St Lucia or Turks & Caicos

[getwet2]

Hi everyone,

We're considering going to St Lucia or the Turks & Caicos in February for the better half's B-day so I'm leaving it up to her to pick the place but she's the better half because she is thinking about my diving. The better half doesn't dive so we're looking at the Sandals Grande resort in St Lucia or the Royal West Indies resort in T&C's.

We've never been to either place and will probably get to both eventually but I wanted to hear what you have to say about them.

T&C's will not be AI so that makes it more expensive then ST Lucia. The Sandals resort on St Lucia includes diving but from past experience and what I've read on the board here it's not a "DIVE" vacation and I'm sure they will take you where they want to go, so I was considering just using an outside dive op for my diving on St Lucia and paying the extra. Any recommendations on dive ops to use on St Lucia, preferrably close to the resort? It looks like the Sandals Grande resort is at the north end of the island and all the good diving is at the south end......oh well!

If we decide on the T&C's what are your recommendations for dive ops there?

Any other helpful hints will also be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[tstonedvr]

I have dove both islands, T&C on a liveaboard and St Lucia just last month... T&C from a land base will involve some good runs to get to West Caicos where the better diving is...it is wall with an approach area from the island that runs 60-80 ft...good dives, chance of seeing big things...St. Lucia is primarily a drift situation with the little things as the attraction...St Lucia is the best looking of the two islands by far, St Lucia has a bit better vis, but both are fine in that regard, St Lucia is going to be about 2 hours further flight wise. We stayed at Anse Chastanet on St Lucia and atmosphere wise it would be better than Sandals. But a AI package is a must there...
Yarg

 

[mikerault]

Go to Grand Turk if you want the best diving, however, there isn't much Night Life (although there is a Margarittaville there now).

Mike

 

[parrothead725]

i dove T&C 3 years ago and it was great. some drift diving, some wall dives but nothing incredibly out of the ordinary.

im also heading to st. lucia in October on my honeymoon and will be staying at Sandals Grande. Diving is all included (well prepaid, anyway) and im definitely planning some trips out. the wifey doesnt dive, so im in a similar situation and she already knows ill be taking at least 2-3 trips out. hopefully she can go as a bubble watcher or something, but she's more of a hang-out-at-the-swim-up-bar kinda girl. totally my kind of lady.

anyway, all in all, st. lucia is an awesome island to visit and there is a TON to do, so if youre looking for a not totally dive related trip, but still do some good diving, then that's my reco.

good luck!

 

[scuba spark]

Hmm, I don't know about the sandals grande for diving. I just came back from my honeymoon a few weeks back and we stayed at the regency. The regency and halcyon shuttle to the boats at the dock in castries, while the grande has a dock and it's own boats. So the people at the grande don't have to shuttle to the boats, they just leave from there. Sounds great at first glance, but there's a catch.

There was this retired british ex-pat that was on most of our dives the week I was down there. At first I thought he was staying at one of the Sandals, but he actually owns a house just above the Regency. He's been diving with them since they opened (oddly enough, he got his instructors cert from them as well). So he just drives down to the docks and they let him dive for free whenever he wants to dive.

In between dives, I started talking to him about how much nicer it would have been to stay at the grande. I really hate climbing onto a bus to get back to the hotel after a dive (although they were large) and I hate waiting for someone to pick me up (we generally didn't wait longer than 5-10 minutes after our dives). He said I was better off at the regency since the boats from the grande generally don't travel all the way to the southern side of the island, where the best diving is. He claimed it was because the captains were lazy up there, but I think it's just because they're further north and in order to cut back on fuel costs, they just don't run all the way down there.

I'd try to email the resort and get in contact with the guy that runs the watersports/diving. He should be able to give you a their weekly schedule. They diving was nice though. The water was warm with visibility around 60+ feet on most dives. Lots of small stuff and turtles, the reefs looked healthy for the most part.

 

[parrothead725]

Hmm, I don't know about the sandals grande for diving. I just came back from my honeymoon a few weeks back and we stayed at the regency. The regency and halcyon shuttle to the boats at the dock in castries, while the grande has a dock and it's own boats. So the people at the grande don't have to shuttle to the boats, they just leave from there. Sounds great at first glance, but there's a catch.

There was this retired british ex-pat that was on most of our dives the week I was down there. At first I thought he was staying at one of the Sandals, but he actually owns a house just above the Regency. He's been diving with them since they opened (oddly enough, he got his instructors cert from them as well). So he just drives down to the docks and they let him dive for free whenever he wants to dive.

In between dives, I started talking to him about how much nicer it would have been to stay at the grande. I really hate climbing onto a bus to get back to the hotel after a dive (although they were large) and I hate waiting for someone to pick me up (we generally didn't wait longer than 5-10 minutes after our dives). He said I was better off at the regency since the boats from the grande generally don't travel all the way to the southern side of the island, where the best diving is. He claimed it was because the captains were lazy up there, but I think it's just because they're further north and in order to cut back on fuel costs, they just don't run all the way down there.

I'd try to email the resort and get in contact with the guy that runs the watersports/diving. He should be able to give you a their weekly schedule. They diving was nice though. The water was warm with visibility around 60+ feet on most dives. Lots of small stuff and turtles, the reefs looked healthy for the most part.

^^thats pretty well aligned with what i've heard, not going down to the southside of the island and all. the Grande is pretty much as north as you can get on st. lucia so it'd be a 2 hour ride (each way) down to the best diving. im sure they run down there, but maybe not more than once a week or so.

thanks for the heads up though. ill be there for a couple of weeks, so hopefully will be able to do at least one good dive to the south! by the way - any advice or do's/dont's about the resorts i should know about?

 

[scuba spark]

I don't have much info on what goes on at the grande. We only went there one afternoon to grab dinner at the restaurant on the pier(great food, but if you don't get a free meal there by virtue of the room you're staying in, don't go because the portions are extremely small for the amount you'd have to pay). The grande seemed more active than the Regency. It was a much younger crowd with more of a party atmosphere. It looked like we would have had fun staying there. The beach at the regency was much better though.

If you have some time off from diving, take a day and hang out at the regency (free shuttles between all the properties) and bring your snorkel gear. There's a nice little reef that you can snorkel at either side of the beach at the regency. Not a ton of coral growth, but loads of fish swimming around the rocks and patches of coral. There's a zip line that runs through the jungle that we were thinking about doing, we decided not to after hearing that it was still being built. They have some lines to run on, but apparently it's pretty short and not worth the cost of admission. Although by the time you get down there, they have more completed. For the island tours, you're better off going with one of the outside vendors than booking through sandals. You'll go the same places, but it'll cost a little less. We used a guy called Joe and his company is joe knows (i'm pretty sure he's got a website too).

They do a night dive whenever they can get 4 or more people to sign up, but it's an extra $70 per person i think. We elected to skip that one, although I heard it was decent.

Just sit back and enjoy the trip. The diving is nice, when it rains you usually get 10-20 minutes of liquid sunshine then it's back to a sunny day. The people were great all over the island, very friendly, helpful and willing to laugh at all my off colored drunk jokes. Drink lots of Piton, it's the local beer and not bad at all.

Above all, if you can upgrade to a butler class room...take it. Having someone on call to help out in a pinch is great. I know our first dive, we walked down to the shuttle pick up only to realize that I had left my strobe arm in the room. Called my butler and she met me halfway between my room and the shuttle with my arm. Great for setting up breakfast in bed for the morning dives, and the wife was overjoyed to come back from a day of diving to see the jacuzzi tub filled with hot water and bubbles. Basically having a butler for the week made me not have to worry about being romantic

 

[parrothead725]

nice - every time i check this thread i get more and more excited

 

[getwet2]

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

 

[khacken]

With T&C getting hit by Ike, I would say it is an easy choice now unfortunately.