grand turk in july

[yaml]

wife (newly certified) and i are going to grand turk in july; been looking at places to stay, convenience to amenities, opinions of local dive shops, safety (diving and in general) and would like any opinions regarding any of the above. other option is provo but we were looking for a more rustic appeal (we think). anyone able to help? thanks

 

[rivers]

Grand Turk is a small, fairly quiet island with only a couple of dive ops. I suggest Blue Water Divers (Grand Turk Scuba Diving: Blue Water Divers, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands). I've used them a fair few times, and I enjoy diving with them. There is also 2 more dive ops. Oasis Divers and Grand Turk Diving are the other 2 ops. I have heard good things about Grand Turk Diving, and I have only dove with Oasis off a cruise ship (they have 2 massive boats solely for cruise ship use). They seemed alright, but I prefer Blue Water Divers.

 

[DCgal]

I did my open water cert dives with Blue Water Divers and they were pretty good. They were perhaps a bit too laid back for a new diver (due to fluke circumstances I went down and out into big blue to 100 ft on my 2nd dive of day as part of my underwater navigation dive...not wise...dive buddy watching but not following because she didn't want to do decompression dive). Fabulous wall diving there. I stayed at Manta House and rented the bungalow. The Manta house has three properties you can choose from. I had a 2 bedroom bungalow to myself and it was great with full kitchen, flat screen tv, AC. I did have to wear ear plugs to go to bed due to nearby bars.

 

[DCgal]

One other comment on Blue Water Divers--the owner and staff are very friendly and made my trip an amazing one. I only add the comment about the less-then-optimal cert dive to emphasize that you should know what you are doing because you are generally on your own. Or, alternatively, hire one of their great staff to be a guide for you. They assess your abilities and let you do your thing.

 

[koozemani]

i haven't been to grand turk, but provo was great. we stayed at the royal west indies resort and were very pleased with it. the restaurant was affordable when compared to others places on the island. i used both flamingo divers and dive provo. both were great experiences. flamingo being a smaller dive op with great service.

 

[yaml]

thanks for input on grand turk. how about salt cay? only one dive operation so thats not an issue; but what about the caliber and quality of the diving itself? as good as, better than, below grand turk? what about hotels? so far, looks like slim pickens - some pretty nasty comments on tripadvisor re: a few of them. on this trip probably gonna split 8 days between provo and either grand turk or salt cay. i admit - the almost primitive quality of salt cay really appeals to us. just trying to make this trip a doozyfor my wife. will go to small island first and then back to provo to meet up with dive group from home town. thanks again for the input.

 

[SEVADiver]

We spent a week on Grand Turk a couple of summers ago. Stayed at Osprey Beach hotel and dove with Blue Water. Osprey was a laid back place on a nice stretch of beach. Clean rooms with kitchenettes so we did breakfast in the room (actually on the beach) and ate other meals out. Kind of limited choices for restaurants on GT, but we mananged a pretty good selection of meals during the week. Blue Waters picked us up on the beach in front of our room every morning. I think you couldn't go wrong with any of the dive shops, as they were sharing dive masaters when we were there. The diving was great and all the dive sites are 5-10 minutes! And you are diving on the calm (west) side of the island. Would also recommend an afternoon excusion to Gibb's Cay to feed the stingrays and drink rum punch on a gogeous little beach.

 

[CanadianTravelAgent]

If you opt for a place like Salt Cay you will want to check if there is anything open during that time. We went to Middle and North Caicos last August, which was a very interesting experience. But, because it was hurricane season, a couple of the little restaurants were boarded up and closed for the season.

If I recall correctly, the diving in Salt Cay is much different than Grand Turk - not so much of a wall, but more likely encounters with some big life - like sharks.

Many years ago we did a 1 week liveaboard out of Provo (did Provo, West, French, Salt) and then did a week on Grand Turk. The diving in Grand Turk was a bit of a let down after the liveaboard. We got spoiled...sharks, sharks, and more sharks, turtles, eagle rays, and dolphins. It comes down to a matter of preference and comfort.