Looking for Suggestions

[RickyF]

I am looking for suggestions on where my non-diving, love of my life wife and I might spend our 40th wedding anniversary next year. She is an amazing woman and fully supports my diving habit, and she wants to go somewhere nice that she can safely shop and just relax and do what she loves to do most which is lay at the pool and read and I can dive.
Neither one of us likes long plane flights. We live in Virginia and we have been to Hawaii and Oahu (long flights), San Diego and the Keys. We have been to Roatan several times and are going to Cozumel this year for the first time.
Looking for a really nice place to stay with good safe shopping and of course amazing diving. Money is not really a concern for this trip.
Any ideas??

 

[diversteve]

Grand Cayman is pretty safe as there's about 400 banks on the island so they don't allow crime there...lol. Diving is among the top 5 in the Caribbean. Maybe less shopping than Curacao. She'll be competing with the cruise shoppers downtown also - on Curacao as well. Seven Mile Beach is a nice area with a Marriott Grand and Ritz Carlton among others - it's a couple miles north of downtown. http://www.caymanislands.ky/

Curacao - maybe not as safe (some theft possibility) but the diving is as good as Bonaire and they're famous for the downtown shopping district. Willemstad Curacao Shopping Center- Shopping- Curacao Shops Curacao regularly is near the top in the Scubadiving Readers Choice polls. We've been to the Marriott Beach Resort/Casino - while it's a 10min. drive from downtown it's a really nice hotel. Great pool area, beachfront dining, diveop on-site. The shorediving farther out west is really excellent also. At many sites your wife could lie on the beach while you dive from it. Or there's the Dive Bus for escorted shore diving. They'll pick you up at the in-town resorts. http://www.curacao.com/en

Provo (Providenciales), Turks & Caicos - Grace Bay is pretty safe and there's shopping - you did say money is not a concern - though that applies to Grand Cayman also. We walked around SaltMills (20 stores?) one day and one across the street was a little more upscale, Gucci store next to the Rolex dealer etc. There's also a shopping area called Ports of Call - we didn't go there so IDK what else is in the area (except the casino...lol) Excellent boat diving just offshore, at West Caicos nearby and 45mins. to French Cay - some of the best diving I've done ever. Grace Bay is called the Best Beach in the World - I can see why. Provo is smaller and less populated also. http://www.turksandcaicostourism.com/

All of the above are IMO way safer than Roatan.

maybe St. Maarten if shopping is the priority over amazing diving. I've never been there but read that's it's famous for shopping.

 

[robint]

First.... what does your non-diving wife want to do during the day while you dive?

Second... are you looking to only do 2 dives in the morning, then spend the rest of day with her?

Third.... when are you going to Cozumel? It might be exactly what you are looking for, and may make your decision easier.

robin

 

[RickyF]

Steve,
Thanks!!

Robin,
I will probably do morning dives and spend the afternoons with her. She likes to sleep late (impossible at my house) and lay out by the pool and read. We will go wherever she wants and do what she wants in the afternoons.
We will be in Cozumel May 19 - June 2. We are staying at El Cantil. We may decide to return, but we both like exploring new places.

 

[DSR-3]

If "Money is not really a concern for this trip", I would make the long flights much more likeable (even enjoyable?) and fly first class to someplace more exotic like Indonesia or the south pacific. The shopping part might be an issue, though.

 

[RickyF]

If "Money is not really a concern for this trip", I would make the long flights much more likeable (even enjoyable?) and fly first class to someplace more exotic like Indonesia or the south pacific. The shopping part might be an issue, though.

Thanks! We have flown first class several times on trips to Japan and France. The time changes just kick our butts and jet lag makes the trip less enjoyable. That's why we like to visit the Carribean destinations. The long flights just don't do it for us anymore.

 

[DeputyDan]

You will love the El Cantil.

The location when considering your needs is excellent and you can choose from a variety of dive operators.

 

[DeputyDan]

St. Martin diving is good but not great. (Better than I was lead to believe but not top shelf)
The island would meet your wife's requirements.
We dove with Octopus Diving (on the French side) when we visited there.
It is a short flight!

 

[letsdive64]

dominica, is a great place to go if the non diver likes hiking and waterfalls.

 

[Doc]

....Looking for a really nice place to stay with good safe shopping and of course amazing diving.

St. Martin diving is good but not great.

And thus, nowhere near "amazing"?

The truth is, in the Caribbean (which is what this thread has been narrowed to), there remains very little "amazing diving", and what there is- it's nowhere near any lodging that is up-scale or any real shopping.

You're looking for a cruise-ship port destination that would allow for such developed infrastructure, yet still have the best of the Caribbean. It really doesn't exist. Success spoils. You would do better to totally drop the element of "shopping" (safe or risky), and concentrate on diving vs. laying about the pool. That you can come a lot closer to getting "above average Caribbean diving".

You say you've been to Roatan, but that's a big island and there are huge differences between the various zones. Diversteve's dire alarmist inference of personal safety issues aside, by this time, no matter where you have stayed there previously- you know the shopping s-u-c-k-s on Roatan. There is nothing truly upscale for lodging in the Bay Islands, and the geography that makes Roatan's diving "amazing" is located in a small zone on the South side. The rest of the Bay Islands is just typical of what is some of the best-of-what's-left in the Caribbean... not a bad thing.

Your best bet is Cayman for her, and you go dive with a more advanced dive charter rather than the typical micro-manager dive-ops that 99% of the tourists stumble into there. There is still some fairly interesting diving on Cayman, but not seen by most, usually wholly dependent on very atypical weather for access.