Winter is a great time to research and compare potential dive destinations in depth. Some destinations offer a range of places to stay, each with trade-offs, a variety of dive op.s (ditto), if you don't have an 'all in one dive resort' (e.g.: Buddy Dive Resort in Bonaire) then you've got hotel to pick, if you're bring non-divers (e.g.: family) it's time to research what there is for them to enjoy, if you need to rent a car what's the road situation (e.g.: how contested, which side of the road to drive on, etc...), and sometimes you have different types of dive op.s (e.g.: mainland, island, live-aboard). For example:
1.) Researching a trip to California confronted me with a lot of decisions in the decision tree. So much so I wrote up
a separate report thread instead of just wrapping it into my trip report.
2.) For Belize, the best diving will be by live-aboard or one of the islands farther out from the mainland, but the best topside tourist fun will be an island closer in (e.g.: Ambergris) or the mainland.
3.) For Roatan, there's a difference between diving the northern vs. southern coasts, I'm told, and it's been recommended not to drive a car (since fall out from accidents could be worrisome). In Curacao the better diving is said to be out west, much more rustic than the civilized offerings nearer the main city. In St. Croix, the east & west regions of the island have different terrain, and the northern shore wall diving more subject to waves than the leeward west coast. In the Cayman Islands, do you want 7 Mile Beach and the other topside opportunities of Grand Cayman, or the highly spoken of diving off Little Cayman?
4.) Some destinations don't have all the info. you need in one place. When I researched
our trip to dive out of Morehead City, NC, I found a lot of pieces of info.; pulling it together into a cohesion, informative 'vision' of how to understand and plan that destinations took me through an on again, off again course over months.
5.) On the other hand, some destinations have so much info. on so many options trying to wade through it I could choke on it. Check out some of the threads on this forum, and ask what an ordeal it would be to write an informative report factoring in location (e.g.: near what resorts), type of food, cost and differing opinions for dining options in Cozumel. If you're not catatonic from that, now delve into the various reputable places to stay. Having fun yet? Now pick amongst the highly reputable op.s cheer-led by our membership. You might end up booking with Scuba Club Cozumel or some other A.I. & dive with the onsite op., desperately grateful not to have to make too many decisions.
You can burn through a winter doing this stuff.
Richard.