I need Luxury Luxury Luxury.

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JMD123

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I know many of us are looking for reasonable dive locations. But lets talk about the really really nice ones. I am talkin major Luxury. Who has traveld to a really nice resort with great diving? Fourseasons, Ritz Carlton maybe better. Did they hand you a warm towel? Was there a sandwich waiting for you? What did you like? Personally I could not care less about all of these things but i travel with my wife and she works hard and likes to be pamppered on vacation. Wont consider a live aboard, very interested in amazing hotels and resorts. OK maybe I care a little.

Bring on the Post.
 
JonasDolkart:
I know many of us are looking for reasonable dive locations. But lets talk about the really really nice ones. I am talkin major Luxury. Who has traveld to a really nice resort with great diving? Fourseasons, Ritz Carlton maybe better. Did they hand you a warm towel? Was there a sandwich waiting for you? What did you like? Personally I could not care less about all of these things but i travel with my wife and she works hard and likes to be pamppered on vacation. Wont consider a live aboard, very interested in amazing hotels and resorts. OK maybe I care a little.

Bring on the Post.
Why not try a cruise? There are some pretty good ones in the Western Caribbean (Gd Cayman / Cozumel) and you get the best of both worlds. Good food available 24hr, tip the cabin steward at the start of the trip, he'll pamper you all week; dress for dinner & be served on, dive a different site each day.
There are a few threads on Scubaboard on this subject.
 
For Luxury diving try one of the live aboards. i've heard great things from friends about the Palau Agressor. Warm towls and the works.
 
I've stayed at Little Dix, and been to The Bitter End Yacht Club. Both in the British Virgin Islands. Both upscale, very lovely, and I would highly recommend them if money is no object.
I have also stayed at the Hyatt Grand Cayman. Not as up scale as the other two, but also very nice.
About 3 steps down from these but also very nice, and great diving, is the Plaza Resort Bonaire.
Let me know if I be of anymore help.
 
Why not a live-aboard? There are some luxurious ones around, and they get you to some great dive sites.
 
Just you diving or both of you? And where are you?

Many of the threads about diving & cruises seem to be about the difficult logistics - either taking the cruise-arranged "guaranteed to get you back on the boat but don't take you to good diving, assuming it doesn't get cancelled due to lack of interest" or "figure out how to arrange your own at each port so it fits in the schedule." Better than not diving, but sounds like lots of hassle that doesn't sound like luxury to me. (But then huge cruise ships don't sound that appealing to me either.) There's some smaller and luxurious cruise ships out there. The Paul Gauguin from Tahiti comes to mind, they have a watersports deck and even offer PADI certification but I haven't done this so have no idea what their diving is really like.

On other threads I've suggested staying at Young Island on St Vincent. Saint Vincent has really good diving (the small stuff not the big stuff.) Young Island is not Ritz type luxury, it's a private island and a totally different kind of luxury. There are a number of similar really nice resorts in the Grenadines, and there is other good diving in the Grenadines, but I don't know of anyplace else in the region where the nice hotels and the nice diving are convienient to each other.

Look into Hawaii. There's many gorgeous resorts on the Big Island and Maui, including a Four Seasons on each. You'd probably be driving to the dive boat rather than popping out to a hotel dock, but there's good diving to be had.

There's supposed to be a Ritz Carlton coming on Grand Cayman, but not yet.

Hayman Island or Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef maybe - haven't done those either but might fit the bill.

There must be places in Indonesia, French Polynesia, Maldives where you could put together a great resort and diving - unfortunately I haven't gotten around that yet myself either.
 
Damselfish:
Look into Hawaii. There's many gorgeous resorts on the Big Island and Maui, including a Four Seasons on each. You'd probably be driving to the dive boat rather than popping out to a hotel dock, but there's good diving to be had.

Big Island (Kona) - I don't know much about the resorts there, but it is a beautiful area. Really nice accomodations (less resort-location) can be had by renting condos/houses from private individuals. There are supposed to be some AMAZING resorts in the Wailea area, just north of Kona. As for diving, I've only dove with Jack's Diving Locker there. Truly valet diving. You pay for it, but you don't have to touch your gear if you don't want to. Friendly staff, low stress and great time.

Maui - We stayed at the Fairmont Kea Launi (sp) Resort. We ate at the Four Seasons while there and I'd hazard to say the Fairmont was nicer. Great resort but the onsite diving was poor sites and poorly operated. Many of the SCUBA operators I talked to on Maui seemed to be cattle boats. We had some luck with Scuba Shack, but it pailed in comparison with Jack's Diving Locker.

YMMV and hope this helps.
 
Natasha - Thanks for comapring the others to the hyatt in the caymans thats where we went for our honeymoon. I am going to check out the others you suggested.

Damselfish - We are both certified but only I dive. We live in Los Angeles. I have dove Maui 2 times and stayed at the Kea Lani. The diving is great. But I like to try different places. THE MAL DIVES has an amazing four seasons that has its own live aboard. Probabbly the only live aboard I could convince my wife to get on. Only problem is you gotta take 2 or 3 planes to get there and the total travel time is over 30 hours. No thanks.

Mer - if you go back to Maui try B&B Scuba. they are great.


As for cruises to many people we are not the friendly of a couple. Also the idea of getting of the cruise ship at each port like cattle sounds really unattractive.

As for live aboards they sound great to me but my other half likes to go out to dinner and sit by a pool during the day. WOW we sound really picky huh!
 

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