Newish Diver looking for a Costa Rica Trip

[YukonJack]

My first real diving was in Belize last June, and I am now looking for a Costa Rica trip. Not knowing anything about Costa Rica, I would really like to hear your thoughts on where to best dive. I'm looking at May right now, but could push it to June. Any thoughts you "guys" have would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Scubagolf]

Why Costa Rica? Nice place to visit but not a top Central American/Caribbean dive destination, IMHO.

 

[ibj40]

Are you looking for recommendations whether Caribbean or Pacific?

You need to refine your question.

We've dived CR twice, both times out of the Guanacaste area.

 

[outofofficebrb]

Hi,

Are you going to Costa Rica and wanting to dive while there or are you trying to make it a dive specific trip? How many days do you have total and how many days would you like to dive? While topside, what do you want to do?

 

[YukonJack]

I just thought it would be a fun place to go and get some diving in too. I have no real plans right now. I'm also trying to go where SW flies since I have a ton of points. Do you guys have other recommendations? I'm looking for something fairly reasonable in terms of costs since I'm going for like 5 days and my wife would kill me if I went high end without her

 

[outofofficebrb]

I just thought it would be a fun place to go and get some diving in too. I have no real plans right now. I'm also trying to go where SW flies since I have a ton of points. Do you guys have other recommendations? I'm looking for something fairly reasonable in terms of costs since I'm going for like 5 days and my wife would kill me if I went high end without her

Just diving or just topside activities, if you only have 5 days, don’t bother with Costa Rica IMO. Go to Cozumel!

 

[Dogbowl]

Just diving or just topside activities, if you only have 5 days, don’t bother with Costa Rica IMO. Go to Cozumel!

It’s funny how when someone asks for advice about good diving at a reasonable cost, it always ends up to be Cozumel!

I agree wholeheartedly with @outofofficebrb , go to Cozumel!

 

[YukonJack]

OK, I'll take a look. Thanks guys!

 

[tomcatbubba]

My first real diving was in Belize last June, and I am now looking for a Costa Rica trip. Not knowing anything about Costa Rica, I would really like to hear your thoughts on where to best dive. I'm looking at May right now, but could push it to June. Any thoughts you "guys" have would be greatly appreciated!

I too have a ton of SW and Marriott points. My choice would be key Largo. There are about 20 flights a day from BWI to Fort Lauderdale and they are dirt cheap either purchasing or by using points. Rent a car and drive down the toll lanes and it takes about an hour and a half. The diving is awesome, fairly inexpensive if you buy multi-day passes and there are plenty of shops to choose from. Since you are fairly new I would stay on the reefs or some of the more shallow wrecks like the Benwood. I probably wouldn’t try the deeper wrecks though.

I’ve dove both coasts of Costa Rica and it was nothing spectacular. I did the bat islands on the Pacific side and they were awesome, but very challenging and not suitable for a beginner. Plus the boat ride was about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. You can get out to almost all of the reefs in key Largo in about 30 minutes.

I’ve been diving the keys for about 20 years and know most of the dive shops and hotels pretty well. Please feel free to PM me and I can give you more details and some recommendations. I really like the Marriott key Largo by the way. In the off-season you can book rooms for about $150 a night if you dive with the shop located on the property, which is currently Ocean Divers.

Oh, and if you rent a car don’t buy the tolls from the rental counter, they are $10 a day. Just order a Sunpass transponder and you will pay a 10th of the price.

 

[tomcatbubba]

Forgot to mention, May and June are the start of the rainy season so you will get a lot of run off into the reefs along the coast. Since Costa Rica is a developing country, this means a lot of agricultural and waste run off. This in turn means poor visibility from the algae bloom from all of the nitrogen (doody) and phosphorus.