Best Places to Dive in the Caribbean

[MXGratefulDiver]

If I had to choose one single destination it would be Bonaire ... it's the easiest diving I've done in the Caribbean, both in terms of access and conditions. There's lots of dive sites to choose from, it's easy to get there, and it's not terribly expensive. The place was practically invented to let new divers maximize their bottom time in non-threatening conditions.

I've never understood the new diver's attraction to Cozumel. It's crowded, moderately expensive, and pretty much all boat, drift diving. Most dive sites (except for Paradise Reef) are fairly deep which limits a new diver's bottom time ... and you're pretty much forced to follow a dive guide around all the time. Sure there are some pretty swim-throughs (most deeper than a new diver should be going), but other than that I found the diving to be less exciting than many other places in the Caribbean.

JMO, FWIW ... YMMV ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[vladimir]

OK, so by now you learned one of the first things that people discovered in the Internet based information age: too much information is the same as too little information.

Especially when the "information" is opinions.

I suggest you try a different search process.

1. Look at potential travel locations for a variety of non-dive reasons. These include cost to get there, housing, etc.

2. Narrow your search to a few that sound like they are promising.

3. Scroll down to the Regional Travel section of ScubaBoard and locate the Caribbean Forum and the Mexico Forum. (Cozumel has its own subforum there because of its popularity.)

Good suggestions.

4. Use the search feature to get some background information on each of your potential sites.

Or go to google and type in your search criteria, say, Bonaire Hotels, and then site:scubaboard.com, for even better results.

If I had to choose one single destination it would be Bonaire ... it's the easiest diving I've done in the Caribbean, both in terms of access and conditions. There's lots of dive sites to choose from, it's easy to get there, and it's not terribly expensive. The place was practically invented to let new divers maximize their bottom time in non-threatening conditions.

I've never understood the new diver's attraction to Cozumel. It's crowded, moderately expensive, and pretty much all boat, drift diving. Most dive sites (except for Paradise Reef) are fairly deep which limits a new diver's bottom time ... and you're pretty much forced to follow a dive guide around all the time. Sure there are some pretty swim-throughs (most deeper than a new diver should be going), but other than that I found the diving to be less exciting than many other places in the Caribbean.

JMO, FWIW ... YMMV ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Yes! Not only is Cozumel far from ideal for new divers, I don't understand the attraction for more experienced divers either. With all due respect to many Scubaboarders who post opinions here in an effort to be helpful, some of them (not necessarily in this thread) recommend Cozumel because they've only been to Cozumel and a quarry in Pennsylvania, and they prefer Cozumel.