Where to find the best diving- and living?

[Kailani]

Hello,

I find California ( Yes, even San Diego ) to be rather cold and not have outstanding diving. My life has been turned up side down the last year and I am in position to move.. I want better weather, better diving and cheaper cost of living. Yet for some reason I can not seem to escape the option of Florida Keys. I would love to just be gone for while and visit all the great spots, but I can simply not afford it.. I keep coming back to the same places and would like some feedback from people that has been out and about..

I might be picky but I do not see it that way, but I would prefer a stabel tropical all year around weather with very little differences in day and nightly temps. And..I guess it is here it's get tricky, I need the water temps to be at least 70 degrees all year around..

Do you have a place that you mean that is better then what I have come up with? -Let me know..
My main requirements would be:
1. Tropical weather weather all year around
2.Dive temps of minimum of 70 degrees
3.Cheap housing and cost of living

Thank you so much for your help. I can not find out where to edit the poll so feel free to add your own option..

[j2s]

For year round and a wide variety of diving Florida, is an optimal geographic spot.......Wrecks, reefs, two coasts, cave/cavern/rivers, fossil hunting and spear fishing....The cost of living depends on where you want to live [Keys are expensive]....Wages in Florida are lower than CA....So it's a balancing act of what type diving you want [location]-vs-cost......The road system here is good so almost everything is accessible by car/boat and there are plenty of LDS's.......For divers it's a convenient place.......

[Kevrumbo]

Northern zone and apex of the Coral Triangle, the Philippines has great marine biodiversity, fantastic reefs, and good wreck diving. Great dive vacation value for the still weak US Dollar.

With English & Tagalog the official languages and a population literacy rate of over 90%, you can easily communicate & find your way around exploring/touring this enchanting SE Asian archipelago. . .

As an American Retiree in the Philippines, you can retire comfortably at a resort area --on Social Security alone-- and together with a solvent 401k plan to draw off of as well, you can live in opulent decadence just like Ferdie & Imelda Marcos if you wanted to!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_Triangle

[diversteve]

I don't think that you'll find that the cost of living is particularly cheap on Bonaire since everything is imported. And limited to what can be brought in - usually from Curacao. I don't know if it's still the case but a few years ago we were advised to hit the stores the day after the container ship docked for the best selection.

Bonaire is also a desert tropical island. Inland it sort of reminded me of Arizona, lots of cactus, sagebrush, iguanas etc. Not sure if that fits your definition of "tropical". Curacao is similar but it's a lot more hilly - we rented an apt. once that was on a cliff with a 60' climb down to the water.

There are less inexpensive apt/condo rentals the farther you get from the water - but I don't think there's much for less than $1000/mo. Another plus is that they adopted the U.S. Dollar as their official currency a couple of years ago. You might want to read all of this b4 considering a move there: Sunbelt Realty - Bonaire - Netherlands Antilles - Real Estate basics

Curacao might be another option. It's bigger so there's more infrastructure for work, etc. It's the deep water container port for the area so I'm sure there's much more availability of basic goods etc. There's more people concentrated in Willemstad so there's more shopping, restaurants, etc. Same great diving as Bonaire, the reef is just a little farther out. Some of the housing outside of Willemstad seemed to be affordable - at least compared to San Diego prices..Curacao Real Estate Villas, Apartments and Vacations l Makelaar Curacao

There's more options for food, nightlife - about a dozen casinos plus some nightclubs, even the U.S chains, McDonalds, Denny's, Pizza Hut etc. Everyone we met spoke English also. And a decent hospital in town - we unfortunately saw it when a friend got bent. Having been to both, if I was contemplating your move, I'd pick Curacao. You can also fly over to Bonaire for $54 R/T on the weekends so you'd have all that diving to explore also.

One thing to consider about both of them is they have different legal status with the Dutch Gov't. I believe Bonaire is a protectorate, not sure about Curacao. So that affects things like your residency status, ability to own property, even whether your U.S. based Health Insurance is valid. So do the research once you decide on a location.

Water temperatures off either island stay closer to the low 80's all year. Obviously a huge advantage for low-cost diving is that there's something like 60+ shore dive sites off Bonaire and over 40? off Curacao. I think power costs are high on both islands though - on Curacao both places we stayed had an energy surcharge for the week.

I think certain areas of Costa Rica are very affordable as long as you stay away from the eco-resort areas. Health care there is supposed to be excellent also. IDK about the diving but I have read about people relocating to the "Gold Coast" area.

I don't think there's a lot of shore diving off Belize so that could get expensive unless you get/know someone with a boat big enough to get out past the barrier reef. At least in south Belize around Placencia it's boat diving only. A friend used to live there - near Dangriga. He stayed with me when he came back to buy things he couldn't get there. He mentioned more than once that Belize city was a good place to get thru as fast as possible. And that the roads once out of town were pretty primitive and not well marked. He had a jeep to ensure he could get out when needed.

hth,

Any Moderator (like me) can edit your poll so Report/PM any changes required.

[DeputyDan]

Bali
Thailand
Phillipines

[Doc]

.... I want better weather, better diving and cheaper cost of living.

My main requirements would be:
1. Tropical weather weather all year around
2.Dive temps of minimum of 70 degrees
3.Cheap housing and cost of living

Questions easily answered with any Google search.

The point of the exercise:

1) You mention costs. Going away for a week or month is one thing, but are you independently wealthy? Will you need to find work in paradise? Non-locals are severely restricted from employment opportunities in most of paradise. Diving itself is simply not an inexpensive thing to do. It requires a large carbon flipper-print.

2) You mention "best" diving. The combination of "best diving" and a (very) long-term livable situation for most North American life styles just doesn't exist. After you get past not having access to Walmart, you may someday have to think about medical care. Hospitals in paradise can be rather iffy.

3) Once infrastructure arrives to support our needs, the diving pretty much goes to hell. Kind of like San Diego.

Go back to Hawaii. Most of us would.