Ministryofgiraffes
Contributor
May have to push for a grander 51st, LOL. Our idea of "land-based" activity is usually visiting any local village if allowed (e.g. like you can in Fiji), playing beach pong for the afternoon, etc. We're pretty easy, in terms of not needing organized activities. We've done fine snorkeling all afternoon from a cat in a bay.
RE a land-based resort - assuming it's easy to get to lots of good diving and not feel like we've missed out?
RE a liveaboard - best booking site? Liveaboard.com? Paid.com travel?
Book direct with operators. Padi and liveaboard are the same price as direct, but personally I find them frustrating to deal with, usually much Slower than dealing directly with the operator and more often than not the information on the website is inaccurate or direct questions are not answered sufficiently IMO. I’m currently rolling my eyes at another email from liveaboard answering a question I didn’t ask and not answering the question I did... I’m only using them because they did suggest an operator in an email and although I was already dealing with that operator directly, the email prompted me to ask the operator a specific question, so I told the operator I think they should get the commission and I’ll book through them...
Although since then it’s been a bit of a slog to get the answers I want to be honest.
‘one benefit of liveaboard.com etc though is that they don’t charge credit card fees.. so that is a plus FYI. But other than that they are just asking the operator the same questions you can...only much much much slower....they are friendly though and well meaning, just a bit lame. I also sometimes dive on boats not included on their websites, although they have a very good starting selection to educate yourself on..although the ‘ratings’ on liveaboard.com are famously about as accurate as Pinocchio’s resume.