St. Croix, Turks & Caicos, or Barbados

[WicketsMom]

We're looking for a new dive destination to try out in September and have narrowed our choices down to three (trying to use our SkyMiles too):

St. Croix, Turks & Caicos, or Barbados

Any suggestions?

We love shore diving, like clean and comfortable rooms with at least a refrigerator if not a kitchen, and A/C is a must. We'll rent a car wherever we are, and don't really car if there's much nightlife around or not. We might try an all-inclusive, but generally prefer to try different restaurants around the island. Prefer small, out-of-the-way hotels (i.e. Habitat Curacao) but would do a resort too if the price was right.

 

[DocVikingo]

Hi WicketsMom,

Each of these venues have small, basic, but fully serviceable accommodations available. Barbados will be your best bet for more reasonably prices digs; on balance the TCI your worst.

If shore diving is important, this pretty much knocks out the TCI as they have little. St. Croix has a fair number shore accessable sites, some of them quite enjoyable.

Hope this proves helpful.

Have fun.

DocVikingo

 

[RICHinNC]

Hey...we are going to Barbados in Sept too. We will be there 13th to the 23rd and are going to do both shore and boat diving. This will be our third trip there so if you have any questions feel free to pm me...or ask here.

As for a place to stay....try the Sea Foam Haciendas. Do a search...you will find them on their website. Clean, nice and very affordable.

 

[DocVikingo]

Sea Foam Haciendas http://www.seafoamhaciendas.com/

Regards,

DocVikingo

 

[mobster75]

I spent a week last July in St. Croix and had a really fabulous time with a buddy of mine! Granted it wasn't a dive vacation (but I did get him to try scuba twice and he loved it and the scenery during our shore dives).

I've been to plenty of touristy places in the Caribbean and I was getting burned out on all the mass crowds of typical tourists everywhere, packing everything, making every place homogenized and I found St. Croix to be just what I needed to love the Caribbean again.

It's not a very touristed island anymore as the cruise ships pulled out of there some years ago, so the accommodations aren't super deluxe, but definitely clean and comfortable (like a couple walls had cracks in the concrete, no big deal to me, but some people don't like that). The people were VERY friendly, both the transplanted Americans that live there and the native locals.

I think the only places we saw other tourists were our hotel (Carambola) and the Cruzan rum distillery for the tour (and free all you can drink sampling!)

There are plenty of good restaurants all over the island. We made a habit of eating lunch and dinner in diff restaurants every time and it was GREAT! The food was really good in just about every spot (except one) and ranged from a typical sit-down dinner to a burger shack on the beach overlooking the surf. Prices were fair and the couple places that were expensive definitely were worth it with the quality of the meals and the presentation.

Some people have complained on the 'net about St. Croix not feeling safe, but I don't know what they are talking about.. We drove everywhere there at all hours of the day / night, including more modest local neighborhoods and we NEVER felt unsafe.

The beaches are basically free on the island and we always kept our snorkel gear and swimsuits in the trunk so we could literally drive around and pull over when we found a nice stretch of beach to go snorkeling and then have a good strong drink at the local beach bar.

I only dove off Cane Bay where its a shore entry with a wall maybe 200 ft off the beach but it was as good as the diving I've been exposed in the Bahamas. I currently have plans to spend 3.5 days there again this July and have already booked 5 boat dives with 2 different operations on opposite sides of the island. I can't wait!

I hate the over homogenization of many places in the Caribbean. Same crappy souvenir shacks/stands/stores selling the same crappy merchandise. Same crappy tours available on each island. Same crappy tourists thinking "wow. this is how the locals live.".

For me, St. Croix is what the Caribbean should feel like. Kinda like those silly Corona commercials where all you have is the blue sky, beautiful water, and people relaxing like time doesn't matter. I hope to go visit there for years to come!

 

[WicketsMom]

Wow, you like to travel the same way we do. Just need a clean, comfortable, and safe room, decent food, and cheap beer! We always have a car, and carry the snorkel gear and a cooler along (and apples for the donkeys in LaPaz/Cabo San Lucas). We try to avoid the cruise-ship crowds as much as possible and get out and see the real Caribbean too.

We'll definitely have to try St. Croix as that sounds like just what we are looking for. Unfortunately, Delta has narrowed our choices down for us since the SkyMiles tickets to St. Croix aren't available now for our dates (guess I should have gone ahead and booked earlier). So, we're going to do Utila, Honduras that week instead. (This has to be a low-budget trip this time since we're over our travel budget after a week in Tobago on a liveaboard and a ski trip earlier this year too. So, that limits us to somewhere we can get free airfare, or really cheap!

Nice to hear first-hand that safety isn't an issue on St. Croix. I had read some of the same reviews, some from Carambola which was our second choice in lodging (first was Divi Carina Bay).

 

[mobster75]

Yeah.. not too many airlines fly directly into St. Croix, mainly because only a few smaller typical major-airline jets can land at the airport. Otherwise you're limited to smaller (25-35 seats) prop-based airplanes that codeshare with the big airlines (like Caribbean Sun Airlines) and connect from places like San Juan.

I flew last year and will fly this year on US Airways, but only because I got a $400 flight credit because they screwed up on my reservation last year and I almost didn't make it at all to St. Croix.

Mind you, we were a couple of average guys in our mid-to-late 20's, so it would take a lot to make us nervous. But I did see a few groups of just women roaming the island and loving it. I don't think St. Croix is a good place for someone's first trip to the Caribbean. I think the quietness of it is what can make people feel scared.. I'm used to traveling around Europe, so I know that hotel room sizes and amenities vary GREATLY from country to country and thats fine. The room we had in Carambola was pretty big, but it was for 4 people originally. I don't think I'd stay there again unless I was with my gf as its pricey for just a couple of guys.

Definitely keep St. Croix in mind for a future trip! I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as I did!

FYI, St. Croix driving takes a little bit to get used to... North American spec cars driving on UK spec roads. (Left-hand steering wheel on left-side roads) The novelty lasted quite a while. Heh. And if you go in July, beware of misleading maps that show some roads as "potentially closed depending on rainfall". I thought that meant the roads would be washed out and too soft.. Nope.... We turned onto one dirt road while doing a scenic drive and I said "What road!? There's no road?!" "Well its here on the map!" All we could see in front of us was 2ft of weed growth and then we just barely made out 2 ruts cutting through. But thats only if you look for off-the-beaten-path (literally) scenic routes... Paved roads are perfectly fine. (We were looking for the beer-drinking pig on the dirt roads... didn't find it...)

 

[Amy WJ]

How's the diving in Barbados compared to T&C?

 

[KevinLButts]

(We were looking for the beer-drinking pig on the dirt roads... didn't find it...)

The Montpellier Domino Hut, (if I remember correctly). I lived on St Croix from 1992 till 1994. I got certified at the Cane Bay Dive Shop. I found some really cool dive spots while there. I lived on the east end in a condo in Coakely Bay. I was as close to Buck Islands as you could get without getting wet!! I am planning on going back for a week at the end of this year, I know it has changed alot.

 

[RICHinNC]

I have never been to TC but dove Barbados several times. There is both boat and some shore diving. I wouldnt compare it to Bonaire but there is lots of life and the reefs are in pretty good shape. The island is very easy to get around on and there is tons of stuff to do above the surface as well.