Print out a couple of trip reports from people on Bonaire & Cozumel, then sit down and compare what a 1 week stay at each would be like. Throw in Belize if taking a day for a tour up the New River and a walking jungle tour to see some Mayan ruins (like pyramids) would appeal to you. But Bonaire & Cozumel are both 'famous' and likely on a some bucket lists, so let's look at that.
Sample Bonaire Trip:
1.) Stay at Buddy Dive.
2.) They pick you up & take you to the airport, and rent you a truck on grounds at the resort. There's a nice house reef you can dive right there without having to leave the grounds if someone doesn't want to.
3.) Breakfast buffet included. For your other meals, plan to hit the grocery store & cook in for lunch, eat out for supper, the latter maybe $20 - $25 apiece with wide variance.
4.) Each day, eat, then get in a manual transmission rental truck and drive up & down the west coast near shore looking for dive sites identified by yellow rocks with names on them. Get out & shore dive some.
5.) One day do a half-day driving tour of Washington-Slagbaii Park up north.
6.) All dives are on 80 cf tanks, on a near-shore roughly 45 degree sloping reef wall with lots of coral, & not much big stuff (except some tarpon; most sea turtles I see there are garbage can lid sized or so, but there are exceptions). I'm an air hog; my dives run around 45 minutes up to 55 (if I mess around in a shallows a lot draining my tank down).
Sample Cozumel Trip.
1.) Stay at a hotel. You can do all-inclusive or not. Many here don't prefer AI setups, & like to eat out. Picking a hotel may be the hardest part of your planning, considering the contentious forum threads debating the subject.
Here's a link to a recent thread started by Boulder John discussing lodging & A.I.s that I'm not speed reading now but it might get you started.
2.) Book your dives with Jeremy Anschel's op., Living Underwater. 120 cf steel tanks let you get good, long dives. Boat groups are small; no cattle boats. It's drift diving. There are other reputable op.s, including Aldora. I've dove with Living Underwater & had a blast. I had over an hour & 15 minute dive on one tank! For me that's huge!!!
3.) Do either 2 or 3 dives per day. When you can dive over an hour at a time, that's a lot of diving. Plan to spend late afternoon/evening milling around town or the resort.
Oh, one other major mainstream destination I see posted about a lot, but I haven't been to...Roatan! Check out some threads on it, but make sure the resort in question has good shore diving. I think Coco View Resort is enjoyed by some, and there are threads about it. One old post indicated that on Roatan, you don't usually wander 'off the reservation' the way you might in Bonaire.
I've dove with Buddy Dive and with Living Underwater before, and recall both as reputable on this forum, so I included them. I haven't been to Roatan, but Coco View is one of the places I'd check if I were (I think there's one called Fantasy Island, too).
Richard.
P.S.: If you try to do in-depth comparisons of every potential Caribbean dive site, including the less frequented like St. Lucia vs. Cayman Brac vs. Grand Turk, you could drive yourself nuts. I suggest a quick comparison of 3 of the most popular; Bonaire, Cozumel & Roatan. The Bahamas have a rep. for being best done by live-aboard to get away from the main 'tourist trampled' island areas, and there's a recent trip report on the AquaCat. Be mindful part of the year the Bahamas are cold enough to require a wet suit. I don't wear wet suits in 75+ degree water, & don't like wearing them, so for me, that matters. If you guys all wear wet suits regardless of water temp.s, you may not care so much.
