EZ Diver
Registered
Hello All!
Just got back from our 9 day trip from Grand Turk (Bohio) and Provo (Sands). These will probably be pretty long, so I will do them one at a time. Here are the details of our Grand Turk Trip first:
We arrived on US Airways and our flight was on time. It took us about an hour to get through customs in Provo. The customs room is quite hot and the lines were long. After clearing customs, we checked in at Sky King for our flight to Grand Turk. The max weight per passenger is 44 lbs and they charge you $0.44 per pound thereafter. When you are carrying all your own SCUBA equipment and clothes for 9 days, the pounds add up fast. The flight to Grand Turk is pretty short and has some great scenery. The plane is REALLY small. It only has one seat on each side of the aisle and has a clear height of about 5 feet. Upon arriving in Grand Turk, we found a taxi right away and it cost us $6/pp to get to Bohio.
GRAND TURK:
The island is VERY small (only about 2500 people). Is there trash around the island, yes, BUT YOU ARE ON AN TINY ISLAND!! This is the same for any small island. They dont have a reliable trash service and they dont have an auto salvage yard. Where do people expect the islanders to put their broken down cars? In the ocean? Call the nearest barge to come get it off the island? By no means was it horrible. I lived in south Puerto Rico and most of their beaches and small towns outside of San Juan had about 500% more trash than Grand Turk. Most of the beaches around the resorts are cleaned daily. It is true that there is NOTHING to do on the island, so it depends on your idea of a vacation. We spent a few nights sitting outside at the Bohio patio playing Backgammon in the cool ocean breeze, we walked down the beaches at night into town, we laid on the beach with our lounge chairs in the ocean during the day and in between dives, we read a few books. To us, that is vacation. If you want to RELAX and not run from one place to another, Grand Turk is great.
BOHIO:
Kelly was there to greet us when we arrived and showed us to our room. We had one of the suites, which have a small kitchen (microwave, sink, fridge, coffee pot, and toaster). I HIGHLY recommend spending a little more for one of the suites. See the EATING section below. I would compare the rooms to a Holiday Inn, which I was expecting. The bed was comfortable, there was more than enough room for all our stuff and every room has a patio with 2 chairs. The A/C unit was a little loud when running, but it worked very well. The whole island gets their water from desalinization of sea water, so you can drink it, but its not the best. Bohio does provide every room with a gallon of water that you can refill for free at any time with their reverse Osmosis filter in the bar. The walls are thin, but it didnt really bother us since most people were in bed by 10pm and up around 7am to dive. Yes, the website for Bohio is probably deceiving in that it is not a 4-star resort as determined by the States Standards, but if Grand Turk was its own little world, Bohio would be a 4-star resort. If you are expecting to have fluffy pillows with chocolates on them or marble bathrooms, you will be disappointed. We werent and loved the small, staying at your relatives house feel of Bohio. Overall, my girlfriend and I LOVED Bohio. Yes, Kelly and Nick (owners) are relatively new to the business and things arent always smooth, but we felt they were doing their best and were always friendly to us. Kelly seems like she is overwhelmed by running Bohio, but she always was good on her word. The grounds were always clean and everyone, from the bartenders to the maids, was always very friendly. The water and beaches at Bohio are amazing. The beach is by far one of the best on the island. We spend tons of time with our lounge chairs on the beach and for all but one day, we were the only ones on the beach. The beaches down by Osprey are really small and you have a sense that you are on a 50 yard section of walled off beach. They got their Dive Boat back when we were there. Ill talk more about diving with Bohio in DIVING below.
EATING:
It is just as expensive as you have heard. Both Osprey and Bohio were comparable in price and in menu. Steaks were $40, chicken Caesar salads were $16, burger was $15, pizza $21, beer about $4 a bottle. So knowing this, we brought A LOT of food and probably saved a few hundred dollars. We ate oatmeal and toast in the morning before diving, had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, tuna or the like for lunch and made pasta, rice or the like for dinner. Yes, it cost us a little more for the room with a microwave, but it was well worth it. I would recommend bringing what you plan to eat from the states and not buying it on the island (unless you want milk or something). We brought a whole suitcase of food. We did eat a few times on the island. We shared a pizza at Bohio (which was excellent), we ate at the Poop Deck, which is a pretty much like someones kitchen with chairs and 1 light bulb (friend chicken and fries for $5) and the last day we shared a Burger at Margaritaville at the cruise ship docks. So if you dont mind paying for food, you can find some good food on the island, if you would rather spend money on diving and are limited on cash, bring you own food.
DIVING:
We did a total of 8 dives in 3 days. Like I mentioned, the Bohio dive boat is back and fully operational, but it wasnt ready until the second day. If their boat is out of commission, they make it seamless to you. Either Oasis or another outfit will be at the Bohio beach to pick you up. With the dive sites so close, the dive boats dont pick you up until 9am. We dove with Oasis on the first day. They are by far the largest operation on the island. They probably have close to 15 boats running dive trips, some big, some small. We had 6 other divers on board, other boats had 15+. Most dive sites are less than 10 minutes away and the wall is no more than 300 yards off shore. The experience with Oasis was good, nothing bad, nothing great. Between every dive, the boat comes back to shore to refill tanks. The second day, we dove with Bohio and their Dive Master. There were only 4 people on board, so it was very calm and relaxed. The Dive Master (Mitch I think) was awesome. His father was one of the first people to start a dive operation on the island, so he is very knowledgeable and is just a pleasant person to be around. He constantly checked us for air and pointed out various sites underwater. Our surface interval was spent back at Bohio sitting in a beach chair in the water taking a nap.
We did 2 dives from the Bohio beach as they have unlimited beach diving and honestly, they were our best dives. A few guests shunned the beach diving when we got their because they immediately submersed and spent 25 minutes getting to the wall, but we are used to beach diving in Southern Cal where you have kick out from shore a few hundred yards, so we did it anyway. There are practically no waves on the beach, so it is a very relaxed entry. We inflated our BCs, sat on our backs and did a relaxed kick out about 200 yards and submerged. We hit the wall in about 10 mins after going under. On our beach dives we saw a total of 5 nurse sharks, 4 turtles, a sting ray and tons of fish. On our boat dives we only saw a turtle and lots or coral. It seemed that the nurse sharks and turtles preferred the sandy area about 100 yards before the wall, which the boats tend to miss. From shore, it is mostly 15-35 ft of water until you hit the wall, so we at least had 80 minute dives. Our boat dives were no less than 60 mins underwater.
SUMMARY:
We really liked Grand Turk and Bohio. The diving was good, but wished we had seen more large creatures. We saw mostly coral and schools of small fish. If you want to relax, sit on the beach, read a few good books, lay on pristine white beaches with crystal clear water, this is a great place to be. Provo does have slightly nicer beaches, but compared to most beaches and clarity of water, Grand Turk is about a 9 and Provo about a 10.
Feel free to e-mail me with questions (ezdiver23@hotmail.com). I took about 400 pictures during the trip, so I will sort through them and post some in the next few days.
Just got back from our 9 day trip from Grand Turk (Bohio) and Provo (Sands). These will probably be pretty long, so I will do them one at a time. Here are the details of our Grand Turk Trip first:
We arrived on US Airways and our flight was on time. It took us about an hour to get through customs in Provo. The customs room is quite hot and the lines were long. After clearing customs, we checked in at Sky King for our flight to Grand Turk. The max weight per passenger is 44 lbs and they charge you $0.44 per pound thereafter. When you are carrying all your own SCUBA equipment and clothes for 9 days, the pounds add up fast. The flight to Grand Turk is pretty short and has some great scenery. The plane is REALLY small. It only has one seat on each side of the aisle and has a clear height of about 5 feet. Upon arriving in Grand Turk, we found a taxi right away and it cost us $6/pp to get to Bohio.
GRAND TURK:
The island is VERY small (only about 2500 people). Is there trash around the island, yes, BUT YOU ARE ON AN TINY ISLAND!! This is the same for any small island. They dont have a reliable trash service and they dont have an auto salvage yard. Where do people expect the islanders to put their broken down cars? In the ocean? Call the nearest barge to come get it off the island? By no means was it horrible. I lived in south Puerto Rico and most of their beaches and small towns outside of San Juan had about 500% more trash than Grand Turk. Most of the beaches around the resorts are cleaned daily. It is true that there is NOTHING to do on the island, so it depends on your idea of a vacation. We spent a few nights sitting outside at the Bohio patio playing Backgammon in the cool ocean breeze, we walked down the beaches at night into town, we laid on the beach with our lounge chairs in the ocean during the day and in between dives, we read a few books. To us, that is vacation. If you want to RELAX and not run from one place to another, Grand Turk is great.
BOHIO:
Kelly was there to greet us when we arrived and showed us to our room. We had one of the suites, which have a small kitchen (microwave, sink, fridge, coffee pot, and toaster). I HIGHLY recommend spending a little more for one of the suites. See the EATING section below. I would compare the rooms to a Holiday Inn, which I was expecting. The bed was comfortable, there was more than enough room for all our stuff and every room has a patio with 2 chairs. The A/C unit was a little loud when running, but it worked very well. The whole island gets their water from desalinization of sea water, so you can drink it, but its not the best. Bohio does provide every room with a gallon of water that you can refill for free at any time with their reverse Osmosis filter in the bar. The walls are thin, but it didnt really bother us since most people were in bed by 10pm and up around 7am to dive. Yes, the website for Bohio is probably deceiving in that it is not a 4-star resort as determined by the States Standards, but if Grand Turk was its own little world, Bohio would be a 4-star resort. If you are expecting to have fluffy pillows with chocolates on them or marble bathrooms, you will be disappointed. We werent and loved the small, staying at your relatives house feel of Bohio. Overall, my girlfriend and I LOVED Bohio. Yes, Kelly and Nick (owners) are relatively new to the business and things arent always smooth, but we felt they were doing their best and were always friendly to us. Kelly seems like she is overwhelmed by running Bohio, but she always was good on her word. The grounds were always clean and everyone, from the bartenders to the maids, was always very friendly. The water and beaches at Bohio are amazing. The beach is by far one of the best on the island. We spend tons of time with our lounge chairs on the beach and for all but one day, we were the only ones on the beach. The beaches down by Osprey are really small and you have a sense that you are on a 50 yard section of walled off beach. They got their Dive Boat back when we were there. Ill talk more about diving with Bohio in DIVING below.
EATING:
It is just as expensive as you have heard. Both Osprey and Bohio were comparable in price and in menu. Steaks were $40, chicken Caesar salads were $16, burger was $15, pizza $21, beer about $4 a bottle. So knowing this, we brought A LOT of food and probably saved a few hundred dollars. We ate oatmeal and toast in the morning before diving, had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, tuna or the like for lunch and made pasta, rice or the like for dinner. Yes, it cost us a little more for the room with a microwave, but it was well worth it. I would recommend bringing what you plan to eat from the states and not buying it on the island (unless you want milk or something). We brought a whole suitcase of food. We did eat a few times on the island. We shared a pizza at Bohio (which was excellent), we ate at the Poop Deck, which is a pretty much like someones kitchen with chairs and 1 light bulb (friend chicken and fries for $5) and the last day we shared a Burger at Margaritaville at the cruise ship docks. So if you dont mind paying for food, you can find some good food on the island, if you would rather spend money on diving and are limited on cash, bring you own food.
DIVING:
We did a total of 8 dives in 3 days. Like I mentioned, the Bohio dive boat is back and fully operational, but it wasnt ready until the second day. If their boat is out of commission, they make it seamless to you. Either Oasis or another outfit will be at the Bohio beach to pick you up. With the dive sites so close, the dive boats dont pick you up until 9am. We dove with Oasis on the first day. They are by far the largest operation on the island. They probably have close to 15 boats running dive trips, some big, some small. We had 6 other divers on board, other boats had 15+. Most dive sites are less than 10 minutes away and the wall is no more than 300 yards off shore. The experience with Oasis was good, nothing bad, nothing great. Between every dive, the boat comes back to shore to refill tanks. The second day, we dove with Bohio and their Dive Master. There were only 4 people on board, so it was very calm and relaxed. The Dive Master (Mitch I think) was awesome. His father was one of the first people to start a dive operation on the island, so he is very knowledgeable and is just a pleasant person to be around. He constantly checked us for air and pointed out various sites underwater. Our surface interval was spent back at Bohio sitting in a beach chair in the water taking a nap.
We did 2 dives from the Bohio beach as they have unlimited beach diving and honestly, they were our best dives. A few guests shunned the beach diving when we got their because they immediately submersed and spent 25 minutes getting to the wall, but we are used to beach diving in Southern Cal where you have kick out from shore a few hundred yards, so we did it anyway. There are practically no waves on the beach, so it is a very relaxed entry. We inflated our BCs, sat on our backs and did a relaxed kick out about 200 yards and submerged. We hit the wall in about 10 mins after going under. On our beach dives we saw a total of 5 nurse sharks, 4 turtles, a sting ray and tons of fish. On our boat dives we only saw a turtle and lots or coral. It seemed that the nurse sharks and turtles preferred the sandy area about 100 yards before the wall, which the boats tend to miss. From shore, it is mostly 15-35 ft of water until you hit the wall, so we at least had 80 minute dives. Our boat dives were no less than 60 mins underwater.
SUMMARY:
We really liked Grand Turk and Bohio. The diving was good, but wished we had seen more large creatures. We saw mostly coral and schools of small fish. If you want to relax, sit on the beach, read a few good books, lay on pristine white beaches with crystal clear water, this is a great place to be. Provo does have slightly nicer beaches, but compared to most beaches and clarity of water, Grand Turk is about a 9 and Provo about a 10.
Feel free to e-mail me with questions (ezdiver23@hotmail.com). I took about 400 pictures during the trip, so I will sort through them and post some in the next few days.
