Help me decide

[Chidiver1]

Do at least 6 days. That way you have time to get at least 8 in, to a maximum of probably 12-14. The high range is if you jump on a couple night dives.

 

[Chidiver1]

By the time you spend all the money to get to wherever at least make it worth it.

 

[mi000ke]

I'm not a fan of Grand Cayman. I only have experience with the north wall, but I felt it was devoid of fish life. Lots and lots of corals, but barely any fish.

Generally speaking I think the north side has the more spectacular coral structures but somewhat less marine life, while the west side has more marine life - and I think the visibility is usually better west side. I prefer diving the west wall and reefs. That said, we dove the north wall twice this week and saw nurse sharks, a brief sighting of a hammerhead, turtles, a couple of eagle rays, cuttle fish, barracuda, sand divers, puffers, and many other reef fish. So it was some good diving all in all.

 

[KathyV]

I'm not a fan of Grand Cayman. I only have experience with the north wall, but I felt it was devoid of fish life. Lots and lots of corals, but barely any fish. The best dive I did was 15' deep at Stingray City. Given your budget and time allowance, you might consider St. Lucia. Nice fish and coral life with great things to do topside.

Our experience has been just the opposite, although we've only done one trip to St. Lucia and we've been to Cayman many times, so it may not be a fair comparison. But we thought that St. Lucia was beautiful and the corals were lovely but the reefs seemed overfished - lots of small animals but not many large fish. We classified it as "probably a good environment for macrophotography."

The Caymans always seem quite fishy to us with lots of small fish as well as bigger animals like groupers, eels, rays, tarpons, turtles, barracudas, and some sharks - although it is not a fishy as Florida IMO - and there are far more groupers around the Sister Islands rather than Grand Cayman.

And some Cayman reefs are more fishy than others. The walls can be dramatic and beautiful but not have as much fish life, while the sites on the West side of GC are often loaded with sea life but may not have such spectacular coral formations - at least that has been our experience. We did a dive on the Oro Verde last year, and we hadn't been there in years, and we couldn't believe the number of fish surrounding the wreck on the day we visited! I tend to think of West side diving as "good, reliable Caribbean diving with lots of life".

Whenever I read conflicting reports from different divers about the amount of sea life at a place, I have to wonder if it has something to do with season and water temp? We were in St. Lucia in the Spring and we usually go to Cayman in the Fall, or maybe it is just luck!

 

[Mike Klieb]

Cozumel is the biggest bang for your scuba buck still - and better than all the locations mentioned (Sorry kathy lol). That being said, you probably have more flight options from Houston than DFW where I am.

Check your dates - you can often times get a much better prices airfare flying mid week.

A quick search shows you could do a Saturday departure from IAH to CZM for $668 pp at my favorite hotel - Casa Del Mar. Five days of scuba w Dive With Martin $315 pp. You'd be under 2 grand not including food / drink.

And BTW - The biggest piece of advice I can give you - do NOT go AI in Cozumel

I am seeing that the AI places are much higher and good deals can be had within my budget.. I will have to set up a larger budget for other places but im working on that lol.

 

[caydiver]

We normally do a fishing trip to the Keys around Presidents week. If the water temps are chilly the bigger migratory fish stay in warmer southern waters for a bit longer according to the local guides that have been doing it forever. It makes sense. We get the oceanic triggers in breeding spirals for a few weeks in Jan/Feb and then don’t see them for a year. Many little reef dwellers don’t travel far from home, but migratory fish definitely do. Unless you are diving (or fishing) regularly throughout the year, it is hard to be able to compare one destination to another. My other half is an avid fisherman. Here in Cayman the tournament season is over by summer because the prize fish have moved on. When you hit a place during low season and prices are rock bottom you know there has to be reasons. Nothing wrong with it. I don’t ski (don’t like cold) but had a lovely break in a ski resort in off season. No snow, just beautiful outdoors and as it turned out, super cheap. However I guess I would have been bummed if it was all about the skiing. Coz is way cheaper than Cayman, but it does cost ops more to be in business here. Everything is relative.

 

[jonhall]

I am seeing that the AI places are much higher and good deals can be had within my budget.

You can find cheaper AI's in Coz - the Melia and El Cid for example - that are within your budget. The Melia is a smaller resort north of town. Taxi is needed to get to dive ops and into town, but taxis are everywhere. AI may be around $50/day and the food was decent when we were there. Beach and water not as nice as other resorts though. El Cid la Cieba has an optional AI as well as a 3 day AI option which was nice for us as we ate other places the other days. Price there was also lower than other AI's nearby. El Cid has a nice area for snorkeling or night diving. May have an op onsite but they do have a pier where other ops could pick you up.