What to do around Orlando?

[shakespear]

Im working on planning a trip. I will be staying with my brother there and I want to get in alot of diving in a week.

I dont have alot of experience and wanted to do mostly spring diving.

I thought about wiki-waki (sp? that mermaid place) crystal river and venice beach but I dont know how much of a distance that is.

I'm wanting to do as much as I can for as cheap as possible.

thoughts? comments? suggestions?

 

[Gatorshark]

There is a lot of spring diving within 1.5 hrs of Orlando. Check out :

Florida Springs: Scuba Diving and Snorkeling in Florida Springs

Devil's Den is a great dive, one of a kind. Paradise Springs is also very interesting, a lot of fossils. Both are near Ocala.

 

[shakespear]

I picked up a couple of books too, Underwater Florida was one and a spring guide was the other

 

[Gatorshark]

Venice is a bit of a haul from Orlando, if your going to drive 2.5 hrs I would suggest heading to W. Palm and jumping on a boat, maybe hitting the Blue Heron bridge for a shore dive(pay attention to the tides). Openwater is going to require a drive, but you'll be right near the spring capital of the world.

 

[Scubastud16]

Ginnie is about 2 hours away, and is a pretty nice dive. Unfortunately, the closest spring is closed until March due to manatee activity. Alexander is nice too, but can be boring. Also check out Blue Grotto. Unless your buoyancy is decent, I would stay away from Paradise. While it is a wonderful dive, the viz goes to hell in just a few bad fin kicks.

 

[shakespear]

Right now I was thinking:

Devils Den
Blue Grotto
Crystal River (though I dont know when Manatee time is)
Weeki Wachee

 

[Jayde323]

Manatee season is in full swing in Crystal River right now. Season is from Nov. 15 to Mar. 31, but there are manatees there year around. Hubby and I were there the other weekend and there was no shortage of manatee encounters.