Mediterranean scuba side-trip during honeymoon

Does anyone have suggestions (location and dive shops) for a scuba side-trip in the Mediterranean for our upcoming honeymoon in late May/early June 2005? The current itinerary is Morocco-Granada-Barcelona-London. We won't be able to pack much gear (just snorkels and masks), I'm a novice and he's rusty, so we're locking for a careful dive outfit with good gear who run day trips with relatively easy dives. We're more interested in fish than fauna or wrecks. Since it's a honeymoon, we'd probably like our accommodation to be fairly nice (at least 3*) and for the place we visit to have some character and ambience. A "nothing to see but fish and nothing to do but dive" location isn't what we want, nor do we like all-inclusive resorts. We don't mind (and we can afford) to travel a bit (airplane, ferry, train, etc) to get to the location, but don't want spend all of our time travelling (instead of diving and relaxing). So a place that is relatively easy to get to from Morocco or Spain (and/or from which it is relatively easy to travel onward to London) would be ideal. Some suggestions we've heard so far are the Canary Islands, the Costa Brava and Malta. One of us has already dived (a lot) in the Red Sea, so we thought we'd try somewhere else. Thanks.

The most convenient diving, with good dives, is at Estartit on the Costa Brava.

http://estartit-spain.spain-spanish.eu.com/

Check the link above.

Malta would have a better range of dives, but is mainly shore diving, and would involve a dog-leg of an additional trip.

Canaries offer from fair diving (Gran Canaria) to great diving (El Hierro), but again an additional trip.

Estartit, with its Medas Isles marine park, offers the best solution IMO.
BTW a 5mm wetsuit is sufficient in June/July.

Congrats in Advance!


Seadeuce

Thanks, Seadeuce. I also saw a suggestion on another thread for Cala Joncols (between Calella and L'estarti) with Euro Divers - apparently "at the coast and romantic but in the middle of nowhere". Nowhere (as opposed to "party central") would certainly work for us. We'd rather avoid the crowds (in particular, we're not fans of the "all-inclusive resort" style of holiday). Do you know anything about the dive sites and dive operator at Cala Joncols?

I also figured out that we could change our itinerary to do Morocco-Spain-Canaries-UK (instead of trying to get to the Canaries from Morocco) - which might work. Would we have to escape Tenerife and stay on El Hierro to avoid the crowds? Is the diving on El Hierro significantly better than the diving around L'Estartit to make travelling to the Canaries worthwhile?

You probably have this link:

http://www.cala-joncols.de/cje0100.html

I don't have personal knowledge of their operation, nor of the sites mentioned. But you may have discovered something special there.

Don't know your itinerary, but I assume you're flying from Spain to Morocco. If you are not, then Gibraltar would be on the cards, with a ferry to Ceuta or Tangier from Algeciras. If the former, beware the extra "taxes" to help you through the border crossing (you are still in Spanish territory), bit of a scam when you land.

El Hierro would have better diving than Tenerife, and IMO better food too. I stayed a week there two years ago this month, and had fish dinners (my choice) six nights in a row! The cooking was great, and that was in four different restaurants.

http://www.el-hierro.org/cabildo/ingles/index.htm

http://www.shane-gray.com/el_hierro.htm

http://www.tenerifedive.com/news17.htm

The above should give you enough info to decide.
As to Estartit diving, it is good, but you will have more people there. If you're into wine El Hierro wins. Once you get there it's great value for money.

You will have more current diving there than in Estartit. No lee shores of islands! So it's a trade-off, Estartit for easier diving with more company, El Hierro with more challenging and exciting diving, but quieter.

Cheers,

Seadeuce

Thanks, Seadeuce:

I think we might go with the easy diving option for this trip, and focus on trying to a) somewhere off the beaten track to sleep and b) timing our diving (e.g. weekday morning) to minimize crowds at the dive site.