Is a liveaboard a must?

[yakivet]

when is the best time to dive belize ?

Winds can blow in the spring. Pretty hot in the summer. Too many hurricaines in the fall. And bugs all the time. All in all, I can't think of a really bad time to Dive Belize. The Best time is when you can work it into your schedule. When you can get cheap airfare, and when you can leave your cell phone at home. I'm headed back again in March:cool2:

 

[peterbj7]

Airfare is really the most important point. Visitors from Boston over New Year paid $1200 round trip, which is obscene. It used to cost $300-$400 from most parts of the US, but a sensible target these days is probably $500. Absurdly high airfares, vastly higher than is charged to Cancun or even Roatan (which is much further), are killing tourism in Belize. Eight years ago I operated three dive boats morning and afternoon through "the season". Now many centers operate just one boat and it doesn't go out at all some days. I could believe it was the global recession and that certainly has a major part to play, except that the Mexican Riviera Maya and the Honduran Bay Islands haven't been hit anywhere near as badly. Once you're in Belize the experience is superb and not expensive (though more than in neighbouring countries), but getting here is the problem.

 

[Byte Me]

I doubt 4-5 dives a day. 3 is about it for most people. And you can find much better and cheaper than Ramon's. But yes, I agree with your thrust.

Agree - for your average diver but if OP is thinking land vs liveaboard I'm sure 2 tank AM and 2 tank PM would right in the wheelhouse, throw in an occasional night dive.

Ramons was the only place I was "off the top of my head" I was aware of and we rode right past it on the way to grab a refreshing beverage so it was convenient. Would love more info about other shops in the area. We stayed our one night at Xanadu and would again. Beautiful place! Please feel free to PM me with other shops I can look up. Not unlike many Scuba board divers I'm more interested in smaller groups, more personal service, dive your own profile kind of shop vs larger groups where everyone comes up when the first person hits 1000psi.

Gracias!

By the way - agree on airfare. I think it was just over $600 to Belize City in mid March. When you can get to Cancun for $250ish that seems really steep. We paid in teh $500 range a couple years ago when we went to CoCo View in Roatan and under $400 to get to Grand Cayman.

 

[Downing]

Air fare is definitely an issue.

I just paid almost $750, including fees, taxes, etc. on Continental Airlines for my upcoming trip in June. American Airlines was almost $200 more, which was surprising because usually AA is less. This was for a red eye one-stop and change of plane flight in Houston. I could have saved about $150 by zigzagging across the USA and spending the night somewhere but that's just not worth it.

I probably could have worked a better deal by waiting for a sale and checking air fares daily. The flight I booked went up $8 the same day I booked it.

 

[peterbj7]

Byte Me - I'll PM you on the more sensitive stuff. As to who to dive with, you'll find Island Divers Welcome to Island Divers Belize meets your requirements. Well away from town but still on Ambergris Caye, the small dive shop at Tranquility Bay http://www.tranquilitybayresort.com/ will also come pretty close, though you'll need to stay there or nearby to take advantage of it. I dived for a week recently with another small operator that was quite good, but not at Island Diver levels.

 

[peterbj7]

Agree - for your average diver but if OP is thinking land vs liveaboard I'm sure 2 tank AM and 2 tank PM would right in the wheelhouse, throw in an occasional night dive

I did a liveaboard in the Red Sea a while back when I did 7 dives each and every day - and most of those dives were pretty deep (the first four of every day were to 70mtr). On a boat there isn't much else to do, but when land-based most people who come intending to dive, dive, dive cut back to 2 or 3 dives a day. Apart from anything else, unless they're diving nitrox they find their bottom time getting very short by day two. That said, I couldn't imagine NOT diving nitrox pretty often. If you're looking to become a DM I hope you're nitrox certified..!

 

[KeithG]

Can anyone give opinions on the original premise "the best dives sites are at Half Moon & Long caye"?
I have only been to belize via liveaboard and they stay at the keys "because it is the best diving" (their words). We have considered doing land based and are interested in how that would compare to the liveaboard sites.
There is a constant stream of day boats coming to the cayes & i have to wonder why people put up with the long transit times (2 hours+ ?) unless the sites where that much better than local resort sites? So this makes me worried about the quality of resort dive sites.
The liveaboards do end up off turneffe for friday morning and those sites do not compare very well to the cayes. Multiple captains have indicated they try to dive the cayes as much as possible. But I can not comment directly on AC or CC.
Does anyone that has done both liveaboard & land in belize have an opinion?