Good tropical diving closer to the US

[Midget]

I've been looking to see if there is a good dive destination closer to the US that I can make a quick trip to in the April or May. I'm not seeing anything other than Cozumel that doesn't require several lay overs and way too many hours to reach. According to airline searches, to reach many dive destinations in the Carib or Central America takes as many hours as getting to SE Asia! And I'm not seeing any good airfares, but that could be because prices are hiked up now. Booking it in a month will probably make more sense.

What am I missing? Certainly US divers aren't spending 36 transit hrs to get to Utila and Roatan, are they? For that amount of travel time you can be diving in Indonesia!

So, I'm open to destination suggestions as long as the travel time to get there isn't more than a day. Looking for reefs with abundant fish life. Pelagics are nice but not necessary. I'm a warm water diver. Will be solo. I don't care about topside attractions.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Consider Bonaire.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

I drive 10 minutes - 2 hours for good tropical diving in the United States (Hawaii is still the 50th State last time I checked ).... You may also consider the Florida Keys..... so travel outside the US is not needed for good tropical diving.

Best wishes.

Edit: Airline prices, at least to & from Hawaii get hiked up during the Holiday Season. More reasonable the rest of the year.

 

[HowardE]

Technically... Bonaire is twice as far from the U.S. as Cozumel. 3000 miles from Utah.

Closer to Utah (if that really matters) - Roatan, Utila, Belize, Cayman, Bahamas.

While the water in Florida might only be in the upper 70's in April. South Florida is great diving, and you don't need to leave the U.S.

The Keys are more expensive than South East Florida (Jupiter -> Miami) and not necessarily better.

 

[mselenaous]

Consider the Keys or even SoFL with flight specials in and out of WPB, FLL, or MIA. I did a quick looksey and found SLC-FLL $188 in April....

 

[ev780]

Welcome to the diving out of the Rocky Mountain region. Going east is a bitch without a layover somewhere on the east coast.

There are American connections out of Dallas and Miami. Continental connections out of Houston. Frontier has a direct to Cozumel out of Denver a couple times a week. It is just difficult and takes some work and flexibility to get to the Carribean from the Rockies. Check different days and different hub city combinations.

Lots of people are familiar with flights and bookings. If you are not a whiz with the timetables then post where you want to go and I am sure much help will follow.

F

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Technically... Bonaire is twice as far from the U.S. as Cozumel. 3000 miles from Utah.

@HowardE: My interpretation of the original post is that actual distance flown is less important than flight schedule. The OP voiced a concern about getting to a nice warm-water dive destination in under a day. I've taken two trips to Bonaire from San Diego and neither took longer than 24 hrs. Cost is a secondary (yet significant) consideration. I recall paying $800pp RT from San Diego. For a typical one-week Bonaire vacation, the greatest cost will be in airfare bookings. A one week dive package consisting of unlimited fills/weights/truck rental/accommodations can be had for $500 or less, depending on the number of people in one's party. As a bonus, diving is done on one's own schedule.

I think the OP needs to do some research on flight schedules: non-stop flights from airline hubs to the final destination and compatible connecting flights from the nearest Utah airport to one of the airline hubs.

 

[Midget]

Florida? Hadn't even considered it! Although 70's sounds brrrrr cold. I'll poke around on the net about it.

I should have mentioned that I'm not a rich person and I take 3 trips (2 of them being a month in duration) per year so I have to be a frugal traveler to make it happen.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I've never heard that Hawaii has good diving. I've heard the contrary. That for the cost of being/diving there one can do much better.

Belize isn't difficult to get to, but 3 tank dives to the Blue Hole is $365! Is most of that for petrol? Can I do 9 Nitrox dives/3 days in Belize for < $500?

I'm seeing 25 to 30 hrs to get to Bonaire. I've got to try different booking engines because that's crazy!

 

[Midget]

Bubbletrubble, you are absolutely correct. Thanks for the useful tips, too.

 

[Warmwater Wank]

Midget--Check for Sat. or Sun. Continental non-stop departures out of Houston (IAH) for Bonaire or Roatan then just figure how to get to IAH from UT. (4hr41min. IAH to BON, Roatan is even shorter.) I'm a bit biased to Bonaire but if you are going solo there you'll be paying for a truck rental ($215/wk from ABCar Rental) vs sharing cost--and you really do need a rig to shore dive the island right. A full wk of all you can breathe tanks (incl. Nitrox at many places) runs about $139. Wide variety of accomodations but for a really sweet deal talk to Benny at Bonaire Town Homes Bonaire Town Homes One and Two Bedroom Vacation Apartments. Very quiet, clean and Benny & Ester are great hosts.

I'd look later in Jan. for flights but while I'm not a great Continental fan they do have some of the best connections. Don't mean to slight Roatan but it's been a couple of years since I've been there and you'll want more current input. We were on Bonaire in June, 2010 so info is fairly current. Oh, look at the specific forums for these places (or whatever you decide on). You'll find input from folks just back (or even on the islands!) as you read the various threads. As you might guess, I'm a bit partial to warm water myself... // ww