Slumming It (trip recommendation?)

[bkotheimer]

Okay, suppose I wanted to burn some airline miles and go dive in the Caribbean (or Central America) for 4-6 days for as little money as po$$ible? I'm talking hostel+shorediving here. Perhaps an all-inclusive with dorms, a meal plan and a nice house reef (unlimited fills/tanks at the dock)?

I have a feeling that the best options for this are on Ambergris Caye, Roatan (or maybe Utila) or down in Bocas del Toro. But I'd be interested in any suggestions.

I know, for instance, that Coconut Tree Divers in Roatan has really cheap hostel-style accomodations, but I think those are only for people taking classes with them, right? And then a lot of other places with super-cheap divers' lodging don't necessarily have nearby shore dives.

I'd be bringing my own gear, and my big interest is shooting video on shallow tropical reefs and having good, cheap nightlife nearby. I wouldn't need anything from a shop, per se, except a tank and weights (and air fills). Oh, and I'd prefer beach dives within hand-truck or golf-cart distance - or a house dock or reasonable taxi ride - to having a rental car for the week.

Is this kind of "backpacker's diving" even possible? Thanks for any tips!

 

[Doc]

If you really want to try and save money by shore diving, Roatan is not your best choice. The only real shore dives there are from CCV, FIBR and Reef House... AI resorts. So- all diving is included. You will find that if you want 3 or more dives in a day, AI is the way to go, financially. These three resorts are the only ops nearby the Southern shallow reef of Roatan, which describes what you are looking for underwater perfectly- lots of natural sunlight and an active reef. When you get back on land- not so much! Pretty deadsville as far as nightlife.

Bonaire is the name that always pops to mind when you mention Caribbean shore diving, but the needed vehicle does put a serious gash into your savings. You can shore dive the dive resort, but as in the Caribbean example, a boat dive might be part of the package. And as much as I love diving in Bonaire, none of the resorts have shore dives that are all that great. If you stay in a less expensive lodging, you can easily rent tanks, but the same bugaboo appears- the need for a vehicle to get around to the great shore dive sites that lie away from the resorts to the North of town.

The best diving in Bonaire (by far) in terms of pretty fish/shallow reefs would require a boat dive to do Klein Bonaire.

Bocas del Toro? http://www.starfleetscuba.com/beaches.html will give you a list of shore dives. I have no idea from the names as to how you would get there- not sure if I have ever done them, as most diving that I am aware of is from operational dive boats.

Ambergris Cay? There is no shore diving... you have done a little tiny bit of research, yes?

You mention a lot of things, but you do not say how many times per day you want to get wet.

I think you could do well finding a place that has their own boat dives included for the guests. You can find a lot of good dive ops on the West End (Coconut Tree) of Roatan which will do you quite well (party zone included) ... if you are looking for the two-dive-a-day trip. They all provide boat based diving as well. These and similar North & West End dive ops put divers into the water in their own local waters. If you are looking for florid and shallow, this is not the zone. They will show you starker, more shadowed environments than the South shore, but you can look forward to more Turtles and larger Pelagics.

Otherwise, mathematics dictate an AI. When you are done comparing, remember that certain AI's can give you 3 or 4 tanks a day in a boat dive + unlimited shore diving. This with food and lodging can be had for as little as $100 a day. Always compare apples to apples.

A great SHORE DIVING reference: http://www.shorediving.com/Earth/Caribbean/index.htm

 

[NorthWoodsDiver]

I remember some huts on the beach near Tulum, I think they were like $15 a night or something and mosquito netting was included. I don't know what shore diving there is in the area, its on the coast and was really rough when I was there. Beautiful location though, and the Asian restaurant down the street was awesome. You could hop a taxi to the dive shop and do some cavern diving though if your not cave certified yet.

 

[robint]

Yeah, like Roatanman said.... Bonaire is the best place for you to go if you want to shoredive dive dive. Several places offer moderate priced rooms with diving packages. Most places have a kitchen where you can cook some of your own meals. Rental truck is needed to get to all the dive sites but many places have trucks included in price.
Look at:
Golden Reef Inn Resort--Home
Bruce Bowker's Carib Inn, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles - Scuba Diving and Accommodations - Home Page
English
Wannadive Bonaire - shoredive, boatdive, rental, a - welcome @ Wannadive

I have heard there are hostel type rooms available in Utila, but don't have any names. I am sure some people here can come up with something.

Another place - Cozumel has a few. Not a place for shore diving, you would be boat diving but it would be cheaper than most other places.
Cozumel Scuba Diving with Aqua Safari
Papa Hogs Scuba Emporium of Cozumel - Mexico
there is also a hostel downtown but I don't remember the name. I never knew it was there until our hotel shuttle stopped there to drop off a couple of people.

robin

 

[Doc]

I have heard there are hostel type rooms available in Utila, but don't have any names. I am sure some people here can come up with something.

Utila might sound perfect, but you might want some more details on the shore diving thing. There are only two that I know of... from Deep Blue (kind of a potentially rough entry for a noob) and Laguna Beach Resort. Those, you would have to access through the resorts, and LBR- you'll need to boat over to it.

I have never been diving from a land base (shore dive) there, only from a boat. There will be someone here who knows for sure.....

 

[diversteve]

The shore dive from Deep Blue is a rough entry over rocks/ironshore. It's recommended that you float your gear out and put it on offshore. There's one entry point through the reef back to shore. We stayed there this spring but I chose to pass on the dive. It's a great dive area, we did a nearby site off a boat. You'd need to find someone to take you across the boat channel as Deep Blue and Laguna Beach next door are on a private strip of land. We did see someone with a canoe making the crossing often, maybe there's a local ferry.

But it's not something you'd likely do every day. Since all the other DB guests are AI, not sure how they'd charge for that either. Maybe ask Steve the owner - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/members/deepbluedivers.html
Might ask if you're allowed on the property also...lol.

All of the hostel/dorm type accommodations are in town. There's no shorediving there. Probably some cheap rooms as Utila is a big backpacking destination oddly enough. The flight in will still cost you something as I don't think your FF miles will work with the local carriers. Another option is to get to Roatan around noon and catch two ferries - Galaxy to La Ceiba and Princess to Utila. R/T cost us just over $100pp. + $20-30 in cab fare to the port/airport. The Continental flight from Houston gives you barely enough time to catch the 2PM ferry - if you don't get stuck in the slow Immigration lines.

The problem with Bonaire is that they have single/double occupancy pricing. Cariib Inn is $109 and WannaDive is $735/wk - but that includes diving, a truck and lodging. Not really what I call hostel rates. GRI (later edit - see next post down) has the $399 special on their website - or $65/nt. http://www.goldenreefinn.com/specials.html GRI is about a block or two from the water.

You could probably walk there with gear or maybe get someone to drop you off, they use Wannadive also. Wannadive has a shop at Eden Beach, from there you could also walk to Bari Reef and if you were ambitious Buddys and Capt' Don's. That would give you four good dive sites nearby, Front Porch, Bari Reef, Cliff and LaMachaca. Buddys has a good dive off their property also, not sure of the name.

GRI is currently advertising a name your price special so you might inquire about that.
Name Your Own Price - Golden Reef Bonaire - The Dive Matrix Forums

One of the cheapest I've seen is Lizard Inn in town, they offer $499/wk. Not sure what that includes though. They can be found on WannaDive affiliates page. But the good diving isn't in town - except for Town Pier at night - but it's closed indefinitely. You might ask around here and on Bonairetalk.com about dive buddies, the de-facto dive vehicle there is a 4dr truck so maybe someone would pick you up. The good diving isn't the resorts, it's north or south of town a couple miles. I've never seen a cab in Bonaire either but there must be some since the cruisers have arrived. Also at any of the dive sites outside of town there's absolutely no facilities so make arrangements in advance to get picked up.

There's 2-3 shore dives in the West End of Roatan. Half Moon Bay Wall is a really long swim out from Coconut Tree Divers - they offered to drop us there if we wanted - but we were boat diving all week with them. There's another site off the east point of Half Moon Bay by SeaGrape resort - from what I've read you enter there and then drift back to Half Moon Bay and get out at either HMB resort or back to HMB beach. You'd have to get a cab to take you out there with a tank though - it's a fairly long hike. The third option is Spooky Channel - about a $10 cab ride from the West End. Awesome dive - probably the best on that side, I'd say maybe the best on Roatan (yes we've dove Mary's Place) but the entrance is on private property so you have to get permission from the rental agent to use the dock - won't happen if someone is staying there at the time.

The upside of the West End is that lodging and food are cheap. There's several $20/nt. places along the West End that are convenient to some of the diveshops. The basic 1BR cabin at Coconut Tree is $40/nt. but it has no kitchen facilities - just a small frig. (at least the one I was in) The 2BR, while overkill for you, had a full kitchen. There's a small market at CTD and Woody's Market just down the road (think big 7-11) There's at least one full-size grocery store in Coxen Hole, I was in it. That would cost you $10-15 cab fare to get there.

Check out the Dive Guide to the Bay Islands for lodging options and marcoa's A Taste of West End post for food prices. If you are going to boat dive, CTD has some of the better prices I've ever seen, $30/dive using your gear.

I had another thought, you might want to check with CTD on what you need to do to be able to use the dorm as it's $5/nt. Contact the owner Gaynor - Cocaloca - she's on SB pretty often. She's extremely helpful and may have other options.

 

[StreetDoctor]

I went to Bonaire in the beginning of June and stayed with Golden Reef Inn.

Hotel/truck/unlimited nitrox was $399 for 7 nights and 8 days. I paid $550 roundtrip airfare from Chicago to Bonaire. I spent about $300 in food for the week but that was including eating out once a day. Could have done it for half if I shopped. (The rooms at GRI include a full kitchen.)

 

[tarponchik]

If you really want to try and save money by shore diving, Roatan is not your best choice. The only real shore dives there are from CCV, FIBR and Reef House... AI resorts. So- all diving is included. You will find that if you want 3 or more dives in a day, AI is the way to go, financially.

At FIBR/2007 we did about 10 shore dives, and this (i e unlimited shore diving) was part of the package. The trick was to dive around 5 am cause at night the water got quite murky.

 

[tarponchik]

The shore dive from Deep Blue is a rough entry over rocks/ironshore. It's recommended that you float your gear out and put it on offshore. There's one entry point through the reef back to shore. We stayed there this spring but I chose to pass on the dive.

Come on, shore diving at DBR is not THAT rough. It's pretty much the same as Bonaire except maybe the Andrea I and II area. We did about 15 shore dives there this Spring, no problemo.

I would rule Utila out for a different reason: the road takes too long to go there for a 4-6 day trip.

 

[tarponchik]

Okay, suppose I wanted to burn some airline miles and go dive in the Caribbean (or Central America) for 4-6 days for as little money as po$$ible? I'm talking hostel+shorediving here. Perhaps an all-inclusive with dorms, a meal plan and a nice house reef (unlimited fills/tanks at the dock)?

Roatan/Fantasy Island. Fly TACA, it is really cheap, and get the unlimited shore diving package. On Bonaire, the prices hiked up recently. GCayman and Cosumel were always on expensive side, so forget about it. Curacao is OK and it is easy to get there. We dived with All West and their unlimited shore diving package was really inexpensive, as I recall.