Placencia would seem to be the best place for you to go as the whale sharks at Gladden Spit is directly east of Placencia and you can do all of the other dives on your list plus manatees and mangroves from Placencia.
Timing to see whale sharks is:
March 8th - March 18th
April 6th - April 16th
May 6th - May 16th
June 4th - June 14rd
April and May are the best months based on past sightings and weather conditions.
At Splash we do the Blue Hole as either a one day trip but we would recommend our overnight trip. We leave early, have breakfast on the dive boat, then dive at Southwater Caye which is a marine reserve and a great dive, have light lunch on the boat during the surface interval and then dive The Elbow at Turneffe Atoll (one of the best dives in Belize) and then back on the boat and some more snacking while we head to The Aquarium dove site at Lighthouse Atoll and then dinner and overnight at a resort on a caye. The next morning we dive the Blue Hole before breakfast - which is great as there is usually no one else there at that time so you get to see more sharks and avoid the crowds -when we are ending our dive you can see all the dive boats on the horizon coming from San Pedro and Caye Caulker. After breakfast we do a second dive at Lighthouse and then head back to Southwater Caye with lunches on the dive boat. So, at the end of the second day, you have dived two of the three atolls, the barrier reef and the blue hole! For Manatees, we combine manatee watch with our Monkey River inland tour - you can check this tour out on our website
Amenities, Tours and Other Services|Splash Dive Center|Placencia Belize. We also dive Glover's Atoll as a day trip and other barrier reef sites plus Laughing Bird Caye National Park and World Heritge Site. You can check out the dive site descriptions on our website
Belize Scuba Diving Packages, Snorkeling & Whale sharks|Splash Dive Center|Placencia Belize Placencia is at the end of a pensinsula with the sea on the east and the lagoon on the east with the lagoon being a great spot to visit mangroves.
We partner with a number of hotels and private residences ranging from economy to luxury and you can find some of them listed on our website.
In addition to manatees and mangroves we also have close access to the southern Maya ruins and to Cockscomb Jaguar Perserve so if the weather deteriorates for a day or two, there are lots of other things to do close by.
If you have any questions please e-mail me at
ralph@splashbelize.com or if you want to make a booking, contact my partner Patty at
patricia@splashbelize.com or go to Live Help on our website.
Regards
Ralph
I am planning a trip to Belize for spring 2012. Trying to do and see a lot including the Blue Hole, Atolls, Barrier Reef, Whale Sharks, manatees, and the mangrove forests. Does anyone had recommendations on where to stay to be kind of centrally located so we can do everything? Any other must-see diving I am missing? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
