Destination Recommendations?

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Coraline_Reef

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Houston, TX
My husband and I are pretty new to diving, so we don't know where all of the best destinations are yet. I am definitely a warm water kinda' girl! Where would you recommend going where the water would be warm and there would be plenty of colorful corals and fish? We'd like to go around Feb. or March if water temp. permits anywhere... but would be willing to wait until Summer if it means going to a better site. Thanks!
 
I think Bonaire is a great place for a first warm water dive trip, water down there stays pretty warm and it's easy but really good diving. Excellent place to get some practice. One big drawback is it can be hard/expensive to get to from many places, but Continental is starting a direct flight (red eye) on Fridays fron Houston soon.

Curacao is pretty similar as far as the diving but has more flight options, as well as a bit more stuff to do and more restaurants. You do need to research your hotel choice more carefully there - almost every hotel in Bonaire is a dive resort of some sort with a good op but that's not the case in Curacao. (Many hotels there are mostly general tourism, not dive places, and even the dive oriented places seem to vary more in the overall quality of the ops.)
 
Coraline_Reef:
My husband and I are pretty new to diving, so we don't know where all of the best destinations are yet. I am definitely a warm water kinda' girl! Where would you recommend going where the water would be warm and there would be plenty of colorful corals and fish? We'd like to go around Feb. or March if water temp. permits anywhere... but would be willing to wait until Summer if it means going to a better site. Thanks!
It depends. Are you looking for just diving, diving and sightseeing, or diving and nightlife. Bonaire is a shorediving paradise, but has little nightlife or sightseeing. The Bahamas, Cozumel or Grand Cayman on the other hand will give you the best of both worlds, with great diving, shore excursions and nightlife.
Personally, I'm going to the Keys in February, and helping the Fla dive community rebuild after this horrendous hurricane season by bringing down some Yankee cash. The diving is great there, with water temps in the low 70's. There's lots of coral and tropical fish there to see. That might be another option for you.
C-Dawg
 
Thank you for the suggestions. It sounds like Bonaire, Curacoa, or Grand Cayman from the posts. I heard Cozumel may not be a good choice because of hurricane damage...? Do you know when Continental is expected to have the nonstop to Bonaire? Will the water still be warm at these places around Feb.?
 
I would agree with Bonaire. It has excellent shore diving, with a small wall just 20 yards off shore. We stayed at Captain Don's Habitat last May and it was fantanstic. If you go, then definitely dive the town pier and the salt pier. There is little to no night life in Bonaire, but it doesn't matter because the diving is so good you won't have time for anything else. Excellent sites for photography. Get a direct flight, its worth the extra cost.

Grand Cayman is also a great location with little or no current on most dives. They also have the stringray dive which is always a favorite. Also good for photography. More to do on Cayman than Bonaire, but it can be expensive. We had a Condo, so we bought groceries the first day we were there to reduce food costs. Get a place that provides unlimited shore dives as the night dive from shore are always fun. I did a 15ft dive along the shore one night and spent 20 minutes being entertained by several cuttle fish.

The water will be warm in Feb/March. Most likely only need a dive skin or 2-3 mil after a couple of days diving. Depends if you get cold on multiday/multidive days.
 
Coraline_Reef:
Thank you for the suggestions. It sounds like Bonaire, Curacoa, or Grand Cayman from the posts. I heard Cozumel may not be a good choice because of hurricane damage...? Do you know when Continental is expected to have the nonstop to Bonaire? Will the water still be warm at these places around Feb.?
Cozumel will snap back pretty quickly. The first divers are there this week. If you're newer divers, know that most of Cozumel diving is drift diving, not that it's difficult, but you have to understand what to do.

Bonaire is much quieter, the diving is effortless, the whole island caters to divers (and lately windsurfers) The water is usually calm, the entries in some places couldn't be easier - most of the diveresorts/condos on the water have their own dive docks. Not a lot of beaches on Bonaire, most of the west side, including the majority of the dive sites are ironshore and coral rubble that require a good pair of boots to navigate over.

There is a profusion of coral, soft corals, sponges and small animals on Bonaire. Frogfish, Seahorses, some turtles and lots of reef fish. The water is startingly clear since it's a Marine Park offshore, there's no pollutants allowed into the ocean.

Cayman is probably as good or better. I've seen visibility on Cayman exceed 150'. Lots of bigger fish/animals, Rays, some Sharks, millions of fish and corals and big sponges. It's the most expensive place to stay in the Caribbean though, the food costs are especially high. And since it's the offshore banking capital of the Caribbean, the dollar is fixed at .80 against the CI dollar so your money doesn't go too far.

Most of the diving on Cayman is via boat, there's 4-5 shore locations but a lot of the island is ironshore down to the waterline so access is difficult except at a couple of the dive properties. Seven Mile Beach is a nice stretch of sand, but there's no close shore diving off it, although there is some great boat diving further out. But if you go, do stay there, all the dive outfits will pick you up with their vans and take you to their boats.

Water temps on Bonaire will be between 80-82' all year round. Cayman is about 80' right now, not sure if it cools off later.

The Continental flights to Bonaire start Dec. 16th. All the flight options to Bonaire are here: http://www.infobonaire.com/airlineinfo.html

Do a search for Bonaire - if you do an advanced search with my name, several of my Bonaire "travelogues" will show up. Another good source for Bonaire info are the forums at www.bonairetalk.com, for Cayman try http://www.divecayman.ky/

hth,
 
sjspeck:
Seven Mile Beach is a nice stretch of sand, but there's no close diving off it.

No good shore diving unless you go up to Divetech. There are some GREAT boat dives right off of 7 mile beach.
 
That's what I meant. happy now...
 
You and your husband need to go to Small Hope Bay Lodge dive resort in the Bahamas for a romatic getaway. It's a 45-minute flight from Fort Lauderdale to Andros Island on Continental Airlines.

http://www.smallhope.com

See the reviews on this board and http://www.scubadiving.com
.
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You can check Indonesia's dive site such as Bali or Bunaken, North of Sulawesi. I dove in Bali and i think that place is worth to go because you can find many type of dive site (of course with beautiful corals) and warm water on Feb. or March (27-30 C).
You can check :www.bidp-balidiving.com
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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