Trip Report - Turneffe Island Resort

[Stoo]

Liveaboards are hard to beat for diving alone. Mrs Stoo "needs" her creature comforts to really enjoy the trip though.

There's no doubt that the pace on a Liveaboard is very relaxed. At TIR, we sometimes felt rushed between dives since most dives were conducted from the small boats and we came back in after every dive. Once we arrived at the dock, we were generally heading out again in 45 minutes. Since the weather was marginal, it was often difficult to get warmed up properly between dives.

I started diving up here in Canada again last week mind you. The 45 degree drop in water temperature reminded me the being "cold" in Belize really isn't such a bad thing...

 

[peterbj7]

Sounds to me as if the diving at TIR wasn't conducted ideally. There's no need for any sort of frenetic pace, certainly not when there are so many dive sites so close. The diving I've done from Thatch Caye (inside and close to the barrier reef) wasn't like that.

Life on a liveaboard can be relaxed, or it can also be pretty busy. I've always gone with groups of diving friends. On the ones I've done we wanted to do lots of dives, and as there wasn't anything else to do we did. My record is 7 dives a day every day for one trip in the Red Sea, but I averaged around 6 on a two week trip around the Maldives. A great time, but I needed a holiday at the end to recover!

But now I've done so much diving that I don't need that sort of "fix'. Maybe I'm "dived out", but I don't often go out now unless there's a specific reason. Several of my old diving pals in Britain are the same.

 

[Stoo]

Sounds to me as if the diving at TIR wasn't conducted ideally.

I suppose if the weather had been better, it wouldn't have been an issue at all. I enjoy being on boats and normally would prefer to spend intervals out on the water. Given the open boats, the cool temps and wind, it wasn't practical. I've had some of my best "diving" experiences during surface intervals... swimming with dolphins and whale sharks comes to mind.

As for being "dived out", after 36 years and thousands of dives, it hasn't happened yet. I'd dive every day if I could...

 

[hydroknot]

Did anyone take the excursions offered by Turneffe Island Resort (TIR)? Please tell me about the experience. I assume some or all of the excursions involve a boat trip to the mainland. Sound right? Thank you.

 

[Downing]

Did anyone take the excursions offered by Turneffe Island Resort (TIR)? Please tell me about the experience. I assume some or all of the excursions involve a boat trip to the mainland. Sound right? Thank you.

We stayed for two weeks two years ago, starting on a Saturday, and I took one excursion from the island back to the Zoo. It was the first Wednesday of our stay. And on the day of our departure we did the Altun-Ha excursion, which is a great way to kill some time if you have an afternoon flight out and prefer to not sit around the airport all morning.

Both trips were arranged through the island managment, not the Houston office, although you need to tell the Houston office in advance about any pre-island stay or mid-week excursions so they can let the island managers know to book the trips.

From a guest's perspective, it's pretty simple in that TIR arranges to have a tour guide/driver meet you at the dock and take you where you want to go. In our case, both guides were very friendly, knowledgeable and accomodating when we wanted to take some quick side trips. You pay for the excursions via your credit card account on the island (Visa or MasterCard only, not Am Ex), but the guides will certainly appreciate a cash tip.

All excursions require a trip to the mainland, unless you go before or after your stay on the island. Saturdays are no problem. Wednesdays could be a bit tricky. And any other day you're going to have to charter a boat because those are the only two days for transfers.

Saturday is the big transfer day for TIR. That's when most if not all of the guests are coming and going. Wednesday is more of an option day for TIR. In other words, the transfer boat may not go back to the mainland, unless a guest is coming or going on that day or they need some supplies.

You won't necessarily have much notice ahead of time if you're shooting for a Wednesday. I remember it was down to the final week or two before we left that I was told the boat would definitely be making the mainland trip on our first Wednesday. But if I remember right, the transfer boat went back to the mainland both Wednesdays we were there.

We're returning to TIR this July and will do several TIR-arranged exursions before catching the boat to the island on Saturday. We plan to arrive on a Wednesday, stay at The Great House in BZ City, do the cave tubing/Baboon Sanctuary combo on Thursday followed by the Lamanai tour on Friday. Again, the island management and not the Houston office will book the excursions, but I've made the arrangements through the Houston office.

 

[redgym]

Liveaboards are hard to beat for diving alone. Mrs Stoo "needs" her creature comforts to really enjoy the trip though.

There's no doubt that the pace on a Liveaboard is very relaxed. At TIR, we sometimes felt rushed between dives since most dives were conducted from the small boats and we came back in after every dive. Once we arrived at the dock, we were generally heading out again in 45 minutes. Since the weather was marginal, it was often difficult to get warmed up properly between dives.

I started diving up here in Canada again last week mind you. The 45 degree drop in water temperature reminded me the being "cold" in Belize really isn't such a bad thing...

I don't recall being rushed between dives at TIR. We generally would have a snack, relax and head back for another dive. However, this was in August so there wasn't a need to warm up after the dives.

 

[Stoo]

I don't recall being rushed between dives at TIR. We generally would have a snack, relax and head back for another dive. However, this was in August so there wasn't a need to warm up after the dives.

We generally had about 45 minutes between dives.. and I think you're right about warming up.

I miss those oatmeal cookies...

 

[Downing]

It was definitely the weather. When we were there in mid-summer everyone was always ready to put down the cookies and get back in the water.

I only had two knocks on the place: one, the dive schedule was a bit too relaxed. I would prefer every day, except the last, be at least a three-dive day. And it was strange to me that you had to give up a Thursday day dive if you elected to do the Thursday night dive. Having now done the Thursday night dive twice, I'll probably not give up a day dive again.

Second, the coffee was the standard resort fare, meaning too weak and watery for my Starbucks-trained taste buds. I much prefer strong coffee and a couple of times I had to resort to drinking instant to get my caffeine fix.

Obviously, neither knock is enough to keep me from going back.

 

[Stoo]

I only had two knocks on the place: one, the dive schedule was a bit too relaxed. I would prefer every day, except the last, be at least a three-dive day. And it was strange to me that you had to give up a Thursday day dive if you elected to do the Thursday night dive. Having now done the Thursday night dive twice, I'll probably not give up a day dive again.

That's what I didn't like too. I felt rushed to get warmed up, and then had all of this empty time... I eventually concluded that the two-dive days were designed to allow extra offgassing. As I mentioned, because of the "deep" top of the reef, it was pretty easy to get into mandatory deco, and I would assume that that causes the operators some stress.

Either that or it was a way to help us spend a little more money. We paid for a couple of additional dives while we were there.

This thread sounds at times like we didn't like the place at times, which wasn't at all the case. Like I said at the outset, we loved it overall... I would have preferred a more "even pace" to the diving. It was a little like an airport... Hurry up and wait, at times.

 

[Downing]

Yeah, but what about the coffee?