FL for a weekend or long weekend

[Mercracing]

Hey guys,
My wife and I are new divers. We are looking to get in a dive or two on a weekend or long weekend somewhere warm(presumably FL). We would be flying from WI into the warmth. A couple questions.
1. Is is feasible to do?
2. Where are some places to go? Hopefully places kinda close to airports(within a couple hours drive time)

 

[scubadada]

Hi @Mercracing

What kind of diving are you looking for, what is your certification level, nitrox certified?

When I was a newer diver, I made several trips down to Key Largo on the front end of business trips to Miami. The shallow reefs and the Benwood are a good way to get your feet wet, so to speak. There are also more advanced, deeper dives.

I do my Florida diving now in the SE, Boynton Beach, Jupiter, Palm Beach. The diving is drift and is not so much aimed at newer divers, but could possibly work.

Give us an idea of what you want, when would you be going?

 

[Mercracing]

Hi @Mercracing

What kind of diving are you looking for, what is your certification level, nitrox certified?

When I was a newer diver, I made several trips down to Key Largo on the front end of business trips to Miami. The shallow reefs and the Benwood are a good way to get your feet wet, so to speak. There are also more advanced, deeper dives.

I do my Florida diving now in the SE, Boynton Beach, Jupiter, Palm Beach. The diving is drift and is not so much aimed at newer divers, but could possibly work.

Give us an idea of what you want, when would you be going?

We are both OW certified, I am Nitrox certified. I have the book for AOW, but doubt I will be done with it before we go. It's cool here right now, so we want to go soon. Potentially looking end of April to mid-May. We would love to see turtles, but that's not a deal breaker. We are still very new, so we really just want to get out and dive. We own our own gear, so we would only need to rent air/nitrox, and weights.

 

[tomfcrist]

Key West or Key largo are the obvious choices. Key west has more to do on days when the boats can’t get out due to weather, and the airport is right there on the island. Key largo has better reefs/shallow wrecks, avoids the crazy crowds of alcoholics, and is a short drive from Miami’s airport.

 

[scubadada]

I'm with @tomfcrist and would suggest Key Largo. Fly to Miami, rent a car and drive down, 60 some miles. Fort Lauderdale is 90 some miles.

I used to go with Ocean Divers, they became part of Rainbow Reef about 5 years ago. One option would be to go with Rainbow Reef, they have affiliated accommodations with a discount, multiple boats for flexibility in choosing your sites, and put a guide the water. Some don't like the big business and can give you alternative recommendations.

You could fly down on a Thusday and fly back on Monday. This could give you 3 days of diving and up to 10 or 12 dives, depending on the time you fly back home. If you end up in this part of Key Largo, don't miss the Baja fish tacos at Sharkey's/The Galley, next door to one of the RRs

 

[NaCl H2O]

Second for Key Largo or Islamorada area. Lots to do after diving as well.

 

[Mercracing]

Looking at Rainbow Reef, and that looks pretty cool!

 

[BoltSnap]

Does Rainbow Reef run big boats with lots of divers, like Ocean divers used to do, or do they have smaller boat with less people? (I am asking from an u/w photographer point of view).

 

[NaCl H2O]

Merc, take some time while you are down there to drive down a few keys. The water views are spectacular, especially over the bridges, worth it IMO.
Key West would be a long haul for an extended weekend but Islamorada and a little further south have beautiful clean water on an incoming tide. Definately something to see.

 

[tomfcrist]

The water views are spectacular, especially over the bridges, worth it IMO.

That being said, please maintain the posted speed limit. Don’t be the cat that does 12mph over every bridge so your passenger can get good pictures…lol