Poor but want a decent dive trip

[artgirl]

After reading several posts and comments, my head is spinning. I'm really hoping some of you Bahama regulars can help point the way. My husband and I are Bahama newbies. A brief summary of what my husband and I are looking for and maybe someone can give some solid advice on our criteria. We want to travel to to the Bahamas (which island??) over Christmas to dive for 5-8 days.. flexible a bit there.
Here is the list of hopefors....
1. NOT touristy.. we are not shoppers or crowd people.
2. Do not have to stay on beach.. cheapo in town hotel fine,(near air condit. though).. shuttle service great... if not.. we'll taxi.. access to beach without miles and miles of driving would be best
3. My hubby is a DM from Cozumel so we don't need babysitting with diving, just want great reefs, sharks would be fun (NOT the buffet feeding kind.. seeing them wild without food prompts), long bottom times.
4. Activities outside of diving.. would love to snorkel with near shore reefs and engage in some land activities like hiking, biking etc..
5. We don't eat huge meals.. we like grazing and eating tapas-like meals, so AI is not something we generally look for
6. We tip huge but don't want hidden/surprise costs.

If someone could at least recommend which of the islands to focus on that would at least narrow it down a bit.
We fly from Missouri and times a wastin.. we want to nail our trip down soon. Thank you so much to all ahead of time.

 

[ColoDale]

I was going to recommend New Providence (Nassau) as it is generally the entry point into the Bahamas and out islands but you said you did not want crowds and touristy stuff. As the usual entry point to the Bahamas it would be cheaper as you are not travelling on. Though in Nassau you will have more choices for meals. I must assume that there are smaller hotels away from the beaches and hotel strip on Cable beach.

You might be able to get flights to other islands directly from Miami and potentially save money and time although we have found that the flight times in and out of Miami did not accomodate that much.

As for Christmas, we have found that in general, the costs go up. We generally go right before Christmas or right after New Years as the costs have been lower and the seat availability is higher. This has applied to all locations we have visited but you never know with the economy the way it is, there could be a deal. The Bahamas Minstry of tourism has been offering discounts and matching airfare. Go to their site and sign up for email promotions. Our airfare to Exuma from Denver I recall was half off at the time.

I have not dived all of the Bahamas but I have yet to find a truly spectaluar reef or wall. There have been some decent dives with the best being around Exuma but still it did not even come close to Cozumel. There will be plenty of sharks around New Providence (Nassau). So many at one site we had to giant stride between the sharks on the surface. I believe this was the Runway site which as I recall was a staging area for dive ops that ran shark dives and is not a shark feed site.

You can try an out island. Exuma does not have that many people on it compared to New Providence but then there is less to do and see. The taxi service in Exuma is outrageously expensive. Like $100 US for round trip from the hotel to the dive shop and is based on the trip not the number of passengers. Car rental could be an option. I personally am not used to driving on the left side.
The out islands are harder to get to and therefore should be more expensive but check it out, you never know. Local dive ops may have deals on their websites for accommodations.
The diving was better there than New Providence.

I have not dived Andros but check that one - seems to be popular. You might also check out Long Island. Unfortunately our side trips from Exuma to Long Island did not happen due to thunderstorms. The smaller the island and more remote will limit your restaurant and lodging options.

Note that all my Bahamas trips have been land based. You could look into a liveaboard though it appears you want to be land based.

Hope this helps.

 

[rhwestfall]

Riding Rock Inn @ San Salvador just might be the ticket..... may cover everything but #4 on your list. But then again, they might now....

---------- Post Merged at 04:10 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 01:28 PM ----------

Funny, this came back up on the forum todAY: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ba...an-salvador-trip-report-2-4-12-2-11-12-a.html

 

[asha]

We've done both Freeport and Nassau-based trips. I preferred Freeport--our trip there was much lower-key than in Nassau and also much cheaper. We stayed at the Bell Channel Inn and dove with the operator right outside. Accommodations were basic but clean, diving was pleasant, and the hotel bar hosted a lot of friendly locals. We were able to walk/taxi to beaches and to the restaurants at Port Lucaya.

 

[Heatheroe]

Take a look at Great Guana Cay in the Abacos. We flew AirGate from New Smyrna Beach to Marsh Harbour and then ferried over to Guana. Most people drive golf carts or you can either rent a bike or rent a home that comes with bikes. You can find cheap places to rent in the settlement too. Lots of great shore snorkeling. We aren't certified yet but went out with Troy Albury of Dive Guana twice for snorkeling but the boat was full of divers too. Saw sharks on both trips. Troy is great.

We dove for our 1st time (Discover SCuba) with Stella Maris on Long Island. It's a bit harder to get to but we had an awesome time and are planning to go back and get certified with them this fall. You can rent private homes or stay at Stella Maris resort for about $150 a night. They have meal plans and dive packages too. You eithe fly to Nassau and take a domestic flight to Long Island (2 airports) or fly on Saturdays from Fort Lauderdale to Stella Maris on Choice Airways.

The Bahamas are not cheap but if you really do your research you can probably make it work. There's also a "2 fly free" from Nassau deal at certain resorts. Your tickets from Nassau to Long Island will be $200 per person.