Saba Trip Review 12/1-12/8/2018

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mbs

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Mid-Hudson Valley NY
Just back from an exceptional trip to Saba! We stayed at Juliana's and dove with Sea Saba. Lynn at Sea Saba took care of the arrangements with the hotel, diving and taxis to/from the airport and the dives each day.

We flew JFK to St Maarten to Saba. Things are still in flux at St Maarten's airport since last year's devastation, but the departure lounge although crowded made due. In Saba there were no obvious signs of damage from the hurricane. Loved the flight into Saba!

This was a relatively pricey trip. If you can get to St Maarten using miles that will help. There are less expensive options than Juliana's and you can manage your food costs down. But we kinda splurged a little on this one and were very happy with what we got.

The island is spectacular. Think Jurassic Park when you are flying in! No beaches on the island. It is volcanic rock rising out of the ocean topped with a beautiful rain forest. If we weren't doing 3 dives/day we would have loved to do some hiking on the trails. Most of the lodging and restaurants are up in the Windward section and that is where we stayed. This is real hilly so be prepared for some decent walks.

There are no chain hotels or restaurants on the island. Juliana's has a handful of regular ocean or garden view rooms, 2 suites and 3 cottages. We stayed in the Mango suite which was above the garden view rooms. It is the only room up there so very private with killer views of the ocean and the mountains. It has a separate bedroom and living area with a kitchenette as well as a large porch with tables and chairs. It was very, very nice. Clean and recently updated. Our package included breakfast which you ordered off the menu and was excellent and super fast. We had dinner in the restaurant 2 nights and the meals were also excellent. There is a nice little poolside bar which had a free wine happy hour most days! We loved the place. The couple that own and run the place do an excellent job.

We ate in a few of the restaurants for dinner and they were all excellent. Brigadoon stands out. Classic French done very, very well. Since we did 2 morning and 1 afternoon dives we did not come back up for lunch. There is one place on the docks for food and drinks, but it did not come highly recommended so we brought lunch from the hotel or the bakery every day and ate on the boat.

The taxi picked us up every morning at 8:45 for the white knuckle trip down to the harbor. I would not have liked to drive on this island. My wife likened it to the Almalfi coast... The Sea Saba boats are nice size and in very good condition. All of the DM's were very friendly and provided detailed dive plans. At the end of the week they give you a detailed dive map with a listing of every dive made including the site, depth, time, DM, sightings and the fish of the dive. The signature dives are the pinnacles. And they are quite extraordinary!
These are deep dives. The pinnacles start at like 90 feet. You descend down the mooring line and need to watch your depth. We were diving 32% nitrox all week so you really did need to pay attention to the 110 mod. Great viz on the pinnacles and tons of sea life! Schools of creole wrasse, sharks, etc. The other dives nearer to shore were also excellent and diverse. Some really good walls, and other formations made for good 2nd and 3rd dives. Lots of turtles and sharks, eels, juvi drums, groupers, rays. Nice barrel sponges, fans and other very healthy life on the reefs. Most days we were the only 2 on the afternoon dive so it was great to have a private tour! Not more than 5-10 minutes out to the sites. Plenty of fresh drinking water on board. You left all of your gear on board all week including hanging your wetsuit up. They hosed everything off with fresh water. Also they swap your gear to fresh tanks for you. So it was pretty much valet style diving. Everyone on board were experienced divers and they said that is the norm. Most were repeat customers.

We thought it was one of the best dive trips we have taken. The island, the hotel and the diving were outstanding. We will be back, but I hope to shave a little off the cost. Either that or I might have to try to stay employed for a few more years :wink:
 
Thanks for the detailed trip report. We did the exact same trip a couple years ago with our LDS and really enjoyed it. Sea Saba staff from Lynn through all DMs were excellent. Diving was very good and we liked the town and the diversity of the restaurants.
Glad you had a great trip.

Rob
 
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That sounds just like when I was there back in late ‘90’s! Nice to here some things remain the same. I did manage to make it mount scenery twice when I was there - great hike. I also hope to get back there someday. I remember the deep dives and my first computer yelling at me a few times that week - the sharks always seemed to show up near the end of the dives!

Cheers!
 
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Saba's on my hoped for maybe someday list. How did it stack up against other regional dive destinations you've tried? Is this a new repeat destination for you, or more of a 'once and done' thing?

Richard.
 
Saba's on my hoped for maybe someday list. How did it stack up against other regional dive destinations you've tried? Is this a new repeat destination for you, or more of a 'once and done' thing?

Richard.
First time there for us. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I give it top marks for diving, food, accommodations, views, people, safety, etc... The only thing that would keep me from making it an annual is the cost. When we do it again I will need to work on getting the cost down a bit.
 
That sounds just like when I was there back in late ‘90’s! Nice to here some things remain the same. I did manage to make it mount scenery twice when I was there - great hike. I also hope to get back there someday. I remember the deep dives and my first computer yelling at me a few times that week - the sharks always seemed to show up near the end of the dives!

Cheers!
I was looking at it every day... Definitely will need to plan some free time to climb it next time!
DSC03455viewsvga.jpg
 
10 years ago my husband and I did a dive vacation to Saba. I found the island to be a truly magical place! I would love to return, but these days I am not a fan of going on deep dives. Do you feel that the dives less than 80 feet are worth the cost and time of getting to and from the island?
 
10 years ago my husband and I did a dive vacation to Saba. I found the island to be a truly magical place! I would love to return, but these days I am not a fan of going on deep dives. Do you feel that the dives less than 80 feet are worth the cost and time of getting to and from the island?
Hmmm, that's a tough call... Looking at the dive sheet the 2nd/3rd dives were all 80-ish and below. And some of them were outstanding! They have a couple of dm's that are photogs - Trent and Maryann that like to point out the little and more unusual stuff so they like those dives as well. Here's the potential problem. Our first day we were supposed to be on "shallower" dives just to get settled in. When we got going they said there was a lot of swells and the shallower dives did not have good viz. So we started our week with dives 1 and 2 on the pinnacles +100'. We chose to skip the 3rd dive that day. So provided the conditions are good I would say it would be worth the trip for 80-ish max depth dives. Although I would probably still pick out one of the pinnacles to to one deep dive even if you stay in the 90's :wink: And you already know how special a place it is above water as well!
 
I picked out a handful of photos to share...

I should have taken more shots of the road with the switchbacks! But here is one to give an idea of what you are dealing with :wink:
DSC03454road.jpg

And here is a shot from the porch of our room:
DSC03316julianas.jpg

Here's a shot with the typical school of creole wrasse you can see on the pinnacles and following that a shot of divers swimming thru the blue to one of the pinnacles that I just love!
DSC03139fishypinnacle.jpg

DSC03219pinnacle.jpg

Anyone know what this fish is? Looks like some kind of porcupine, but I haven't had a chance to pull out the books yet:
DSC03308unknownfish.jpg

And a couple of the usual guys on each dive!
DSC03170turtle.jpg

DSC03175shark.jpg

That's just a small sampling. It really is a photographers dream both under and above the water.
 
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