokini crater. She was also limited to about 45 feet. No problems there. A night dive in Maui was also very shallow and my computer had us about 35 ft deepest part of the reef. You can also stay with local dives along Maui instead of all the way out to Molokini crater. Kona was a little deeper but still appropriate for beginners. Had one reef close to 60 feet but multiple areas suited for beginners. My daughter was not the youngest diver on the boat and one other diver was doing his OW dives so no problems staying at the 45 foot range.

Our most recent trip was Cancun Mexico. All the dives were drift dives but fairly shallow. Not very difficult except for the first dive took a little getting used to the current. Overall not bad diving but from what I've heard nearby Cozumel is better. Also, I wouldn't really want to be in Cancun with my family during spring break.

 

[kjp99]

Sorry for the delayed response. We had some scheduling issues so we weren't able to get certified as soon as I thought we would. We actually ended up getting certified over spring break. Thank you all for your suggestions! We'll keep them in mind for future trips. We're thinking about taking a family dive trip over Thanksgiving. Are the Florida Keys too cold that time of year?

 

[maniago]

Exactly where in the world do you live Carmen SanDiego?

 

[kjp99]

We live in Georgia, not San Diego, and my name isn't Carmen. ;-)