Turks and Caicos - June 9th to June 17th (last day)

[gamcm]

Hi all, this is my first post here so please be patient.
My husband and I are traveling to TCI in June. We already got our air tickets and hotel (Indies).
Even though my husband and I have a AOW we only have a total of 25 dives. So we are very new on this.
I already learned that the best places to dive are: French Cay and West Caicos, correct? Anything else? What is it a MUST do dive?
Also, there are some dive shops that offer 3 tanks for 1 day dive for AOW that apparently goes to places less explored. What you guys think about it? Is it worth it?
I tried to book our dives with Flamingo, but they are completely booked. I saw in some threads people talking about Ocean Vibes. However, Ocean Vibes is apparently not at Padi's website, which is where I usually search for dive shops when traveling.
So, which one do you recommend: Ocean Vibes, Caicos Adventures or Dive Provo?

Thank you for your help and support!

 

[sullivan]

We were in Provo earlier this May (we're both AOW with 30 dives) and dove with 3 outfits but did most of our diving with Caicos Adventures. Flamingo was good but, as you mention, they book up quickly. I highly recommend Caicos Adventures; beautiful boat, they went to the best diving spots each day we dove with them (1 day to French Cay and 2 days to West Caicos), and their dive masters did a nice job working with the group (4-6 divers per divemaster). Most dive operators can't/won't commit to a dive location as the location depends on the weather the morning you depart. However, since Caicos Adventures went to the best spot each day we dove, I'm assuming you maximize your chances for West Caicos or French Cay by going with them (versus going with operators who leave out of Turtle Cove and likely go to Grace Bay which was the worst of our dives). You can make your reservation with Caicos Adventures by simply calling them or emailing; I'd skip going through the PADI site.

Can't help you on the 3 dives per day; I have no knowledge of operators who do that. The schedule we had for both Flamingo and Caicos Adventures was as follows:
-Hotel pickup 8:00
-Depart dock by 9:00
-Motor for 45-60 minutes to West Caicos/French Cay
-First dive 10:00-11:00, SI 11-12 and second dive completed by 1:30
-Back at dock by 2:30

Doing a third dive with the required surface interval would make for a pretty long day in my opinion. For what it's worth, don't worry about "being new to this". At least half of the divers on the boat each day were very new divers or they were working one-on-one with a divemaster on the certification. With 30 dives under your belt, you should be fine.

Hope this helps

 

[gamcm]

Thank you for the feedback, sullivan. Caicos Adventures are the ones who offers what they call "Advanced 3 - tank safari" which basically is one day diving with 3 tanks. It also sounds too much for us, but we were more interested in the fact that it is suppose to be a better dive (more quality). I will call them and check it out. One thing that I liked is that the DM dives with 4 to 6 people max. Thank you.
If anyone else had an experience with Ocean Vibes or Dive Provo would be great! Thanks all.

---------- Post added May 23rd, 2012 at 07:35 PM ----------

Thank you for the feedback, sullivan. Caicos Adventures are the ones who offers what they call "Advanced 3 - tank safari" which basically is one day diving with 3 tanks. It also sounds too much for us, but we were more interested in the fact that it is suppose to be a better dive (more quality). I will call them and check it out. One thing that I liked is that the DM dives with 4 to 6 people max. Thank you.
If anyone else had an experience with Ocean Vibes or Dive Provo would be great! Thanks all.

 

[Abidon]

If anyone else had an experience with Ocean Vibes or Dive Provo would be great! Thanks all.

:wavey: I dove with Ocean Vibes on two occasions earlier this month. Here is my report copied and pasted from another thread regarding my dives with them:

"I just got back from a trip to Provo last week, and the dive outfit I used was Ocean Vibes. They have a 43' dive boat and they limit their # of divers to 12 max; although they probably could squeeze 4-6 more divers on the boat if they wanted to. On the two days I went diving with them, there were 4 divers one day, and 6 divers the other day. Advanced/experienced divers were allowed to explore the sites on their own, or you could buddy-up and follow the DM. On the day I went when there were 4 divers, one of them was a DSD, and he was assigned his own instructor. The other two divers were advanced, and they chose to explore the reef on their own until they ran low on air; so that left me to buddy-up with the DM. What a great crew to dive with all-around, and I would dive with them again in a heartbeat. On both days, they took us to West Caicos to dive the walls, and it was 100'+ vis with lots of marine life. Tropical fish, turtles, sharks, lionfish, eels, and more coral than you can shake a stick at."

 

[RockRover]

Excellent to hear Abidon! Heading out tomorrow to Provo. Going to dive with Ocean Vibes for 5 days and Dive Provo the other 5. Thanks for the STOKE!

Probably will see you out there GAMCM!

--D

 

[nestakai]

I really enjoyed diving West Caicos but it is a boat ride. Worth it? Yes. Definitely try to go once and see if you like it enough to go again and again. We went again and again. Our diving in Grace Bay area was hit and miss but it was the summer, the water was warmer and the blooms in the area made visibility a challenge. Other diving in that area was Ok. West Caicos had the dive highlights. We dove with Provo Turtle Divers which was just fine. Professional and we new a MSDT that worked there so that didnt hurt. Have a great trip.

 

[tkaelin]

We dove Provo last July and dove with Dive Provo. We posted a review last year on Trip Advisor. With only 25 or so dives, I would think you will enjoy all the dive sites and locations and would not get too wrapped up on which might be the best. You should see reef sharks on every dive. We did the 3 tank safari on a Wed diving French Caye. For us we thoroughly enjoyed it and loved being out on the water all day. It is a long day though. I think we were at the dive shop around 7:30 and did not return until 5 or 6 PM. Even the two tank to West Caicos got us back late afternoon. We enjoyed West Caicos the most but all dives were good and none were bad.

 

[ScubaDubaDave]

Caicos Adventures is a good dive op and their 3 tank dive on Thursdays is no more advanced than any other day. The ride to West Caicos may seem long but the Caicos Cat is probably the best dive boat in the Caribbean so the ride goes by fast. You can lay out on the bow or hang out up on the bridge or just under it. Also, they don't have to rush to get back for the next afternoon dive (there isn't one) so if they run into sharks or dolphins or something interesting they will stop. We stopped for tiger sharks once off one of the smaller islands that were after a dead beached whale. (No snorkeling with those You'll get basic sandwiches during surface interval on all trips, nothing fancy. I think they had a side salad or something on the 3 tank trip. Great wall dives around West Caicos and the vis is usually great too.

 

[RockRover]

Just finished two days (out of 10 ) with Ocean Vibes. If you are a new diver and really want safety orientated crew go with Caicos Adventures, Dive Provo or the like. Yea, the boats are bigger, but there is a LOT of wall to explore so the 'crowds' aren't as big of a deal as with most sites. Ocean Vibes is awesome for those with a bit of experience that know their way around and like uber casual small (6 or less) dive boats. Watch out with nitrox with them though. I talked with the captain about getting tanks for me and my family and I got a "sure...No problem". Then I asked if he had an on-board analyzer...From the captain I got a "...Uh...No. But don't worry...I'll test them when I pick them up". THAT'S how casual they are.

 

[gamcm]

Hi all, thank you for the postings. It was REALLY helpful. I appreciate it. We decided to dive with Dive Provo. RockRover we'll stay at Royal West Indies. We'll probably see you in the island.