Where to go for a quick ~4 day late summer dive trip?

[Savoir Laire]

Hi, newbie here, excited to be on the forum! Myself (54 year old ) and daughter (17yo) are relatively inexperienced open water divers (SSI certified, 9 dives in Turks and Caicos, Costa Brava (Spain) and St. Thomas). We are very excited to continue our diving/learning, but this summer our travels to Nantucket and London don't lend themselves to diving, unless you know something we don't! I am thinking about trying a late summer (early August) 4 day or so trip for the 2 of us, just to get somewhere easy and blow some bubbles (and try out my new Go Pro set up). Price is not a big obstacle, but time/convenience is. So looking for an easy to get to location from Louisville (very few direct flights anywhere), with decent diving, doesn't have to be world class.
What location is easy to get to, has good diving community and offers some good, non-technical dives? Florida or Keys? Back to USVI (St. Croix maybe)? Would love to do a Roatan or Bonaire, but really not much time this time and they seem hard to get to...any ideas welcome, thanks!

 

[ronscuba]

The big thing about short trips is to minimize travel time. From your location, I would be looking at Florida. Either the Keys or Boynton Beach. Fly into Miami for the Keys, Palm Beach or Fort Lauderdale for Boynton.

 

[USdiver1]

Florida springs (fresh water) or keys (salt water). Also don't discount local diving: You have Gilboa and White Star Quarries in northern Ohio, Pennyroyal Quarry in Hopkinsville, KY as well as Falling Rock Quarry in LaGrange, KY.

Diving does not require a tropical setting to be fun!

Welcome

 

[Trailboss123]

Agree with @ronscuba - head for Florida with the time you have allocated and either dive out of Boynton Beach or down to Key Largo. I am a big fan of the diving off of Boynton Beach and Delray. Delray would be a nice place for you and your daughter to stay also. Lots of great restaurants and shops downtown. Here is a dive operator to consider in Boynton Beach: Starfish Scuba - Scuba Diving Charters in Boynton Beach

 

[scubadada]

@Savoir Laire

SE FL would be a good choice this time of year, may even be late enough for beginning of Goliath Grouper aggregation. I have many dives in Boynton Beach, West Palm, including Blue Heron Bridge, and Jupiter. See my recent posts on diving this area Back in SE FL for 10 days In my humble opinion, reefs in Boynton Beach are among the best in Florida. Feel free to message me with questions.

Good diving, Craig

 

[uncfnp]

That's tough. You basically lose 2 of your four days to travel. I would get on the Travelocity (or other travel site of choice) and find the earliest to and latest return options with shortest travel time. Look at West Palm Beach, Ft Lauderdale and Cozumel.

My money would be on Florida as well. Preferable flying into WPB and depending on your days and flight time you might be able to get in an afternoon boat dive that day or a dive at the Blue Heron Bridge. Then 1 to 2 boat dives the next day and if the flight out is late enough, a morning dive. And as @scubadada pointed out, you might luck into a goliath grouper trip.

 

[drrich2]

Also ask how many dives/day you can get in with various op.s. Maybe you could get more than 2 at least the 2nd day. If you fly back on day 4, then you may wish to be mindful of 'no fly' time between last dive on day 3, and take-off on day 4.

I'm assuming you're looking to fly out day 1, dive day 2 & at least the morning of day 3, fly back day 4.

Also, check the op.'s certification requirements. Make sure they know you're OW, not advanced OW, and your experience level. You don't want to show up and have to sit a dive out because it's deeper, etc...

Richard.

 

[Streydog]

I am partial to Cozumel. I have nothing against Florida, I have no experience diving there. The last time I was in the water in Florida I was in the 7th grade. We lived in Key West, dad was stationed there, the song Key West was big on the back side of the Macho Man 45.
I did a quick look on Matrix ITA. You could do a 4 day trip flying out early and arriving before noon then fly out after 3 PM 4 days later. Stay in town, no need for a rental car. You could easily get 8 or 9 dives in. Very safe, several dive shops, several hotels and restaurants to choose from.

 

[diversteve]

St Croix will be more difficult (lless flights) AA has 3 connecting flights thru MIA but the best is 8+ hrs. each way and all use the same return ffight arriving at 1152pm. Also $910pp

Since you've already been to St. Thomas - maybe the BVI's? There's a 6am connection from Louisville to St. Thomas arriving at 12:45 - the fast ferries to the BVI's leave almost hourly from the ferry port downtown - 10min; away by cab. It takes roughly an hour to cross to either Tortola or Virgin Gorda and there's resorts on either island - diving with DiveBVI from Virgin Gorda or one of these operators from Tortola - bviscuba.org You have clear customs/immigration both ways but it's fast and painless. Tortola is a long island so pick a shop near your resort if you go there - most are around Roadtown or the west end by Soper's Hole - shorter ferry ride from Red Hook which is a 45min ferry/cab ride from the airport.

As much as I like DiveBVI you may do better on Toirtola - shorter ferry ride, more hotel options etc.

Another option could be St. John - you can either ferry there or rent a car on St. Thomas and "drive" over - there's 2 car ferries that run between Red Hook on St. Thomas and Cruz Bay on St. John. It takes about 45mins. to drive to Red Hook (East End) and IIRC the ferry is 1/2 hr. Cruz Bay Watersports is an option or St. John or Low Key Watersports. Since money isn't a huge issue, the Westin is pretty nice.

Some of the ferries are seasonal or may shut down w/o notice so validate your plans just b4 you go.

Either area will have similar shallower dive profiles available. You;'re kind of on the edge of being qualified to dive the Rhone wreck in the BVI's - our new diver had no problem on her 12th dive. It's not real deep, there is a swim-thru but it's open on the sides in most areas. The back has collapsed enough that you mostly swim under the deck but there's no real penetration.

Delta has a return flight that leaves St. Thomas for Atlanta at 1:30 - the ferries will get you there well before then. My friends took it - from there it looks like you're back in Louisville aroiund 9PM. I used dates around the first weekend in August.

Where did you dive on St, Thomas? The in town shops focus more south on the wrecks - the Eest End shops more the cays nearby and will do sites off St. John also. Red Hook has a few decent restaurants if you've not been there.

 

[noj3333]

Ok... i'll chime in too!

First off, try to stretch your 4 days into 5, or even 6. As for as destinations, hands down, IMHO, Key Largo is the winner. I just did a few quick searches on Travelocity, and Southwest.com. Both offer cheap flights with minimal layovers to FLL. You could be on the ground in Key Largo by mid-afternoon... grab a good dinner get settled in.

My advice... Check with Rainbow Reef in Key Largo. They run morning and afternoon boats, and even some night trips as well. Get with them and do a hotel/ dive package (you'll save a little $ that way). They're really friendly, and the diving is pretty easy and shallow... great for newer divers. Depending on how much diving you want to do you could get up to 6-9 dives with a 4 day vacation (depending on their schedule, and the specifics of your flights/ No-fly times). If you're up for spending some more more $$ get a private guide too... $50/ trip (each 'trip' is a two-tank dive, either in the morning, or afternoon).

Just typing this makes me want to book another trip down there!