Keys or Caribbean?

[billt4sf]

My wife and I are going to the Keys next summer and we have three weeks to spend in the area. We're novice divers, we should have close to 50 dives by then. How should we budget our time?

We will definitely spend a week with the extended family in Marathon Key, and I am assuming that we can dive Key Largo, Key West, and points in between. We will probably go diving 4 - 5 days of that week. We also have heard of some fabulous diving elsewhere in the Caribbean, like Bonaire, St, Eustasis, and Turks & Caicos -- not that we can afford to go to all of them. Right now we're just trying to figure out how long to make reservs for in the Keys. Given that we have three weeks total, in summer, and we're from CA so likely we will not get back any time soon, how much time should we budget for the Keys portion of our stay? Is diving there so fabulous that we should spend three weeks? Or not as good as compared to other portions of the Caribbean?

We have dived in Hawaii (nice!), in Zanzibar (FANTASTIC!), and here in cold California waters (we're trying to get used to it).

Thanks,

Bill

 

[ScubaSteve1962]

I've done Key largo, they were some nice dives, don't know if I'd want to spend 3 weeks there. An option for you is to drive to the Ft Lauderdale area and catch the ferry to Grand Bahamas Island, I went there last month and it was great. Did a dive at Shark Junction, and it was just like this video without the shark feeding there was abundant fish life, and plenty of sharks. With three weeks, its possible to do both of those and one of the other islands you mentioned.

Shark Junction - Scuba Diver Life

https://www.ferryexpress.com/wps/portal/comercial/home_us_en?resetPortlet=true