New to the forum!!! Need some trip advice!!!

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girlandthesea

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Hi There,
I'm not sure I'm even putting this in the right spot but only one way to find out!! My husband and I are looking into heading on a dive trip in the caribbean in mid- November for about a week. Options we have been looking at are Roatan, Bonaire, Cozumel and are open to any suggestions. My husband is a newer diver with less than 15 dives, is one of these place generally more shallow or 'easier' for an open water diver yet still has decent sites? We don't want to go somewhere only to find out most sites are too difficult!!Any advice/tips would be greatly appreciated!!!
 
check out the regional dive sites. Dedicated to specific locations, and a wealth of information.
Enjoy.
 
I'm fairly certain November is the wettest month of the year on Roatan. Not that you won't be getting wet diving but it affects the visibility. If you decide on Roatan, stay south, diving in the West End/West Bay can shut down if there's a "Norther" while you're there. A couple years ago my friends were in one over Thanksgiving, many of the West End shops shut down since their pangas can't get out. The bigger operators (Anthony's Key, Coconut Tree, West End Divers - others) move their boats and shuttle you over. Roatan has one shark dive - the only place you'll see them and the Dolphins at AKR.

Bonaire is easy diving - shore diving capital of the Caribbean. Many dive resorts are waterfront and offer both boat and unlimited shore dive options. It's often flat calm there. The East Side is the only spot with rougher water and fast currents - wait till your buddy has more dives. There's easy shore dives off almost all the dive resorts - many on named dive sites - and up and down the west coast. Farther north some of the entries get a little more difficult and almost all of them require good treaded boots and some sense of balance as you're often traversing ironshore/coral rubble at the water line.

Curacao is the same diving with easier entries - off sandy beaches instead of over the ironshore. The few that are on ironshore have dive docks. Dive sites are farther spread apart though. There's almost as many - something like 50+ compared to Bonaire's 70. Most of the known dive sites have on-site facilities, operators, snack shops etc. On Bonaire once you leave the dive resorts there's no facilities of any kind. To try shore diving Curacao also has the Dive Bus - they do escorted shore dives. It's a good way to start then go out on your own. We did One boat dive the entire week on Curacao (20+ dives) and about 6-8 on Bonaire. 4 would've covered the Bonaire highlights IMO.

There is about 10X the things to do on Curacao, casinos, nightlife, famous shopping downtown - also 10X the population. Curacao might be cheaper/faster to get to from Ontario. The West End of Curacao is surprisingly very quiet - most people live near Willemstad. Most of Bonaire is quiet.

Since the reef on both islands parallels the shore, navigation is simple. I never used a compass once. You swim out to the ball (slightly longer swim on Curacao), decide which way the current (if any) is going and swim into it. With a few exceptions on Curacao's west side, at most sites you'll be able to see your entry point during your entire dive. Or just look for your vehicle, on Bonaire's south side it's parked 20' from the water.

Both Bonaire and Curacao are primarily small stuff. Lots of live coral, small fish, crustaceans etc. About the biggest thing you'll see are Stingrays, Moray Eels and lots of Tarpon. Curacao has a Dolphin dive also thru Ocean Encounters. We saw dolphins twice in the wild from our balcony but never in the water. I've never seen a shark off either island.

I believe from your area, Cozumel will be the most reasonable. I don't know much about it. It is typically deeper drift diving so that may be a lot of task loading for your buddy.
 
Cozumel is ALL drift diving, but not all of it is deep. Most of the "deep" sites (outside of Maracaibo, Punta Sur, Devil's Throat) can be dived more shallowly, but to do so, you would probably need to hire your own DM (usually at a cost of around $50) as, if it is the first of a 2 tank dive (typical of most Coz ops), the DM leads the group on a deeper dive. The second dive is usually 40-50 feet depth. Current varies from site to site, but typically, November isn't known for crazy currents.
 
Curacao or Bonaire are likely your best bets.
Most of the dives on Roatan can easily be done shallow, while the DMs tend to lead the group deeper down a wall- not a good idea for a new diver- you can easily stay up on the top of the reef in 30ish feet of water and follow their bubbles assuming you are comfortable diving as a buddy team with no DM.
Coz is nice but the DMs (at least every time I have been there) tend to like to take divers deeper than a new diver really should be and it is almost all boat drift diving. The divers MUST be comfortable doing free decents and accents in open water, there are no lines up use as reference. Doing a 3 minute safety stop in open water while drifting is the norm so you and your buddy need to be comfortable doing so without a DM or anyone else around. Getting seperated from the group does happen and you need to be comfortable with that.

The other thing to consider is what are your diving/vacation goals. Is it 2 dives a day followed shore activites or is it dive dive dive vacation. Coz is typically 2 dives a day followed by the rest of the day doing tourist things. Roatan is 4 boat dives a day and more shore diving if you like with some tourist time. Curacao can be dive dive diver or a wide mix of the 2. Bonaire is best as a dive dive dive, eat, sleep and dive dive dive week.
 
Diversteve, thanks so very much for all of the helpful info, I had originally been checking my post everyday and did not receive any replies the first few days so I actually gave up thinking no one was going to reply and had not even been on scubaboard again until now!! Obviously have to learn to be more patient!!! We have recently booked Cozumel as there were no flights left (we booked last minute) to Curacao and Bonaire. They are still on our list though as is Roatan, thanks for the heads up about november. Will be saving your info for Bon and Cur. for future reference.

Really want to say thanks again for taking the time to reply and with so much helpful info!!

---------- Post added November 11th, 2013 at 07:30 PM ----------

Thanks MMM, we booked Cozumel a few days ago... after reading some of the replies, including yours im not sure it was the best choice but if we have to hire a DM then we will def. do that. There were no flights to Bon or Cur for the week that we booked so we didn't really have much choice in where we went for diving.

Thanks again for the info

---------- Post added November 11th, 2013 at 07:33 PM ----------

THanks Herman, we did end up booking Cozumel, we will have to be selective about which sites we choose, but definitely appreciate the heads up.

Thanks again!!
 
You will probably love coz. Let your dive shop know what kind of dive you want. They should be able to group you with like divers. Viz is normally fantastic. Don't try to fight the current. Just go with the drift - relax and enjoy the view. NDon't get stressed about the assents. As long as you can maintain buoyancy at 15-20 ft for 3 minutes you've got it made. When you hit the surface, boat will pick you up. Wish I were going too. Let us know how you like it when you're done.
 
While I would not suggest Coz for a nearly new diver, with @15 dives, some do it. I would much more recommend Bonaire for the budding diver.

BUT, you booked Coz, so make the best of it. I would speak with the op, and the DM on the boats though, and make sure they understand that your husband is a newer diver, and you want to stay relatively shallow. There are many Coz ops and DM's who tend to poo-poo a new diver's desire to avoid deep dives, and push a diver beyond their training/certification level. Coz has wonderful diving, and you do not have to go deep to have great dives.
 
Thanks Diver 86, was getting a bit stressed reading some of the posts but I think that we will probably pay a private DM for the first day just to get the hang of things. We are very excited to go and will def check back in and let ya know how it all went. and if I don't check back well then I guess you'll still know how it went.... LOL :wink:

---------- Post added November 11th, 2013 at 08:46 PM ----------

Thanks jim, appreciated.
 
My gf and I went to Coz a couple of years ago, and i was surprised how they push a relatively new OW diver like her into doing deep dives. In the end she decided to take her AOW while there, so it worked out.

Hiring a DM is exactly how she decided to go. Well worth it. IMO.
 
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