drrich2
Contributor
"I was going more for if a list of top affordable/great diving locations was being made, Coz would be at the top. What would be your contender for #2."
There are 2 very different metrics here; cost/trip vs. cost/dive. For the latter, CocoView (Roatan), Bonaire, Key Largo (squeezing in 2 2-tank trips/day with Rainbow Reef Dive Center) or a live-aboard trip would be the way to go.
For the former, well, that's a little different. If we're after a cheap overall trip, even with airfare, from a south-central or eastern U.S. origin...
1.) Cozumel, one of the best, yeah.
2.) Key Largo, Florida. And the more people you pack into a hotel room at little added charge, or split up the vehicle rental, the cheaper per person you get.
3.) Blackbeard's, Juliet, Lost Island Voyages, in the Bahamas, all live-aboards.
4.) 5 Day live-aboard trips out of California to the (Northern or Southern) Channel Islands, such as with Truth aquatics. Good way to cram a lot of diving into a fairly short trip. A 5 day limited load Southern Channel Islands trip. I'll detail it a little at the end of this e-mail. California diving is more seasonally varied than some Caribbean locations. It's also colder, not so much 'reef' diving, and the dive culture doesn't cater to having a guide lead newbies on underwater group tours. How badly do you want to see kelp forest & sea lions?
5.) IIRC, Cayman Brac Beach Resort (is that still the name?) has some specials that are good. I don't know how air fare there is. C.B. seems to be caught between having less topside to do than Grand Cayman, but a rep. for being almost as good as Little Cayman, but it's still an A.I. option for some of the best diving in the Caribbean, or so I'm told. Haven't dove L.C. or C.B.; maybe someday.
6.) Bonaire can be done fairly budget; it's the airfare you've gotta work around. Maybe book with Cheap-O air and use Insel, go through Curacao, accept some loose interpretations of departure times and maybe break a sweat a time or two along the way (did this route once), then stay off the water, such as at Dive Hut. Keep costs down a bit if you can drive a stick instead of an automatic transmission truck, and buy groceries & mostly eat in. If you can stay 2 weeks at a time, your cost/person/week drops because that airfare is figured over a longer time.
Richard.
P.S.: Planning a California trip has turned out to be more involved than some places. I hope to make an extensive post about it later, but here's what I'm looking at for an August 15th (board that night), 2016 5 day Southern Channel Islands limited load (fewer customers, more room) trip I booked quite awhile back:
1.) $1,123. The live-aboard, includes all meals and regular air fills.
2.) $610.59. Round-trip airfare from Nashville, TN to Santa Barbara, CA.
3.) $120. Round-trip baggage, 2 checked bags.
4.) Gear rental (e.g.: 95 cf steel tank, weights, maybe a 7 mm wetsuit, got my own hood, gloves, boots & other stuff) - I don't recall what that ran.
5.) Roughly around $200 hotel for 1 night. Get back Saturday evening, can't spend that night on the boat, local lodging ain't cheap.
6.) Cab fare from airport to & from Truth Aquatic's boat: $55 going, let's say $75 coming back due to side trip to hotel for the night, and 2 cabs used; maybe $130 plus tip?
Probably looking at somewhere in the grand ball park of $2,300 plus tips for live-aboard, various shuttle & taxi drivers, eating out the evening the boat gets back, etc...? For the option to get in a bunch of diving. And I plan on nitrox, which will be an up charge. Throw in some airport food and let's call it $2,500.
There are 2 very different metrics here; cost/trip vs. cost/dive. For the latter, CocoView (Roatan), Bonaire, Key Largo (squeezing in 2 2-tank trips/day with Rainbow Reef Dive Center) or a live-aboard trip would be the way to go.
For the former, well, that's a little different. If we're after a cheap overall trip, even with airfare, from a south-central or eastern U.S. origin...
1.) Cozumel, one of the best, yeah.
2.) Key Largo, Florida. And the more people you pack into a hotel room at little added charge, or split up the vehicle rental, the cheaper per person you get.
3.) Blackbeard's, Juliet, Lost Island Voyages, in the Bahamas, all live-aboards.
4.) 5 Day live-aboard trips out of California to the (Northern or Southern) Channel Islands, such as with Truth aquatics. Good way to cram a lot of diving into a fairly short trip. A 5 day limited load Southern Channel Islands trip. I'll detail it a little at the end of this e-mail. California diving is more seasonally varied than some Caribbean locations. It's also colder, not so much 'reef' diving, and the dive culture doesn't cater to having a guide lead newbies on underwater group tours. How badly do you want to see kelp forest & sea lions?
5.) IIRC, Cayman Brac Beach Resort (is that still the name?) has some specials that are good. I don't know how air fare there is. C.B. seems to be caught between having less topside to do than Grand Cayman, but a rep. for being almost as good as Little Cayman, but it's still an A.I. option for some of the best diving in the Caribbean, or so I'm told. Haven't dove L.C. or C.B.; maybe someday.
6.) Bonaire can be done fairly budget; it's the airfare you've gotta work around. Maybe book with Cheap-O air and use Insel, go through Curacao, accept some loose interpretations of departure times and maybe break a sweat a time or two along the way (did this route once), then stay off the water, such as at Dive Hut. Keep costs down a bit if you can drive a stick instead of an automatic transmission truck, and buy groceries & mostly eat in. If you can stay 2 weeks at a time, your cost/person/week drops because that airfare is figured over a longer time.
Richard.
P.S.: Planning a California trip has turned out to be more involved than some places. I hope to make an extensive post about it later, but here's what I'm looking at for an August 15th (board that night), 2016 5 day Southern Channel Islands limited load (fewer customers, more room) trip I booked quite awhile back:
1.) $1,123. The live-aboard, includes all meals and regular air fills.
2.) $610.59. Round-trip airfare from Nashville, TN to Santa Barbara, CA.
3.) $120. Round-trip baggage, 2 checked bags.
4.) Gear rental (e.g.: 95 cf steel tank, weights, maybe a 7 mm wetsuit, got my own hood, gloves, boots & other stuff) - I don't recall what that ran.
5.) Roughly around $200 hotel for 1 night. Get back Saturday evening, can't spend that night on the boat, local lodging ain't cheap.
6.) Cab fare from airport to & from Truth Aquatic's boat: $55 going, let's say $75 coming back due to side trip to hotel for the night, and 2 cabs used; maybe $130 plus tip?
Probably looking at somewhere in the grand ball park of $2,300 plus tips for live-aboard, various shuttle & taxi drivers, eating out the evening the boat gets back, etc...? For the option to get in a bunch of diving. And I plan on nitrox, which will be an up charge. Throw in some airport food and let's call it $2,500.
