Question Suggestions for First Non-Caribbean Dive Trip

[Patrick Star]

Hello All,

Thanks to your recent excellent advice, I have booked a trip to Bonaire for this upcoming November. This will be my third lifetime dive trip, preceded by Belize and Roatan. All have been spectacular (Belize was 11 years ago, and still in great shape). I feel like it is time to branch out and explore an area other than the Caribbean, and I am hoping you all can offer some suggestion.

I live in New England, USA, and am contemplating getting something scheduled for March-April, 2025. I have never done a liveaboard and would certainly be up for that experience, especially if it will get me off the heavily-travelled path. There are so many places I have heard of as being great diving destinations, only to learn on our forum that such glowing assessments are a bit aged. Current travelers report sometimes significant and recent declines in reef health.

I don't even know where to start or how to narrow it down. What would be a good first non-Caribbean destination to consider, balancing diving conditions with distance from the East Coast of the US?

Thank you all, again, for your great advice.

 

[Centrals]

@Patrick Star
SE Asia.
However, getting there is half the fun ie. it is NOT that straight forward and you must prepare for certain degree of inconvenience. BTW, the respective fare is a lot higher and you cannot really do it within a week. 10 days is bare minimum and two weeks is recommended.
First time visitor? Land based could be more suitable than LoB.
Is it diving trip only or you would like to add top side attraction as well?
Khao Lak( LoB to Similan and rain forest at Khao Sok). Stay well clear of Phuket except the airport.
Songkran(Thailand New Year) is on 13th Apr 2025. Weather will be hot in Apr.

 

[rongoodman]

I was at the Red Sea in March in 2019 and found it to be cold with not much fish life around. Getting there wasn't much of an issue. The Maldives have a great reputation and I had a trip booked for this spring until I started researching the flights and found that with the various layovers they were all 32-36 hours from Albany. No thanks. The easiest of the big name places for you to get to would be Cocos or Socorro but they both tend to book far in advance. My last trip to Cocos only happened because a previously booked passenger had to cancel, but since there are three boats going out there, that's where I'd start looking. (It's also my absolute favorite spot!)

 

[arew+4]

We have considered Red Sea, Maldives, and the leading contender currently is the Philippines. My wife has little interest in liveaboards, so while not out, not really considering either. Preliminary research shows a combination of planes trains automobiles and boats will be required, 3 to 5 days will be lost on travel so we are looking at doing 2.5 to 3 weeks. Once you get there price seem to be dirt cheap to reasonable.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @Patrick Star

Give us a better idea of what you are looking for. Are you going by yourself or with others? If others, do they have experience similar to yours? Though my wife also dives, she is not as adventurous as I am and is not interested in liveaboards. I have done all my liveaboards and more challenging trips by myself. Liveaboards are are great way to get in a lot of diving, often in places not accessible from land-based operations and/or away from the crowds.

I see you have dived cold water, so that should not be a problem. However, all your dive trips, Belize, Roatan, Bonaire are warm water, easy diving. Some of my, and others, favorite places are more challenging in difficulty, current, water temp, visibility... I see you currently appear to have less than 50 dives, you will have more before your trip in 2025.

 

[lexvil]

Thailand

 

[Patrick Star]

Great suggestions so far. Thank you.

Is it diving trip only or you would like to add top side attraction as well?

Dedicated dive trip.

Are you going by yourself or with others?

Either with my regular dive buddy, or possibly with 2 other divers. I now have just over 50 dives, and my buddy has similar experience. We will both be doing local shore dives this season and I am determined to get my official AOW training started as soon as conditions up here permit.

It was because of the experience factor that I recently ruled out Cocos and Socorro, but man are they on my diving bucket list!

Again, thank you for your thoughts and questions, and please keep it coming.

 

[Centrals]

Trip Report - Puerto Galera Philippines: March 23 - April 2, 2024 - SCANDI DIVERS - Part 1

We just got back from Puerto Galera and we had a wonderful time! SCANDI DIVERS RESORT – truly, the jewel in their crown is their staff. From the dive crew, housekeeping, the kitchen/restaurant and customer service, they’re all very friendly and helpful. I think they really did know most...

scubaboard.com

Around the same time as your proposed trip.

PAL has direct non stop flight from JFK to MNL but if you do not fancy that airline then KE is more than adequate. Few hrs of stop over in ICN and the airport is nice.

 

[scubadada]

,,,It was because of the experience factor that I recently ruled out Cocos and Socorro, but man are they on my diving bucket list!...

Cocos, Galapagos, Revillagigedos, and Malpelo are among my favorites. I think best with a bit more experience. I'm going back to the Revillagigedos for my second visit in June, going back to Malpelo for my third visit in early 2025.

The Red Sea might still be a good choice, I did two good weeks there, Brothers, Daedalus, Elphinstone and Daedalus, St Johns. I flew there while living in Switzerland so don't know about getting there from the eastern US. I think you can get to Hurghada with 1 stop from Boston on a number of airlines

 

[Doc Harry]

Liveaboard destinations with fairly easy travel
Galapagos - land-based diving with land excursions, or liveaboard
Red Sea - I have not been there
Hawaii - the Kona shore has a lot of shore diving
Bermuda - I have not been there
Mexico - Baja/west coast

Liveaboard destinations with +/-24 hours of travel
Thailand - cheap, great diving
Palau - great diving, sharks, mantas, WW2 artifacts and wrecks
Indonesia - endless possibilities
Maldives - strong currents
Philippines
Australia

I live near Pittsburgh, and I find it is generally cheaper to fly east to get to Asia, and we add a surface interval in Europe along the way. Singapore Airlines is the way to go. We did travel through Honolulu last year to get to Palau and that was a very expensive choice.