Tropical trip in January, where?

[emttim]

So me and my fiancee are looking at taking a tropical trip in mid-January and we're trying to decide where to go. We went to Roatan last time, and it sounds like Roatan is still good diving in the winter, but I think my fiancee wants to try something new. Sooo...the criteria:

1) We're looking for not too expensive, about the same price as Roatan more or less would be good. I think this basically rules out the Pacific but oh well.

2) We refuse to pay good money to only get 2 dives in per day, so if its a resort that only gives you 1 boat trip and has no shore diving, we're not interested.

Thats actually about all I can think of for restrictions. We'd love to get names of dive resorts/ops you'd recommend, weather conditions, temp conditions, vis, marine life, etc. info on whatever you recommend, thanks!

 

[PatW]

I think with those conditions, Bonaire might be a good place to go. I have not been to Bonaire myself.

 

[emttim]

I do want to go to Bonaire at some point, but I don't think we want an all-shore diving trip for the most part right now...we're just getting back into diving after a 6 month hiatus due to me finishing school. Plus we've been spoiled by boat diving. I mean shore diving is great and all, but I prefer boat diving, I just meant that if the resort only has 1 boat trip per day, we'll still consider it if we can also get in a couple shore dives too.

 

[diver 85]

If it's the Caribbean you're still looking @, January can be a crap shoot---ie US cold fronts making it down there...One MLK weekend we were supposed to fly off Roatan on a Saturday, 3 days later the airport opened up for TACA's 737------talk about 125+ worried people, we got tired of hearing "Airport closed, come back tomorrow(after we had already checked our luggage in 3 different days)"...luckily, our car was parked @ IAH for the direct flight into Houston---most were ticketed on to other US destinations & DID NOT KNOW what they were going to do when they hit their next airline counter(they were only 3 days late-----lol)...

 

[jar546]

Let me know what your decision is after you weigh the options from the opinions posted here. I have the same question. Thanks

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

Thats a no-brainer! Go to Cozumel

 

[emttim]

Thats a no-brainer! Go to Cozumel

Already looked. We checked out Scuba Club Cozumel, which seems like it gets great reviews on SB, but right now their special is $600/person for 5 nights & 4 days of diving which only includes 1 boat night dive. If we wanted to do 4 boat dives per day, per the rates on their web site, it'd end up costing us about $1,640 per person.

Given that we can go to Roatan and get 4 boat dives per day included in a package for an entire week for $1,000, that's just too much money when Cozumel is supposed to be cheaper in the first place.

If there's another dive resort we can look at, I'll be happy to check them out, but SC Cozumel was just too pricy for what you get. I do want to dive Cozumel at some point, but if it's gonna cost north of $1,500 for what I want, I'd rather just spend the extra money and do a liveaboard.

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Sorry but no thanks, if we go to Roatan, our hearts belong to CoCo View.

 

[DSR-3]

If you're really interested in trying Cozumel, you should look at it more. I've never been able beat the prices for dive trips. For the November dates we're going, it's now under $1500 with air from SFO and 1 week AI at the Iberostar for 2ppl (Orbitz). Plus diving, but there are some good pkg. deals to be had on that, too. No shore diving down there (park) but they run 4 boat dives/day. I'm sure January will be more, but that likely applies to "everywhere". If my wife were a diver, I would look at Blue Angel Resort. Good luck in your search.

 

[DeputyDan]

I do want to go to Bonaire at some point, but I don't think we want an all-shore diving trip for the most part right now...we're just getting back into diving after a 6 month hiatus due to me finishing school. Plus we've been spoiled by boat diving. I mean shore diving is great and all, but I prefer boat diving, I just meant that if the resort only has 1 boat trip per day, we'll still consider it if we can also get in a couple shore dives too.

Even though Bonaire is known for shore diving - many people opt to boat diver there - its your choice.

Esp. if you want to go over to Klien!

 

[Damselfish]

I was going to say the same - in Bonaire we do mostly boat dives, and some dives off our hotel dock. We do very little of the shore dive around the island routine that is most talked about here. Just not our thing. As a bonus, boat dives in Bonaire are cheaper than most places. You might look at Curacao too. From CA to the Caribbean, your choice might be heavily influenced by airline schedules and prices.