What are your 3 top land based Caribbean spots?

[glennster]

grand turk, ambergris cay belize, and little cayman. just got back from little cayman. also like roatan and cozumel as seconds.

 

[cneal]

Bonaire
Little Cayman
Roatan

 

[snowdog61]

Little Cayman, Cozumel, Roatan, Bonaire

 

[scubadada]

I've only been to Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, Cayman Brac, Bonaire, Curacao, Turks & Caicos, and Cozumel. I can't choose a top 3, top 4 are bolded, they are all different, complimentary.

 

[PatW]

Cayman Brac, Turneffe, Cozumel. Unfortunately, South Caicos no longer has a dive op, otherwise it would be number 1 or 2 based on diving. Deep walls with schooling sharks and or eagle rays. The island is not set up for tourism. Cozumel has great vis, good sea life, but the second dives tend to be farther north and those reefs are not in good shape. Turneffe, visibility is ok but not like Coz or the Caymans. Good sea life. Great snorkeling in the lagoon. I put the Brac over little because it has better corals. The south side walls are deep, 55’ to 80’ at the top of the wall, but the corals on them are good, good sea life, and one usually see a shark. My wife prefers Little Cayman.

Honorable mentions: Key Largo ... good reefs, good sea life, lounge boat ride making more than 2 dives hard to fit in. Utila.... great variety of diving. Sea mounts, wall dives, muck dives, piles of sea horses. Over fished so grouper and snapper are rare.

 

[scubadada]

..Honorable mentions: Key Largo ...

I'm quite fond of SE Florida, even more so than the Keys, but did not include it in the Caribbean

 

[tkaelin]

Curacao, Bonaire, Grand Cayman with the caveat that this is based on primarily shore diving. We typically don't stay at resorts with resort packages with meals and diving primarily designed around boat diving. There have been exceptions though.

 

[markmud]

Hi OP,

I have only been to Utilla, St. Croix, Cozumel, and Bonaire in the Caribbean. And as Drich2 stated, "best for what?"

I loved St. Croix. We spent a total of three weeks there over three years. I would love to charter a boat (along with some advanced/intermediate [or higher] recreational divers) and explore more of the north shore and west end. I could do a weeks-worth of 1st dives on the Cane Bay wall and Vertigo. The Salt River National Park (U.S. National Park Service--you know--like Yellowstone National Park!) is good diving.

At Utilla, we were with a group and did an all inclusive. It was awesome. The resort was superb. The service was exceptional. The diving was varied because we could dive all around the island depending on weather. A short boat ride and we were on the windward side.

Cozumel is in a class of its own. I liked Scuba Club Cozumel.

Bonaire...well we did the SB Surge...and that was exceptional. An all around score of 10 on a scale of 10. The people, the resort staff, surgers, dive op, boats, dive spots, our dive team...everything.

We are going to Curacao in January. We want to do the Cayman Islands. I don't know how to give a qualitative list as there are so many good places. So much depends on the type of diving you want to do.

St. Croix is not a good spot if you don't go with an organized group that drills-down boat diving and dive locations. Like I wrote earlier, if you are organized and have buying power, the diving is pretty darn good. Rowdy Joe's is a fun place to eat and don't miss the Chicken Shack and their Johnny cakes--order a half chicken dinner with all the fix'ns.. Visit Cruzan Rum distillery and Captain Morgan Rum distillery. Visit the beer swilling pigs. Even though St. Croix is a U.S. territory, they drive on the wrong side of the road--it is a little hairy your first night there and just off the airliner.

I know I am not an all-around Caribbean expert, but maybe my post will help you.

markm

 

[DeepSeaPirate]

Coz