Headed to the BVI

[gaucho30]

I will be taking a trip with my family to the BVI in April and I am trying to setup some dives. I was hoping I could find a shop that has multiple locations to take advantage of a package deal. We are doing a bare-boat charter so we will be on the go constantly but I know we will be going to these islands: virgin gorda, Jost Van Dyke, Marina Cay, Cooper island, and norman island. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[diversteve]

Try DiveBVI - they're based on Virgin Gorda - in the yacht harbor downtown and at Leverick Bay as well as a couple of resort locations. They also do rendezvous diving so will meet you at locations with tanks/gear. And they're really a good group of people. We dove a week with them several years ago. Dive BVI >> British Virgin Islands Scuba Diving, It's What we do!

On Jost, the only diveop that I'm aware of is Jost Van Dyke Scuba. The BVI's Best Scuba Diving, Rentals, Snorkeling and Eco-Tours

Most of the BVI dive options can be found here: Welcome to BVIScuba

 

[gaucho30]

Thanks for the feedback. I will definitely check them out.

 

[gracet]

BVI are one the (few?) locations where you can combine bareboat with self diving, those dive shops also rent the gear for you to take on the boat. Dive locations are documented, and many have bouys. Its more work as you have to take the tanks to the fill locations on certain islands,. Some locations diving only and dont offer snorkeling to to the non-divers. But the task of planning it and carrying out is engaging.

 

[aquaregia]

I did the bareboat+guided dive thing in December. DiveBVI met me at my Footloose boat at Salt Island and some of us did the Rhone with the rest of us either snorkled or traipsed around the island. Was a great dive, fun people. We had a DM/Tour Guide who brought all the gear and had a safety diver on deck. I sort of let it be a trust-me dive and skirted dangerously low on air, but the DM kept me super close to him during the safety stop just in case.

I'd like to go back and do the self-diving bareboat thing, but I'll want a) more experience and b) a damn good briefing.

 

[Dispachcops]

Whatever you do, make sure you dive the Wreck of the Rhone. It is one of the top 10 of all dive sites and it was awesome!!!

 

[BVIMermaid]

You don't really need to choose a dive operator with multiple locations as all the dive centers offer rendezvous diving - they'll meet up with you wherever you are and dive nearby. UBS Dive Center do completely private trips on small boats so you'll just be with your own group of friends, which is much nicer than being on one of the large cattle boats where you're just a name and number - and they don't really charge that much more for the private service. Can't remember their website address but it's something like scubabvi.com.

 

[tarosan]

Big (new) fan of UBS!