The Best of the Best

[pm3009]

Hi All

If there's a similiar thread on this already, please point me to it.

I'd be interested in hearing from people with their answers to the following:

1. List of Islands where you have dove in the Caribbean

2. Your 3 favorite Caribbean Dive Destinations, in order of your first choice to 3rd
choice and why they are your favorites. Where did you stay, and what dive op did
you use, and would you choose the same if you went back again?

3. If you could only go back to one Island every year for the rest of your life, which
would you choose and why?

Thanks!
Pam

 

[pm3009]

1. List of Islands where you have dove in the Caribbean

Cozumel (3 times), Grand Cayman, Grand Turk, Bonaire, Aruba

2. Your 3 favorite Caribbean Dive Destinations, in order of your first choice to 3rd
choice and why they are your favorites. Where you stayed, and what dive op did
you use, and would you choose the same if you went back again?

#1 - Cozumel - Amazing Reefs, Amazing Visibility, GREAT Drift Diving. Stayed at the Allegro all three times. Dove with Sea Urchin all three times which is a GREAT small
dive op. Will definitely go back again. Would only dive with Sea Urchin as long as they are around. Allegro is fine, Food is ok. Buffet gets boring after a couple days. They do have one very good Italian restaurant on site but you can only go to it once. Mainly like the location of the resort, and the fact that they have a real beach, which many hotels in Cozumel do not. Rooms were clean, and I like the fact that they are all small thatched roof buildings.

#2 - Grand Turk - GREAT Diving and Visibility. Stayed at the Osprey Hotel and dove with Mitch (owner) at Blue Water Divers, great small dive operation. Mitch is a character! Sings and plays guitar at the Osprey. Mitch had everyone on the dive boat over to his house for rum punch one night. Will definitely go back, and would definitely stay at the Osprey again and would dive with Mitch again as well. LOVE how small and underdeveloped the island is, but would have liked a couple more dining options. One thing about the Osprey that I didn't like, is they aren't really set up for divers at all. They have one plastic trash can to rinse your gear in. No lockers or anything. But we managed just fine, and we were able to fill the trash can with clean water to rinse our gear in....which is preferable to some of the filthy rinse stations at some of the big resorts. Very expensive to get to Grand Turk. I think total airfare including the hopper flight from Provo, was just over $900. Food and drinks was very expensive too. No nice beaches. But what a GREAT laid back Island with GREAT Diving!!!

#3 - Bonaire - Great Diving. Stayed at Don's Habitat and dove with them as well.
Loved Bonaire, but don't know that I'd opt to go back. There are many other places I'd like to try first. No real beaches. If you love shore diving, this is the place to go. I'm not really into shore diving though. Also prefer a much smaller dive op than Don's and their cattle boats, but they definitely cater to divers there. No complaints.

3. If you could only go back to one Island every year for the rest of your life, which
would you choose and why?

That's a HARD question to answer. Grand Turk had such a great atmosphere and was awesome, but I'd have to go with Cozumel. There are so many great dive sites in Cozumel, it's hard to get bored with the diving. I could easily make Cozumel a yearly visit if I could take two dive trips a year.


Additional Info:

Why Aruba and Grand Cayman didn't make my top 3 ?
Aruba, no reefs to speak of. Mainly wreck diving, the Atilla is an AWESOME dive!!
Prefer Wall dives though and reefs.

Grand Cayman, just didn't have great visibility, at least compared to Cozumel, Bonaire and Grand Turk... although GREAT Walls with drop-offs in the thousands of feet. Did have my BEST Dive encounter ever there. Swam along side two Spotted Eagle Rays for quite a while! What BEAUTIFUL Creatures! Also, Tarpon Alley....hundreds of huge Tarpon!! VERY poor visibility on that Dive, but wow was it cool swimming through that school of Tarpon! We had a lousy dive master, pretty rude and zero personality. The only DM I didn't like out of about 8 dive trips.

 

[cowdog77]

Terrific thread.....I'm subscribed to it for some great first-hand info on Carib islands. Thanks for starting it!

 

[ronrosa]

1. List of Islands where you have dove in the Caribbean

Key Largo
Turks & Caicos:................... Provo, West Caicos, French Cay
Little Cayman
Grand Cayman:.................... 2 dives on a cruise stop
Cozumel
Dominican Republic:.............. Puerto Plata
St. Maarten:....................... 2 dives on a cruise stop
Aruba
Costa Rica:......................... not really the Caribbean since dives were in the Pacific
Bermuda:............................ Atlantic, not the Caribbean, but often included in Caribbean discussions
San Andres Colombia

2. Your 3 favorite Caribbean Dive Destinations, in order of your first choice to 3rd
choice and why they are your favorites. Where did you stay, and what dive op did
you use, and would you choose the same if you went back again?

Cozumel: diving variety, Allegro, Hotel Bahia, rented villa. Living Underwater, Aldora. No problem going again w/ any.

Turks & Caicos: walls and sharks, Sands condo, Caicos Adventures, Explorer liveaboard. No problem going again w/any.

Little Caymen: walls, Little Caymen Beach Resort. Would do again.



3. If you could only go back to one Island every year for the rest of your life, which
would you choose and why?


Cozumel: Diving variety way beyond the others. If I was forced to go back every year, I'd stay at a different hotel and use a different dive operator each trip just to keeps things interesting. Then I'd write a guidebook, tell-all, good and bad.

 

[dpbishop]

List of Islands I have dove in trhe Carribbean:

1. BVI

2. Antiqua

Favorite destinations, see above.(obviously)

Loved the BVI because we did a bare boat charter with three other couples. Cost less than hotel alone would have cost, dove wherever we wanted without a dm to nag us, great visibility, lots of fish & coral.

Antigua was a Target of Opportunity since we won a trip there, but we enjoyed the diving.

I would go back to the BVI again in a flash. Its a lot more than one island, the diving is good, the sailing is good and the rum is dirt cheap.

 

[BurBunny]

Where have I been diving in the Caribbean?

Bahamas: Freeport, Nassau, Harbor Island, liveaboard
St. Thomas
St. Maarten
Cozumel
Grand Cayman
Roatan
Jamaica
Antigua
Bermuda
Curacao
Bonaire
St. Lucia
Dominica
Isla Margarita (Venezuela)
St. Croix
Trinidad
Martinique
Turks & Caicos
(If you want info on dive operators, let me know - I have records, just didn't feel like typing them all here).

Favorites?

Dominica, hands down. For the diversity, ease of diving, topside beauty
St. Thomas (surprising, I know), but only if I can do a lot of diving at Armando's Paradise dive site - my single favorite site in the Caribbean
Cozumel, not because I'm particularly enamored with drift diving as a photog, but because I love the people and have some wonderful friends there.

What one place would I go back to year after year for the rest of my life? I'd have to create a liveaboard that would go different locations every year. Liveaboard I'd choose? Turks & Caicos Aggressor, both for the boat and crew. But I'd probably request Dominica and St. Lucia the first few years

Oh yes, and Turks & Caicos didn't make my list simply because I think I had a bad week there overall as far as "typical" weeks go. Middlin' vis overall, few big animal encounters, but some of my very favorite dive memories.

 

[zf2nt]

Hi All

1. List of Islands where you have dove in the Caribbean

2. Your 3 favorite Caribbean Dive Destinations, in order of your first choice to 3rd
choice and why they are your favorites. Where did you stay, and what dive op did
you use, and would you choose the same if you went back again?

3. If you could only go back to one Island every year for the rest of your life, which
would you choose and why?


Thanks!
Pam

1. Bimini, Grand Bahama, Cozumel, Bonaire, St. Maartin, Saaba, Dominica, Roatan, Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, Little Cayman, and maybe a few others I can't recall.

3. I already made that choice: After we discovered Little Cayman in 1993, we started coming back every year. I've been living on Little Cayman six months a year ever since 1998, and am out for a couple of tanks almost every day.

Bruce

 

[nipi]

1. Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, Little Cayman, Cuba, Jamaica, Dominican Rep., Puerto Rico, Bonaire, San Andres, Providencia, Roatan, Utila, Guanaja, Cozumel, Provo, Grand Turk, Salt Cay, South Caicos.

3. I am with Bruce on this one. Little Cayman. Also started visiting in 1993 & now visit about 6 times a year.

 

[sdwho]

Okay, I'll weigh in...
1. List of Islands where you have dove in the Caribbean:
Grand and Little Cayman, Coz,T&C (each multiple times).

2.Your 3 favorite Caribbean Dive Destinations, in order of your first choice to 3rd
choice and why they are your favorites. Where did you stay, and what dive op did
you use, and would you choose the same if you went back again?:
Same list, same order: Caymans, T&C, Coz. In GC, we always stay at Cobalt Coast and dive with Divetech in GC and at the LCBR in LC. In Coz we always dive with Dive Paradise and have stayed all over the place. We've done the T&C Aggressor twice, but on land, we've stayed a night or two at both the Royal West Indies and the Ocean Club.


3. If you could only go back to one Island every year for the rest of your life, which
would you choose and why?

It would be GC for me because I love staying with Ari at Cobalt Coast and diving with Divetech. My wife would probably vote for LC because she loves Bloody Bay Wall.

sdwho

 

[pm3009]

Awesome responses. Keep em coming!