Budget Diving Questions

[DivemasterDennis]

Amy Slates, Key Largo. cheap. good novice diving.

 

[FinnMom]

Your college or some near it should have a scuba club. Find out and you may get in on a low-budget trip complete with a group bus ride there & back again. If not though a college/unviersity, call uyp some of your local shops, or shops in the bigger towns/cities near you.
Also keep your ears open. Other students might have parents in Fla for the winter and you might catch an invite down if you keep your ears open.

 

[TruthAquatics]

Hi Scot758,

Here's a great scuba diving option for your Spring Break...

Truth Aquatics is an award winning liveaboard dive fleet, offering unique diving experiences around the California Channel Islands. We've a fantastic 5-Day Dive trip to San Clemente Island already scheduled for March 22nd. With all your meals and air fill included it's a great option for this coming Spring Break.

Please, do not hesitate to contact us for more information.

Let's dive!

 

[PfcAJ]

Go overseas man. You're going to spend more in Fl than you will in Honduras, even with the flight.

Look at taking multiple carriers to get there. Increases risk, but can REALLY reduce the cost.

 

[claymore]

Cozumel is another option. It has been one of the cheapest places to dive and get to. It has excellent diving and a friendly community.

 

[spoolin01]

The Big Island in Hawaii, or even Maui, offer great shore diving year round, and are nice spots to spend a week. If you can make flight and lodging arrangements that are competitive with your other alternatives, not paying for boat diving affords the possibility of getting a lot of dives in for very little additional outlay.

You shouldn't have any trouble finding someone there to dive with, either by posting here or asking a dive shop to hook you up, and as a fairly novice diver, it would be highly advisable to find someone who is skilled at judging conditions and knows which spots are accessible for the given sea conditions.

 

[drrich2]

I have been looking for somewhere to dive in mid-March over spring break.

An important point I suppose I glossed over. How long is your spring break?

If it's just a week, then you'll probably want to limit yourself to options you can reach & return from within a day.

If you were going to combine airfare, baggage, housing, food, diving, car rental if needed, tips, etc..., what is the max. (not what you wish) budget for this trip? That might help narrow the choices.

Richard.

 

[Octopusprime]

I was pricing out FL and for what you would spend in FL in 5 days you could go all inclusive in cosemel for 7... If you find a busy place you will get paired up... All dive boats seat even numbers and they go out full.

but on another note there is a lot of great diving close to home.... There are lots of wrecks in the Great Lakes, that time of year you most likely need a dry suit thought...

 

[gcarter]

Hi Scot758,

Here's a great scuba diving option for your Spring Break...

Truth Aquatics is an award winning liveaboard dive fleet, offering unique diving experiences around the California Channel Islands. We've a fantastic 5-Day Dive trip to San Clemente Island already scheduled for March 22nd. With all your meals and air fill included it's a great option for this coming Spring Break.

Please, do not hesitate to contact us for more information.

Let's dive!

You are responding to a thread about budget diving possibilities. Given that you don't indicate any pricing in your post and pricing on your website, if it exists, is difficult to find, I suggest it is highly likely you are not exactly student budget friendly.

FWIW, YMMV

---------- Post added January 19th, 2015 at 11:19 PM ----------

From what I understand, very different places. Florida, depending on time of year, can be warm water. I'm not sure about March. California diving reports I see on the forum basically seem to run between cold and colder. It's said the California boats generally don't put a dive guide in the water, so if you aren't up on independent navigation you might want to hire a private guide so budget that if you go.

Given your posted dive count (< 25 dives so far), I'm thinking the Florida Keys could be good for you. Shallow reef diving. Pretty good viz. Fishy. When I dove with Rainbow Reef Dive Center back in September 2013, I took advantage of their best special, 10 2-tank boat trips, that let me stuff 20 dives into 5 days, $600 + tax & tips. And while a number of Keys dive op.s don't put guides in the water at no extra charge, Rainbow Reef does. That's about as cheap as I've seen boat diving get.

I flew from Nashville to Ft. Lauderdale for around $450 plus baggage. Don't know what airfare would run you. And factor in the need to rent a vehicle. I don't know the cheapest accommodation there; I stayed at Courtyard Marriott for convenience, since Rainbow Reef Dive Center was at the end of the parking lot. Hotels are often cheaper per person if you pack some people into the room.

But that Key Largo trip was about the cheapest I've been on, relative to the number of dives I got to do. My only issue would be finding out what water temp.s are likely and how likely bad weather is to knock you out of diving that time of year.

Richard.

---------- Post added January 11th, 2015 at 11:05 PM ----------

P.S.: If you really want a lot of dives cheap, are you aware of the option to take a trip on Blackbeard's, the roughly $1,000 + tips, etc... 'camping at sea' live-aboard offering? When you budget, remember that's food, housing & a lot of diving crammed into a week, hauling you around to various sites, and hopefully you wouldn't have to live in a car. If you were ready to live in a hostel, sounds right up your alley. Been awhile since I checked, but at least out of Nashville, I don't think airfare to get there was bad.

+1 on Rainbow Reef. Also did the 10/2 (20 dive) package. If you are renting a car, motels are significantly cheaper 1/2 hour away in Homestead / Florida City. We paid $54 / night, much less than in KL.

FWIW, a co-worker sails the Caribbean every summer and he suggested to me (I am also looking at Blackbeards) that Feb / March is a good time to be on a sailboat in that (inner) area .

 

[KathyV]

Florida can be very expensive especially during Spring Break. I don't know your budget, but thinking back to my own student days I also suggest Blackbeards if you want to do a lot of nice diving in the tropics at a low price. For $1000 you get food, lodging, many dives, and beverages (including beer, wine, and rum punch) for a week and you can probably find a decent price on airfare to Nassau - and it is not much further away than the Florida Keys. And they do not charge a "single supplement" if you are traveling alone.

The down side is that it is like "camping at sea" you will be sleeping on a dormitory berth with a curtain for privacy. My husband and I did it when we were young and we had a blast - and we don't regret it - but we haven't been back because we have come to like more privacy and comfort, but those things cost more money.

In March, the waters around both Florida and the Bahamas are colder than I prefer; I am partial to water in the 80s; but it's in the 70s and not too bad.

Some of the huge, all-inclusive super-resorts include diving, and you can sometimes get a good package price; but we only did that once and wouldn't repeat it. The diving and dive operation weren't the best, the boats were crowded, the divemasters were Nazis, and a lot of the divers were poorly-trained.

One more question, do you have a passport? If it seems likely that you will be leaving the country you will need one, so don't wait too long to apply for one.

There's a lot of information about various dive destinations on this board, so pick out a few options and start searching for information, good luck!