How do you usually arrange diving trips?

[wonbok]

Hello,

My wife and I were first introduced to diving during our honeymoon to Tahiti and we've since been hooked on it.
(We are both Korean residents.)

As we embark on planning our next diving trip in early April, it made us wonder how diving trips are usually arranged.

In Korea, we have diving-specialist tour agents, who have no other line of travel products than diving.
Although what they do is nothing more than arrange airways, book a resort, meet you at the airport, set an arrangement with the local dive shop, and sometimes actually go out and dive with you, a lot of people seem to resort to their assistance for communication. (Typical Koreans do not speak English well.)

Now, if the decency of the destination/dive resort or the quality of the local dive shop left little to desire, I would just purchase one of these diving trips right off their rack.
(For example, Anilao, Philippines is a very popular product, because the resorts there are very affordable.)

But since my wife and I are newly-weds, we are willing to spend a little more on the resort, and this is where Korean diving travel agents have yet to come up with products.
Of course, we have more than enough "honeymoon"-specialist travel agents, but what do they know about diving?

When you plan on a diving trip to one of the better destinations (including, but not limited to, Maldives or Tahiti), how do you usually go about it?
Do you buy your airway + hotel only through your travel agent, and arrange the rest of the trip (i.e. diving) separately?

From the many questions on "decent dive operator in such and such location", I am assuming many experienced divers on this board do the arrangements on their own, rather than buy a all-in-one diving packages off the rack (I'm not sure if such diving package trips even exist in countries other than Korea.)

Thank you for reading this long post.
I'd very much appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on this topic.

 

[caymaniac]

Hi Wonbok, I usaully arrange my trips on the internet. I also have used a vendor such as "Trip-N-Tour" (found on the web also). In the US we don't have too many "honeymoon" specialists, although there are many travel agents that will point you in the right direction.

Dive Safe,
Caymaniac

 

[IndigoBlue]

Hello,

My wife and I were first introduced to diving during our honeymoon to Tahiti and we've since been hooked on it.
(We are both Korean residents.)

As we embark on planning our next diving trip in early April, it made us wonder how diving trips are usually arranged.

...

Thank you for reading this long post.
I'd very much appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on this topic.

My last trip, we went with the scuba store. If you plan to travel a long distance, then the group rates you can get this way are sometimes beneficial, although the scuba store will eat up a lot of the savings as well.

On my next trip, which will be Hawaii or the Florida Keys or Cozumel, I plan to orchestrate everything by myself. Those are not too distant from the mainland USA. Of course, if you live in Florida, you just drive out to the Keys.

You can get pretty good first hand info from the divers who post here on this board, and you can also refer to ads in various scuba magazines. Based on the comments I have read here, I have a specific hotel in mind in Cozumel itself, known for its immediate access to beach diving as well.

I now subscribe to about 4 scuba magazines, one being the DAN Alert Diver, another being the NAUI instructor quarterly, and the other two quarterlies being technical diving magazines (Advanced Diver out of Florida and Wreck Diver out of North Carolina). They all have great ads about travel.

 

[scubaj]

I always just read around. Trip reports are great for this. Then always end up booking it myself from a few differnet sites, sometimes booking the hotel direct is cheaper then from an agent.

Jared

 

[Cudabait]

Wonbok,

Try to decide where you would like to go with your wife. Then come back on the board and tell us where it is you think you would like to go. With that done, you will be able to get a lot of good help from people on this board who have been to that particular place before.

regards,

 

[glbirch]

Hello,
When you plan on a diving trip to one of the better destinations (including, but not limited to, Maldives or Tahiti), how do you usually go about it?
Do you buy your airway + hotel only through your travel agent, and arrange the rest of the trip (i.e. diving) separately?

Thank you for reading this long post.
I'd very much appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on this topic.

I'm guessing this is the core of your question?

I tend to do a fair amount of research myself. I look at the quality of diving at the destination(s) I am considering, read reviews from other divers, and look at various websites and magazines. I also compare prices for airfare, and look at the different hotels/dive shops in the area I've chosen. I have a dive-specialist travel agent as well. I tell her where I'm planning on going and she gives me options. I don't always agree with her, but she will book what I ask. In the end, I usually have her book the airfare, hotel and dive packages because she has the experience and the phone numbers, but I also do direct booking, especially if I've been there before.

I guess the short answer is 'yes' usually, but sometimes there are packages that my LDS or travel agent advertise where I can just say "Sounds good. Put me down for a spot."

 

[tangfish]

its great if you can find someone through recommendations on this site who is an insider in the area you're interested in. they can provide great info as a local.

 

[DeputyDan]

Depends if its just me and the kids or if I am going with others.

If just us I do on my own - if with the group - I follow the leader.....

 

[AggieDiver]

I kind of follow a four step process...

1) Identify a time frame when I plan to travel...plus or minus a few weeks will do.

2) Identify potential locations that have decent conditions during that time frame, and request feedback if I haven't been there or am not already familiar with details of the locations.

3) Identify what if any specials are running at the resort or on my anticipated airline(s).

4) Match up where I get the best resort deal with where I get my best airfare deal, check availability of rooms and flights on my anticipated dates, and generally book the resort and flights directly from the vendor, unless a middleman is necessary to get the special pricing.

Keep in mind that while some charter operators get special pricing for bulk buys, there are also places (especially dive shops) that use that special pricing to build in their profit, then add the cost of the "trip leader" to the price of the trip split among the divers in the group. In the end, you may wind up paying more than if you called the vendor directly and asked them to match the other pricing.

Good Luck

AggieDiver (not to be confused with Aggie Diver)