to liveaboard or not?

[hpbelize]

January is still cold front season and the possibility of cancellations. On Turneffe Atoll you can always find a leeward side due to the mangrove islands inside the lagoons. The West side is mostly slope and the NW, E, and S are all wall. Lighthouse Reef is also one of the better wall diving locations in Belize. We do most of our diving at Turneffe and the Barrier Reef East of our location gets protection from Turneffe to the East and the Drowned Cayes to the West making it the best location during cold front season. Belize City and the mainland are also less than half an hour and you can choose land based activities on a daily basis. Not certain if any offshore resort offers more than 3 dives daily but places I've worked before don't do more than 3 and a night dive is done as the 3rd dive of that specific day.

We're also on Facebook and on the cover of Dive Training Magazine.

 

[ronscuba]

I vote liveaboard. A great mixture of small stuff, big stuff, walls, reefs, sand flats and you can't get more convenient diving than on a liveaboard. I haven't been everywhere in the Caribbean, but have been to many places. Belize on a liveaboard is my favorite diving in the Caribbean.

 

[Gaz]

There is just No comparison between Barrier Reef Diving and Atoll diving

Atoll Diving wins hands down PERIOD

Liveaboard way to go

Gaz

 

[jcroy66]

I can't speak to whether to go liveaboard or land-based, as I have not yet visited Belize via liveaboard. But I would put in a vote for Blackbird Caye Resort on Turneffe Atolle. 3 dives a day, your own private cabana, wonderful food, an entire island to yourselves (and the crocodiles) to explore, free use of kayaks, free Nitrox. It was wonderful. Went in April and enjoyed it immensely. We had a huge loggerhead turtle who joined us on quite a few dives during the week, coming right up to us to say hi. We also had dolphins on four or five dives as well, including one dive when an entire pod came whizzing by us right at our depth.

 

[Gaz]

WOW that Dolphin picture is GREAT

Good Job

Gaz

 

[ronscuba]

Great dolphin shot. I saw dolphins from the boat. A lucky few were already in the water when they came by to visit.

If you click the link in my signature to my underwater video site, there is a preview video I made from my Nekton Belize liveaboard trip. The video is labeled Belize HD underwater and has a picture of squids. It will give you a good idea of what the diving is like and what you will see.

 

[potato cod]

Great pics and video!! Wow, am I excited for the trip, even though it's not for another 7 months.

Spur and groove formations are nice (we dive those in the lower Florida Keys frequently), but I want something to compare with diving the West Caicos wall with massive amounts of sealife in a less developed area.

Still vacillating between a liveaboard and a nice atoll resort. JCROY66, nice to hear the good review of Blackbird Caye--there are some negative reviews on Trip Advisor, but it looks like they've had a change in management. Still, the Sun Dancer may end up being the cheapest option with the most diving if they have space available...the Aggressor is rather more $$.

Thanks all for the input so far!

 

[Darnold9999]

Been diving off of Ambergrise and Placencia and done three liveaboard trips to Belize - Nekton and Sun Dancer. Diving off the liveaboard is just better. More life, more interesting - easier. If diving is the criteria liveaboard is the better choice. You will miss seeing Belize as Belize City is not Belize but you will get some good diving in. You will also be staying with fairly serious divers - as opposed to often diving with a group that is just diving as an add on to another holiday. Always depends on the group, but by and large liveaboard divers are pretty serious about their diving.

The difference between the two boats is fairly minimal - they both dive the same spots, Agressor is just a bit nicer from an amenities perspective. eg they (I am told) have a hot tub PH does not. From a dive perspective I would choose PH to save the $ as the diving is identical. From a luxury experience choose Aggressor and spend the extra $ for a slightly nicer experience.

 

[Gaz]

Nekton is no longer in Belize

Gaz

 

[peterbj7]

Or anywhere. They've closed down.