What was your favourite trip? But more importantly: Where else have you been?

[VinceRN]

Favorite trip? In 1999 we took a trip to Truk and Palau, a week and about a dozen dives in each.

Truk, of course, is incredible for its wrecks, easily the best in the world for that sort of thing. It is also the warmest and clearest water I have ever been in. One afternoon my thermometer actually read 90 degrees for the water near the surface.

Palau, especially over by Peleliu and "Blue Corner", had the most life and the most color I have seen anywhere (Southern California, Puget Sound, Fiji, Hawaii, both sides of Mexico, and around the Caribbean are other places I have dove).

There are great dives to be had in many places, but that was my favorite trip.


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[Darnold9999]

All time favourite trip was on the Damia, Raja Ampat. Was the second trip of three to the area and had rested in Bali for three weeks before leaving so was accustomed to the time zone and had done some diving in Bali before leaving. Combination of lots of coral in the south, with Mantas on three different days, some in the north some in the south, lots of fish, whales on the surface and a great boat with only 9 divers.

I have been to:

Thailand - day trip a very long time ago.

GBR - liveaboard from Cod Hole to Cairns. Very nice trip, would do it again. Lots of fish and coral.

Hawaii - day trip, two dives - was just OK lava tubes, turtles and a plane wreck (limited sample so...)

Vancouver Island - I live here - the diving is cold the vis low but the diving is spectacular, particularly the north Island in Browning Pass. Quadra Island, Barkley Sound are also highlights.

Belize - three liveaboard trips - easy diving, sand channels and walls. Lots of life, but nowhere near the variety and colour of the Indo Pacific (which applies to all Caribbean destinations)

Caymans - liveaboard to Little Cayman - probably the best diving I have done in the Caribbean was on Bloody Bay wall. Sand channels and walls

Bahamas - land based from Freeport - so so diving - shark feed was interesting otherwise underwhelming

Bali - land based - nice diving but the land and culture was more interesting - would go back

Lembeh - land based - weird and wonderful, have been twice and will go back

Costa Rica - land based - first dive with Mantas off Bat Island was special - otherwise OK diving on the Pacific side

Mexico - all shore diving
Cancun - just after a hurricane everything covered in sand - poor diving
Cozumel - same trip - more to see, but lots of damage - OK diving
Mazatlan - worst vis I have ever been in - so didn't see a thing
Puerto Vallarta - not great vis and only OK diving
Zihuatanejo - long time ago but was OK diving
Cabo - vis was OK - as was the diving

Philippines - liveaboard from Coron to Anilo - poor vis in Coron otherwise was a very good trip. Muck diving in Anilo was the highlight. Will probably go back and dive Anilo again.

Philippines - Dumaguete - lots of weird critters in the sand, hard corol on Apo Island. Would go back

Sint Maartens - shallow reefs - diving was OK but nothing more

Saba - land based - excellent Caribbean diving, lots of fish, coral and a few sharks and turtles - competes with Bloody Bay wall as the best diving I have done in the Caribbean

 

[qwimjim]

Awesome, keep em coming!

 

[across]

#1 on the hit list, Browning Pass and area. There's a really good reason it's famous! #2 Cozumel, the night life is as good as the diving. It's a complete gas, a perfect holiday! Cenotes, do em once for sure! Hawaii sucks! Turks is a huge disappointment, definitely not worth the money. Something about Nanimo and Comox that fits well with me. The wrecks around Kingston are calling but I've never been. See em all and report back! Have fun.

 

[humuhumunukunuku]

ive been quite a few places (you can look at my profile if you want to see the list) including some of the top spots in the world, and my favorite trip so far has been Derawan Islands(maratua, kakaban, sangalaki). Stayed at maratua paradise resort, which is built on stilts over the water and has a long walkway connecting to the island. walking around the resort you can see stingrays, turtles and lionfish in the water. diving was great and diverse: wall dives right in front of the resort with great corals, fans, fish, and macro including several pygmy seahorses. dusk dives in the shallows next to the resort with mandarin fish. dives around maratua with tons of turtles or tons of giant barracudas hovering right over your head while hooked on to the edge of the rock with a reef hook. fast drift dives around kakaban island with surface interval in a jellyfish lake in the center of the island - like the famous one in palau, but much larger and with many more jelly fish, and 4 different species! and then of course the manta dives around sangalaki island where you sit in the sandy channel as one manta after another comes by to get cleaned and swims laps around your head.im going to raja ampat next week which i think may be a new favorite, but i will kinda be surprised if it tops derawan islands. fyi, derawan islands are on the indo side of borneo just south of the famous and also awesome sipadan/mabul area (malaysian borneo).

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I've been to Hawaii three times. Beach diving beats boat diving hands down. Most of the diving is near shore, so I saved a ton by renting tanks and weights.
Cozumel was OK, but if you want to take photos you need to be in a group with other photogs. I wasn't, and spent most of the dives swimming to catch up with the group each time I stopped for a single shot.
Philippines was good for tiny critters. Diving was relaxing. DM allowed us to do as we pleased. It was more like diving at home...except for the insects in our bed and no water pressure for a shower for ten days.
My next trip is to Vancouver Island and Seattle in September. I plan to make this my favorite trip. Sponges, rockfish, nudibranchs, wolf eels and octopus...large octopus. It will be like diving at home in SoCal on steroids.

 

[scububa]

My post probably won't fit so well here as I have many more freshwater dives than I do saltwater...and I haven't been to any exotic locations as many have posted.

My favorite dive location is Presque Isle, MI in Lake Huron. I love diving on the wrecks there. It is my sensory overload...I love the historical element, the viz is great and as most of the wrecks are deep, they are well preserved.

My next high sensory dive is Ginnie Springs going in Devil's Eye or Ear, thru the lips and into the main area of the system. Working against a fairly high flow, when you hit your turn point, I felt like I was flying thru the Grand Canyon with a jet pack. (And I have backpacked in the GC for a couple of week long trips.)

Next on my list is Hole-in-the-Wall Cave in Marianna, FL. The ceilings are so fossilized it's like someone 'wallpapered' them. And between the fossils and geothite 'chandeliers' it's hard to get very far into the system!

I have dove out of Morehead City on the U352 which was a reflective dive for me. I also enjoyed all the fish life there, swimming in compartments with 3 sand tigers (Aeolus), seeing large rays and having to ascend a bit to get out of the cloud of jacks making it hard to know where your reference was(Shurz). Various wrecks and a couple of artificial purpose reefs.

In the Keys, one of my favorite dives was was the Eagle and the 2 GIANT Jew fish . We also did a couple dives on the Spiegel Grove and the fun part of that was diving with my daughter. And, there was a neat bull shark off the stern.

We dive locally at Table Rock Lake and this is where we learned to dive and have several favorite spots. We use to be able to dive deep at the dam and swim up to the dam wall ;-) They have restricted this now due to some new system construction around the visitor's center. We have also had a lot of fun in Norfork Lake. These are considered rock bottom lakes and the visibility can be very good. I have a few dives in Beaver and Bull Shoals where I did my only spear fishing. Also, Greer's Ferry where I was meeting up to learn some of the divers I'd be going to Morehead City with and one very neat dive was on an old wood structure pump house from when the river wasn't dammed up.

About three trips to Cozumel. The first one was great, the second was pretty fun, by the third time I realized there were other places to dive.

Mackinaw City was great fun and there is a ton of topside stuff to do in that area. There are some great wrecks there, but I prefer Presque Isle for the wreck quality, but Mack has several that aren't too deep.

I have dove out of Milwaukee and Chicago'ish areas. Prefer the Milwaukee area, but Chicago is closer to me.

And, lots of caves, in MO-Roubidoux where I have scootered to the 2nd drop off, Cannon Ball which has a unique no viz entrance from Lake Wappapello, but then opens in to clear spring water as you enter the system and Mine Lamotte which has a maze of old lead mine tunnels radiating from the quarry area and the water is cold, the very high flow of Bennett Springs cavern and Blue Spring as a support diver with the OCDA team. FL - Ginnie, Peacock, Orange Grove, Little River, Madison Blue, Vortex, Jackson Blue, H n t W, Twin, and probably a couple I am forgetting. One favorite was the Grand Traverse entering Orange Grove and exiting Peacock going thru a couple of sink holes.

I have about 60 saltwater dives and 470 freshwater with 200 cave dives, about 100 of them in MO and 100 in FL.

I'd love to dive in the Truk area on the warships/planes and the New Jersey area. And, I need to get some west coast diving in. Eagles Nest is probably a cave I have on my list and I'd like to go back to Australia and do some salt water and cave diving. Oh...and Lake Superior

Anyway, I know this is different perspective than the 'normal' post in this thread, but thought I'd share.

Other than the runs to the 2nd Drop Off in Roubidoux, my least favorite diving has been scooter diving. I know most people love it. I bought a scooter, took the training with Edd Sorenson and made about 40 dives when I decided I wasn't enjoying it and sold the scooter and started Side Mounting (and I know they absolutely aren't mutually exclusive and I did a couple of SM scooter dives.) I may rent a scooter for a specific purpose and I am glad I have the training and gave it a try, but I don't think I'll buy one again.

Happy diving...

 

[qwimjim]

#1 on the hit list, Browning Pass and area. There's a really good reason it's famous! #2 Cozumel, the night life is as good as the diving. It's a complete gas, a perfect holiday! Cenotes, do em once for sure! Hawaii sucks! Turks is a huge disappointment, definitely not worth the money. Something about Nanimo and Comox that fits well with me. The wrecks around Kingston are calling but I've never been. See em all and report back! Have fun.

a lot of people say hawaii sucks? but watching videos compared to cozumel it looks like it has interesting topography with the lava tubes, etc.. and what it lacks in colorful coral it seems to make up for in marine life.. manta's, dolphins, sharks, monk seals, turtles galore, schools of fish, etc.. so are all the people dissing hawaii just coral fanatics? or are the videos deceiving? because other than a couple of eagle rays, sleepy nurse sharks and a lot of eels and lobsters, the marine life in cozumel wasn't anything to write home about

---------- Post added February 11th, 2014 at 08:42 AM ----------

I've been to Hawaii three times. Beach diving beats boat diving hands down. Most of the diving is near shore, so I saved a ton by renting tanks and weights.
Cozumel was OK, but if you want to take photos you need to be in a group with other photogs. I wasn't, and spent most of the dives swimming to catch up with the group each time I stopped for a single shot.
Philippines was good for tiny critters. Diving was relaxing. DM allowed us to do as we pleased. It was more like diving at home...except for the insects in our bed and no water pressure for a shower for ten days.
My next trip is to Vancouver Island and Seattle in September. I plan to make this my favorite trip. Sponges, rockfish, nudibranchs, wolf eels and octopus...large octopus. It will be like diving at home in SoCal on steroids.

what were your favourite shore dives in hawaii?

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Alua Beach, by far. It's secluded, so the crowds stay away. You have to walk over lava to get there, so wear shoes in the summer.
Scuba Shore Diving Site Page for: Alua Beach of The Big Island, Hawaiian Islands

Hapuna Beach is the nicest beach topside with a snack bar, shower and wide, sandy beach. The coral heads on the south side of the beach extend offshore, but there is not as much to see as at other sites.

Check out some others at Scuba Shore Diving Site Listing for: The Big Island, Hawaiian Islands

 

[swaroopa]

Hello, My favorite trip is Kerala in India. It is one of the most beautiful places to visit.