Liveaboard: Cayman vs. Bahamas vs. Turks

[Todd999]

We are looking at liveaboard options Cayman vs. Bahamas vs Turks for late December

Which do you prefer and why?

 

[BoltSnap]

Personally, for scuba diving, I'd choose the Caymans WAY before the Bahamas. Cayman has better, more diverse diving with much better marine life. When I owned my dive center in NY way back, I always heard people wanting to go back to the Caymans, but I rarely heard people wanting to go back to the Bahamas after visiting the Caymans.

 

[bmag78]

Turks and Caicos is basically a Bahamian island, geologically and from a scuba standpoint, and well served by the Turks and Caicos Explorer. Great trip worth considering

 

[scubadada]

Hi @Todd999

There is only one liveaboard in the Caymans, the Cayman Aggressor IV. The one critical factor is whether the boat will be able to make the passage to Little Cayman for the diving at Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. If not, I can't imagine spending the week off Grand Cayman would be worth it.

I dived the Cayman Aggressor V, now the Bahamas Aggressor II in 2018 and had a good time despite losing one day at Little Cayman.

Trip Report Thread 'Cayman Aggressor V, November 24-December 1, 2018'

Jan 2, 2019

I have been to Grand Cayman 10 times, Little Cayman twice, and Cayman Brac once. When I found myself with a bonus week available for diving, I jumped at the opportunity to spend the time on the new Cayman Aggressor V, especially with the 35% discount they offered for their 35th anniversary. I looked forward to diving the best sites all three islands have to offer.

Reservations/travel:

It couldn’t have been a much simpler trip than this. I made my liveaboard reservations directly with Aggressor, it worked flawlessly. This was my 5th trip with Aggressor (Red Sea x2, Cocos...

• scubadada
• Replies: 29
• Forum: Cayman Islands

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I have only dived Tiger Beach and Bimini off Dolphin Dream, so can't comment on the diving in the Bahamas.

 

[rongoodman]

Turks and Caicos. You have your choice of two boats. On my last trip to the Caymans we never got to make the crossing.

 

[Damselfish]

That's a tough one. I don't think I would do the CA 4 in the winter months when odds of making the crossing to Little aren't great. Once upon a time I wouldn' have minded as much as it's at least an easy way of getting in a bunch of dives on Grand more easily than shore based. But the diving on Grand doesn't do much for me anymore.

Bahamas is good if you like sharks. There's some interesting stuff otherwise, but not really great reef diving. Aquacat runs a great trip and makes the most of what it has to work with. 3 weeks on that boat and I'd do it again, but it does often book far ahead. We were on one of the last trips of the BVI Aggressor (formerly CA 5) before it became Bahamas Aggressor 2 a few months ago. Very nice boat but no idea what their trip in Bahamas is like. I'd skip the BA 1 as it seems an older and not as nice boat, but that's just my preference.

I might pick Turks&Caicos but haven't been there in a very long time so no opinion on the diving now. I would probably pick the Explorer boat over Aggressor but I haven't been on either. (Did some land based and was on what is now Okeanos Aggressor.)