Turks & Caicos - Liveaboard or hotel and dive op?

[judypots]

Hi Divers,

We're starting to think about a dive trip to Turks & Caicos. We're trying to decide whether to stay in one spot, probably Provo, or to do a liveaboard. I understand the dive sites are spread rather far apart among the different islands at T&C. We did the Palau Agressor in January and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We also stayed at the Palau Pacific Resort for several days and dove with Sam's Tours on a few of them. Having had those experiences, we much preferred the Agressor for a place like Palau where the dive sites were at least 45 minutes from land. Also, of course, you can do so many more dives on the liveaboard. We also enjoy staying on land if the sites are reasonably close and the facility is nice. (Just returned from a fab trip to Little Cayman and stayed at the Southern Cross Club - see my trip report on that). Has anyone done it both ways on Turks & Caicos? Thoughts on a medium to higher end place to stay on Provo if we choose to do that? Opinions appreciated. Many thanks.

 

[diversteve]

I was on the Explorer two years ago. I also spent part of the first day and the last Friday afternoon on Provo due to the way the trip is scheduled. So I've seen a little of the island including walking around part of the Grace Bay area one afternoon.

Explorer runs two itineraries, one starts at NW Point off Provo, followed by West Caicos, followed by French Cay. The NW Point dives are easily accessible by day boat - just offshore. I understand places like Breezes do most of their diving there. West Caicos is day boat accessible as well - maybe an hour? on a fast boat. We saw a couple out there.

French Cay is south and Caicos Adventures runs out there - it's 45mins. on their fast boat. As you mentioned, the amount of dives you do greatly increases on a liveaboard, due to the distance I believe French Cay trips are 2 dives and return.

French Cay was by far the best diving, sharks on every dive, eagle rays, conch at night, barracuda and so many stingrays it was boring. The animals seemed mostly unaffected by divers also - except one night we watched some big pelagics feed on baitfish in the ships lights - at the other end of the boat a couple sharks were feeding on the pelagics. Even near the moorings the diving is interesting, a photographer on our boat shot some great macro - I often saw just his legs sticking out from under a nearby coral head - many were fish nurseries.

West Caicos was good diving also - at either location the moorings are just off the wall so there's a lot of stuff that comes up to feed. We saw sharks, turtles and some basketball sized lionfish. There's also supposed to be some big grouper and even dolphins but we missed them. West Caicos is uninhabited so it's pretty private and pristine. I'm not actually sure we ever saw French Cay - it might just be a little rock outcropping that breaks the surface there. We did see day boats from Provo at West Caicos - including one that dropped tourists off to look at an archaeological site there one morning. On the Explorer West Caicos is 2hrs. from Provo but it's not the fastest boat I've seen...

My least favorite dives were off Provo - they weren't bad but the other two locations were much better. Mike Southard's Explorer trip report hits all the highlights. http://www.awoosh.com/Saudio/Saudio_Turks&Caicos.html

I believe Aggressor runs a similar route - several times during the week they were at the next mooring over.

We looked at Aggressor also b4 choosing Explorer. In addition to a $500 discount they offered, Explorer is a bigger boat - it has one more deck than Aggressor - in addition to a large sundeck there's the fly bridge up another flight of stairs. It's shaded with padded benches so many of us spent SI's up there. One other thing to mention is that T/C Aggressor seems to be all bunks except for the masters cabin - only the lower deck cabins on Explorer were. Our room had twins with a good amount of room - enough for a small desk in the corner and a nightstand between the beds. And real windows - we had 3. Aggressor seems to only have portholes as their cabins are a deck down from the main lounge area. There's also 2 vip cabins upstairs on Explorer - they're $200 more. No hot tub on Explorer though.

On the other Explorer run - only 2 weeks this summer afaik - they change the itinerary to include Grand Turk, South Caicos and either Salt Cay or French Cay. Otherwise to get to Turk from Provo - you'd have to take a regional airline over and stay there.

Anything on Grace Bay is medium to higher end. And pricey. It's one of the top beaches in the world - I can see why.

 

[jebmobile]

I can't speak to the liveaboard but if you stay in Provo, I'd highly recommend Turtle Divers above any of the other land based outfits. I've tried them all in T&C and Turtle Divers is by far the best.

 

[sullivan]

I just returned Sunday from 10 days in Provo and lots of diving but we have never done a liveaboard so my opinion is based soley on my experience with day trips. One day we dove off a boat in Grace Bay (10 minute ride). The other 4 days we dove, we used 2 different different dive operators who went to French Cay ("FC") and West Caicos ("WC") on various days (both locations are an easy 45 minute boat ride). When we moored at WC and FC, the dive operator explained that the live aboards maintained most of the moorings out there and, unlike some other islands, the Turks and Caicos live aboards did all their diving in a small radius that is basically the same as the itinerary one does by taking various day trips. Supposedely the live aboards do al their stops at various spots around FC, WC and Provo (unlike Cayman Island liveaboards where you see a larger variety of spots when you visit Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman). While diving in WC and FC, we saw hammerhead sharks, schools of Spotted Eagle Rays, lots of reef sharks and a huge amout of other fish and turtles. The diving at WC and FC is the best I have seen between Curacao, Grand Cayman and Turks, the only three islands we have dove.

For me, I'd rather stay in Provo (been there 6 times) versus doing a liveaboard. Regarding dive operators, I would say Turtle Divers is the WORST. Surly group who generally stay close to Provo rather than burning more fuel to get to the best diving out at West Caicos or French Cay. I agree with DiverSteve's comments above that "My least favorite dives were off Provo" (the area where Turtle Divers frequent due to their location being Turtle Cove).

The best dive operators we have used are Flamingo Divers and Caicos Adventures (VERY nice dive boat and super friendly, professional dive masters); they are both on the other side of the island and have easier access to FC and WC. They pick you up at your resort do no worries about getting to the boat.

As for resorts, we have stayed at 5 different resorts and I will say that there are some very different categories of resorts. Some 15 year old resorts that are more moderately priced (Royal West Indies, Ocean Club, the Sands), our preference, small boutique type resorts with minimal on site services that are very quiet (Turks and Caicos Club, Le Vele, Villa Renaissance), sparkling mid size newer resorts (Windsong, Gansevoort, West Bay Club) and very expensive, large properties (Seven Stars, Grace Bay Club, Regent Grand). Most places run specials on their sites and you can also find good specials on WIOL.com.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me.

 

[judypots]

Many thanks for the detailed discussions. It is a big help. Whatever we do, I'll post a trip report.

 

[editmojo]

Sorry, late to the conversation but I second Flamingo as a superior dive op. Jayne and Mick are great. They only take 6-8 divers. Their boat is on the south side of the island so easier to get to the better sites. Also dove with Turtle and it was fine but larger boats.

Look at Aquamarine Beach Houses for a place to stay. They are just west of the resorts on Gracebay. We felt like we had a private villa and beach most of the time. PM me and I'll share a secret about the Beach Houses.