Trip report - Grand Turk, Bohio Resort

[diversmith]

Somehow from prior threads I was under the impression shore diving off Grand Turk either wasn't a 'thing,' or the swim-outs were prohibitively long. Now I'm curious whether either impression is accurate. Can someone who's shore dove off Grand Turk comment?

Always glad to hear about another good shore diving destination. Is Grand Turk such?

Richard.

I can only speak to the area in front of Bohio. It would be a pretty long snorkel out to the good stuff where the wall begins. Maybe do it a couple of times, then you might be over the effort involved. Not much to see on the way back if you were to start deep and work your way back in u/w to get your safety stop time in.

It's funny you ask about that because when we were there, I flashed back to my time working in Aqaba, Jordan diving down towards the Saudi border. There were amazing walls there and if I wasn't on the "company boats", we would drive to the beach, set up, snorkel out to the edge of the wall and drop down. Spend some time at 100-175' and then work our way back up the wall and then scuba all the way onto the beach. The difference was there was a lot of great reef structure all the way in. A perfect slope going in gave a us a great multi level safety stop opportunity. Worked perfect! It would be somewhat similar at Bohio if you end up there to try it.

Overall from what I saw, I wouldn't put GT up there in the ideal shore diving category.

 

[Saboteur]

Thanks for the detailed report. Bohio/GT has been on my list, but should I ever head there i think alternate accommodations/dive op would need to be considered.

 

[Stoo]

GT has been on my list for some time but it keeps being pushed down the list. A friend of mine raved about it but she always stayed at Osprey.

I sometimes get the feeling that the island has generally gone downhill since the cruise terminal was built. Dive ops that cater to that crowd generally get scratched from my list.

Thanks for your frank review. I'm sorry your trip wasn't what you expected. It sucks when you drop a ton of $$ and a place fails to meet your expectations.

 

[They call me Tater]

Sad to hear. We stayed there a few years ago and loved it. Pool and rooms were clean. Never spent much time in the room and had no water issues but we did drink bottled water. Small islands do have issues recovering from hurricanes though. We have seen that in the bahamas and USVI.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @diversmith

Thanks for the detailed review, I'm always interested in Caribbean destinations I have not visited yet. Grand Turk has not moved up on my list following your post. Perhaps things will improve with some more time to recover from the hurricanes of 2017. Bohio Resort has some good reviews pre hurricances

 

[Cornellxc]

I mean, they got totally beat up from Irmaria. The room you were staying in was missing most of the roof a few months before you got there. also, you were there in the sweet spot where NOBODY had water on island. City water went down and it was dry enough that all the cisterns ran dry as well (always plenty of bottled water available). Pretty crazy situation and the government has since rectified the problem. That being said, bohio is expensive enough that I would expect that stuff to be taken care of too. Preventative maintenance is kind of a joke though when I think they finished rebuilding the dive shop at the end of may. Everybody's still putting the pieces back together, the place basically had a bomb dropped on it less than a year ago.

I would say the swim out is too far to include GT on a list of shorediving friendly places, though I have done it from Bohio and it's not terrible.

There's plenty of places to stay in GT and most dive operators do not cater to cruiseship passengers. Bohio is also the most expensive place on island to eat/drink so your mileage may vary. Definitely off the beaten path and rustic. I know the bohio crew very well and know they would not intentionally overcharge anyone. Had you pointed it out on the way out of dodge I'm sure they would have made it right.

Cool you got to dive with Nate, you were probably one of his first guests after getting his instructor cert.

 

[Doc Harry]

My wife and I have been diving with Bohio every year for many years. Always had the perfect experience, so we kept going back.

Methinks diversmith (the original poster) has a agenda.

 

[diversmith]

@Doc Harry
So you are saying I’m lying about our trip and what we experienced??

Wow!!

I have zero agenda. Like I said in my original post...I am reporting what our experience was with Bohio & the diving. If it helps others make a better informed decision on how to spend their hard-earned money, then that was my only goal.

Bottom line...Bohio has some serious deficiencies that could impact the bottom line of what a lot of people might be expecting when spending that kind of money.

But then again, maybe it was just my imagination that I was left stranded in the shower with no water to rinse off with!!

 

[Cornellxc]

I think its more accurate to say:

Bohio *had* serious deficiencies in the months following being directly hit by two major hurricanes (one being the strongest ever in the atlantic basin). I don't think the issues in the OP are applicable today, the island has bounced back and is better than ever.

 

[Damselfish]

One of the biggest let-downs was the advertised SUP paddleboards. We really like SUPing and were really looking forward to using the 2 boards every day. We went to take them out the first day and found one of them was missing the fin and that both of them were really beat up and too small for most adult males (ie me!). No fin equals no go for one of us. The deck surfaces were really worn out and slick so they were basically complete junk! A real bummer to say the least. Don't advertise something if it doesn't work!!

Not an excuse for them, but I've learned not to count on advertised SUPs anywhere like that. So if it actually happens it's a pleasant surprise. Unlike a real boat rental place, a resort that has them for guests often no one knows anything about SUPs except they've become popular so it sounds good to get a few. I was at a place that had like 8 - all stored on the beach lying on their fins, which looked like sad droopy dolphin fins. Great if you wanted to paddle in circles. This was at a place where everything else was well maintained, they just had no clue whatsoever.