Visit to St Croix in November

[kulin]

[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]I intend to travel to St. Croix in the last week of November for about a week. I intend to dive for 5 days. From what I have read so far, I thought staying near Cane bay would make sense, and then try and make day trips to the pier, Buck island etc and spend the remaining time around Cane bay.

Unfortunately I haven’t had much time to read and plan, and I need to finalize my bookings soon. Can somebody advice me if this is fine and if they have any suggestions. Also must do diving spots/things to do?



Any color on some non-diving information would be very helpful as well. Particularly looking for information on reasonable cost accommodations as I will be traveling alone. Do you recommend that I book my accommodation in advance? I guess I will have to rely on public transportation since I am alone. Can somebody tell me how convenient it is and whether it covers the island and how costly cabs are? Basically any information would be helpful.

Thanks a ton!

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[kierentec]

[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]I intend to travel to St. Croix in the last week of November for about a week. I intend to dive for 5 days. From what I have read so far, I thought staying near Cane bay would make sense, and then try and make day trips to the pier, Buck island etc and spend the remaining time around Cane bay.

Unfortunately I haven’t had much time to read and plan, and I need to finalize my bookings soon. Can somebody advice me if this is fine and if they have any suggestions. Also must do diving spots/things to do?



Any color on some non-diving information would be very helpful as well. Particularly looking for information on reasonable cost accommodations as I will be traveling alone. Do you recommend that I book my accommodation in advance? I guess I will have to rely on public transportation since I am alone. Can somebody tell me how convenient it is and whether it covers the island and how costly cabs are? Basically any information would be helpful.

Thanks a ton!

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glad to hear you're interested in St. Croix! I will try to answer a few of your questions, however, I work for a dive shop on island so it is difficult to be 100% unbiased. but I'll try
cane bay is an awesome place to stay and hang out. nice and remote, quiet, great beach, and awesome shore diving. you would most certainly need to rent a car, however. cabs are expensive and there are only a couple of restaurants within safe walking distance of cane bay, do you would be very limited without a car. Cabs are expensive, and are very difficult to get after 9:00 PM or so.

for the most convenient, easy vacation, I highly recommend staying in christiansted. everything is within walking distance (including a couple of dive boats), and you would only. red to rent a car or take a taxi if you wanted to dive the pier.
Buck island is a great trip, but if you do it for the snorkeling, you will be very disappointed. it's a nice boat ride, and the beach is beautiful, but the snorkel trail has gotten pretty beaten up and there is not much left there. I believe there is one operator advertising diving on Buck Island, but that will be an even bigger disappointment than if you would have snorkeled it.

must do dives: the pier at night, salt river canyon, cane bay, and Eagle Ray on long reef.

hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions, or feel free to contact us at info@stcroixscuba.com!

 

[kulin]

Thank you for your response. If transport is going to be an issue then staying in Christeanstead might make sense. Can you recommend places to stay closeby? and dive shops as well (and can you PM me an all inclusive quote with breakup(as I will not be renting gear) for your shop). I would like to dive for atleast 5 days if not 6! I have an Advanced Open Water license but its been over a couple of years since I dived last. I might also be interested in a few underwater photography dives / course. Thanks again!

 

[kierentec]

kulin,
Your best bet to get the most accurate info on all of that would be to copy and paste this thread into an email and shoot it off to info@stcroixsxuba.com and our marketing department can get you package rates and suggestions for hotels. they don't let me mess with that stuff, I just get to blow bubbles and drive the boat

 

[kierentec]

also, if it's been a while since your last dive, I highly recommend a quick refresher in the pool when you get here. that way you don't waste a whole dive on shaking the rust off.

 

[kulin]

also, if it's been a while since your last dive, I highly recommend a quick refresher in the pool when you get here. that way you don't waste a whole dive on shaking the rust off.

Thank you - will do.

 

[Nubiesan]

Thank you - will do.

We just returned from St Croix; we did 2 days of beach dives at Cane Bay (long swim to wall, but do-able), 1 day of boat dives off Salt River Bay and 2 days of pier diving at Frederiksted.

Overall, the diving is so-so, but the pier was fantastic. We are into little critters and the pier did not disappoint. We rented tanks and weights from N2the Blue and used their carts to haul gear to the pier. Excellent set up! The pier hosts everything from sea horses to eels to burr fish to lobster to you-name-it. Four octopi in the daytime is a record!

The Cane Bay wall had turtles and sharks, rays and everything in between. It's easy to find yourself deeper than you thought, but there is plenty to see above 100 ft. Lots of sharks at Salt River Bay, but they were just nosey.

We used 3 different operators, and each was fine for their location. Since the water was rough, boat dives were not a great idea as hubby gets seasick. We could have spent weeks at the pier -- don't miss it, day or night. We did not opt for a guide, but that's our thing, having spent a lot of time in Bonaire on our own.

It's a great way to spend a day or two or more

 

[kulin]

Thank you for the information. The variety sounds great!

I will definitely spend good time at the Pier and Cane Bay. Have read a lot of mixed reviews about Buck Island as well, but I guess I will figure that out once I get there. Everybody generally recommends the north and west for diving - any idea about the diving elsewhere? Though I guess there is plenty on my plate for 1 week already