Costa Rica - best diving

[Scuba Tom]

I strongly recommend you the Pacific Cost. The best are, for me, located in Corcovado which is on the south Pacific; Isla del Cano is a great place for scuba diving off all levels. The only inconvenient is that it's quite remoted and prices of hotels are higher than on the north Pacific like Tamarindo, Playa del Coco and Flamingo. Gloabally, dives centers are all ok in Costa Rica.
The good point of corcovado / Bahia drake is thah there are many other things to do if you enjoy wildlife and you 'll be really cut from the world. Excellent place to relax.
I have some dive operators listed on this page and they are quite a lot information about scuba diving in Costa Rica:
Scuba Diving in Costa Rica: Dive from coast to coast & with Coco's Island's sharks - Divers' Reviews

 

[johnvmirich]

I dove with Rich Coast Diving Feb 14 and Feb and 17 2012. We dove Virador 69 ft., Tortuga 69 ft, Argentina, 52 ft and Tortuga a second time. Rich Coast diving is a fine company, lots of young people learning to be dive masters. When I went we had just been diving at Caño island, clear water and a bit warmer. Where we dived with Rich Coast a week later,the area was suffering from a red tide and the water was freezing, at least to me, 70-72 degrees. The water was loaded with "green" so bad, or so "rich", that one of the divemasters had reflecting tap on his fins, not to lose his people. We saw lots of fish, nice to see lots of puffers, and a seahorse or two, but the poor viz and the cold water was a pain. No sharks or turtles. I´m sure it´s not always that way. Rich coast is a class operation, nice catamaran with a ´head´. No one can control the viz or the weather.

 

[Woody14]

The wife and I just got back from Costa Rica yesterday. We dove with Harald at Costa Rica Diving on May 5. The vis was terrible, maybe 15 feet and we didn't see any wildlife. The water was about 85 degrees, real comfortable. We were going to do another couple of dives but decided to do other things instead. Costa Rica is a great place to visit and tons of things to do there.

 

[Centrals]

If you want to see school of hammerheads.
If you want to see how white tips hunt at night.
If you want to see other sharks eg. silky, Galapagos etc
Coco's Island is the answer.

 

[dolesorchard]

Woody14 that is the beauty of Costa Rica, if you can't dive there are lots of other fun things to choose from.

 

[Scuba Tom]

Visibility is the major issue on the pacific cost. We usually have 15m/30 feet. But it depends a lot of the currents coming from the north. On the other hand, thanks to these currents, waters are very rich of nutriments and the underwater wildlife is in average pretty good. It's rare to not stop eagle rays, WhiteTip sharks & turtles in Catalinas or divigin the local spots in Playa del Coco

 

[tasumner]

Nice. I am going to be in Cocos from July 14th-24th on Aggressor. Which boat are you taking? I actually have 2-3 extra spots if anyone is interested.

 

[billgraham]

I hear Cocos is great. I've done a handful of dives on the Pacific coast and they all sucked. Go surfing instead, or go to Panama, which has MUCH better diving.

 

[funscuba]

Nice. I am going to be in Cocos from July 14th-24th on Aggressor. Which boat are you taking? I actually have 2-3 extra spots if anyone is interested.

I know that season is the best for spoting hammerhead sharks but isn't july a heavy rainny season with colder water ? Is it worth to go there or could you go earlier like may or june ? According to this site http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/underwater-photography-cocos-island may to august is best, but are all the months almost equal for spoting hsharks ?