Aruba

I will be leaving for Aruba next Friday and looking to do some diving. I am open water certified with about 30 dives under my belt. I will also be travelling with my wife who is open water certified, but she hasn't been diving in 2 years (baby). I am looking for some nice dives for the both of us to do together and some more advanced dives for must myself.

Besides the 'Antilla', are there any 'can't miss dives' in Aruba?

We are staying at the Marriott Ocean Club and Red Sails Sports is in the lobby...are they decent or who else should we use?

Any suggestions for diving in Aruba would be greatly appreciated!!!

Harbour Reef on the far southwest point. There's an old pilot boat down there (remember seeing two HUGE morays). Some great photo opps. If memory serves me the dive site is good for beginners and intermediates. Depth ranges between 40 and 100 feet.

We did a second dive real close to Harbour Reed on two shallow airplanes. Not as picturesque, but fun.

Heaps23:

I will be leaving for Aruba next Friday and looking to do some diving. I am open water certified with about 30 dives under my belt. I will also be travelling with my wife who is open water certified, but she hasn't been diving in 2 years (baby). I am looking for some nice dives for the both of us to do together and some more advanced dives for must myself.

Besides the 'Antilla', are there any 'can't miss dives' in Aruba?

We are staying at the Marriott Ocean Club and Red Sails Sports is in the lobby...are they decent or who else should we use?

Any suggestions for diving in Aruba would be greatly appreciated!!!

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A definite no on Red Sail. If a cruise ship is in port you will be packed like sardines on the boat. I met some people in Aruba who had nightmares with them on their last visit. Anway, they spoke to some big wig at Red Sail who gave them FREE dives for their next visit. Guess what? They ended up on our boat as Red Sail made a mess again. If you don't get enough info on this thread do a search to gather more if you would like.

I would hands down go with Native Divers. Those people are awesome. I brought my sister to Aruba in October - she is not certified - so I had her do the Discover Scuba with Romeo (owner). He literally held her hand until she was comfortable. They WILL pay special attention to your needs. They care and they seriously want you back.

I would recommend SEAruba. A some what small operation. Great DM's and you won't have to worry if a cruise ship shows up. They are located near the airport - will come pick you up at your hotel.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn, but decided not to go with one of the big op's because we didn't want crowds, and these were the only folks who returned our emails and had the patience to answer our many questions.

My husband and I got our OW's there in '04.

www.searuba.com

If you do a search here, you'll find most people don't reccomend Red Sail because of their cattle boat operation there. choose one of the other operators. Anyone but Red Sail or Mermaid and you'll be fine. Pelican, Unique watersports, Dive Aruba, SEAruba, etc...

I would go with nativedivers.com .Romeo is great, small groups and he will cater to the type of diving that you want to do. Since you are at the Marriot you can find his tent right on the beach in front, by the fishermans pier.

Is there any way to find out when cruise ships are in? I'm going to be in Aruba later this week for a wedding and figured I'd get some diving in. Staying at the Marriot and Red Sail is right there. So they'd be most convenient. But if it's going to be a mess, I'd head elsewhere.

Thanks,
Scott

If the cruise ship is in, it's really not that crowded in town. maybe another 2,000 people in town and on tours, but not enough to get panicy about. However, Red Sail boats will become more crowded. If you've got 2 or 3 (or more) ships in town, it might get more crowded, but that's unlikely you'll have that many in one day. It's not like Cozumel where they can dock 8 to 12 ships a day.

This site has the cruise boat schedule listed but the URL's
http://www.arubabycruise.com/stats/calls/06May 2006.htm
http://www.arubabycruise.com/stats/calls/06June 2006.htm


Most comments you'll find on most boards will say that RedSail in Aruba is a cattle boat operation. But you've got other choices. Most of the operators in Aruba will also actually pick you up at your hotel. Most operators also have a "set" dive schedule for certain days that revolve around a 7 day weekly schedule. Ask and they will email it to you and you can almost choose your sites in advance by time/day. Of course weather conditions might cause some rescheduling.

Wow. Talk about great info. (And quick. I love this board!) THANKS for posting the ship schedule. Seems the cruise ship schedule will be light when I'm there so maybe I'll get lucky. If not, at least now I know I don't need a rental car to get to the other dive shops. (Now I can afford that t-shirt!!!)

Thanks,
Scott

You really don't need a rental car at all in Aruba unless you want to go to Baby Beach or ride the trails on the north side of the island. (rent a jeep for that). Taxi's are really cheap and easier. I think it's $10 bucks from the Palm Beach hotel area to town. (sunday/holidays usually a buck more). Bus is $1-$2 each way. Why spend $50 bucks a day on a rental car (including insurance / tax, etc) when taxi's are so cheap and dive shops offer free pickup. (if you are staying in hotel. private house might be better for rental car).

In fact, I highly suggest skipping the "airport transfer shuttle" to the hotel that is included with your trip. It will only leave the airport after it fills up; so you can wait 30 minutes at the airport. Then you stop at EVERY hotel on the way to yours. From the time we left the terminal and went outside, it took 1.5 hours to get to the hotel, which could have been "beach time". Everyone else had the same problem with their transfer shuttle. The $20-$25 taxi ride (from airport) would have gotten us there in under 20 minutes. It's well worth the money.