Turneffe Island Resort trip report (July 7-July 18, 2018)

[Erwin Poliakoff]

My wife and I went for an 11 night trip to Turneffe Island Resort, where we dove for 10 days. We enjoyed the trip very much, and have nothing but good things to say for the resort. The food and amenities were excellent. Most days, there were 2 dives offered, and some days, there were 3 dives offered. On Tuesdays, they travel to the Blue Hole for a dive, and also do two additional dives at Half-moon Caye and Long Caye. The diving was very good, as was the dive operation. The health of the reefs is impressive, but the reefs themselves are not very scenic, as the coral is not particularly colorful, and the density of sponges is not that high, compared to better Caribbean destinations such as Cozumel. With that said, the fish diversity and the density of the sea critters was wonderful. There were also impressive numbers of sharks and rays on most of the dives. We saw Caribbean reef sharks and nurse sharks, and lots of sting rays and eagle rays. The dive guides were very good. With the exception of one dive, there was very little current. The diving was easy. Visibility was pretty good, typically about 70 ft or so. There were several divers who were not particularly experienced, and the staff were very attentive and helpful for them. The resort staff throughout the facilities were very good, in my opinion. The food was excellent, as was the dining service in general. The bartenders were nice, and they have a great bar. I did not do any fishing, but many guests were at the resort just to fish, and those guests were having a blast, as well. Here are some pictures showcasing the dives.

01_DSC_9646 (2) two juvenile spotted drums by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr

02_DSC_9906 sting ray by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr

06_DSC_9323 (2) green moray eel by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr

40_DSC_9979 buried sting ray by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr

03_DSC_9929 (2) The Blue Hole by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr

17_DSC_9653 queen angelfish by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr

58_DSC_9693 fairy basslet by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr

10_DSC_9615 scrawled cowfish by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr

The whole set of photos can be found here: Flickr photo album from Turneffe Island Resort trip, 2018

 

[drrich2]

Very nice! Love the juvenile drum and Blue Hole shots.

Richard.

 

[mcpowell]

My wife and I went to Turneffe about 21 years ago. It was one of the best vacations ever! From the website video, I believe it was the same place, but I’m pretty sure the name has changed. We could dive in the morning, return for lunch, and then bonefish in the afternoon (or vice versa).

The bar was always open, since it was on the honor system. We just helped ourselves and made a note on a little spiral bound notebook!

One of my big regrets was not going to the Blue Hole.

 

[Lorenzoid]

My wife and I went to Turneffe about 21 years ago. It was one of the best vacations ever! From the website video, I believe it was the same place, but I’m pretty sure the name has changed.

I may be wrong, but I think it used to be called Turneffe Island Lodge.

 

[flyboy08]

Awesome pix! Would like to get back there soon as well. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

Great snaps, could you give us the specs of your rig/lights/camera etc. tnx!

 

[Erwin Poliakoff]

Great snaps, could you give us the specs of your rig/lights/camera etc. tnx!

Thanks very much. I use a Nikon D7000 camera, either a Nikkor 85mm macro lens or a Tokina 10-17mm wide angle, a Nauticam housing, and dual Inon Z240 strobes (which I am about to replace with Inon Z330 strobes)).

 

[ibj40]

My wife and I went to Turneffe about 21 years ago. It was one of the best vacations ever! From the website video, I believe it was the same place, but I’m pretty sure the name has changed. We could dive in the morning, return for lunch, and then bonefish in the afternoon (or vice versa).

The bar was always open, since it was on the honor system. We just helped ourselves and made a note on a little spiral bound notebook!

One of my big regrets was not going to the Blue Hole.

What you are describing sounds more like Turneffe Flats Resort. We stayed there about a dozen years ago. It is a primarily bonefishing resort, with diving offered as well.

My wife and I were the only divers during our week, and our dive guide told us that we dove sites that he never got to when there were more. There are some marvelous dive sites along the North and West sides of the atoll that I understand are only visited by the liveaboards, however we got to go to them during out visit.

 

[Downing]

Excellent trip report! Thanks.

Turneffe Flats is to the north, about the middle of the atoll. Turneffe Island Resort, which used to be Turneffe Island Lodge until maybe 10 years ago when they changed the name, is at the southern tip. Both were originally fishing lodges that morphed into diving as well, TIR more than TF for whatever reason.

Edwin, who were the dive guides at TIR? I was in Placencia a couple of months ago and heard that a local friend of mine, Marco, is now working there. I've known Marco since he was just a kid coming up through Splash Dive Center's Kids Club. We did the Deep Dive cert together years ago off Laughing Bird Caye. That was quite a series of dives as the algae bloom was in full force and visibility was less than the length of my arm. We've explored a bit of southern Belize together, so I was disappointed that I didn't get to see him this year.

My wife and I have been to TIL/TIR twice (the first time it was "Lodge" and the second time "Resort") and really enjoyed it. Brad and Marcel were our guides both times. Daniel and John ran the other boat. George was the bartender and cut me some slack on a bottle of rum. Are any of them still there? The Belizean staff was pretty stable, but the place changes managers, who tend to be American or European, like I change my shorts. The first time we went, the managers were great. The second time, not so much.

 

[KeithG]

What you are describing sounds more like Turneffe Flats Resort. We stayed there about a dozen years ago. It is a primarily bonefishing resort, with diving offered as well.

My wife and I were the only divers during our week, and our dive guide told us that we dove sites that he never got to when there were more. There are some marvelous dive sites along the North and West sides of the atoll that I understand are only visited by the liveaboards, however we got to go to them during out visit.

In my experience the liveaboards do not frequent Turneffe until (very very early) Friday morning on the way back to Belize City from a week of Lighthouse. I vaguely recall reading once about some nasty storm that kept the boats at Turneffe for the week? That is not normal.

Often the Aggressor IV visits the Sandy Slope dive site (just west of the most sothern tip of Turneffe?) on Friday morning. Sandy Slope is a wide patch of sand (200 yards-ish?) that steeply slopes down at about a 45 degree angle and goes way too deep. I claim the back of the boat is at around 120 feet or more: we splash and swim forward and often hit the sand around 70 feet and then go left or right to find some coral and work our way upwards. It is a simple site and often a bit of a boring conclusion to the week.