If you could only dive from one place in Belize

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If you're into ruins, you may want to also check out Coba. It's not that far from Tulum. Chichen Itza is a little further inland so its harder to get to but is spectacular.

As with all things, try to get any of these either before the cruise ship crowds arrive or on an off day. All three are very popular.
 
Well played. Check the Cozumel forum for an overdose of opinions. The good news is there are plenty of reliable valet dive shops, and the food choices in town are top rate. Oh, and the diving? Pretty good, with topography you won’t see just anywhere.
 
If you're into ruins, you may want to also check out Coba. It's not that far from Tulum. Chichen Itza is a little further inland so its harder to get to but is spectacular.

As with all things, try to get any of these either before the cruise ship crowds arrive or on an off day. All three are very popular.

Thanks for the tips. Chichen Itza is already on the non diving list, as are a thousand other things i'm probably not even aware of....

Any recommendations on dive shops? I see Belize Diving services get a lot of mentions, they look OK for the Blue hole but seem very regimented in their schedules for everything and they seem to take 16 divers per trip? I'd prefer small boats for non BH diving.

Black Durgon seem far more relaxed, but don't do blue hole.
Frenchies get poor reviews for communication and attitude.
Aqua based on AC get some really poor TA reviews.
 
All BH trips from Ambergris and Caulker will usually have a min dive number as it’s a full day trip 2-3 hrs there and back depending where you are leaving from and trips will be cancelled/pushed if there aren’t enough divers. It’s usually something like 16 but Belize pro are going with 11 today as they didn’t go last week. They need to make the trip worth it. People generally don’t realize that it isn’t a simple daily run out. Takes Lots of gas, 3/4 divemasters and a captain for the full day etc.if the weather is bad, the crossing can be very rough and you need a big boat to deal with the chop. I’m afraid that I don’t know too much about the ratios on caulker dive ops, but I wouldn’t dive with any shop on the cayes who had higher than 6 divers per DM absolute max, if I was at a diving resort with diving included as a package I would probably be annoyed if that ratio was any higher than 4 divers per DM. You can be disappointed if you come for a slow week and no shop has enough divers to justify the blue hole trip, so no one goes....it’s quite rare though, If that happens you can always do private or helicopter and dive package, but that is in the $1000’s+ Ops may be more regular from caulker though as it’s a ‘bit’ closer. Still a full day trip though. The blue hole is a ‘day trip’ as opposed to a ‘dive site’
 
All BH trips from Ambergris and Caulker will usually have a min dive number as it’s a full day trip 2-3 hrs there and back depending where you are leaving from and trips will be cancelled/pushed if there aren’t enough divers. It’s usually something like 16 but Belize pro are going with 11 today as they didn’t go last week. They need to make the trip worth it. People generally don’t realize that it isn’t a simple daily run out. Takes Lots of gas, 3/4 divemasters and a captain for the full day etc.if the weather is bad, the crossing can be very rough and you need a big boat to deal with the chop. I’m afraid that I don’t know too much about the ratios on caulker dive ops, but I wouldn’t dive with any shop on the cayes who had higher than 6 divers per DM absolute max, if I was at a diving resort with diving included as a package I would probably be annoyed if that ratio was any higher than 4 divers per DM. You can be disappointed if you come for a slow week and no shop has enough divers to justify the blue hole trip, so no one goes....it’s quite rare though, If that happens you can always do private or helicopter and dive package, but that is in the $1000’s+ Ops may be more regular from caulker though as it’s a ‘bit’ closer. Still a full day trip though. The blue hole is a ‘day trip’ as opposed to a ‘dive site’

Yep I get the BH trip needs lots of divers to make it financially viable, I wasn't very clear but I was referring to the more local dive-sites. I was hoping to get on small groups / semi-private for those.
 
I like the 111 and 1v but had a better trip on the 111, but that was only because there are fewer divers on the boat, I got a room to myself as there were only 13 on the 10 day trip (44 dives :) so the deck was never busy, and a higher chance of blue hole on the 111.

Now that I have done both and don’t care about the blue hole again, I would probably opt for the 1v at a squeak so that I don’t get stuck with a top bunk :)
 
I lived on Caye Caulker from 9/2017 - 10/2018...dive with Black Durgon by all means. Do the Blue Hole trip with BDS, but do all your local dives with Sim & Corey...you hit the nail on the head with "more relaxed..."

Tell them Brad recommended you ;-)
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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