If you had to pick.......

[budaman]

Wife & I are sailing on the Royal Clipper in November and visiting the following locales:

Carriacou, Grenada, Tobago Cays, St. Vincent, Bequia, Martinique & St. Lucia.

We don't want to make this a total dive oriented trip, but would like to dive at 2 or 3 of the locations. Which would you pick & why.

The ship has it's own DM's & will take a maximum of 6 divers in one of their RIB's, so won't need dive op recommendations. This worked out well when we sailed with them in French Polynesia last year.

Thanks for any input!

Mike

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[diver 85]

skipping the best diving-----ie Dominica....

 

[Rhone Man]

That is quite an ecclectic collection: I have never even heard of Carriacou or Bequia (had to look them up on Wikipedia).

Of the named destinations, St Lucia probably has the best diving reputation. The others I have never heard much about, so probably either not very good, or beautiful off-the-beaten-track virgin diving.

 

[tvictory]

The diving at St. Vincent is excellent. It's a real treat for macro photographers and anyone interested in seeing unusual critters. It would be best to dive with someone who knows the dive sites. Dive St. Vincent will pick you up from your ship and drop you back afterwards.

 

[chauncy19]

Some what dated info but dove in Bequia in 1990. Love the diving and the island. Fantastic time. Lots of life and because of that visibilty was in 50-60 feet range. Saw lots of life and remember seeing an extremely large lobster. I am sure St.Vincent would also be excellent as they are maybe 6 miles or so from each other. always wanted to go Carriacou, Grenada, Tobago Cays they are at the other end of grenadine islands from Bequia. These areas are not well traveled so would think they would be pristine.
Don't know much about Martinique & St. Lucia but they are definately more
traveled. Ofcourse the diving could be great on either island. But IMHO Bequia and St. Vincent would be high on my list with Carriacou or Tobago Cays being on my short list for third site.

 

[numerator]

I live half the year in Carriacou - and just hate it when people point out that a) they've never heard of it and then b) it must be rubbish because they've not heard of it. For starters Carriacou's name comes from Carib Indian and means 'Land of Reefs'... if that does not tell you something about the diving, then I don't know what. The island is well off the beaten track, and the islanders have chosen to reject large globalised tourism developments - there are no large hotels or resorts on the island. However, if you're prepared to rough it (3* Stylee), then you're in for a treat as there are fewer than 500 divers per year visiting the island, which means most of the reefs are pristine, virgin reefs, with plenty of marine life. Far better even than Dominica.

There are 3 dive centres on the island (one in the capital town and two in the nearby bay), they're all very small, personable centres and well worth visiting. You can dive without a local dive guide anywhere except in the Marine Park, but I would always recommend getting a local dive as whilst the DM on the boat may be very capable, they're not going to know which are the best dive sites in that current season or which is the best direction to go in - that on its own is worth the $60 you pay them.

My suggestion - go to the Land of Reefs and check it out (or talk to someone who has a) heard of it and b) been there.

 

[Damselfish]

Hmm, I would dive every stop on that trip, either because I've been there and know it's good, or I've heard enough to be curious. Maybe I should look up that cruise...

When places have no diving "reputation", sometimes it's because they're not good, and sometimes it's because they're small/not well traveled/inconvenient to get to. I'd say lots of the latter in this case.

I've dove in Carriacou, Grenada, St. Vincent, & Bequia - St Vincent and Bequia land based, and all of them from a liveaboard. All good diving, otherwise a liveaboard wouldn't waste time there.

I'd say the best is St Vincent, I've actually gone there many times, and on the liveaboard the passengers opted to stay there extra time. Grenada was my least favorite, mostly because the viz sucked when we were there, but I don't know how typical our dives there were. Both are pretty scenic and interesting landside.

I've heard very good things about the Tobago Cays, but haven't been there. That would be my first choice since they're probably about the hardest of the lot to get to, and you'll be there!)

I like diving in Bequia, but it's such a neat little island I might opt to just go wander around on land instead, if I didn't want to dive every stop. On the other hand scooting around there in a RIB could be fun too. Try to see Moonhole if only from the water.

St. Lucia has a rep for having some decent diving, it's certainly going to be better known than the little places, but unfortunately I can't compare. I know nothing about Martinique.


Like most places, local knowledge is important to get you to the best sites and spot the local critters, hopefully your ship DMs can do this. It's especially true someplace like St Vincent, which is actually somewhat well known for having lots of unusual and uncommon little critters for the Caribbean, which may be hard to find otherwise. We've had dives with multiple frogfish and seahorses in 6 assorted colors. (Quote from my husband - "I already have a picture of an orange seahorse, can you find me a yellow one?" I think he did, too.) Drawback to diving St Vincent from the cruise, it's a larger island, you will probably be in the south, the diving typically gets better the further north you get, the ride is sometimes "exciting", so I'm not sure how far you will be going there in a RIB. I would probably do it anyway.

 

[1erCRU]

Having been lucky enough to have made dives in all these places (from my own boat) I would say they are all generally good to very good, each with an occasionally excellent site, depending on your personal preferences and skills. The other factor for you is the where your cruiseship DMs will actually take you, ie: might be problematic to dive the Bianca C.
The Tobago Cays & Carriacou are opportunities that should not be missed, they are unspoiled. Another place not yet on US diver's radar is Martinique which has lots of interesting wrecks, that I'm guessing would be easy access for your cruiseship DMs. The Windwards are great fun to dive, I wouldn't miss any of them.

 

[Doc]

edited to erase, adding ooops.....

 

[Damselfish]

One of the clipper type cruise ships that we used to see at St Vincent, don't recall which, used to moor near the channel between St Vincent and Young Island, a little further south down the coast from Kingston harbor. But that was before they built the new cruiseship dock in Kingston so no idea now.

Bequia they were out in the main harbor someplace, don't know if it would have been considered Admiralty Bay or Lower Bay. They would set up lounges and stuff for passengers on Princess Margaret beach and ferry them in to spend the day, and I think they also ferried people into town (such as it was.)

You might be able to find or get answers on one of the cruise boards. I still say, dive 'em all. Then let us know.