How do you fund your dive travel?

[rhwestfall]

Great posts. If money allows you guys seven local trips VS only one "once in a life time trip" what do you opt for?

depends on what one's "local" trip is... though I think a "once in a lifetime" is much different than 7 locals... - I'd think it is more like 20-40 or 50. If it only 7 then I'd be going to the spot lots of times...

 

[DMDavid]

Great posts. If money allows you guys seven local trips VS only one "once in a life time trip" what do you opt for?

Seven local trips cost me approximately $350, so I don't think that will get me to Palau or Cocos Island.

Most exotic dive trips cost anywhere from $1500 to $10,000usd.
That's a lot of fun local dives.

My biggest regret ever was the money spent on our honeymoon ($30,000).

I could have toured the caribbean for six months for the same amount.




FB-Florida Scuba Diver

 

[Woodiver]

I guess we are lucky, debt free and retired. We save up the money for a trip, put it on the credit card, pay the card completely off when the bill comes in and then use the miles for airfare. With our Alaska card we get a companion ticket for $90. So two fly first class for the price of one. Our next trip is March 2012 to Truk, the Odyssea is paid for and the money for airfare is in the bank. Planning flights next month. It is a great feeling to go on vacation and know it is paid for. Now true we don't dive as much as we would like but we have a great trip every year. Next up CAII, followed by Palau. Credit cards can be your friend if used wisely.

Totally agree, Alaska has been wonderful earning and using miles Many people don’t use credit cards to their advantage. If you can pay off monthly balances, look at Flyertalk.com to maximize your miles and how to use them. Over the year we have added more than 250K to our mileage accounts and haven’t really spent more than normal, just taking advantage of the offers. A few months ago, sign up for a British Airways card and after the first charge, get 50K miles, after the next 3K charged, get another 50K. Redemptions suck on BA but are much better on One World partners. Flyertalk.com has great tips on how to earn and use miles.
In the past few years we have been able to use miles for a number of trips using Alaska miles on Cathay in coach/business/first. Plan ahead and your will be rewarded.

 

[SeaHorse81]

In answer to the original question, I don't sign up for any trip that I can't already pay for. I don't spend money on much of anything the rest of the year that isn't necessary, because diving is "my thing" and I want to make sure I can fund it. My promise to myself is to get in at least one Caribbean trip per year. So far, I haven't been able to manage more than one annually, but I'm hoping to work in an extra one every now and then.

Great posts. If money allows you guys seven local trips VS only one "once in a life time trip" what do you opt for?

Local dives are not that big a deal in either cost or experience, though I'm glad to have them to fill in the gaps a bit and keep me in the water. The once-in-a-lifetime trip would be an easy pick over seven local trips.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Seven local trips cost me approximately $350, so I don't think that will get me to Palau or Cocos Island.
FB-Florida Scuba Diver

You are lucky my friend. Since I live in DC area, I have to fly to Florida to do the dives you do @ 7 trips for 350. This is what my math would look like

Airfare - 250 $
Motel for 3 day - 250
Car Rental for 3 days - 200
2 days of diving - 200

Thats a local dive trip for approximately 1000 USD

 

[SeaHorse81]

Thats a local dive trip for approximately 1000 USD

I guess it depends on how you define local. For me, if it involves airfare, it's not local. Local means quarries or reservoirs to me. So, if it's seven Florida trips vs. the once-in-a-lifetime trip, that's a much harder choice, and I'd probably take the many over the one.

 

[vladimir]

When you have the funds you don't have the time, and when you have the time, well...let's hope I never go through that again. But it was okay when I was younger. My business went broke about 15 years ago, and left me on the brink of bankruptcy with time to contemplate my future. I chose to do the contemplating on the beach of Sipadan, and on liveaboards in Thailand, Papua New Guinea, and Truk, all in one calendar year. I had to sell off most of my meager assets to manage it. The best year of diving in my life and, in retrospect, one of the happiest years of my life in general.

 

[Quero]

I did more or less that same thing, Vlad. Except my liveaboards were Maldives, Galapagos, Thailand, and land-based near Sipadan, North and South Sulawesi and Bali in Indon, and Brazil.... happy, happy times that landed me on an island in the Indian Ocean for the foreseeable future....

 

[koozemani]

A "local" trip for me costs $360 plus food,gas, and tips. Add the gf and it probably comes to about a $1000 for the both of us for a weekend. If we had the time, we could easily turn 7 local trips into an amazing 3-4 weeks in the Carib. But time is a factor, so it 3-4 local trips and one big trip a year. Retirement can't come soon enough.

 

[fab50diver]

I'm spending my children's inheritance on my dive trips.