Top 3 Best Two-Week Dive Trips

[DCBC]

Here's a few that you might want to consider:

1. Australia - Mike Ball Expeditions, Premium Coral Sea Adventure on the Spoilsport

2. Thailand - Peterpan Andaman Diving (January is a good time and grab the Neptune Suite)

3. The Exumas - On the Aquacat (Aquacat Adventures).

 

[vladimir]

I'm hoping we can do it for about $6K - total. It may or may not be possible.

Doable, I think, but we can stop talking about fancy liveaboards. Ten days on the Undersea Hunter, for example, is over $4,000 per person.

I agree that the South Pacific will likely be the warmest water in mid December. Fiji is beautiful, and I wonder about the French Polynesian Islands.

I think we can stop talking about the South Pacific and Polynesia too. The two of you can make it to Singapore for less than $3K in airfare. Another few hundred apiece will get you to a cheap liveaboard out of Phuket, Thailand, or to a cheap hotel on the north shore of Bali, either well within the balance of our budget.

 

[squarepants]

We may need to re-think our budget. I know we could do the Caribbean easily for $6k, but I'm thinking it would be difficult to find a place that is truly peaceful, or a truly new experience. I used to relish planning the perfect vacation, and would spend hours researching where to go. My career changed, and somehow now it is so much more difficult. Not enough hours in the day.
This is really helpful information. Thank you!

 

[scubafanatic]

We may need to re-think our budget. I know we could do the Caribbean easily for $6k, but I'm thinking it would be difficult to find a place that is truly peaceful, or a truly new experience. I used to relish planning the perfect vacation, and would spend hours researching where to go. My career changed, and somehow now it is so much more difficult. Not enough hours in the day.
This is really helpful information. Thank you!

I had a really good time on the Sea-Of-Cortez/DON JOSE liveaboard (11/05) and the Socorro Islands/Nautilus Explorer liveaboard (12/08)......both base out of the Baja Peninsula area and so the airfare for you should be reasonable. If you want GUARANTEED MANTAS, do the Nautilus Explorer, especially the last day of the trip is done off the 'Boiler' (an underwater seamount) where you are guaranteed to have LOTS of VERY CLOSE GIANT MANTA encounters !!! Nautilus Explorer also did some 'sharky' sites......the DON JOSE won't have sharks/mantas but otherwise is like diving in a giant, tropical fish aquarium. The DON JOSE is fine for newer divers...the Nautilus Explorer is probably for more advanced divers overall. With airfare, tips, NITROX, you should probably budget a realistic $ 3500 - $ 4000 per person for a week long trip.

...also, being from WA, the Nautilus Explorer spends part of the year 'up north' doing cold-water/dry-suit oriented dive trips....that's a very local trip for you I should think.....

 

[tadeotadeo]

but I'm thinking it would be difficult to find a place that is truly peaceful, or a truly new experience.

Have you looked into Old Providence it definatly meets these two criteria. There are a hadfull of recent post on Old Providence to check out here on scubaboard.

 

[mjh]

Your budget is the issue for going to the South Pacific. We have trip reports, slideshows, etc... for many of the destinations mentioned at our site. If I was just to pick not including budget it would be Raja Ampat for most amazing all around diving or if you are a shark fan Cocos Island is incredible. If trying to stick to a budget Thailand is a very good option.

 

[squarepants]

After rethinking the budget, I figured it would be better to just look at every possibility, and eliminate locations for weather/conditions or high season/crowds. The following process of elimination is what I've come up with so far, using this website for most of my seasonal info http://www.diveglobal.com/explore_destinations/calendar/seasonal.asp:

Borneo Malaysia - no: The ocean is roughest between November and February.
Indonesia - no: Avoid the wet monsoon season, generally December through the middle of March.
Red Sea - no: bordering countries are all on my hubby's "sensitive countries" list from his employer.

Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, French Polynesia, Fiji, West Samoa - like it: Rain doesn't bother us, and there aren't really adverse conditions to speak of. Warm water!

Old Providence/SanAndres - no: High Season - busy

Caribbean, any less traveled island - maybe: hoping for something more remote, but not out of the question.

Still pondering other places....

 

[mpgunner]

This is a great thread. I'm wanting to plan a trip next year and these comments are good.

 

[vladimir]

Borneo Malaysia - no: The ocean is roughest between November and February.

True, nobody dives in the S. China Sea during these months, and some resorts, like Layang-layang, close down. Sipadan is diveable though, although the water is rougher.

Indonesia - no: Avoid the wet monsoon season, generally December through the middle of March.

Indonesia is 2000 miles long, from east to west. It is hard to generalize about the climate. I have been diving in Bali over Christmas. The Moluccas have their wet monsoon in July and August, so you can keep them on your list.

Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, French Polynesia, Fiji, West Samoa - like it: Rain doesn't bother us, and there aren't really adverse conditions to speak of. Warm water!

PNG has micro-climates somewhat dependent on the terrain. You can take a short propeller flight from rainforest to desert.

Caribbean, any less traveled island - maybe: hoping for something more remote, but not out of the question.

Still pondering other places....

They might not sound very romantic, but have you ruled out Bonaire or Little Cayman? Compared to the rest of the Caribbean, they are "less traveled," and both offer great diving by Caribbean standards. I usually go during low season though--it's hard to find a quiet place in the Caribbean during the holidays.

 

[vladimir]

The following process of elimination is what I've come up with so far, using this website for most of my seasonal info http://www.diveglobal.com/explore_destinations/calendar/seasonal.asp:

That website cut-and-pasted its seasonal info from Undercurrent.org, which is an excellent original source for dive planning information like that. (And my source, often.)