"older" not-very-experienced diver and a prospective-diver adult son looking for advice on where to go

[PatW]

I like the "Sister" islands in the Caymans. Generally great visibility, very good sea life, and Reef Divers is a fine operator.

I have been to Turneffe Island Resort in Belize. It is expensive. It is skiff dives at 60' by and large. And it is an out island. But it is a very good experience.

I prefer Utila to Roatan. I think Utila has better corals and a greater variety than Roatan. The operator I used to use has closed so I cannot recommend one. The times I went, it was pretty heavily fished so not much big stuff. A fair bit of small stuff and a fair number of sea horses.

Cozumel is fine. It is generally drift diving from skiffs. There are some really good operators. The farther south you go, the better the reefs.

 

[Oldbear]

1+ for Cozumel

I am organizing an Open Water & Advanced Open Water/Nitrox combination course in Cozumel for Jan.

 

[flatoutsask]

Hi. I got PADI certified at age 64 about 7 years ago but haven't dived in about 4 years now. But this Christmas holiday, my 32 year old non-diver son and I are looking to do a trip for him to get certified and me to take a reactivate refresher course. We're tentatively thinking about the Caribbean ( Caymans, Belize, Turks and Caicos, Roatan) . Would really LOVE some advice about our best options! Here's what's on our "wish list": A good school, where he can get certified and I can do the needed refresher/reactivate course. All boat dives....I'm just not up to or for lugging gear acorss the shore anymore! Good marine life, good visibility, warm (ish) water in late Dec. (I hate wet suits and would really love to dive in just a skin and am comfortable doing so in temps in the low 80s. ) Enough folks around, bars and restaurants, etc. to go to in the evenings for my son to enjoy on his own. Clean, nice place to stay with decent food options , but doesn't (in fact, shouldn't be) overly fancy (or pricey!)

All suggestions and advice welcome!

My daughter and I did our open water on Isla Muheras off Yucatan about 1/2 hr ferry from Cancun. Good, diverse diving. We stayed at Airbnb but some modest resorts on island or very accessible for daily commutes by ferry to Cancun

 

[kelarnold]

Hi. I got PADI certified at age 64 about 7 years ago but haven't dived in about 4 years now. But this Christmas holiday, my 32 year old non-diver son and I are looking to do a trip for him to get certified and me to take a reactivate refresher course. We're tentatively thinking about the Caribbean ( Caymans, Belize, Turks and Caicos, Roatan) . Would really LOVE some advice about our best options! Here's what's on our "wish list": A good school, where he can get certified and I can do the needed refresher/reactivate course. All boat dives....I'm just not up to or for lugging gear acorss the shore anymore! Good marine life, good visibility, warm (ish) water in late Dec. (I hate wet suits and would really love to dive in just a skin and am comfortable doing so in temps in the low 80s. ) Enough folks around, bars and restaurants, etc. to go to in the evenings for my son to enjoy on his own. Clean, nice place to stay with decent food options , but doesn't (in fact, shouldn't be) overly fancy (or pricey!)

All suggestions and advice welcome!

Lions Dive resort in Curacao has a great dive operation and the diving is all boat diving with great dive masters. Ocean Encounters provides PADI and SSI classes. Ocean encounters also has packages available. There are very nice restaurants on the boardwalk attached to the hotel with many options. The hotel rooms include modern apartments with full kitchens and a valet will take you to the grocery store to stock up. I really enjoyed this trip. Beautiful soft corals, some healthy hard corals, and sea horse on every dive!

 

[Altamira]

From the list the Op posted, I favor Cayman, or Curacao and Bonaire if he wants to venture farther south. Coz is a great place to dive, and with full disclosure, I did take my newly minted Jr. OW certed grandson to Coz for his second & third ocean dives after the first two in Grand Cayman. However, I will confess I was a lot more apprehensive about him in Coz than Cayman, with the potential of squirrely currents, and that seriously increased my stress, workload, and reduced my own enjoyment.

 

[Diverspoint]

Late december north caribbean air temp gets coldish, so before and after dive it gets cool and needing clothes or wetsuits.

Ad far south as possible in caribbean is better.

 

[wlecyt40]

Hi. I got PADI certified at age 64 about 7 years ago but haven't dived in about 4 years now. But this Christmas holiday, my 32 year old non-diver son and I are looking to do a trip for him to get certified and me to take a reactivate refresher course. We're tentatively thinking about the Caribbean ( Caymans, Belize, Turks and Caicos, Roatan) . Would really LOVE some advice about our best options! Here's what's on our "wish list": A good school, where he can get certified and I can do the needed refresher/reactivate course. All boat dives....I'm just not up to or for lugging gear acorss the shore anymore! Good marine life, good visibility, warm (ish) water in late Dec. (I hate wet suits and would really love to dive in just a skin and am comfortable doing so in temps in the low 80s. ) Enough folks around, bars and restaurants, etc. to go to in the evenings for my son to enjoy on his own. Clean, nice place to stay with decent food options , but doesn't (in fact, shouldn't be) overly fancy (or pricey!)

All suggestions and advice welcome!

CoCo View Resort in Roatan has instructors. I have seen them do one-on-one instruction. One was for OW and another for AWO. The nice thing about that resort is it's pretty much 24/7 diving! They both had their certs in about three days and got to enjoy diving with some of the best diving after they were certified. My wife and I have always said that if there was one one place we could go diving, it would be at CoCo View.

 

[chillyinCanada]

CoCo View Resort in Roatan has instructors. I have seen them do one-on-one instruction. One was for OW and another for AWO. The nice thing about that resort is it's pretty much 24/7 diving! They both had their certs in about three days and got to enjoy diving with some of the best diving after they were certified. My wife and I have always said that if there was one one place we could go diving, it would be at CoCo View.

True but it doesn't answer what the OP ststed that he wants for his son.

 

[FreqFlier]

+1 Grand Cayman

 

[Seaweed Doc]

I'm another vote for Roatan. I've dived Coz and Belize (a lot) as well as Roatan. For novices looking at boat diving, I love Roatan. Pretty much every dive post-training is a boat dive. It's relatively inexpensive, and the dives generally are the perfect combination of safety and interesting sites. Ideal for the novice diver.

And beware El Nortes in December, which apparently will take out Cozumel and make Belize unpleasant. In Roatan, there's always the other side of the island....