Costa Rica, Where's the best place to go?

[Diggs]

Planning a trip to Costa maybe Late September and was wondering if someone could offer some advice on where to dive?

I'm into shark dives, wreck dives, and would love to see a whale shark.

I was actually considering doing the whale shark dive in August in mexico or Honduras or wherever would be the best place...

Something also to consider is i'm planning on doing some surfing as well so it would be great if there was some good diving around some good surf breaks.....i don't think i wanna jump around to much with my dive gear....

any advice on how to plan this would be appreciated...

 

[armemo]

Catalina Islands and Bat Islands are good places.

on the bat islands can be seen regularly bull sharks,

at turtle island a shipwreck, but visibility is not very good.

in Tamarindo you can surf and catalinas and bats its close.

 

[ScubabunnyCR]

Definitely for that time of year I would head north to the Bat islands.

 

[ScubaSam]

My diving experience is limited to the north pacific coast of Costa Rica. We saw a dozen or so white-tip sharks while diving Catalina Island and seven bull sharks while diving Bats Island.

Our DM told us that the next time we return to Costa Rica we should hit Cocos Island which has schools of hammerheads, rays and white tips. He prefers diving Cano Island when he's not DM'ing cause it's not as crowded, more pristine but lacks the proper infrastructure in place to support a large tourism industry.

 

[vladimir]

On my trip to Cocos we saw whalesharks, a marlin, hundreds of hammerheads, hundreds of silkies, Galapagos and Blacktip sharks, hundreds of whitetips, a baitball, a pod of dolphins hunting, dozens of yellowfin tuna, a squadron of mating marble rays, huge schools of jacks, etc.

 

[DeputyDan]

I have not been but my research indicates that September is the rainy season and visibility will be down.

Just depends on what part of Costa Rica you plan on visiting.

 

[jnowak100]

I just got back from Playas del Coco, 8/1-8/9/11. I was diving with Rich Coast Diving for a week, I made 3 trips to the Bat Islands, and 4 local trips, 19 dives in 7 days. the diving was great, lots of sharks and rays, schools of fish, eels, lobster, etc, great viz. Rich Coast is a great DC, very professional, friendly staff, highly recommend. Also very affordable diving, accommodations, local restaurants.

 

[weiland]

I just got back from Playas del Coco, 8/1-8/9/11. I was diving with Rich Coast Diving for a week, I made 3 trips to the Bat Islands, and 4 local trips, 19 dives in 7 days. the diving was great, lots of sharks and rays, schools of fish, eels, lobster, etc, great viz. Rich Coast is a great DC, very professional, friendly staff, highly recommend. Also very affordable diving, accommodations, local restaurants.

Hi,

I might be heading to Costa Rica in February and was wondering what your dive profiles were like? Are these deep drift dives similar to Florida, or more shallow reef type dives where you can sit and observe? I was thinking of trying to do a bunch of dives, but haven't seen much info about depths / dive times. I see that 1 dive op will take you to 100ft where you look for sharks, but that doesn't sound all that exciting if the dive is shortened because of the depth. I'm looking to maximize my dive time for photography purposes.

Any info is appreciated.


Thanks,

Greg

 

[dolesorchard]

I don't think I have been on a dive in Costa Rica that didn't hit at least 50'. Most often there has been a significant current, often quite strong, most dives are drift dives. It seems to me that most dive operations want you to go deeper for a short dive and get you back to the beach. The one exception to this is Mad About Diving in Uvita, we did several dives with them in Feb. and only once was the dive less than an hour. I am trying to put together a trip to Costa Rica for mid January or possibly March, hitting the best areas on the Pacific. If you're interested, send me a private message.

 

[weiland]

I don't think I have been on a dive in Costa Rica that didn't hit at least 50'. Most often there has been a significant current, often quite strong, most dives are drift dives. It seems to me that most dive operations want you to go deeper for a short dive and get you back to the beach. The one exception to this is Mad About Diving in Uvita, we did several dives with them in Feb. and only once was the dive less than an hour. I am trying to put together a trip to Costa Rica for mid January or possibly March, hitting the best areas on the Pacific. If you're interested, send me a private message.

Thanks for the offer and I'll send you a message. 50' is fine and I don't have a problem with current until I want to stop and take a picture of something small (macro) and the group continues on without me. It's nice to know what type of conditions I'll be heading into before I lug all my camera gear down there (dslr with 2 strobes and such) and don't get much use out of it.

Thanks
Greg