New member from SoCal looking for Honeymoon Destination

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stefanbob1

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Location
SoCal, USA
# of dives
25 - 49
Hi everyone,
Looking for advice! My fiance and I are getting married late next year. We got certified together on the California central coast (brrr), our diving experience ranges from Los Angeles (Catalina) up to Monterey (super brrr!), and we did two dives during a trip to Hawaii once. I'm looking for a change of pace with warmer, clearer waters and the chance to see an abundance of wildlife - so far, we haven't seen a whole lot. Even Hawaii seemed a bit sterile to me at the time, but that was probably due to the location (right outside Waikiki).

Our bucket list includes the Great Barrier Reef but we are young in our careers and don't have the dough for that right now. I'd like to know some destinations closer to home (Los Angeles area) that can be inexpensive without being cheap. We've been to Cancun for a friend's wedding but it was a quick trip and we stayed above water - I've seen Cozumel mentioned several times and would consider it. However I would prefer to go elsewhere because our trip will also involve land exploration and we've already done the Cancun scene.

Thoughts? Suggestions? I'd like to pretend we are travelling on a college budget - we are currently pinching pennies to pay down student loans and we can forgo the luxury.

We own personal gear only - masks, snorkel, gloves, fins, boots, and small dive lights. We will need to rent the rest.
 
Utila is what you're describing. Not a whole lot of "exploring", but maybe more on Utila than most other Caribbean destinations. No need for a Pith Helmet, anyway.

Remarkably good for Caribbean diving, about as cheap a cost per dive as you can find with acceptable boats, reliable rental gear, dive-op infrastructure, etc. Airfares are higher to the Bay Islands by comparison, some additional minor connections are required for that jump to Utila that add to travel time.

A lot of people go there, jumping the low hurdles....and enjoy the island of
Utila.

BTW- Cozumel isn't Cancun in any way. Diving in Coz is markedly better than Cancun. A lot of people rate Cozumel diving superlative, but I just don't see it. Some are quite enamored with the drift diving (which is a walk in the park compared to Tobago), but I believe its main attraction is the fair diving added to lots to enjoy when on land.
 
I'd look at Belize or Costa Rica.

Possibly spend a few days on Ambergris Caye diving then move south to the mainland for all the other explorations it's known for. The diving is off the Barrier Reef so it's sort of like Australia on a smaller scale and there's all the other things to do when non-diving: jungle tours, ziplines, jaguar preserve,cave tubing, Mayan ruins etc. Even the zoo is supposed to be worth a stop. An option would be a few days on Ambergris then move down to the Dangriga or Placencia area. Ferry, fly or if you're adventurous there's a bus.

There's diving in that area also but the boat rides are longer - up to an hour. Most of the other things I've mentioned are accessible from that area more easily since Ambergris is a Cay. I think Placencia has the nicest beach also. No personal experience but some friends stayed/dove there a couple years ago. Southwest just started flying into Belize City (the airport is there) this past October. Check Splash Dive's website - the do some package deals also. In early summer there's the option to dive with Whale Sharks also - details are on their site. It only happens around the full moons though. Some of the other resorts to the north also offer those trips.

Costa Rica is supposed to have great diving in one area. IDK which one. Also it's very eco-touristy - I've never been there. My DM nephew and his wife honeymooned there but the place they stayed was too remote from everything as they later found out.
 
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See below for info about a special offer for Plaza Beach Resort on Bonaire for travel between 4/9/16-12/23/16 but you have to book by 12/15/15.

For $888 per diver you get accommodations for 7 nights, 3 meals a day, alcoholic beverages, unlimited shore diving, wifi, airport transfers, and the price includes taxes and tips. I think it includes free nitrox too.

The big attraction of Bonaire is driving around the island to shore dive the various locations and that means renting a car or truck which adds expense. But you don't have do that (or you could just rent a car for a few days to save money.)

Flying to Bonaire can be pricey but you have time and you can shop around for the best airfares.

I have never stayed at PBR but we visited the property and it looked okay. I have read both negative and positive reviews of the resort so you should check it out carefully.

Good luck!

Plaza Beach Resort Bonaire - Caradonna Dive Adventures

10% OFF includes 7 night Junior Suite laguna view accommodations, 6 days of unlimited shore diving, all meals, snacks and beverages including house brand alcohol, free WiFi, scheduled entertainment, use of non-motorized watersports, airport transfers, hotel tax, and service charges.

Travel 1/2/16-4/8/16. Travel 4/9/16-12/23/16 and receive 20% off or $888 pp/dbl. Book by 12/15/15. Add on 6 days of 1-tank boat dives for $200 per person.
 
Cozumel has a lot to offer with excellent diving and well-preserved reefs and life and you can explore the nearby Yucatan which has amazing Mayan temples, cenotes and jungles. Saw some parrots, crocodiles, iguanas, spoonbills and pig-like critters. Fairly inexpensive.

Other place might be Costa Rica which has really excellent above-water wildlife/bird viewing and lots of budget adventures and some diving.


Hi everyone,
Looking for advice! My fiance and I are getting married late next year. We got certified together on the California central coast (brrr), our diving experience ranges from Los Angeles (Catalina) up to Monterey (super brrr!), and we did two dives during a trip to Hawaii once. I'm looking for a change of pace with warmer, clearer waters and the chance to see an abundance of wildlife - so far, we haven't seen a whole lot. Even Hawaii seemed a bit sterile to me at the time, but that was probably due to the location (right outside Waikiki).

Our bucket list includes the Great Barrier Reef but we are young in our careers and don't have the dough for that right now. I'd like to know some destinations closer to home (Los Angeles area) that can be inexpensive without being cheap. We've been to Cancun for a friend's wedding but it was a quick trip and we stayed above water - I've seen Cozumel mentioned several times and would consider it. However I would prefer to go elsewhere because our trip will also involve land exploration and we've already done the Cancun scene.

Thoughts? Suggestions? I'd like to pretend we are travelling on a college budget - we are currently pinching pennies to pay down student loans and we can forgo the luxury.

We own personal gear only - masks, snorkel, gloves, fins, boots, and small dive lights. We will need to rent the rest.
 
However I would prefer to go elsewhere because our trip will also involve land exploration and we've already done the Cancun scene.

Exploring what on land? Cities/towns? Bars? Museums? Zoos? Rainforest?

If exploring the jungle is your thing, exploring it how? Walking tours to see jungle & ideally Mayan ruins? Tube riding in a cave? Zip-lining? Aerial tram? ATV's? Horse-back riding? I'm just trying to get a sense of what sort of things you guys like to do.

Anthony's Key Resort in Roatan gets good reviews & I see they've got some sort of 2016 2-for-1 promotion; I've also read they've got topside excursions. Captain Sinbad just posted a trip report that'd tell you a lot about taking a trip there. I've never been.

Look at the rates, use Orbitz or similar to get a sense of your projected airfare costs...anyone care to comment whether this looks like a decent option?

Richard.
 
Thank you everyone! This has been very helpful starting point to begin researching our trip. I admit that I was feeling overwhelmed, but now I have more focus and feel less daunted.

Question, how far in advance should I plan to make reservations? We are marrying in October but she has already told me it's OK to delay the honeymoon if necessary to secure arrangements, achieve better weather, or save money based on off-season rates. I won't be comfortable putting money down until I've researched the options, so I plan to book after the holidays are over (January). Is that enough time?

Just curious how would you rank these destinations in terms of overall cost for a week long trip? Cozumel, Costa Rica, Belize, Bonaire, Utila, Roatan

I see several posts about deals at various locations. Is there a "deals" thread/section on Scubaboard?



Exploring what on land? Cities/towns? Bars? Museums? Zoos? Rainforest?

If exploring the jungle is your thing, exploring it how? Walking tours to see jungle & ideally Mayan ruins? Tube riding in a cave? Zip-lining? Aerial tram? ATV's? Horse-back riding? I'm just trying to get a sense of what sort of things you guys like to do.

Richard,
When we visited Cancun a few years ago we stayed at an all-inclusive resort for friends' wedding. We only went into the city once for some shopping, and we also spent a day at Xplor, a local theme park with cave swimming, zip lines, and ATVs. That was fun but very artificial experience. It was also a short trip, I think less than 4 days.


For our honeymoon I would rather get a more "native" experience. She has family heritage from Mexico so we would like to explore historical sites (ruins) and learn more about the culture. We are very passionate about sea life (both scuba diving and snorkeling) and I want to see unique creatures like turtles or rays. Also she grew up horse back riding, so that is a must! Aside from that, I am a hiker and would like to do a trail or two. Other things, I want good food, and visiting local landmarks in addition to (of course) several days of diving. Remember too that I want to avoid spending a lot of money on tourist traps like ATVs or tram tours.


If it helps give context, we briefly considered a live-aboard dive boat trip (sounds like a fun & new experience!), but ruled it out because I'm sure the diving will wear us out - so I want to have some balance with the land activities and maybe spa/hot tub time.



I have a few family members that have taken their kids to Costa Rica and loved it. I have no doubt that the "land" activities like the cloud forest and zip lines sound fun! However, my family members did not do any diving and could not speak to that experience. Is it worth it? Are there any unique sea life to be seen when diving Costa Rica, or should we focus on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef area?
 
Typically high season in the Caribbean starts around mid-Sept thru mid-April/May 1st. There are obviously exceptions. Sometimes it's a big increase other times just a few $/day since they seem to just be taking advantage of the trend. Look at any dive resort website - most list high/low season rates/dates.

Cozumel, Roatan, Utila, probably Belize then Costa Rica is probably low to high from LAX. There's some pretty reasonable flights to Cozumel and quality reasonable accommodations - nicer AI resorts also. From Cozumel you can also do day trips to the mainland via the ferry or even some of the dive operators. One offers an all day trip to the ruins at Tulum paired with dives/lunch. I think it's Scuba with Alison but I'm not positive.

Roatan is cheaper than Utila because the flight over to Utila often originates on Roatan. Or San Pedro Sula on the mainland. Typically that flight runs around $160pp. Alice at Worldwide Travel on Utila can arrange that. She has a Facebook page with current details. Or you can do both ferries from Roatan - takes about 3-4 hrs. each way since both go to the mainland at La Ceiba. Either island has similar prices on everything else - there's just a lot more of it on Roatan.

Utila mostly consists of a mile or so town with just about everything clustered together - some houses in a couple areas farther east/west or the 2 decent AI resorts on the south side but both are accessed via boat only. It's a big backpacking destination so there must be some trails - there's one short peak also. A big part of the island is mangrove lagoon and there's a LOT of bugs. A woman in our group went birdwatching - she looked like she had chickenpox a day later. It's pretty quiet there - nightlife is mostly DM trainees in the bars at night. And you want to stay away from the "thump" if possible. Try something farther west - there's some decent resorts about 15mins. walk away. I've actually only seen it from the water but Coral View Beach resort looked decent. And they have a shore dive and a pool. Most have golf carts or bikes also. Utila Official Site - Utila, Tropical Island Paradise for everything. Here's Alice's info: https://www.facebook.com/wwtutila/

Good diving - there's some deep wall diving off the north side. Some larger pelagics also - we reliably saw sharks once a day or more. If you plan your trip for early spring, there's a good chance to swim with Whale Sharks on snorkel trips most operators do after diving. We did with 8 over 2 days.

Roatan is just more of everything. More resorts, more AI dive resorts, West Bay is a very nice beach. There's ziplines, some hiking - there's one lower peak there and it's more hilly in areas. The West End has most of the shops, restaurants and bars/clubs. The south side is more AI dive resorts and all going east are pretty isolated by distance. Many people go to Cocoview for a week, get shuttled there, dive, eat and never leave. We personally like the West End since it's all walkable. A nice place there is Cocolobo but there's many others. You might also consider Luna Beach Resort - it's about 10 mins. walk/water taxi from town and they have a pool, decent beach, breakfast/lunch etc. Dinner is a walk to the West End or water taxi to West Bay. One option there is they rent their "treehouses" to single couples if available. Costs a little more but you get a 3br nicely upscale villa located above the resort on the hill. If you want more of a dive resort, Anthony's Key is currently offering a BOGO - I'm sure I saw it's extended into 2016 also. Nice resort, get an overwater cabana on the Key for privacy - the pool and small beach are also there. If you tire of the resort bar/food - the West End is about 5mins. by cab away. A lot of the West Bay properties are also beachfront.

Bonaire is really going to be about diving. There's not much else to do, maybe rent a bike one day. The Donkey farm is fun once. Drive down and see the Flamingos/Lighthouse once also. It's still a pretty small, quiet island although there is some cruise traffic now. And it's pretty expensive to get to. If you want waterfront - the dive resorts all book at PP rates including diving/truck rental so that can be a little costlier. It's cheaper to find a water view resort or property in town across the street from the water - all will also have a dive package option. We stay in condos south of town with their own dive operation on site - downside is we drive for every meal we don't cook. They're not really budget priced either. Bonaire is also a desert island so hiking is going to be among cactus etc. - and pretty warm leading to hot in the summer. Bonaire Offical Site - Top Destination for Diving and Eco-Activities for details.

An option not on your list might be Curacao. It's a much larger island than Bonaire but the same diving (50 miles apart - same reef). Much more to do there non-dive - Christoffel Park is mostly hiking trails and there's a short peak to climb also (walking) Same diving, easier entries than Bonaire. One advantage to either is that if you buy a $100+ shore dive package that's all it will cost you. One other advantage to Curacao is the dive sites are almost all sandy beach entries with facilities, food, even dive operators on site. On Bonaire once you leave the dive resorts you're pretty well on your own. And Ironshore entries. Hate to see you get cut-up/break something on the honeymoon. Curacao is also a deep water port so everything is cheaper than Bonaire since most of it comes from there. Food in Bonaire stores/restaurants was pretty high - on Curacao not much more than a large metro city in the U.S. Also some of the flights to Bonaire stop in Curacao first - to fly over costs around $160 r/t so that's in your Bonaire flight cost also. I can also get to Curacao by 2PM leaving Phoenix very early in the morning. I can't get to Bonaire till 7PM or so. Unless you do the Friday night red-eye through Houston. Curacao, a unique Caribbean island paradise. Official Curacao site for details.

You could also split your Belize time differently than I suggested. There are some mountain ranges inland and there's a mayan city ruins near one. So maybe do a few days on Ambergris diving then a few days inland. Plenty of "adventures" river running, ziplines, cave tubing etc. I don't have a good reference for that except Blancaneux Lodge and it's not reasonably priced. It is in the same general area though. This post and my post above are pretty much all I know about Belize - we'd planned to go there but changed to Roatan instead since we found a better deal in the West End for everything. We look for diving and some nightlife as a group though.
 
If it helps give context, we briefly considered a live-aboard dive boat trip (sounds like a fun & new experience!), but ruled it out because I'm sure the diving will wear us out - so I want to have some balance with the land activities and maybe spa/hot tub time.
wanting a lot of land activities is a good reason to skip a liveaboard, but concern over getting worn out by the diving probably isn't - diving (and pretty much everything) from a liveaboard is less work than land based. And you don't have to do every single dive offered - most people don't. It seems common though, for new divers to only want to do a couple dives a day on the first dive trip. If you keep with it you will find yourself wanting 4-5 a day and that's when to do the liveaboard. :)

Just curious how would you rank these destinations in terms of overall cost for a week long trip? Cozumel, Costa Rica, Belize, Bonaire, Utila, Roatan
I think it's hard to rank that list of places- I believe they can all be done relatively inexpensively, but so much depends on the airfare you can get, what sort of place you decide to stay, deals you can find, and what all you decide to do while you're there. Some places you'll get cheaper airfare, but save on the diving, or vice versa, or maybe you'll hit a great bargain at a place to stay that includes a lot. You'll probably soon be at the point where you really need take some of the ideas that sound good and look at the specifics, maybe make a spreadsheet adding up your likely options, to be able to know what's the best deal on a place you'll be happy with.

I do think Belize has a lot of great stuff to do on land more so than most other places, but it's a long way from the diving to the inland activities. You can do land stuff from Ambergris (not sure about Caye Caulker) as well as dive, but that will cost you in money and time. South such as Placencia, you can get to land stuff more easily, but have longer boat rides to the diving (not sure how dive costs compare.) I personally think it's best in Belize to separate the land and diving portions of your trip, stay someplace convenient to diving, then stay someplace else convenient to the ruins, hiking, paddling, etc. Also in Belize you may be tempted to write off a lot of the tours as tourist traps, and that may be a little true for a few, but not as much as you might think. For a lot of the things it really is worth just going on a tour with a local guide. (You do want to avoid certain places when cruise ship hordes might be visiting, which is something to research if you were to decide on Belize. Sometimes helpful other places, but definitely Belize..)
 
I just really wouldn't do a liveaboard honeymoon. It's not like a cruise ship and not very private. One boat we could hear the conversation next door at night. On some there's nowhere to get away - the lounge is public, the sundeck usually full and some with an upper deck also shared by others. I suppose you could get someone to tender you ashore instead of diving but that's not always convenient - or worthwhile. I've been on one boat where that wasn't even an option - no ports once we left the main island.
 
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