Dive Destination Suggestions - Pacific & Caribbean

[tangfish]

Hello All,

I'm looking for a few good warm water dive destination recommendations. I'm planning to take a trip this Dec/Jan and would like to go somewhere to shoot some fantastic UW photos and video. The trick is, finding a place that suitable for diving for both my girlfriend (AOW; 50ish dives) and me (experienced diver), yet is also convenient to travel to and some place I haven't been before. Okay, I may be asking for a lot, but I figure if anyone has any good ideas, they're probably here on SB. So, places I've already been (for exclusion):

Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hawaii, Cozumel & Yucatan, Cuba, Baja, Bahamas, GBR, Thailand, Fiji

Places I'm considering:

PNG, Micronesia, Caribbean (Caymans? T&C? Dutch Antilles?), Galapagos, Panama, Red Sea.

I've looked into some of these places and much to my dismay, many of the best diving destinations have flights are both insanely high priced and the flight routes result in much wasted time to and fro. I much prefer the diving in SEA, but with only 16 days for the trip, I don't want to waste 4 of them getting there and back.

If anyone has any trip ideas for the Dec/Jan timeframe and about 2 weeks, please let me know. I figure that airfare around 1500 bucks each is expected and north of 2000 it starts getting painful.

We prefer to dive from shore (both daytrips out on boats and shore diving) rather than liveaboard, since we'll want to also spend some time checking out the local surroundings, beaches, maybe have some drinks and good food during the nights, etc.

Thanks in advance for any advice offered, and sorry that this is such a broad question.

 

[nereas]

Palau or Peliliu are supposed to be #1 in the Pacific.

Red Sea is supposed to be #1 in the world.

Cozumel is supposed to be #1 in the Carib. That is where I am headed next.

I found Fiji to be disappointing, and I would not go back there again. The reefs are generally too small for drift diving, so the boat needs to anchor, and then you need to fight the currents. Otherwise, beautiful. We were at Tavenuni.

 

[HatchetJoe]

T&C is a fine place, my favorite.

 

[tangfish]

Palau or Peliliu are supposed to be #1 in the Pacific.

Red Sea is supposed to be #1 in the world.

Cozumel is supposed to be #1 in the Carib. That is where I am headed next.

I found Fiji to be disappointing, and I would not go back there again. The reefs are generally too small for drift diving, so the boat needs to anchor, and then you need to fight the currents. Otherwise, beautiful. We were at Tavenuni.

Thanks nereas,

Have you been to any of those places, or are you going off of what you've read and heard?

 

[tangfish]

T&C is a fine place, my favorite.

Which resort/town/airport do you recommend aiming for?

 

[scubadiver888]

I like the Dutch Antilles, i.e. the ABC islands. Normally, I'd recommend Bonaire as my first choice, Curacao as my second choice and Aruba as a distant third. At this point, because of hurricane Omar, I'd lower my rating of Curacao. I heard from the dive shop I used when there, The Dive Bus, and things are a little messed up. I question how good things will look in a few months. Maybe by April it might be worth considering again.

Bonaire is always a good bet. LOTS of shore diving and the occasional boat dive.

Another Caribbean location I've always liked was St. Lucia. There is some really nice diving there. You definitely want to do Superman's Flight.

Dominica is nice but there are no major airlines going out to there. This is kind of why it is really nice. It is harder to get to than most the other places so it is more pristine. You'll have to fly to a neighbouring island and take an island hopper over.

I have not been to the Sharm El Sheik but I've met a number of UK divers in the Caribbean and the stories they tell me (and how disappointed they are in the Caribbean) makes it sound really good. It is not good for anything but diving. So don't bring a non-diver (unless they want to get certified).

Darrell

P.S. I like a lot of marine life and colourful reefs. If you are looking for wrecks I'd pick completely different islands.

 

[TSandM]

If you're big on shore diving, everything I've read and heard says Bonaire is the place in the Caribbean.

We did a week in the BVI off a chartered sailboat, and the diving was beautiful -- like wandering in somebody's English garden. HERE's the report of that trip.

I think most all of the Red Sea diving is boat diving, and often liveaboards. We're going to do a liveaboard there next fall.

We just got back from French Polynesia, and I would NOT recommend diving in the Society or Cook Islands. WAY too much dead coral (and it isn't shore diving, anyway; the lagoons pretty much rule that out). We did have a wonderful time on Rangiroa, with gorgeous, healthy corals and the densest reef fish populations I have ever seen, anywhere.

I have friends who have done the Galapagos, and from their stories, I'm pretty sure I don't have enough experience to dive there (extremely strong currents, very rough surface water), and I wouldn't take a 50 dive person there.

I loved diving Byron Bay in Australia, but I don't know what the airfare to get there would be. It's not GBR diving. The spectrum of critters is different, because you're at the confluence of the warm and cool currents. It's boat diving, as well.

Have fun sorting this out -- It's a nice kind of decision to have to make!

 

[HatchetJoe]

I usually fly in to Providenciales and stay at Club Med

 

[tangfish]

Thanks for all the feedback folks. Narrowing the field a bit, I'd like to do daytrips out for boat diving, with the shore dives (if any at all) being the 3rd or 4th dive of the day. I do enough gear schlepping here at home and it will be nice for a vacation to backroll in and climb out on a ladder.

St. Lucia sounds interesting, and I've heard mixed reviews - some of them really good - of Dominica. Of course, nothing in the Caribbean probably compares to the rich biodiversity seen in the South Pacific, but if it yields a couple more days of diving and the beaches are great and the places are safe, maybe it's worth it.

On the Club Med recommendation, that's definitely the opposite of the experience I'm aiming for. I like nice places and all, but I don't like to isolate myself from the local culture, I like to immerse myself in the everyday life of the locals, hoping to get some rich experiences out of the visit.

I hope this helps narrow the suggestions. I would love to do somewhere like the Red Sea, but I fear that the flights will take so long and be so costly that it might be prohibitive. Thanks for pointing out that the Galapagos won't be good for my girlfriend, I definitely don't want her to be carried away with the currents!

 

[vladimir]

Palau or Peliliu are supposed to be #1 in the Pacific.

Red Sea is supposed to be #1 in the world.

Cozumel is supposed to be #1 in the Carib. That is where I am headed next.

Supposed by whom? In the Pacific I prefer PNG to Palau, although both are great. In my opinion, Cozumel is not the best diving in the Caribbean. The natural reef architecture is cool, but the coral is beaten up and there is a dearth of fish. Coupled with the diver's slum above water, it is one of my least favorite destinations in the Caribbean. I prefer the outer atolls of Belize, Little Cayman Island, and Bonaire, in that order. The Red Sea may be the best destination in the world, but that might be a Euro-centric view, just as many of our American posters rave about Bonaire and Cozumel. I have not been to the Red Sea, however, so I don't know.