Virgogirl22
Registered
My boyfriend and I went to Saba for a week of diving and hiking in December 2007, and we were pleasantly surprised about how lovely the island was! It's overflowing with charm, the people are amazingly friendly, the diving was awesome, the food was great, and the forests are pristine. Saba's nickname as The Unspoiled Queen is very fitting.
We dove with Sea Saba (based in the town of Windwardside, where most people stay) and we didn't have a single negative thing to say about them. Lynn was eager to help us decide where to stay and make reservations for us, they stayed open late the night we got there to orient us before our first day of diving, etc.... The service was incredible. The rest of the staff (office staff, dive guides, boat crew) were wonderful as well. They have two 40' boats (essentially identical) with lots of deck space, some shade, an enclosed room at the bow for dry stuff, fresh water and juice for drinking, and an easy ladder to climb back on board. The helm is on the upper deck so that divers don't get in the captain's way (and vice versa!). There was room for 25 divers, but they will only take about 10, which gives lots of room! There's even a hose for a quick fresh water rinse at the end of the day.
Each dive day started with a taxi pick-up at 8:45am (pre-arranged by Sea Saba), with stops at whichever hotels have divers headed for the harbour. A quick stop by the dive shop in Windwardside to pass on any news and to see who needs the shop staff to make dinner reservations (they do this every day!) and then onwards to the harbour. It's a 10 minute drive from Windwardside to Fort Bay (the only harbour on the island) and it's a very industrial area, so there are few amenities aside from washrooms, snack bar, conservation society office, hyperbaric chamber, and some shade. The rest is industrial (power plant, water distillation plant, dive shop gear storage and compressor buildings, etc.) The dock is loading/unloading only, so all boats anchor outside of the harbour at night.
Thorough and entertaining dive briefings were given before each dive, and at least one guide was always in the water. They were very accommodating with people's individual dive plans - you were welcome to follow the guide, but if you prefered to go off and do your own thing, that was fine too. The guide stayed close to the mooring line at the end of the dive to make finding your way back to the boat easy. There were no bottom time limits (except for night diving - 60 minutes) except that all dives had to be no decompression dives. They had a grab-line floating behind the boat to make reboarding easier, especially since they encouraged divers to pass their fins up before climbing the ladder. Morning surface intervals were normally spent in a calm bay on the water (rather than going back to the harbour, as other companies apparently do), which was great unless the water was rough. I would estimate that about half of our dive days were relatively calm, flat water, while the other half were pretty rough - the kind where you sort of dread the battle with the ladder to get back on a pitching boat. They always made a quick return to the harbour for fresh tanks before heading out on the afternoon dive. Everyone either brought their own lunch (some restaurants will make one for you) or went to the snack bar at the harbour for lunch. The boat crew were a lot of fun, and they tried really hard to make sure we had a great time. They often asked us where we would like to dive (in case there was a site you had heard about, etc.) and they left the dive plan entirely up to us on our last day. It was great!
As for the diving itself, it was definitely impressive. Saba is surrounded by a marine park, and as a result, the reefs are very healthy and thriving. Moorings exist at all dive sites, so the really only reef damage you might see is the result of storms. There are a wide variety of reef topographies: deep volcanic pinnacles (the tops of which are around 100ft) [Third Encounter, Outer Limits, Shark Shoals, Twilight Zone], shallower pinnacles (sandy bottom around them at 60-80ft) [Diamond Rock, Man-O-War Shoals], walls [Tent Wall, Tedran Wall, Core Gut], shallow reef gardens [Tent Reef, Ladder Bay, Hotsprings, Greer Gut, Hole In The Corner, etc.]... There was certainly no shortage of options! The leeward side of the island is dived most often, but when calm winds occur, they are eager to dive the windward side. The two sides offer very different dives (i.e. mostly hard corals on the windward side, tons of soft corals on the leeward side) but there are lots of fish in wide varieties all over the place. We saw turtles, stingrays, spotted moray eels, and nurse sharks on almost every dive, big schools of fish, and the occasional reef shark, giant moray eel, and seahorse a few times too. One day, divers on the other boat even were paid a visit by a 30ft whale shark! There were unconfirmed reports of people spotting hammerheads, eagle rays, and manta rays here too. In December, the water temperature was 81F and I was quite comfortable in a 5mm suit most of the time. Visibility was normally 50-70ft, which suited me just fine as we're used to 20ft in the waters around Vancouver, BC!
We stayed at Juliana's Hotel in Windwardside, and it has a wonderful reputation for good reason. The rooms are lovely and clean, and we had an amazing ocean view (complete with a hammock!). They have high speed internet access on two computers in the rec room, with an honour bar, board games, and book shelf too. The adjoined Tropics Cafe is a great little open-air restaurant with great food (including sandwiches for lunch on dive days) and very friendly staff. The resident white labs also add to the charm!
There are quite a few little shops around Windwardside and lots of great restaurants too. Brigadoon is amazing (the home made chowder and frozen peanut butter pie were to die for!) as was the home made pizza at Saba's Treasures. The dive shop will tell you where the nightly specials are happening.
We also did a fair amount of hiking, as there is a well-maintained network of trails that can take you all around the island. The climb to the top of Mt. Scenery is well worth it (and really not that difficult!). It's a 3-hour return trip, with paved steps most of the way. Watch out for slippery steps though! The pristine rainforest is incredible to walk through. Take a walking stick with you!
The only real head ache we had with our trip to Saba was with traveling to and from St. Maarten. The staff at Windward Island Airways seems to be more or less useless. They have no customer service skills whatsoever! Give yourself several hours to connect from your incoming flight in St. Maarten - when we got there, three planes had just arrived from Europe and the immigration hall was packed. After waiting for 45 minutes without moving, we unfortunately had to resort to skipping to the front of the line in order to avoid missing our flight. That was with a 2 hour layover! Seriously, give yourself LOTS of time. Once you're on your way though, hold on! The landing on Saba's 400m runway (the shortest international runway in the world!) is just as wild as I had read - it was quite the ride! They need every inch of pavement they can get!
It was the trip home that was the major head ache. Because the runway is so short, the conditions have to be quite good in order to land. Cross-winds are a bad thing, and the morning we were booked to leave there were 30 knots of cross-winds. To make a long story short, the planes were unable to land for 2 days despite doing several fly-overs. It was Saba Days celebrations that weekend, so the two ferries returning to St. Maarten were booked full and not scheduled to run the next day (Tuesday). We ended up spending another night at Juliana's and lucking out when the Dawn II ferry decided to make a run to St. Maarten since there were so many people stuck. They increased the price of course, but I would have too! It was a very rough ride with no air conditioning and 10 ft seas, but we did make it eventually. So a tip for those planning their trip - consider the ferry schedules when you make travel arrangments. The Edge ferry goes most days and is quite cheap, but you can't book it in advance. Odds are good that you would have no problem getting on as long as it's not a national holiday like it was for us! Have a back-up plan though in case the weather isn't ideal because you'll be stuck in that little airport for far too long otherwise!
Overall though, we absolutely enjoyed our trip to Saba and intend on passing around the good word. Mass tourism hasn't yet ruined its charm and its environment thanks to the lack of beaches and a deep-water port. But anyone who enjoys pristine diving and a low-key charming little island will love it!
Oh, and you have to try the local banana rum. Amazing!
We dove with Sea Saba (based in the town of Windwardside, where most people stay) and we didn't have a single negative thing to say about them. Lynn was eager to help us decide where to stay and make reservations for us, they stayed open late the night we got there to orient us before our first day of diving, etc.... The service was incredible. The rest of the staff (office staff, dive guides, boat crew) were wonderful as well. They have two 40' boats (essentially identical) with lots of deck space, some shade, an enclosed room at the bow for dry stuff, fresh water and juice for drinking, and an easy ladder to climb back on board. The helm is on the upper deck so that divers don't get in the captain's way (and vice versa!). There was room for 25 divers, but they will only take about 10, which gives lots of room! There's even a hose for a quick fresh water rinse at the end of the day.
Each dive day started with a taxi pick-up at 8:45am (pre-arranged by Sea Saba), with stops at whichever hotels have divers headed for the harbour. A quick stop by the dive shop in Windwardside to pass on any news and to see who needs the shop staff to make dinner reservations (they do this every day!) and then onwards to the harbour. It's a 10 minute drive from Windwardside to Fort Bay (the only harbour on the island) and it's a very industrial area, so there are few amenities aside from washrooms, snack bar, conservation society office, hyperbaric chamber, and some shade. The rest is industrial (power plant, water distillation plant, dive shop gear storage and compressor buildings, etc.) The dock is loading/unloading only, so all boats anchor outside of the harbour at night.
Thorough and entertaining dive briefings were given before each dive, and at least one guide was always in the water. They were very accommodating with people's individual dive plans - you were welcome to follow the guide, but if you prefered to go off and do your own thing, that was fine too. The guide stayed close to the mooring line at the end of the dive to make finding your way back to the boat easy. There were no bottom time limits (except for night diving - 60 minutes) except that all dives had to be no decompression dives. They had a grab-line floating behind the boat to make reboarding easier, especially since they encouraged divers to pass their fins up before climbing the ladder. Morning surface intervals were normally spent in a calm bay on the water (rather than going back to the harbour, as other companies apparently do), which was great unless the water was rough. I would estimate that about half of our dive days were relatively calm, flat water, while the other half were pretty rough - the kind where you sort of dread the battle with the ladder to get back on a pitching boat. They always made a quick return to the harbour for fresh tanks before heading out on the afternoon dive. Everyone either brought their own lunch (some restaurants will make one for you) or went to the snack bar at the harbour for lunch. The boat crew were a lot of fun, and they tried really hard to make sure we had a great time. They often asked us where we would like to dive (in case there was a site you had heard about, etc.) and they left the dive plan entirely up to us on our last day. It was great!
As for the diving itself, it was definitely impressive. Saba is surrounded by a marine park, and as a result, the reefs are very healthy and thriving. Moorings exist at all dive sites, so the really only reef damage you might see is the result of storms. There are a wide variety of reef topographies: deep volcanic pinnacles (the tops of which are around 100ft) [Third Encounter, Outer Limits, Shark Shoals, Twilight Zone], shallower pinnacles (sandy bottom around them at 60-80ft) [Diamond Rock, Man-O-War Shoals], walls [Tent Wall, Tedran Wall, Core Gut], shallow reef gardens [Tent Reef, Ladder Bay, Hotsprings, Greer Gut, Hole In The Corner, etc.]... There was certainly no shortage of options! The leeward side of the island is dived most often, but when calm winds occur, they are eager to dive the windward side. The two sides offer very different dives (i.e. mostly hard corals on the windward side, tons of soft corals on the leeward side) but there are lots of fish in wide varieties all over the place. We saw turtles, stingrays, spotted moray eels, and nurse sharks on almost every dive, big schools of fish, and the occasional reef shark, giant moray eel, and seahorse a few times too. One day, divers on the other boat even were paid a visit by a 30ft whale shark! There were unconfirmed reports of people spotting hammerheads, eagle rays, and manta rays here too. In December, the water temperature was 81F and I was quite comfortable in a 5mm suit most of the time. Visibility was normally 50-70ft, which suited me just fine as we're used to 20ft in the waters around Vancouver, BC!
We stayed at Juliana's Hotel in Windwardside, and it has a wonderful reputation for good reason. The rooms are lovely and clean, and we had an amazing ocean view (complete with a hammock!). They have high speed internet access on two computers in the rec room, with an honour bar, board games, and book shelf too. The adjoined Tropics Cafe is a great little open-air restaurant with great food (including sandwiches for lunch on dive days) and very friendly staff. The resident white labs also add to the charm!
There are quite a few little shops around Windwardside and lots of great restaurants too. Brigadoon is amazing (the home made chowder and frozen peanut butter pie were to die for!) as was the home made pizza at Saba's Treasures. The dive shop will tell you where the nightly specials are happening.
We also did a fair amount of hiking, as there is a well-maintained network of trails that can take you all around the island. The climb to the top of Mt. Scenery is well worth it (and really not that difficult!). It's a 3-hour return trip, with paved steps most of the way. Watch out for slippery steps though! The pristine rainforest is incredible to walk through. Take a walking stick with you!
The only real head ache we had with our trip to Saba was with traveling to and from St. Maarten. The staff at Windward Island Airways seems to be more or less useless. They have no customer service skills whatsoever! Give yourself several hours to connect from your incoming flight in St. Maarten - when we got there, three planes had just arrived from Europe and the immigration hall was packed. After waiting for 45 minutes without moving, we unfortunately had to resort to skipping to the front of the line in order to avoid missing our flight. That was with a 2 hour layover! Seriously, give yourself LOTS of time. Once you're on your way though, hold on! The landing on Saba's 400m runway (the shortest international runway in the world!) is just as wild as I had read - it was quite the ride! They need every inch of pavement they can get!
It was the trip home that was the major head ache. Because the runway is so short, the conditions have to be quite good in order to land. Cross-winds are a bad thing, and the morning we were booked to leave there were 30 knots of cross-winds. To make a long story short, the planes were unable to land for 2 days despite doing several fly-overs. It was Saba Days celebrations that weekend, so the two ferries returning to St. Maarten were booked full and not scheduled to run the next day (Tuesday). We ended up spending another night at Juliana's and lucking out when the Dawn II ferry decided to make a run to St. Maarten since there were so many people stuck. They increased the price of course, but I would have too! It was a very rough ride with no air conditioning and 10 ft seas, but we did make it eventually. So a tip for those planning their trip - consider the ferry schedules when you make travel arrangments. The Edge ferry goes most days and is quite cheap, but you can't book it in advance. Odds are good that you would have no problem getting on as long as it's not a national holiday like it was for us! Have a back-up plan though in case the weather isn't ideal because you'll be stuck in that little airport for far too long otherwise!
Overall though, we absolutely enjoyed our trip to Saba and intend on passing around the good word. Mass tourism hasn't yet ruined its charm and its environment thanks to the lack of beaches and a deep-water port. But anyone who enjoys pristine diving and a low-key charming little island will love it!
Oh, and you have to try the local banana rum. Amazing!
