One you might want to add is Paradise Springs. They allow night diving now as well.
Thanks for the tip. Before we added the keys to the trip, we were going to stop by here. We'll likely save this (and several others, like Manatee Springs) for future weekend trips, since I've locked in hotels, and the schedule doesn't have much wiggle room any more. My kid's g-ma lives within 15 minutes of Paradise.
Personally, not being a cave diver, if I was going to eventually make it to the Keys, I would just go to the Keys and do more Keys diving and less diving in a natural spring fed swimming pool. But that's just my preference for more fish life and coral.
Have fun.
I'd agree with Steve_C and I am a cave diver. The caves are spectacular, but no place for an open water diver, and the open water areas have some interest, but I think a couple of them (maybe Ginnie and Devil's Den) would be more than enough. Other than the caves, my favorite FL diving is drift diving off Jupiter or West Palm. I'd recommend a day in North FL doing a couple of springs just to see what they're like, then a couple of days at Jupiter Beach doing drift dives, then a couple of days in the Keys doing reefs and wrecks. As for Orange Grove, I haven't been there in the last month, but the basin is often (usually) covered in duckweed -- the water underneath can still be clear, but entry and exit is through the weeds.
We're "locals", in that Peacock Springs and Key Largo are both right at a 4 hour drive. What I mean by that is that we can go to Keys for a long weekend whenever, it's not a once a year thing or anything.
Originally, the plan was to go for 5 days, and only do springs, basically hitting 90% or so of the ones I wanted to visit. Some friends decided to go to Key Largo and were going to get certified before going (now, neither is happening, but that's neither here nor there), and we decided to join them and split the trip. Now we still have plenty of springs that we can go do 1 on a Saturday and have it be new.
Couple of reasons to want to do the springs as ow divers: only recently discovered Florida's springs, and love them, and feel like I've cheated myself living here all these years and having no idea of this beautiful natural resource. The springs are disappearing. No waves. No expensive boat rides. Cheaper hotels. Until we added the keys, this was going to be a very cheap vacation, now, definitely not so much. And we will get to see a lot of diverse Florida beauty and state parks.
That, and I'm interested in taking at least cavern, maybe intro, and figured visiting some of the springs might solidify the desire. We won't be entering any caves or caverns, save Ginnie's ballroom, and then only if we both feel comfortable with it.
Re: OG, I don't mind the duckweed, but if vis under there is only 10 feet, we won't bother.
Re: east coast diving: it's definitely on the list and looks AMAZING, but not until next year. I want us to get more experience before doing a drift dive, and my son needs to turn 15, and we both need to take AOW since most of the drives are deep there.
