Loooking for a caribbean diving vacation -- novice divers

[diversteve]

OK, well maybe I need to review the budget again.

I would appreciate suggestions not tied to that $2,000 limit but that reflect our other concerns: novice divers, pelagics, good dive operators, interesting places to visit. Is Little Cayman good diving for us?

Bahamas diving is often shallow, Nassau/New Providence or Freeport/Grand Bahama will have shark options (feeds) for novice divers. Stuart Cove's does a lot of that on Nassau. Bahama Divers also does a couple of dives - one to a blue hole - where sharks are often seen. The sharks tend to hang around the sites during non-feed dives also. It's more affordable to stay in the Cable Beach area than on Paradise Island. Coves also lists a couple less expensive options on their website - one is a B&B - but they're not in town so you'd likely want a car. Stuart Cove - A Stone's Throw Away B&B
Nassau has more commercial things to do, the Atlantis Resort/Casino Paradise Island complex, shopping downtown, an old fort, golf course etc. Also cruise ships. But that only affects downtown typically.

UNEXSO on Grand Bahama also has shark and dolphin dives. That area - Port Lucaya - is pretty nice. It's a pretty low key, quiet island - one casino, some tourist shopping and lots of white sandy beaches. There's a ferry now between Fort Lauderdale and Grand Bahama Island - IDK if it's much cheaper than a BahamasAir flight though. https://www.ferryexpress.com/wps/portal/comercial/home_us_en?estrecho=3&resetPortlet=true

The outer islands, Exuma's, Eleuthera, Andros, San Salvador, Bimini etc. all have shark/pelagic options but are underpopulated and pretty quiet. I don't think many of them are exactly "interesting places to visit." Staniel Cay does have the beach swimming pigs...

For big pelagics, Curacao isn't an ideal choice either. Like Bonaire it's mostly small stuff. Saba is also.

Turks & Caicos would be good for pelagics but you may not find enough other interesting things to do there. It's a smaller version of Grand Cayman, equally pricey with less infrastructure. The Grace Bay area is a nice mix of resorts/restaurants and more upscale shopping. The big draw is that Grace Bay is one of the top beaches in the world.

Day boat trips out to West Caicos or French Cay would get you into the pelagics. At French Cay we saw 3-4 sharks per dive, turtles, stingrays were so common it was boring, lots of barracuda, some big eagle rays, huge lionfish and there are supposed to be some huge grouper somewhere off West Caicos . There's a couple of AI resorts on Provo also, Breezes and a Club Med. They do more of their diving locally off Provo. No shorediving there though - the reef is just too far offshore.

Grand Turk is another option but even though it's the capital, it's much smaller, much less populated with good wall diving. But:

home to a state of the art luxury cruise ship center.

Bohio Dive Resort is one option there. Certain times of year they see whales there also.
All about Turks/Caicos: Beautiful by Nature - Turks and Caicos Islands - Turks and Caicos Tourist Board

If you are still considering Grand Cayman, I found a nice looking B&B there last year. Cayman Islands B&B | Luxury Accommodations | Spa | Sunshine Suites is more affordable also, it's not waterfront (across the street) with kitchenettes in most of the rooms. I've seen under $100 in the summer there recently. They also offer packages with Divers Down - http://www.sunshinesuites.com/packages/

 

[farsidefan1]

Another vote for the Bahamas. Cheaper flight that any of the other options (by a LOT) and more likely to see bigger stuff. Stuart Cove will come pick you up and most of the hotels. Tons of places to eat you pick the meal budget from big macs to sushi. Oh, and everyone speaks English. After diving in the Bahamas sharks will be no big deal. You will be used to them.

 

[tmp]

I have done Cayman several time (including here in next two weeks 09/08 - 15). Cayman is not a cheap place to be, however, it is easy to get to from FLA, about an hour. If you are novice / new divers looking to expand your experiences Grand Cayman is easy diving with reasonable profiles. The reefs are nice and the currents are often minimal. I reccommend GC to all my friends who are new to diving - its is a great location with great diving to get "comfortable" in the water with your equipment and skills.

I would look at Either Cobalt Coast & Divetech on west end (west bay) or Ocean Frontiers (east end) for both your accomadations and your dive operators. I have been with both. They are A++++ operations, smoothly run, operate boats with MINIMAL divers - no cattle boats, and have friendly experienced staff.

You would not be dissapointed with either of them.

On a side note with either of these ops/locations you are close to Georgetown, which gives you tons of Topside options for your evenings or downtime.

Enjoy....

 

[BettyfromToronto]

I vote for Cozumel with Scuba Club Cozumel being our new second home. We are headed there again in November for our 3rd trip this year.

Package for hotel, 5 days of 2-tank diving, unlimited shore diving + 3 meals a day for less than $1000 per person. Air to FL would be cheap I think. We don't drink so don't want AI and our bar bill for pop, lemonade, etc is only about $35 for the 2 of us.

Check it out. Cozumel Scuba Diving at Scuba Club Cozumel Dive Resort and Scuba Cozumel Dive Shop

Love the webcam

 

[diversteve]

Although they're similar, Comfort Suites was actually the resort I was referring to at the end of my previous post. Welcome to Comfort Suites & Resort
Ambassador Divers is on-site there.

 

[KathyV]

This fall we will take our 5th trip to Grand Cayman and our second to Cayman Brac - so we obviously like it a lot! I remember that we stayed at the Comfort Suites awhile back for a couple of nights before getting on the Cayman Aggressor and that it was nice and the rates were reasonable and I think that they offered a free continental breakfast in the mornings too?

But honestly, we now try to rent a reasonalbly priced suite or a condo or kitchenette apartment in GC because the cost of eating out is so expensive there. I don't go on vacation to spend my time cooking but it is pretty easy to make a simple breakfast and lunch and then go out for dinner, we do the same thing when we go to Bonaire and for the same reason.