Help me choose a once-in-a-lifetime SCUBA trip!

[KathyV]

Probably not "once-in-a-lifetime" (At least I hope not, because I want to do it again!)

But if you want to spend 2 weeks doing some very good diving, easy to arrange, not too expensive and not too far from home, all-inclusive so no worries about meals and transfers from the airports, land-based resorts and with wreck diving opportunities included - then I think you should look at the Clearly Cayman Resort packages.

They have a small dive resort on each of the 3 Cayman Islands, so you could easily visit 2 of them during a 2 week trip:

• Cobalt Coast is on Grand Cayman and you would have to opportunity to dive the Kittiwake, a sunken US Navy Mine Sweeper. There are other popular wrecks off GC like the Oro Verde and Doc Polson. Unlimited shore diving on the house reef is included at CC, weather permitting.
• Cayman Brac Beach Resort has great diving and one of my favorite wreck dives - a Russian Frigate that has been renamed the Captain Tibbets. They will also take a boat or two over to Little Cayman to dive the Bloody Bay Wall, for an extra fuel charge, weather permitting.
• Little Cayman Beach Resort has some of the best wall diving in the Caribbean and there is a sunken freighter called the Captain Soto, but I haven't dived it. They will also take divers over to Brac to dive the Tibbetts, for a fuel surcharge - weather permitting.

Here is information about some of the wreck dives available around the Caymans:
Wreck Diving in Cayman Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

I have stayed at the Cayman Brac and Little Cayman Resorts several times and they have great dive ops, nice clean, accommodations, and good food. Everything is covered except your flights and the tips for the dive op. Some packages include some alcoholic beverages but others do not.

I have visited the Cobalt Coast resort on Grand Cayman, and dived with them but never stayed there, but they have the same dive op and boats as their 2 sister resorts, Reef Divers, and they are very good.

You will be traveling solo and there's often an extra charge for single occupancy, but lately Clearly Cayman has been offering some good deals for divers traveling alone, in conjunction with their packages, like an 18% or 20% increase over double occupancy - especially for Brac. I haven't seen a single occupancy special for Little Cayman - that's probably because of the Bloody Bay Wall is so popular the resort usually fills up pretty quickly.

Here is a recent report posted by @scubadada because he did a solo trip to Brac recently:
Cayman Brac Beach Resort/Reef Divers Oct 23-30, 2017

The half-hour Cayman Airways round trip flight between GC and LC (or CB) cost $110 in November 2017 when we visited GC and LC but I haven't priced it recently, not bad, but you do have to respect the "wait to fly" rules if you are diving and then flying between the Cayman islands.

Below are links for the 3 resorts and some of their recent specials. I think that they might be willing to work with you to get you the best deal if you would be spending 2 weeks at 2 of their resorts - because they are trying to promote that concept.

FYI, @BDSC is taking a group to Cobalt Coast in August for a great price, but I don't know if he has any open spots left - or perhaps someone in the group is looking for a buddy?
COBALT COAST RESORT on GRAND CAYMAN

The Clearly Cayman Resorts are also offering a "kids dive & stay free" option between May and September 2018; in case you want to bring the family over for a week, but you were supposed to book it by Oct 2017, so I don't know if they would extend it.

Kids Dive & Stay For Free

http://www.clearlycayman.com/

http://www.cobaltcoast.com/

http://www.caymanbracbeachresort.com/

http://www.clearlycayman.com/little-cayman-beach-resort/

http://www.clearlycayman.com/expedition/?utm_source=mail%20chimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Cayman%20Expedition

http://www.clearlycayman.com/25-2/

http://www.clearlycayman.com/groundhogday/

 

[drbill]

Palau diving with Palau Dive Adventures. Certainly the best place I've dived in 50+ years and a great operator. I had hoped to make this trip more than once in a lifetime but cancer struck and I missed two opportunities to return. There is a wealth of critters to see in their waters and that's the reason I dive... to film them and share their stories with other divers.

 

[luscioman]

I just posted this in another thread so one option is the Virgin Islands - St Thomas specifically. There are a lot of wrecks just south of Charlotte Amalie with boat rides under an hour, All sorts of accommodations in all price ranges too.And relatively easy flights from the US. Once you've done those move over via the fast ferries to the BVI's and dive the RMS Rhone,the Kodiak Queen and possibly the Chikuizen if conditions permit.

The USVI's are a territory but you'll need a passport for the BNI's. Also they took a big hit this hurricane season so some resorts etc. may still be rebuilding. Really nice beaches and Virgin Gorda is pretty upscale - a lot of yacht/villa money so better restaurants than you'd expect.Very picturesque also.

Blue Island Divers Dive SItes
BVI Scuba Diving Sites | Dive BVI

Socorros would be an option since those trips run about $3K-$3500 not including the flight to Cabo but there are no wrecks. Just an amazing variety of larger pelagics like whale sharks, manta rays, hammerheads, dolphins and whales in season.

The reason I Don;t Think it's for you is it's a rougher all night crossing to get there.

I know next to nothing about it but when I think of wrecks, I think of Bermuda first.

Having dove St Thomas on at least 6 occasions I would not make it my trip of a lifetime. Sadly almost everytime i went there the diving was nicer in St. Martin. I would choose a different location.

 

[runsongas]

Having dove St Thomas on at least 6 occasions I would not make it my trip of a lifetime. Sadly almost everytime i went there the diving was nicer in St. Martin. I would choose a different location.

diversteve is recommending the bvi, not st thomas. st thomas is just the cheapest way to get to the bvi for most of the east coast.

anyone know if penetration is still possible on the bianca in grenada?

 

[jonhall]

I would like to take a once-in-a-lifetime SCUBA trip.

If you had up to two weeks and a few thousand dollars to spend on an unforgettable dive vacation, where would you go? Especially if you love wrecks!

Since you have all of these great suggestions I don't need to add any as I would suggest some of them.

The "place" I would go if I were looking for a once-in-a-lifetime, unforgettable dive vacation would be the one that had the lowest chance of precipitation/bad weather during the time I was there (low annual precipitation) and where the water was always calm so there was no chance of diving days being cancelled due to unsafe conditions.

Thinking about it, I've never had a dive cancelled although some should have been, but ideally my once-in-a-lifetime, unforgettable dive trip would have the above requirements.

 

[Colombia Dive Adventures]

Hello!

I am making a tremendous change in my life. After 20 years, I'm stepping back from the business I started. I plan on taking the next two years and seeing what happens!

To mark the occasion, I would like to take a once-in-a-lifetime SCUBA trip. I've looked at a number of options, but I could *really* use some help (and ideas!) from some people who have actually experienced these things. You can only do once-in-a-lifetime things once, and I don't want to use that one opportunity to find it was a mistake!

This is a long post -- it's what I do -- so thank you for your attention! If you don't want to read all this, then just tell me about the one trip you would do if it were your last SCUBA trip ever. But below is a little more about me and what I'm looking for.

In the past, my trips have been time-limited, both in length and in destination. I've rarely been able to take more than a few days off, so I've been limited to shorter trips and in the Eastern US timezone: nearly all in Flordia. Before, I had reasonably unlimited resources but very limited time. Now, it's the exact opposite: I have very flexible time, but limited resources! I would like to keep the entire trip cost to the neighborhood of $4000 USD. I can take up to a two week or so trip. My wife is literally demanding I take this trip, but I do still have a wife and kids, and don't really want to leave them for more than that. They don't dive, and unless the location happens to be a place that *she* would take a once-in-a-lifetime trip to (and drag small children), I will be doing it alone.

A little bit about my SCUBA training: I've been diving since 1992, seriously since 2006. I have something over 300 dives since then. Certs: PADI Master / TDI Advanced Wreck / Advanced Nitrox / Deco Procedures / Cavern / Intro Cave. I dive BP/W and OC doubles exclusively, and usually in a drysuit -- I only dive wet on vacation. I've never traveled with a drysuit, but for something like this I could try if I needed to.

My diving passion is wrecks. I've done the traverse on the Spiegel Grove and the engine room and galley on the Duane in Key Largo, and I've been all over the Captain Dan and RSB1 in Pompano Beach, for example. Not the Andrea Doria, but I enjoy penetrating wrecks. I've had a handful of reef dives that have wowed me (Molasses Reef or Looe Key when the conditions are superb), but after about 15-20 minutes of your average reef dive my mind is wandering. I've easily done 50+ reef dives off the coast of Pompano Beach, FL, for example. So unless the reefs are consistently stunning, such a trip would not be my focus.

Also, I have zero fear of boats or the water, but I'm not a great sailor. Long boat rides do not please me. Anything over an hour trip out would need to have a pretty good reason for me to do it. With drugs I'm good to something like 4'-6' seas, but 6' is the limit.

I'm a reasonably hardy and adventurous traveler. Within the past 5 years I've stayed in lowest-end motels, hostels, sparse Airbnb spare rooms, bunkhouses, and I've even done multiple weekend camping/diving trips in a tent or sleeping out of my Dodge Journey, but all in the US and Canada -- I have almost no international experience. Intentionally planning on sleeping in an airport is not something I want to do, but if it's the only way to do the trip, I would consider it. I don't need fancy, comfortable or even normal. I do need *safe*: I have a family to come home to.

My first series of research (affordable world-class wreck diving) led me to a liveaboard out of Hurghada, Egypt. (The Emperor Superior, for example.) $1500-$1600 seems to be a decent budget for a week trip onboard for the right trip. The big problem is travel: $1500 round-trip from DTW to HRG, 2 *full* days of flights and layovers to get there, *3* full days to get home -- and virtually guaranteed multiple overnight layovers sleeping in an airport. 5 days of hard travel for 5 1/2 days of diving seems... a tough balance.

I've thought about Mexican Rivera for cave diving, but I'm not yet full cave and I sure would like to *be* full cave before doing such a trip. And while I like caves, I prefer wrecks. I've thought about Truk/Chuuk Lagoon: the timing would be *great* for getting away from cold Michigan winter, but the price seems to be beyond my budget. $2500 flights take a big bite. Bonaire is doable, but I think I would like more than just reefs for my once-in-a-lifetime trip.

So, here's where I'm looking to you. I'm looking for any suggestions you might have. If you had up to two weeks and a few thousand dollars to spend on an unforgettable dive vacation, where would you go? Especially if you love wrecks! Any travel-related suggestions would also be appreciated -- anything to extend my budget or broaden my horizons!

Thank you for reading my long post. I appreciate any suggestions you might have.

Hi Tmassey,

I recomend Malpelo island (the living rock) declared a UNESCO world heritage site. this is a 12 month diving destination and it is characterized for having massive schools of hammerhead sharks (all year round, schools of more than 150 to 300 individuals) along with a variety of sharks such as silky (300 to 1000 from May to August), Galapagos, white tip, whale sharks (all year round) and the reclusive smalltooth sand tiger shark (January to April).
Other species like moray eels, dolphins big schools of jacks, snappers,groupers and eagle Rays all year round.

 

[shellmoundal]

This may be your lucky day. Very affordable and the best dive trip of my life.. I am a full cave diver and live in Gainesville FL. I have a thread on my FaceBook Page AL Clements One spot available for a female diver on the Aqua Cat September 15th. This may be just what you are looking for. Email alclements1@cox.net Aqua Cat one of our female divers had to cancel. Several Full Cave Divers on this trip. We rented the entire boat. Great people and great diving. Night dives every night. The trip has been discounted. Fly into Nassau. I am flying from Orlando FL on Jet Blue for $317.00 Round Trip.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Scapa Flow would be my choice.

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

You say your passion is wrecks. I would do the Truk Odyssey liveaboard in Chuuk. Scuba Diving Truk Lagoon Aboard Odyssey. The best way to explore Truk Lagoon in Micronesia

 

[KathyV]

...My diving passion is wrecks...but I'm not a great sailor. Long boat rides do not please me. Anything over an hour trip out would need to have a pretty good reason for me to do it. With drugs I'm good to something like 4'-6' seas, but 6' is the limit...

You say your passion is wrecks. I would do the Truk Odyssey liveaboard in Chuuk. Scuba Diving Truk Lagoon Aboard Odyssey. The best way to explore Truk Lagoon in Micronesia

I am confused by the OP's request for advice for the trip of the lifetime because he loves wrecks but he is not a good sailor and yet he is making plans for liveaboard trips!? I have done quite a few LOBs and I have gotten really, really sick on about half of them - whenever there is a deep water crossing, I'm a goner. So in the beginning of the trip (even with lots of drugs and using all the recommended remedies) I would wish myself almost anywhere else except on that boat! Happily, the sensation usually subsides in about a day and I am able to enjoy the rest of trip.

A LOB is a great way to do a lot of fantastic diving in a short period and visit some of the more remote and pristine dive locations, so I hope that the OP will also be able to adapt to the LOB environment.