caydiver
Contributor
Oh boy, Dutch Springs!!! Is the fire engine still there. Brrrrr!
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
Thank you so much for this info!You do have a budget and it is pretty tight because winter is the peak season in the warm-water destinations. Everybody wants to head south when it is freezing in the north.
The water can be quite cold in Florida and the Bahamas in the winter and spring IMO - and kind of cold in the Turks and Caicos, too. As you go further south into the Caribbean, the Yucatan, or Central America then water gets warmer as I am sure you know already.
I did a quick search and I found nonstop, direct, roundtrip airfares for around $500 in January on JetBlue from JFK in NY to GCM (Grand Cayman).
If they still have any availability for the Holiday Package (through Jan 18 2020) at the Cobalt Coast resort it might work for you. The price of $1480 x 2 comes out to $423 per day for 2 people over one week. That price includes transfers, accommodations, 3 meals a day, 2 boat dives per day, taxes, and hotel service charges.
Not included are the dive shop tips, nitrox - if you use it, and alcoholic beverages. The package also includes unlimited shore dives on the house reef but that end of the island can be windy in the winter - so you might not get much shore diving. I'm partial to Cayman so I keep an eye out for bargains and that is a good price for the high travel season in my opinion.
Dive Free with 7-Night Holiday Special
Scuba New York is putting a trip to cayman brac for presidents week in Feb at about $2700. Includes airfare hotel 3 dives per day 3 meals per day
Used to live in NY but moved to somewhere the diving is better at least for me. I would definitely look around at local clubs and join one. They often do group trips which can really cut back on prices and you you are diving with friends. The viz on Long Island is nothing like here in Cayman but it is a great way to get in some dives and improve your skill set. Same for Hudson River. I think there is even a group at City Island. The Galapagos is an amazing trip but the water is cold, soooo cold. However that’s what makes the diving so incredible. All those mag creatures feeding on nature’s bounty. Lots of diving in Florida Keys and sometimes the airfares and travel time fit a better for a quick trip. Just not going international saves airport time. Have only been fishing off NJ coast, so cannot comment on what’s it got to offer. Hope you enjoy the big Apple. Sounds silly but if I had stayed up there I was planning to volunteer as a dive cleaner at the big tanks at the Aquarium. Just thought it would be a learning experience and I would have my head in the water!
If you live in NYC and want to get involved with the local diving community, I can recommend the NYC Sea Gypsies.
While some of our activities involve local diving in the NY/NJ area (which it sounds like you are not interested in), most of our members don't actually participate in that. We have regular meetings each month with great speakers (we just had Jill Heinerth, have had Gaelin Rosenwaks, Erika Bergman, Christina Zenato in the past, our upcoming speaker for next week is Bruce Konefe, one of the cave divers who ran the rescue of the Thai soccer team last year).
We also have monthly underwater photographic meetings and other social events. It's a great place to meet divers, learn from others' experience, and plan trips, if that's your thing.
Click on the link, and maybe come to the October meeting on the 28th, no charge!
That is a really good idea! I requested to join and I'm planning to attend the meatup in October. We are new in NYC and if we end up meeting nice people who like to dive, that would be wonderful!
I think you mean Beach 8th in Far Rockaway