Traveling on a budget

[living4experiences]

As a new diver, don't waste your money going to Asia (at least not now). Build up your experience first. It's cheaper to design your own trip rather than joining a group trip. With the higher per-person cost, you're likely paying for the trip leader's fare and/or profit for the shop.

Cozumel is drift diving with sometimes very swift currents. I would not recommend Cozumel for a new diver. It's not as cheap as it used to be and you risk being blown out by weather very often. I just returned from Cozumel last week. We were there for 10 days and only got to dive 5 days due to windy weather. I went with two friends, one was a non-diver, and he was bored out of his mind. He posted on Facebook, if you're not a diver or a cruise ship tourist, there's nothing to do. If you're not staying in an expensive beach-front hotel or an all-inclusive, there are not a lot of sandy beaches. It's a rocky coastline, for the most part. Yes, there's jeep tours and bike rides but little else for the non-diver except shopping. In October, I was there for 12 days and only got to dive 6 days because of weather.

The Cozumel forum here is heavily weighted with postings, but there's a lot better places to go for diving. It's certainly a convenience for those living in Texas. There's a lot of corruption and thievery in Cozumel. The taxi drivers will rip you off at every opportunity. If you rent a car, your hotel may not have parking or you may not find a place to park anyway, and you risk a break-in or it being stolen. Some restaurants will purposefully overcharge you, and if you pay with a credit card, they'll tell you it's because you're using a credit card, which is a lie. There are NO mandatory credit card fees in restaurants. You have to haggle price on everything.

Some places you could try in the Caribbean:
Honduras
Belize
Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, Cayman Brac
St. Croix
Turks & Caicos
St. Maarten
Curacao

Enjoy your new hobby! You'll get addicted!

 

[scrane]

All the information you need is available with searches here, airline sites, and resort sites. The ultimate cost will very much depend on how much luxury you require and how adept you are at making your own way. Packaged trips from local dive shops are amongst the least economical ways you can go. You can travel cheap and have a great time with a little research.

 

[FishWatcher747]

I'd start with Curacao. Easy shore diving from your Hotel, lots of sandy beach and things for the non diver to do. Look into someplace like Lions Dive Resort for a first timer. See the Curacao forum for recent discussions of new divers going there.

When your experience grows try Cozumel. Warning it can be addictive.

 

[lexvil]

I would say Curaçao, get a nice air b&b with its own pool, rent a car or truck, book the vehicle and diving through dive bus and enjoy yourself while saving $2000 from the budget.

Actually it’s VRBO that is used there, don’t do water front and save a bundle.

 

[drrich2]

So you want a wreck-focused warm salt water dive trip where a significant other could enjoy some topside diversions and the option to make this a budget trip.

First off, you're going to want to pick up Advanced OW and Nitrox cert.s, because a lot of wrecks are fairly deep and nitrox helps you get more bottom time. Getting a nitrox cert. should be no problem; AOW will be more involved, but it's a cert. you're probably going to want anyway.

Key Largo has already been mentioned; I went in 2013 and really enjoyed it. Unless things have changed, you'll want the cert.s I mentioned to do the deep wrecks.

Key Largo with Rainbow Reef Dive Center 2013 - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/fl...iving-key-largo-rainbow-reef-dive-center.html

But I've got an option I didn't notice mentioned. Very wreck focused. And you don't have to leave the country.

Morehead City, NC August 2015 - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/no...us-dive-center-aug-9-13-2015-trip-report.html

It's seasonally warm with good viz, heavily wreck-focused, some of the wrecks are 'authentic' (i.e.: not sunk as artificial reefs) with a historically relevant story (e.g.: sunk in wartime), you can to enjoy sand tiger sharks pretty reliably (fairly big but not too big, scary looking but low risk) without the need for baiting or feeding, and you may see some other things you're unlikely to see at mainstream Caribbean destinations.

For your criteria in a trip not running over 7-days, starting from a U.S. locale, I think this of the Florida Keys are 'the droids you're looking for' (hope you like Star Wars).

 

[Landau]

Club Med Turquoise in Turks and Caicos. They have their own dive boat ( I was in a room less than 120 steps to the boat) , good diving and most importantly lots and lots for my non diving wife to do while I went diving.

 

[mcohen1021]

Already stated, Cozumel is the best bang for your buck but not even close to being cheap anymore.

I am also finding the liveaboards are providing alot of value for what you pay.

My suggestion is to base your destination based on whats on sale, thats what most of us do. But you also need to do your homework and see if its a good / bad time of the year and figure out what exactly you'd like to see while there. animals many times are migratory

 

[chillyinCanada]

West End or West Bay, Roatan. Get your AOW and Nitrox cert there. Enjoy the dives. Be back by noon or one o'clock to hang out with the wives.
One day, rent a taxi van to take you up island for a look around and enjoy the views around every curve.

There's a wreck in the sand to see after you have your AOW. The El Aguila Wreck.

It's true that as a new diver you won't really see as much as you will eventually see. But what you do see, you'll love all the same.

Start saving your money. No way that your wife will take it up too? If not, that's a shame, but cheaper . . .unless you start taking separate vacations.

 

[Kcollins]

thanks everyone for all the guidance. BIG help.

drrich thank's for the dive reports... That was good reading as well...

Kevin

 

[nydivetripper]

I'll add that you should consider a dive club. Mine books group trips and spreads the savings amongst the members rather than the instructors of a dive shop.
Look into Facebook groups or dive forums like this to accomplish the same. Maybe even start one.
Focus on getting dives under your belt before settling on an area of interest like wrecks etc. Try to get some members of your certification class to pitch in on a large house for rent in Florida and do some dives with a local operation.
Above all, enjoy