mike_s
Contributor
Got off a good weekend of Diving in Key Largo and thought I'd share a report will all.
Stayed at Bayside Resort in Key Largo. (http://www.baysideresort.us/) and dove with Quiescence Diving Services (http://www.keylargodiving.com/)
Bayside Resort:
Bayside Resort is an older hotel kinda in the middle of Key Largo around Mile Marker 100. It's right behind the Key Largo Honda car dealership and on the bayfront. I'd guess this property is 25 to 35 years old, but is in pretty good shape. The rooms were average hotel rooms but were nice and clean. Nothing fancy by any means but nothing luxurious either. The rooms had bed, TV, a small bathroom area, cold air conditioning, etc. You could rent a mini fridge from the office for $5/day if you reserved it in advance. They have a small sandy beach area with a larger sand area behind it with some picnic tables and grills and a very small pool area. The pool was very small though if you have kids who like to swim and this is an issue.
They also have wireless ethernet (802.11g) for those who have laptops with wireless cards in it. For those who don't have laptops and just have to check their email, there is a computer for guest use in the office area.
Now this isn't the Ritz by any means, but I thought it was a pretty nice place and the staff at the front desk was extremely friendly. We had a problem with ants in our room though, but after telling the front desk, they had the maintenance crew come in and spray and the ant problem went away. Problem sovled.
Adjoining the property is Snooks (resturant/bar) which has inside and outside dinning and a outside bar area overlooking the water. We ate several meals there and service was very good a couple times and lousy one other time. But overall the food was pretty good. In the eveings Snooks sometimes has a small band playing outside near the bar and it was a nice place to unwind and have a cold beer after a day of diving and a great place to watch the sunsets.
Next to the office is another resturant called Sushi Nami. The name should give away that it's Japanese. The food here was good, but typical Japanese food. It was kinds expensive for not being great quality though. For the price paid and what we got, I prob wouldn't eat there again.
Also within walking distance is a Burger King next door and a Wendys and McDonalds within sight of the entrance that you could easily walk to. Across the street is a CVS and Walgreens pharmacy and the World Watersports dive super store and a small grocery store.
Would I stay here again? Yes, I would, but I wouldn't make this my "must stay exclusive place"
Quiescence Diving Services:
Quiescence is a small diving operation that has three "6 pack" boats that covers most of the dive sites in the Key Largo area. They have a small shop with the boats onsite and are located next to the Marriott. They seem to have a very decent operation and we were very happy with them. I was impressed by that fact that they were very thorough in their operation both in the shop and on the boat (by the captain).
These smaller 6-packs they operate have their pro's and con's. The con's are that mostly they are a smaller boat and you don't have as much room, a "head", or as nice of a ride in waves as you do in a larger boat. However, a "pro" is that you also don't have to worry about it being a "cattle boat" with too many divers on them as we saw on some other boats there. Also since we filled the boat with our divers, we were allowed to pick the sites that we wanted to dive on for the most part (with currents and conditions always a factor).
They have air fills onsite including Nitrox. The nitrox must be "banked" though because all they could give us every day was 30%-31% nitrox fills.
Capt Steve on our boat was one of the better dive captains I've used. He really gave us some great details about the dive sites and what to expect and suggestions on how to dive the site. I would definately request him as our boat captain again.
They also let us store our gear in their dive shop so we didn't have to carry it back to the hotel each night.
Would I dive them again? Yes. Especially if I had a group of six divers and you wanted to dive specific sites. They were one of the few shops that would guarentee to us that we could pick the sites and they didn't let us down.
One other option is that if you have a larger group they might not all be the same skill level and want to dive different sites. Using them will allow you to put 6 divers on one boat and 6 on another and dive different sites.
Hope this review is helpful to those who might be using either of these places.
-mike
Stayed at Bayside Resort in Key Largo. (http://www.baysideresort.us/) and dove with Quiescence Diving Services (http://www.keylargodiving.com/)
Bayside Resort:
Bayside Resort is an older hotel kinda in the middle of Key Largo around Mile Marker 100. It's right behind the Key Largo Honda car dealership and on the bayfront. I'd guess this property is 25 to 35 years old, but is in pretty good shape. The rooms were average hotel rooms but were nice and clean. Nothing fancy by any means but nothing luxurious either. The rooms had bed, TV, a small bathroom area, cold air conditioning, etc. You could rent a mini fridge from the office for $5/day if you reserved it in advance. They have a small sandy beach area with a larger sand area behind it with some picnic tables and grills and a very small pool area. The pool was very small though if you have kids who like to swim and this is an issue.
They also have wireless ethernet (802.11g) for those who have laptops with wireless cards in it. For those who don't have laptops and just have to check their email, there is a computer for guest use in the office area.
Now this isn't the Ritz by any means, but I thought it was a pretty nice place and the staff at the front desk was extremely friendly. We had a problem with ants in our room though, but after telling the front desk, they had the maintenance crew come in and spray and the ant problem went away. Problem sovled.
Adjoining the property is Snooks (resturant/bar) which has inside and outside dinning and a outside bar area overlooking the water. We ate several meals there and service was very good a couple times and lousy one other time. But overall the food was pretty good. In the eveings Snooks sometimes has a small band playing outside near the bar and it was a nice place to unwind and have a cold beer after a day of diving and a great place to watch the sunsets.
Next to the office is another resturant called Sushi Nami. The name should give away that it's Japanese. The food here was good, but typical Japanese food. It was kinds expensive for not being great quality though. For the price paid and what we got, I prob wouldn't eat there again.
Also within walking distance is a Burger King next door and a Wendys and McDonalds within sight of the entrance that you could easily walk to. Across the street is a CVS and Walgreens pharmacy and the World Watersports dive super store and a small grocery store.
Would I stay here again? Yes, I would, but I wouldn't make this my "must stay exclusive place"
Quiescence Diving Services:
Quiescence is a small diving operation that has three "6 pack" boats that covers most of the dive sites in the Key Largo area. They have a small shop with the boats onsite and are located next to the Marriott. They seem to have a very decent operation and we were very happy with them. I was impressed by that fact that they were very thorough in their operation both in the shop and on the boat (by the captain).
These smaller 6-packs they operate have their pro's and con's. The con's are that mostly they are a smaller boat and you don't have as much room, a "head", or as nice of a ride in waves as you do in a larger boat. However, a "pro" is that you also don't have to worry about it being a "cattle boat" with too many divers on them as we saw on some other boats there. Also since we filled the boat with our divers, we were allowed to pick the sites that we wanted to dive on for the most part (with currents and conditions always a factor).
They have air fills onsite including Nitrox. The nitrox must be "banked" though because all they could give us every day was 30%-31% nitrox fills.
Capt Steve on our boat was one of the better dive captains I've used. He really gave us some great details about the dive sites and what to expect and suggestions on how to dive the site. I would definately request him as our boat captain again.
They also let us store our gear in their dive shop so we didn't have to carry it back to the hotel each night.
Would I dive them again? Yes. Especially if I had a group of six divers and you wanted to dive specific sites. They were one of the few shops that would guarentee to us that we could pick the sites and they didn't let us down.
One other option is that if you have a larger group they might not all be the same skill level and want to dive different sites. Using them will allow you to put 6 divers on one boat and 6 on another and dive different sites.
Hope this review is helpful to those who might be using either of these places.
-mike
