Perfect Destination

[diversteve]

Pretty typically to move around in the Caribbean you often hub through a nearby city. For T/C that's probably Miami.
With consolidation, a lot of the U.S. carriers try to route you thru their east coast hubs first. Oddly there are a lot of direct flights to Caribbean destinations from Newark, NJ also if you can get there first. Look at JFK also - Jet Blue flies direct to Provo from there afaik. You should be able to get to JFK fairly easily.

A lot of New Yorkers go south for the winter so there tends to be even more flights then to places like the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Cayman, Turks/Caicos etc. I heard more NYC accents in the PR casinos than anywhere else I've been.

Another option is to piggyback on the cruise ship origins since there is a lot of flights to them. Those would be Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, St. Thomas, or San Juan, PR.

St. Thomas/the BVI's could be another option also. St. Thomas has some nice beaches, clear water, it's shallower. The BVI's (different country) are literally an hour away by fast ferry. The best of the BVI beaches are as good as anything on Provo and you can move around between 2-3 main islands via the ferries reasonably.

I should mention to that most of these places are going to have pricey accommodations since the rich/famous vacation at some of them. Provo especially will make your wallet hurt - Grand Cayman a close second. Even the B&B's are pricey.

From Puerto Plata you can get to Grand Cayman within about 5-7hrs. each way the same day. Provo looks to be closer to 20+ with an overnight in MIA. The DR is more of an end destination - at least from the U.S.

Try it the other way, look at flights into Miami or San Juan, PR. then on from there. For example, Cayman Airways flies out of MIA several times/day - it's a 1.5 hr. flight. From San Juan there's a whole list of Lesser Antilles further south you can easily get to. Almost all are known for good beaches also.

Some airlines hub thru MIA/SJU and have regional flights onto the smaller Caribbean destinations. Atlanta is a possibility for some. In the U.S. some of our direct options to Bonaire/Curacao are thru there - Insel Air flies direct from Charlotte or MIA also.

Try this Matrix - ITA Software by Google - put in a destination and click nearby - expand the radius to about 500 miles or more and see where you can get to reasonably. Also you can set flight durations/connections in the indivdual country results. You can't book on the site but it will give you the info needed by the airline/travel websites.

 

[NoahNoah]

Bennno, 2600 is nuts! Did a search through Wego & Skyscanner on my phone and that's the price it generated (there were even pricier options, that Lufthansa flight for 70k kr, which is about 9500 USD I think, is insane). What probably upped the price is that I ticked "shortest travel time", I'm not to keen on spending 28-34 hours on a plane and airport. There are no direct flights from neither Trondheim, GBG, STHLM, Oslo, Bergen, Malmö. We have direct flights to DR & Jamaica, so I can't see why they dont fly to the Bahamas, it's madness! The Caribbean is just not very popular here, everybody travel to SEA instead.

I'm thinking about flying to the DR though, and frmo there trying to catch a flight to the T&C, or a ferry even.

Lorenzoid - Brilliant!

WingyWell- Oh Sorry to hear about the deterioration in the ocean. Why is that happening? You mentioned there are prestine waters elsewhere in Asian countries. Any tips? I was greatly disappointed by both Malaysia & Indonesia last time I visited. That's why I'm considering the Caribbean this time around. Also, I heard the Azores has beautiful landscape, not sure about the waters, but apparently it's a great location to spot dolphin, whales and other larger sea creatures.

diversteve - spotted your post just now! What does "piggyback" mean? I also saw that the accommodations were super pricy and suspected it had something to do with the type of people visiting, haven't exactly seen loads of backpackers exploring the Caribbean so to speak. I'd have to go through Air BNB, possibly. Thanks so much for the tip on the Matrix Airfare Search, I've never tried that before. I've mostly looked at charter flights from Trondheim and cities close by.

 

[Wingy]

Indonesia is a big place. Will leave it to any photogs to give specific information because I just float around looking at fish. Its more a matter of ruling out places in remoter Indo because of current etc.
Why the deterioration in the Ocean? - Overfishing, Overpopulation, Using the ocean as both a larder and a toilet to quote Cousteau.

 

[NoahNoah]

Why the deterioration in the Ocean? - Overfishing, Overpopulation, Using the ocean as both a larder and a toilet to quote Cousteau.

More, "why the deterioration in Thai waters". I've heard it's not just affecting the water, but the country as a whole. Too much tourists? Dont know, but Thailand is not what it once was.

 

[Bennno]

I'm not to keen on spending 28-34 hours on a plane and airport.

Nobody is, flights were you have to fly to an European hub first would not be more than 15ish hours. You seem to be getting weird search results.

 

[vincent54]

My daughter is a model based out of Miami and LA. They did water/underwater shots off Key Biscayne Florida. They came out beautiful. It did help she's an accomplished swimmer. Too bad I can't find them to show, but the water and pics were beautiful

Plus Miami is a fun place. Good luck and let us see the pics when they are done. Cheers

 

[KeithG]

diversteve - First of all, thanks for the incredibly informative post! It was very helpful! As for Turks & Caicos, I am trying to find a way to get to Turks & Caicos from the Dominican Republic. I've found a direct flight to Dominican Republic, so now I'm searching for possible routes that could take me to Turks & Caicos. I'm very happy you mentioned surface shots as I'm planning to take loads of them as well! I'm totally hooked on Turks & Caicos after having read all your feedback! Thanks for the tip on Grace Bay Beach, I saw it's on Providenciales which has an airport, so hopefully I will find a way to fly there from Puerto Plata. Do you have any additional spots on Turks & Caicos to recommend?

Where in Thailand did they dive? Sorry to hear that. I was looking at Phuket and Krabi mostly.

Also thanks for the tip on Cozumel! I spotted direct flights to Cancun so I will be able to take a ferry over to Cozumel just like you said.

Lastly, thanks for the tip on direct flights from the Netherlands and the U.K. Mabye I should be looking at booking a flight to London and then flying from there instead.

You have been very helpful! Thanks a ton for adjusting your tips to fit my criteria

Wingy - That's a shame, I've always heard such good things about Thailand, but on my wast trip to SEA I was really disappointed with both beaches and waters. I don't think people from the arctic have high expectations when it comes to beaches (because we have none ourselves haha) so they always say every beach is amazing. Then it turns out, it's not. Most people around here travel to SEA though, it's not very common to hear people talk about their trips to the Caribbean. I don't know why, maybe because it's cheaper in SEA, but I think the Carribean seem to have more pristine waters than those in SEA.

I claim Grace bay is a NO. It does have a fringing reef and a flat sand bottom, but it lacks protection and sufficient depth. Murky water and not very deep.

"Grace Bay" is the very long exposed northern shore (7 miles?) of Provo. The fringe reef prevents large waves from hitting shore, but the shore does have constant wave action. It was similar to the conditions we saw east of MO Bay in Jamaica. Sand and waves and murk.

I still think you need to find a very small cove that is protected from both wave and wind action...I have no clue where you would find this. I have not seen this type of setting in my travels..

 

[diversteve]

piggyback means that since there's a lot of flights, you might find something cheaper along those routes.

Grace Bay where we dove was really clear. But that would've been further out than you're probably planning to snorkel so I'll defer to giffenk on that.

One other consideration is that money seems to be an issue with you - if so you don't want to go to Turks/Caicos - it's probably one of the five priciest locations in the Caribbean since just about everything is imported. Rich people rent those $1000/nt. condos on the beach and the only affordable option I know of is the Port's of Call - it's a former Comfort Suites - a mid-priced chain on our side of the Atlantic.

There's no ferry between the DR and Turks/Caicos either.

There are some interisland ferries in the Bahamas - you can get to Nassau/Freeport then onto some of the less populated islands that way. Actually there's also one ferry between Ft. Lauderdale and Grand Bahama Island also but it's almost as cheap to fly over on BahamasAir.

Even between Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao there's no ferry and they're only about 50mi. apart.


The fast ferries run between St. Thomas and the islands of the British Virgin Islands. Most people fly into the international airport on St. Thomas and move around by ferry. From there you can car ferry to St. John, take an hour ferry to Tortola in the BVI's or 2hrs. to Virgin Gorda. There's also a couple of regional airlines serving that area from san Juan but the big jets all land on St. Thomas. 10 minutes by cab to the ferry port from there Here's some idea of the schedule. Virgin Islands Ferry Schedules - VInow

 

[divad]

But the sample photo? Looks like vision is clear and seems to be sand on the bottom...

Go there.

 

[NoahNoah]

vincent54 - sounds like a wonderful photoshoot! Let me know if you find the photos. I could definitely imagine visiting Miami - I was actually looking at tickets to Miami but then deviated to the Caribbean instead

diversteve - Thanks for the clarification on piggybacking. I did some searching on Turks/Caicos, you are right, accommodation is not cheap to say the least. I looked up Port's of Call resort, USD 400/night for the cheapest room. Is Bahamas this pricy as well? The reason I was considering Turks/Caicos was because (other than it being so beautiful) it seemed to be so close to the DR in proximity and I found a direct flight to DR no fuss, no intermediate landings etc, but seeing as there is no ferry between the two I can abondon that idea haha.

Also thanks for the tip on BahamasAir! I will look up flights to Floria and then from there to Bahamas. I'm also looking into maybe getting a scuba diving certification even thought that was not the original plan.

Alright guys, thanks to everyone that has helped me out! It's much appreciated!