Curacao is a lot like Roatan except less humid (and buggy). And there's about 50+ shore dive sites all along one side.
Most require a short drive in from the main road so a car is a necessity - unless you go with the previously mentioned Dive Bus. Downtown Willemstad however is a big tourism destination, some nicer resorts, beach front restaurants, the famous shopping district and some dive/non-dive resorts further east. Many have an affiliated/on-site dive operator. At five of them it's Ocean Encounters. I often recommend the Marriott in Piscadera Bay, it's one of the nicer Marriotts I've been to - has a good beach, pool complex, and a shore dive off their property with Caribbean Sea Sports.
The reef at most of the shore dives requires a short surface swim out - usually off a sandy beach often bisecting ironshore cliffs. The west side is much less developed, Westpunt has a few smaller resorts/rental complexes and a couple of restaurants. Many people stay at Lodge Kura Hulanda out there - it's on a great dive site - Playa Kalki - and Watamula - arguably the best boat dive - is nearby. Go West Diving is on-site there. Shore dive site list:
Scuba Shore Diving Site Listing for: Curacao, ABC Islands We saw
a lot of fish - probably more than anywhere on Roatan except maybe the south side, big Moray Eels, an occasional grouper and a few stingrays. At some sites turtles and a few squid also. Dolphins on the Seaquarium dive and once past our apt. in Lagun.
Cayman is probably in my top 3 for best diving in the Caribbean. And I've been to all the places mentioned by anyone previously except Saba and Cozumel. Lots of deep wall pristine coral diving and about a dozen shore dive sites. We saw a lot of turtles, tarpon, grouper, stingrays - esp. at Stingray City...lol. Some of the best boat dives are off NW Point or the North Wall, Big Tunnel, Orange Canyon, Trinity Caverns, Hepps Wall to name a few. Farther east Hammerhead Hill or Babylon are among the best.
Everything on Cayman is expensive. The CI$ is pegged at 80% to the U.S. $. A good meal for two can easily break $100. And most 2 tank boat dives are over $100. Many of the shore dives are off improved dive resorts so those are affordable and easily accessible - ladders/docks over the ironshore when necessary. It's actually hard to find tanks to take off their property for other dives though but there are a few worth doing - Smith's Cove and Cemetery Beach are two. You can rent tanks from Eden Rock downtown or Divers Supply in West Bay. If you stay anywhere along Seven Mile Beach at a resort or condo, the majority of dive operators have a free shuttle since there's no close diving off SMB. A few of these shore dives no longer exist but here's an indication of what to expect:
Scuba Shore Diving Site Listing for: Cayman Islands, Caribbean IMO the best shore dive is Turtle Reef up in the NW point area.
I've recently done Turks/Caicos also but it was off the T/C Explorer so I have limited exposure to Providenciales (Provo). Grace Bay there is called one of the nicest beaches in the world - I can see why. The diving there seems mainly centered around the NW Point area - you can see - but not swim to - some of the closer sites. We dove a couple days there - some stingrays, a few turtles, lots of fish then moved over to West Caicos. More turtles, barracuda, there was supposed to be some really big grouper but we missed them. Also a lot of stingrays. The wall there is just covered with stuff down past rec depths. We also saw several smaller sharks and some huge Lionfish.
But the best diving was French Cay - a tiny deserted island 45mins. from Provo on a fast dive boat (Caicos Adventures has one). On every single dive we saw multiple sharks, big crabs, barracuda, lionfish, stingrays and there are also fish nurseries in the coral heads near the moorings. At night we also saw lobster and a lot of conch. One night the big pelagics were feeding in the ships lights, then the sharks fed on the big pelagics. All at the bow of our boat - 120' away.
Provo seemed generally as upscale and expensive as Cayman. It's also quite a bit smaller in population afaik - a lot more open spaces. There's one casino and some nightlife at a few clubs in the Grace Bay area. Awful airport, tiny, crowded and old. All the flights my group were on seemed to depart about the same time thru the four gates so that was confusing. There's wi-fi in the restaurant - we camped out there for a couple hours in the morning. A taste of what to expect near T/C (not my trip report)
Saudio's Trip Reports
When diving in Cozumel I am easily looking at $80/day for a 2 tank dive + tip. When in Curacao whether diving an unlimited tank package or a pay per use system it comes out a WHOLE LOT cheaper than boat dives-even when tipping generously/appropriately.....
