Where to go in Central America?

[GregFil]

I recommend El Ocotal in Costa Rica. It's near the town of Playa del Coco...quick trip by taxi with plenty of nightlife. Awesome diving, spectacular life....bull sharks, marlin, devilrays, big stuff.

This is a relly helpfull & usefull thank you so much.it's much easier to search with a specific name of the place.
Thanks again

 

[GregFil]

What's better to take a group diving trip in Honduras and Costa Rica or try to arrange your own private diving tour?

 

[terrydarc]

If you're interested in back-of-the-beyond type diving (and not the Coco View/Fantasy Island preference) I'd recommend Corn Island in Nicaragua. Well worth a week. Another b-o-t-b place is Cayos Cochinos in the Bay Islands. Both these places require a teeny bit more work to get to, but once you're there, it's perfect.

My personal view of Roatan is that it's badly overdeveloped. The boats from AKR were coming to Cayos Cochinos to dive, but I hear there are still fine places to dive Roatan. Utila is heavily developed as well, but smaller, easier to get around, less tony (except for a couple places) and a heck of a lot cheaper than the $150 per day per person or more at some of the top end resorts.
=Terry

 

[Doc]

If you're interested in back-of-the-beyond type diving (and not the Coco View/Fantasy Island preference) I'd recommend Corn Island in Nicaragua. Well worth a week. Another b-o-t-b place is Cayos Cochinos in the Bay Islands. Both these places require a teeny bit more work to get to, but once you're there, it's perfect.

My personal view of Roatan is that it's badly overdeveloped. The boats from AKR were coming to Cayos Cochinos to dive, but I hear there are still fine places to dive Roatan. Utila is heavily developed as well, but smaller, easier to get around, less tony (except for a couple places) and a heck of a lot cheaper than the $150 per day per person or more at some of the top end resorts.
=Terry

Along that line of thinking... if I had a live-aboard at my command?

Cayos, Corn, Cisne (Swan), Barbaretta... and a hundred places on the South side of Roatan, running East from CoCoView to Barbaretta. There's lots and lots of untouched dive site... huge cracks and canyons, wrecks and surprises... just no dive-op is close enough (and 99% of them are not known to the dive ops).

I still have a thing for the miriad wrecks of Los Roques.

Wish books aside, there is a practical question somewhere?

 

[scuba person]

Hello,
I want to go to Central America for vacation at the end of November 2004. The problem is I don't know what the best place to go. I want to spend around 10 days there. I guess I’m looking for a good diving, since I’m single I want to have a nice entertaining also. I would appreciate any suggestions.
Thank you in advance.

Hey hows it goin. If your going to central america i would definatly recomend costa rica. I am on the end of a three week trip and my faviorate spot has definatly "Playa Del Coco" everythin here is really cheap and i have done some of the best diving in my life here. I went through rich coast diving and did a five day pakage. Saw some bull sharks one of wich had to be about 9ft long and a lot of white tips, plus your basic fish and so on. hope you have a good trip.

 

[scuba person]

This is a relly helpfull & usefull thank you so much.it's much easier to search with a specific name of the place.
Thanks again

I disagree. I have been in "playa del coco" for about three weeks and have dove with "ocotal" as well as "rich coast diving" and i would definatly pick Rich Coast as it is cheaper the staff was great and the diving was awsome. if ur on a budget as i am stay right in Playa del Coco, i got a room at hotel anexio luna tica(spelled something like that) for only 100 a month american. its right on the beach and only about a 3 min walk from rich coast diving. i found the staff at ocotal to be more snobish and seem to think they are better than u are, wich kind of pissed me off plus they were quite a bit more expensive. Good luck have fun and enjoy the diving.

 

[GregFil]

I really appreciate your advises.
Looks like I will choose the Costa Rica after all.
I want to fly to San Jose for Philadelphia, rent a car and go see volcano IRAZU, then
Drive to Playa del Coco.
I think it would be good enough for 9-10 days.
Thank you again for your time.

 

[fjd]

Thanks a lot for your help.Now I think I will try to search for this places(Balize,Honduras,Costa Rica).
Coud you please tell me what is the best places to dive in Costa Rica,Honduras and belize,and ,if it's not a problem name of the hotels were you've been.Thank you again

i dove at Playa Flamingo, which is located on the northern pacific coast of Costa Rica. excellent boat diving, but remember it is still the pacific and the visibility is not that of carribean. the trade-off is that you have much more to see. sharks, sea horse, dolphins to a whale.

you can also mix other activities -- eco-tourism, wind surfing, etc. and it is on the inexpensive side compare to some of the carribean destinations.

i used aquacenterdiving.com and they were excellent. Ana will get back to you promptly to any questions you might have.

 

[MN Lakeman]

I really appreciate your advises.
Looks like I will choose the Costa Rica after all.
I want to fly to San Jose for Philadelphia, rent a car and go see volcano IRAZU, then
Drive to Playa del Coco.
I think it would be good enough for 9-10 days.
Thank you again for your time.

Since you are renting a car, I would recommend a drive to the volcano Aerial, & stay a night at the most awesome hot spings resort, Tabacon. In this same area, you can also hit the spectacular "high wire" tour, which suspends you above the jungle & zips you from platform to platform - a BLAST. Watch where you park your car, & DON'T leave stuff inside - bad problem there with theft & car break-ins. This is one of the most beautiful countries I have been too, but even though it is about the size of W. Virginia, it has THREE separate mountain ranges across it, & so count on your drives from place to place to take about 3 times longer to get there, particularly because roads are so-so.

 

[tiggrr]

I just got home from Costa Rica last nite and also dove with Rich Coast Divers. I am a very new diver and it was perfect for me. All of the dives were with 2 groups also. The advanced and newbies all had their fair share of things to see. My last dive I saw a 4ft white tip shark as well as all of the other great stuff. Sea horse, sting rays, turtles, even a school of dolphins cruised with us from one site to the other. Rich Coast was very cool to me too. To be honest, I am entirely jealous you are going and have already been looking up airline prices to go back.

Just a heads up, this time of year is rainy season. This whole week it has been sunny all day til about 2-4pm then rainy the rest. Anywhere from torrential downpour to sprinkles. I dug it. Dive all day then drink a few with friends and hang out in the rain. Don't forget your bug spray too!! I'm kickin myself pretty bad for ignoring that one.