Is diving better in Montego Bay or Negril?

[Ann Marie]

I'm headed to Jamaica in about a month. We are going to be staying in both Negril and Rose Hall (near Montego Bay).

I've set up my diving in Negril already with Sundivers.

Now when I go to Montego Bay I have a couple of options:

1. Deal with a 30-40 minute bottom time and come up with extra air
2. Hire a DM to dive with me so that I can get a better bottom time
3. Drive back to Negril for the diving (I know it is about 1.75 hours)

I know that driving back to Negril is going to be a pain in the butt, but if diving is much better and I can get a better bottom time it might be worth it.

If the diving is basically the same in Montego Bay and Negril; I'll probably hire a DM so that I can extend my bottom time past the person that runs low first.

If you've been diving in Jamaica before; what would you do?

 

[DiverDebbie]

My husband and I have been diving in both MoBay and Negril, and think the diving was better in Negril, mainly because there was more fish and other marine life there. However, Negril was all reef diving, whereas in MoBay you can dive some walls, if you convince your DM to take you to them. We found the dive staff in Jamaica to be be fabulous and safe, but they absolutely were on the conservative and cautious side until they know your abilities. I'd try for option 2. Try to find a DM to take you to the better wall sites in MoBay and give you more bottom time.
The drive between MoBay and Negril isn't bad really. People exaggerate the state of the road (or maybe they were there ages ago). The road is just fine, and a nice scenic trip, but apparently you can get stuck in traffic at times. I just don't think I'd want to spend too much of my vacation time doing the drive back and forth.
We loved both Negril and MoBay for their own reasons (top side and UW) I say have fun exploring both locations.

 

[ReefHugger]

Would be happy to accomodate you, unfortunately Mobay is a bit far from my neck of woods.

FWIW, when I am diving Mobay, I use Shaka Dalley. He is an employee of the watersports concession at the Half Moon Bay hotel (quite close to Rosehall, same strip of road). The concession is not owned by the hotel and they'll take outside divers. Call Half Moon and ask for the watersports desk. Skaka been diving for over 40yrs and if there's any good diving left in Mobay he'll know it.

Typically, Mobay has walls and the dives tend to be deeper. One of the most famous is the Widowmaker, a tunnel from top of reef (approx 60') exiting on wall (80ft). Generally not much large fish life, but still beautiful sea fans, sponges and gorgonians with the occassional turtle, dolphins, snappers and baracuda and more frequently, schools of goatfish, surgeons and creole wrasses.

 

[Ann Marie]

Thank you so much for the recommendations! Really, it's not that I'm so high maintenance (well, maybe it is... ) but I don't know if I'll have a chance to return to Jamaica (there are SO many places I want to visit) and I really want to get as much bottom time as possible.

 

[Scuba One]

It is not practical to drive back to Negril to make sure you get extra dive time.

It is a Jamaican regulation that all dives are guided. You will find most of the divemaster's run their dives like they do in Cozumel, where as the divers get low on air, the divemaster send's them to the surface, watching to make sure they get picked up, while allowing the rest of the divers run their tanks down to what is considered industry standard.

A lot of this has to do with the specific conditions and location of that particular dive. The dive operators can't guarantee this ahead of time, as they do not know the conditions or dive of that particular day.

The suggestion of using someone like Shaka Dalley is good, especially if you can contact them ahead of time.

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