Is Blue Hole dive worth the money?

[Hintermann]

I dived the Blue Hole on board the Belize Aggressor in March 2012. It was certainly a great dive and unusual experience but if I was land based I would not have spent $240 for that dive alone. Sounds a bit steep to me.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Hintermann, that's the price for the whole day trip. Boat transport from the caye, 3 tank day, lunch on an idyllic island, etc.

 

[Hintermann]

Hintermann, that's the price for the whole day trip. Boat transport from the caye, 3 tank day, lunch on an idyllic island, etc.

Hmm, in that case.....around £155...OK, with a nice boat and a good lunch I'd say it would be just about worth it.

 

[Rhone Man]

Never done it, but the consensus of most people I know who have was that it wasn't worth it.

You also have to weigh up the opportunity cost. Some pretty good diving in Belize that you are otherwise giving up on to do the Blue Hole.

Would have been interesting to run this as a poll....

 

[chillyinCanada]

Actually, if you take the day trip from the cayes you aren't giving up some pretty good diving, you are gaining some amazing diving.

I've had dives in many parts of the world and so far the dive on Halfmoon Wall is still my all-time favorite.

 

[Downing]

I agree with Chilly.

When people ask whether the Blue Hole is worth it, usually they're referring to the time and effort it takes to get there, not the money.

Time and effort is an easy one. It's not so much just the Blue Hole, it's the entire day that makes it more than worth it. The ride from the Blue Hole to Lighthouse Caye is spectacular. LH Caye itself is really cool. You feel like you're at the edge of the world out there. It's a wonderful place to have lunch and spend a couple of SIs. And of course, there's the Red Footed Boobies Sanctuary as a bonus. The remaining two dives in the area are always fantastic. The BH dive is just the first dive of a pretty great day.

Worth the money is harder because it depends on your priorities and budget. Generally speaking, if you can afford a dive vacation in BZ you can probably afford a day trip to the BH. On the other hand, some people really do vacation on a shoestring and have to carefully consider each dollar. But chances are you would have spent money doing something else, so you could subtract that amount as a sunk cost from the cost of a BH trip to figure out the difference, which probably wouldn't be very much.

 

[AWMIII]

Is there any better place in the western hemisphere to dive than the Halfmoon Caye Wall? What would you pay to dive the best spot in the western hemisphere? I wonder how many of the people who say it is not worth it have actually done the trip? How many are going on what their brother's sister's divemaster said at the bar? How many are justifying their own decision not to make the trip?

For sure the actually BH dive is a unique dive that does not appeal to everyone. However when viewed as an entire day's excursion, is it a worse value than going from AC to Tikal? Or spending week making bluewater dives in search of whale sharks only to not find any? How much does it cost to fly to municipal and take a bus to Jaguar Paw to go cave tubing?