JetBlue all you can jet pass

[bigreef]

I bought one these before they sold out. I'm wondering if you guys can give me some advice on where I should go to for the best diving. I went diving in Oahu two years ago and I loved it since. I have a month of unlimited flying, I can go to these locations (map on the Jetblue web site):


Florida
Aruba
Nassau (Bahamas)
Hamilton Bermuda
Cancun
St. Maarten
Saint Lucia
San Juan
Barbados
Montego Bay
Kingston
Puerto Plata
Ponce
Santiago
Santo Domingo
Aguadilla

 

[Doc]

The one to Florida will get you closest to another flight to get to some real diving.

 

[diversteve]

Aruba's supposed to be decent. It also gets you within $200/rt or less to Bonaire - $150r/t to Curacao. Curacao has a CuracaoNow promotion where they credit you $200 under certain conditions.

Nassau is decent diving - some shark dive opportunities.
Lots of wrecks off Bermuda - including shallow ones.

I've read Barbados has good diving. As does St. Lucia. No personal experience with either.

 

[RJP]

The one to Florida will get you closest to another flight to get to some real diving.

Yup - main reason I didn't get one of those Jet Blue passes myself is that for the most part it's cheaper to fly direct from Newark to places with real diving than to fly to San Juan "for free" and the pay for a flight on another airline to "some real diving."

 

[protohuman]

Definitely Cancun.. Do the cenotes..Look up Manuelo at the Grand Maya Riviera Maya resort. He manages the dive shop there and can set you up with great cenote dives and drft dives. It is a great place to stay as well. For the drift dives the boat can pick you up at the hotel beach. For the cenotes a van leaves from the GMRM dive shop, you dive the cenote, have a great local lunch, sort of a sub thing but local baked and made, then another cenote dive. They provide guides. You do not have to be cave certified. They are caverns, not caves. I have been diving 41 years. Wife 25 years. Best dive trip either of us have done. We go back as often as we can (and we live in Bahamas which has great diving in the out islands)

 

[protohuman]

And dont forget to visit Playa Del Carmen on the free bus from the GMRM. You can get a 50 minute massage for 33 USD. Also there is an excellent CUBAN restaurant on the main party street. Eat on the balcony overlooking the street. Has Cuban murals on the inside walls. Ask anyone that is not hustling tourists to his own restaurant. The overall trip will be a great experience.

 

[bigreef]

Based on the results, I purchased my first flite to Nassau Bahamas.
I'll keep checking the results to see where I should go next.

 

[mike_s]

Aruba's supposed to be decent. It also gets you within $200/rt or less to Bonaire - $150r/t to Curacao. Curacao has a CuracaoNow promotion where they credit you $200 under certain conditions.

Nassau is decent diving - some shark dive opportunities.
Lots of wrecks off Bermuda - including shallow ones.

I've read Barbados has good diving. As does St. Lucia. No personal experience with either.

Aruba is great.... There is better diving on other islands, but Aruba has tons of great Argentine and Brazilian restaurants. the Food on that island is great.

Bahamas are good, but I'm just not a big fan of Nassau. Personally I think the Keys has better diving. (except maybe for the shark dives). Maybe I've just never found a great restaurant in Nassau, but none I've eaten at downtown impress me either.

Personally for the Bahamas, the "out islands" are much more attractive.

 

[diversteve]

Your dive options on Nassau are Stuart Cove's or Bahama Divers. SC's will pick you up in some areas and shuttle you (45min) to their facility on the south side of New Providence, BD is just over the bridge from Paradise Island. Both do shark dives, blue hole dives and wrecks. One of SC's nearby wrecks is the Thunderball wreck from the Bond movie.

Have fun, there's pretty good nightlife in Nassau if you know where to look. The Atlantis resort/casino complex on Paradise Island is worth visiting on a non-dive day. They have a really cool, large aquarium integrated into the property.

I forgot to mention, if you're considering Bonaire or Curacao via Aruba, the two regional airlines are Insel Air or Dutch Antilles Express.

 

[mksmith713]

You have an unlimited budget for lodging?
That's a must for most of the destinations everyone else is suggesting.