samsonlee
Registered
I stayed here with my family for a weeklong vacation. I picked Bohio because of Tripadvisor and reading about Grand Turk's reefs. First off, for email responsiveness they were very good. They helped answer my questions promptly and arranged smooth pickup at the airport. They were also very kind enough to comp me because I had an earlier trip I had to cancel for a medical emergency and reschedule. I very much appreciated that.
Hotel. The hotel is basic but nice, the rooms are clean, there is a small fridge, there is A/C. Since we had brought our family of four and stayed in 1 room, it would have been nice if they had some cots or sleeping bags, but I should have asked this ahead of time and prepared on my own. The staff are very kind and friendly and helped babysit our kids, they were wonderful. The owners also are very nice people and made us feel welcome. Everyone was very accomodating.
Food. The food is very good, no meal was bad, it does take a very long time for food to come out. If there is a private party or function at the hotel it can take well over an hour. Since the food is good you deal with it. They do try to make lunch come out quickly since most people are tired and hungry after diving and they take your order in between the first and 2nd dives, so instead of an hour it's only 15 minutes. They were very accomodating to help us feed our kids a bit early and their meal times were reasonable. If you prepare yourself mentally that the food is going to take awhile and have a drink then it's not unbearable and when the food does come out it's tasty.
Beach. The beach is beautiful and one of the best I've seen. Shallow warm clear turquiose water with few waves because of the reef protecting it. You can snorkel and see some small things, but there is no reef, just some sea grass, although we did see squid and other fish. A lot is made of the cruise ship crowds, but it doesn't prevent you from getting a beach seat and they don't allow cruise ship guests to use the pool, so it wasn't a huge deal, but obviously it would have been better if they hadn't been there. It happened twice in one week for the early afternoon hours. Ideal for kids swimming.
Diving. So to me this is the reason we go to a "dive resort" vs. a hotel that has a dive shop. The main reason I picked this place is because it was advertised that the dive sites were only 5-15 minutes off shore and thus I thought it would allow for minimal time away from our kids and still be able to enjoy ourselves. The dive boat is basically a skiff and we had 8 divers crammed on this thing with barely any room to move. Thankfully everyone was experienced but moving about is basically impossible on this skiff. There is one dive captain/dive hand/divemaster, who does everything, we had Ollie, who was great, but there is only so many things one man can do. I personally do not feel it's safe to have the dive master/captain dive off the boat and have it moored, hoping that there won't be some issue or emergency requiring quick pickup. Also because it was crowded and with no additional help it took at least 20-30 minutes to get everyone in and then another 20-30 minutes out thus prolonging the dive time. We then go back to shore which is nice for the surface interval, but then by the time you finish the 2nd dive its around 1pm a few days almost 130-2. I thought there would be afternoon diving, but this was only if a certain number of people signed up and again because it's already later in the day by the time you eat lunch it's not as practical. There is a reasonable place to store your small things, but not individual lockers as most of the dive shops I've been to. It's also unorganized in terms of the first day in terms of signing paperwork and getting underway, c-cards, etc. One day there were not enough tanks and they had to go get them from a different dive operation and the whole week they were unable to provide Nitrox, which in retrospect is not a big deal if you can only do 2 dives a day. Also one day there was confusion about who was taking which boat out and thus we were delayed by over an hour and a half. I think it could be really great if they just organized themselves better, hired another hand, offered 3 dives a day, and got a slightly bigger boat. The diving itself was good, good visiblity, very healthy soft coral, but I was unimpressed with the number of fish and the dive sites seemed mostly similar without significant changes in topography. Provo is better.
All in all it's a really nice place to stay especially if you just want to be a beach bum and do some occasional diving and enjoy the beautiful beach and the wonderful staff will treat you well. If you're a serious or semi-serious diver and want to get a lot of dives in, in a well-oiled operation, then you'd be better off going off a live aboard or maybe taking a day trip out to Grand Turk from Provo.
I would recommend it to most people just not hard core divers.
Hotel. The hotel is basic but nice, the rooms are clean, there is a small fridge, there is A/C. Since we had brought our family of four and stayed in 1 room, it would have been nice if they had some cots or sleeping bags, but I should have asked this ahead of time and prepared on my own. The staff are very kind and friendly and helped babysit our kids, they were wonderful. The owners also are very nice people and made us feel welcome. Everyone was very accomodating.
Food. The food is very good, no meal was bad, it does take a very long time for food to come out. If there is a private party or function at the hotel it can take well over an hour. Since the food is good you deal with it. They do try to make lunch come out quickly since most people are tired and hungry after diving and they take your order in between the first and 2nd dives, so instead of an hour it's only 15 minutes. They were very accomodating to help us feed our kids a bit early and their meal times were reasonable. If you prepare yourself mentally that the food is going to take awhile and have a drink then it's not unbearable and when the food does come out it's tasty.
Beach. The beach is beautiful and one of the best I've seen. Shallow warm clear turquiose water with few waves because of the reef protecting it. You can snorkel and see some small things, but there is no reef, just some sea grass, although we did see squid and other fish. A lot is made of the cruise ship crowds, but it doesn't prevent you from getting a beach seat and they don't allow cruise ship guests to use the pool, so it wasn't a huge deal, but obviously it would have been better if they hadn't been there. It happened twice in one week for the early afternoon hours. Ideal for kids swimming.
Diving. So to me this is the reason we go to a "dive resort" vs. a hotel that has a dive shop. The main reason I picked this place is because it was advertised that the dive sites were only 5-15 minutes off shore and thus I thought it would allow for minimal time away from our kids and still be able to enjoy ourselves. The dive boat is basically a skiff and we had 8 divers crammed on this thing with barely any room to move. Thankfully everyone was experienced but moving about is basically impossible on this skiff. There is one dive captain/dive hand/divemaster, who does everything, we had Ollie, who was great, but there is only so many things one man can do. I personally do not feel it's safe to have the dive master/captain dive off the boat and have it moored, hoping that there won't be some issue or emergency requiring quick pickup. Also because it was crowded and with no additional help it took at least 20-30 minutes to get everyone in and then another 20-30 minutes out thus prolonging the dive time. We then go back to shore which is nice for the surface interval, but then by the time you finish the 2nd dive its around 1pm a few days almost 130-2. I thought there would be afternoon diving, but this was only if a certain number of people signed up and again because it's already later in the day by the time you eat lunch it's not as practical. There is a reasonable place to store your small things, but not individual lockers as most of the dive shops I've been to. It's also unorganized in terms of the first day in terms of signing paperwork and getting underway, c-cards, etc. One day there were not enough tanks and they had to go get them from a different dive operation and the whole week they were unable to provide Nitrox, which in retrospect is not a big deal if you can only do 2 dives a day. Also one day there was confusion about who was taking which boat out and thus we were delayed by over an hour and a half. I think it could be really great if they just organized themselves better, hired another hand, offered 3 dives a day, and got a slightly bigger boat. The diving itself was good, good visiblity, very healthy soft coral, but I was unimpressed with the number of fish and the dive sites seemed mostly similar without significant changes in topography. Provo is better.
All in all it's a really nice place to stay especially if you just want to be a beach bum and do some occasional diving and enjoy the beautiful beach and the wonderful staff will treat you well. If you're a serious or semi-serious diver and want to get a lot of dives in, in a well-oiled operation, then you'd be better off going off a live aboard or maybe taking a day trip out to Grand Turk from Provo.
I would recommend it to most people just not hard core divers.
