Cheap shore diving vacation?

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Icculus

Registered
Messages
24
Reaction score
5
Location
Austin, Tx
# of dives
50 - 99
So I got married in cozumel last week and my wife did the intro to scuba course and is hooked.
she now wants to do a vacation this winter to somewhere in the Caribbean. Her desires are,
shore diving, preferably unlimited, descent hotel/resort at a reasonable price, somewhere it doesn't cost a arm and a leg to get too. I was originally thinking the keys but found that shore diving is minimal. Hawaii has it but that's 1 expensive trip. Any thoughts or ideas?
 
You can do a pretty cheap dive vacation to the Keys. We like Key Largo because of all the dive ops and reasonably priced hotels.
Key West Inn and a couple others are kind of like townhomes with a screened porch that kind of nice.

You can dive for $75 each at Rainbow Reef with a free guide. There usually are four or five Buy One Get One Free coupons for KL dive trips in the entertainment.com coupon book. To do shore diving, Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach are great. Hotels can be found reasonably on priceline. We used to stay at the Hilton FLL Marina for $40-60/night with priceline.

A good trip is a couple days in FLL/Pompano and then drive to the Keys for a few more days. There is some great diving at for all skill/cert levels in South Florida and the Keys.

Since you didn't give a budget we don't know how cheaply you need to be. Cocoview Resort in Roatan is unlimited shore diving and a good value but not considered cheap by most.
 
If you're not set on the Caribbean, you may want to consider the Fort Lauderdale area - there's some decent shore diving in Lauderdale by the Sea, Pompano Beach, Hollywood, and other cities, and the Blue Heron Bridge is about an hour and a half north... A lot of of the dives are close to shore but others may require a significant surface swim (half hour each way). there is a variety of natural reefs and man-made structures (BHB, erojacks, yellow brick road) to dive. Lodging wise there are lots of hotels/resorts at various prices. Most of the shore dive sites can be accessed for the cost of parking (a dollar or two an hour). I live down here and do most of my dives off the beach.

Edit: +1 to grantwiscour's recommendation of combining FLL and the upper keys and considering some boat dives (lots of artificial reef wrecks up and down the southeast Florida coast for $50-$75 or so).
 
Bonaire is shore diving, shore diving, and more shore diving. But I can't say whether it costs "an arm and a leg to get to." Depends on what deals you are able to find.
 
What is your definition of cheap? We all have different versions.

Bonaire is a great destination to go shore diving. There are places that give you better deals there than others.

Safe diving.
 
Better yet, define your expectations of a 'decent hotel/resort.' Many of us have fairly low standards (clean, AC works, etc...), but if her standards are more like a Sandals or some such, that's something we need to know.

Richard.
 
Bonaire can be had for a reasonable price. Stay somewhere like The Golden Reef or a by-owner condo. Rent a truck and shore dive your heart out.
 
From TX look at Bonaire for affordable and unlimited shore diving. Check your airfaires as that may be the deciding factor on cost.
 
Isn't Golden Reef closed? I think Liz had medical issues and returned to the U.S. The website points to one of those generic travel portals now.

If you don't care about being waterfront, Lagoen Hill is as reasonable. http://www.lagoenhill.com/ They have an affiliation with Buddy Dive for their dive packages - IDK the details.
 
There is always Scuba Club Cozumel. Main variable is cost of air to destination. When you can find Cozumel for $350 or Bonaire for $550, then it is pretty much a toss up between the two. But air fares can also be double those prices (good time to stay home).
 

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