Puerto Rico - Diving Recommendations

[Brian's Crew]

Greetings -- My son (age 16) and I are completing our Open Water Certification in the coming weeks -- and we are planning a family trip to Puerto Rico in June 2008. We are planning on enjoying some diving while in Puerto Rico. While we will be staying in Old San Juan -- we are willing to travel anywhere on the island that might provide the best opportunity for some great diving. Can anyone offer any suggestions for first time divers traveling to Puerto Rico? Anything to avoid?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Shepherd123]

DivePrincess locked me onto some great links for Puerto Rico on SB. Search at the top for links...

 

[Shepherd123]

I am scheduled to go to PR the last week of April. I have been working on a prospectus of the Accommodations and diving, etc...

I have quite a bit of research but I will be able to tell you more when I get back...

 

[Fishy Ariel]

Greetings -- My son (age 16) and I are completing our Open Water Certification in the coming weeks -- and we are planning a family trip to Puerto Rico in June 2008. We are planning on enjoying some diving while in Puerto Rico. While we will be staying in Old San Juan -- we are willing to travel anywhere on the island that might provide the best opportunity for some great diving. Can anyone offer any suggestions for first time divers traveling to Puerto Rico? Anything to avoid?

Thanks in advance!

If you are visiting Puerto Rico, you have to dive The Parguera Wall and Desecheo.
The Wall is located in La Parguera, Lajas. It is a very small tourist town, everything is walking distance and the prices are really good. The town has two stores but I recommend West Divers. West divers is located south west right on the main road of La Parguera with easy access to the dock. The dock is very comfortable, it has showers to rinse yourself after diving and buckets for the equipment. They also storage your equipment for you so that you do not have to take it to the hotel with you. Also if you do not have the equipment, listen to this, they only charge a fix rate for it ($10.00 per day), not per piece, How cool is that!!!
They also do a briefing at the beginning of the dive and they have a safety line, a descend/ascend line with a basket at the end with weights, so if you need more weights grab them. In addition they have a line that runs from the boat with an alternate source of air, so if you do not have enough air for the safety stop you can grab that. Victor the owner/Divemaster he is very helpful and the pictures he took underwater of me he send them to me, a really nice souvenir if you do not have a camera; his wife really help me, she even did the hotel reservations for me. All I had to do was show up. Scuba Diving in La Parguera, Puerto Rico
Desecheo is located in Rincon right on the north west of the island. I do not know if there are any more locations/store in town but Taino Divers was the most that was recommended. I drove fronm La Parguera about an hour drive. Carson and his crew were really helpful and the island is spectacular.

 

[padamczyk]

I work and dive in PR about 6 to 8 times a year. If you are looking for some nice diving try Fajardo on the Northeast end about an hour from Old San Juan. The Fajardo Inn is a very nice hotel which offers a dive package. Fajardo is close to Culebra, a small Island off the coast which has a State park and some really great diving. Easy to get to. Staying in San Juan means you have to travel a bit to dive. La Paguera is a bit of a trip, around 2.5 hours. I will be working in Ponce this week so it is not too far from there. Sea Ventures dive shop in Fajardo does a nice job. Their # is 1-800-739-3483. The water is warm with good visibilty. Aguadilla is on the Northwest corner but is again about 2 hours from where you will be staying. They have some great diving also. South of Agaudilla is Mayaguez which also offers some great diving. Sea Ventures has dive shops in most of the better locations around PR and do a great job taking you to the best sites. Hope you have a great trip.

 

[Luis H]

You may want to read my trip report in this thread:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/gr...ort-puerto-rico-1st-week-november-2007-a.html

Another good thread:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/219789-puerto-rico.html

Some of the diving is just fantastic. Especially in Desecheo (of Rincon) and Parguera.
Desecheo is a must do and Parguera is almost as good and cost very reasonable (even a place to stay for a night or two is not bad).

Fajardo is closer to San Juan and the diving is very good, but not as fantastic. It is still a special place for me since that is where I did must of my diving as a kid. I thought Sea Venture in Fajardo had a good operation (boat was a bit large, but not a full cattle boat), but the dive operators in Parguera and Tainos in Ricon are just great.

The driving is not as bad as mentioned above, but maybe is because I grew up in PR and the highways have improved substantially since my last visit. I made it from San Juan to Aguadilla in about an hour with the new expressway. Rincon is just a bit further. On the other hand traffic can still be horrible at times and can almost double any travel times.

Have fun