Turneffe Flats Resort Review (long)

[Hank49]

Of the dive sites you named, which of those are at the Elbow, or southern tip of Turneffe?
I only know them by counting the moorings starting from the southern most. And actually, the most fish to be seen are about 150 yard south of the southern most mooring.

I'm surprised you didn't mention large schools of dog snapper, cuberas, permit, horse eye jacks and lots of grouper. This is what we've been seeing at the Elbow since late July. I've NEVER not seen the school of dog snapper. At least 150 of them. And the permits....they come right up in our faces.
This past Saturday I saw a king mackerel....at least 45 lbs. Lots of baitfish all along the edge of the wall.

 

[craracer]

Downing: Your assumptions would be correct. It wasn't a bad trip per-say, and I wasn't originally comparing it TIR, but given the fact that they are so close in proximity/layout, it's hard not to.

Hank: Honestly, I don't recall off of the top of my head. I'll have to look at the dive log. I didn't get a map of the dive sites, but I think one of the other divers did. I'll shoot him an email.

We did see huge schools of all of the fish you mention when we were at TIR. However, we didn't see any on this trip. Now that you mention it, I didn't see one Grouper, Tarpon, Permit, Snapper, or Jack.

At TIR there were huge groups of all of the above. I was caught in a huge bait ball on one dive in which I couldn't even see the other divers.

I'm glad that you guys appreciate my diatribe of a review. I'm sure that for some, it's excessive, but I would rather be a bit "overboard" than just providing tidbits of information. In light of what a trip like this costs, I think it's best to be a well informed consumer.

 

[Hank49]

I forgot to mention Very nice report.

I think you might have skipped the Elbow. You're farther from there at TFR and maybe they don't go there?

But I've dived the west side too, tying up to some moorings. We always see black grouper, yellow jacks, some dog snapper. Was it just after new moon when you were there?

 

[ibj40]

Downing:
I'm glad that you guys appreciate my diatribe of a review. I'm sure that for some, it's excessive, but I would rather be a bit "overboard" than just providing tidbits of information. In light of what a trip like this costs, I think it's best to be a well informed consumer.

My wife and I dove with Flats about four or five years ago, and were the only two divers on the island, so had the whole dive operation at our discretion. The dive guide who was there at the time has since left, and we attributed a great deal of our satisfaction for the week directly to him and his knowledge of the reefs, and have been planning to go back to Belize soon (next year or so). Your thorough update is really appreciated, as we now have something to compare the conditions of the lodging (apparently much improved since we were there), the hospitality (seems like the food offering hasn't changed much - not that that's a bad thing), management (the deal about the two drunk fisherkids has me a little worried), and the dive op now.

Still might be a toss-up. Of the reefs you dove with Flats, can anyone tell me which of those are also accessed by the Lodge? We really enjoyed diving the upper West side, such as Terrace and Tunnels and Barrels.

Again, thanks for the great review, wish there were more, similar comprehensive reviews like yours on other resort destinations.

 

[diverrex]

I'm glad that you guys appreciate my diatribe of a review. I'm sure that for some, it's excessive, but I would rather be a bit "overboard" than just providing tidbits of information. In light of what a trip like this costs, I think it's best to be a well informed consumer.

Thanks for the review. I always appreciate reading about dive destinations from other divers since of course the resort itself is going to make it sound great. I agree with you, with the cost of dive trips it helps to be well informed so you don't come away disappointed.

 

[TSandM]

Thank you for the review. My husband and I are contemplating a trip to Belize next year, so this was very timely information.

 

[lemon]

I just returned from a week at their competition, Turneffe Island Resort. Had a great week of excellent diving with excellent food. All around I was very impressed with how well run Turneffe Island Resort is. I've never been to Turneffe Island Flats myself, but it sounds from your review that TIR is probably the better option although I have no idea how they compare pricewise.

As an aside, Lion Fish are EVERYWHERE. One of the TIR DMs carried a spear gun and killed about a half dozen or so per dive. Unfortunately, spear fishing is a pretty sustainable form of fishing and I doubt this will make much difference overall....

 

[Downing]

Hank: I'm thinking they didn't make it to The Elbow, although I could be wrong because they got really, really close, like another three minutes or so from the Front Porch.

ibj40: The two names I recognize on the list are the Front Porch and the Sayanora, so I know TIR dives those two.

The Front Porch is literally right out in front of TIR so it's about 3 minutes away from the island by boat. I always thought it would be a fun compass exercise to scuba back to the dock. I'm surprised TF would dive so close to TIR.

The Sayanora is TIR's night dive. I read somewhere that it's named after a boat that TIR sunk there back in the mid-90's. There's not much left of that boat now. Sounds like it's as boring in the day time as it is at night.

The northernmost site we went to from TIR, besides the Blue Hole trip, was to the Zoo and that's because I requested it. It was about a 15 minute ride, which because everyone was used to five minutes or less, seemed like forever. We saw more lionfish there than the rest of the week combined, and Marcel was killing them as fast as he could go.

I can't believe TF let those two fishermen get away with being so obnoxious. At TIL, they make it clear that we're all there to have a good time but don't intrude on your neighbors. A little respect goes a long way.

As far as communal meals, I really enjoy them. It's the sort of thing that seems like it could be weird until you do it and then there's nothing weird about it--unless you're stuck with two dorky fishermen, I suppose. My guess is that even if TIL had small tables, the guests would end up pushing them together so they could socialize with each other and swap stories.

 

[craracer]

From my wife's dive log (I had to use her's because she all but destroyed my log when she accidentally dropped it into the bathtub in Aruba):

TIR sites we dove in September 2009
Billy Bob
Black Beauty
Elbow (dove this site three times)
Fabian's Roost
Blue Hole
Half-moon Caye Wall
Long Key Wall
Gail's Point
Joe's Wall
Three Amigos
Secret Spot
Permit's Paradise (Night dive)
South Cut

I shot an email to the other diver, so hopefully he has photos of the dive sites map. I searched the net, but couldn't find any decent maps.

 

[redgym]

The Sayanora is TIR's night dive. I read somewhere that it's named after a boat that TIR sunk there back in the mid-90's. There's not much left of that boat now. Sounds like it's as boring in the day time as it is at night.


I'm not sure if that is the dive we did for the night dive, but our night dive was probably the most boring dive I've done. All except for my wife freaking out because she thought she got stung by jelly fish (which she didn't). She was actually very calm for a panicked diver. I told the DM that we were going up, and she kept her cool until we got in the boat. Unfortunately, the DM brought everyone else up. I don't think the minded though, because swimming around in circles at night with nothing too look at isn't very exciting.