Pacific Costa Rica?

[Mr. Sunday]

I am planning a trip to Costa Rica in in late May or early June. I am a DM and looking for the best diving possible. I dont have much time in country though. From the other post here it seems Catalina and Bat Islands are the best choices? I am wondering about the best dive sites and a good company to dive with.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Diving is my only priority and I am looking for deep clear water with pelagics if possible?

Thanks for your input.

 

[oly5050user]

I am planning a trip to Costa Rica in in late May or early June. I am a DM and looking for the best diving possible. I dont have much time in country thouigh. From the other post here it seems Catalina and Bat Islands are the best choices? I am wondering about the best dive sites and a good company to dive with.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Diving is my only priority and I am looking for deep clear water with pelagics if possible?

Thanks for your input.

I have a group going april 22-29 pm me if interested..see captainmikesdiving.com click on travel for some details..water not as clear as caribbean islands but thats why big stuff there..alot of nutrients in water.

 

[rexman24]

Yes I would say Cats and Bats, in Coco Beach check out Deep Blue Divers.

 

[Driznik]

I was in CR for two weeks in late December - early January. We stayed on the North West coast of CR at two resorts on Golfo Papagayo - about 30 min by boat from Catalina and Bats. No operators were running Bat Island trips while I was there, but I got a couple of Catalina dives in, and we saw at least one, and more often two Mantas on each dive. In each case, the Mantas swung around and circled by us at least two or three times each. I turtles and a number of white tip reef sharks, but no Bulls. From what I understand, you're a lot more likely to get Bull Sharks at Bats and I think the time of year you're looking at they should be running trips out there again.

They've got deep, but by my experience, if you're looking for clear waters, CR isn't the place. During my time there viz ranged from 15-40 ft and the DM I was with said we were lucky. Most dives, when you broke the surface, you couldn't see the bottom. Even still, just for the Manta encounters it was worth it for me.

I dove with Resort Divers based at the Fiesta Premier Resort (where we stayed the last week) and they were great. Most of the companies I looked at require four divers doing two tanks or two divers doing three to make a Bats or Catalina trip.

 

[Mr. Sunday]

Well I pulled the trigger and bought a ticket direct into Liberia for the end of June. I cant wait. Thanks for the input.

 

[Driznik]

I don't know how long you're going for, but if you get a chance, I'd try to get to a couple of the parks like Arenal and Monteverde. We did the Volcano at Arenal and the Hot Springs at Tabacon as a day trip, and while the drive was long and the roads were horrible it was totally worth it.

I think you're smart flying into Liberia instead of San Jose and driving up for the diving. That would have been a very long and bumpy drive.

 

[szohn]

I dove with Rich Coast Diving in late November in Guanacaste. We dove both catalina and the bats, it was simply awesome. The vis wasn't great as you'll see people report, but the animal life was incredible. 18'+ Mantas and schools of bat rays at the catalina islands, I don't think we went one dive without seeing a spotted eagle ray. We thought the the bat island might turn out to be a disappointment, until the last 10 minutes of the dive when I turned around to see a 10' bull shark coming straight at me about 5 feet away. Talk about a rush.

The local diving was pretty good too. As if the big stuff wasn't enough, I found a pair of clown shrimp on the safety stop of the last dive of the trip.

The owner of Rich Coast sold the shop a couple weeks after we left (i don't think it was us), so I can't say how they are now, but if they are half as good as the previous owner, you'd be in good hands. I plan on heading back again this year.

Have a good trip.

 

[Mr. Sunday]

Thanks for the advice! I will be headed down in just a few weeks. I will post a full trip report when I return.

 

[Rich Coast Diving]

Hi kgdiver,
Like I said in your other forum, You're more than welcome to dive with us.
Catalina islands is more or less finished, of course we can still go there and look at the devil rays, but the chance of seeing a manta is slim to none.
We also offer the Bat islands trip and are looking forward to our first bull shark encounter for this year. Don't worry if there are no sharks, due to the fact that it is a national park it's very nice diving there. It is not spoiled yet. And we do have the permission to go and buy entrance tickets for the islands; we are the only dive center who has the permit in Playas del Coco, the other dive permit was given to an operation in Hermosa.
If you have any questions, send us a note: dive@richcoastdiving.com