Budget Diving Questions

[scot758]

As a novice diver, I am hungry for more, but being a college student in Minnesota makes scuba diving a little difficult. I have been looking for somewhere to dive in mid-March over spring break. I plan on making this trip solo and on a budget. I originally was looking into diving in Utila as I have heard it is great for solo travelers and those on a budget. I looked into diving with Alton's dive shop while staying in one of their dorm rooms for practically nothing. However, the flight would take up most of my budget. So, I have looked into flying into Florida or SoCal, staying with a friend or in a hostel and diving as much as I can with a local outfit. I have a couple of concerns with this plan. First, how difficult is it traveling to these places and being able to make a relatively large number of dives in a weeks span especially traveling solo. Is it easy to find dive packages with a local dive ops? Also, as a novice diver I would like to be able to dive with a buddy, but I am concerned that everyone on the dive trips will already have a buddy or don't plan on buddying up with a novice diver. Feel free to share your experience, give advice, or recommend some places/dive ops for a novice solo traveler looking for some great diving at a great price.

 

[Seya]

Join a local club to meet people they can help you find a buddy, trips tips on gear and maybe make some life long friends

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

 

[drrich2]

So, I have looked into flying into Florida or SoCal...

From what I understand, very different places. Florida, depending on time of year, can be warm water. I'm not sure about March. California diving reports I see on the forum basically seem to run between cold and colder. It's said the California boats generally don't put a dive guide in the water, so if you aren't up on independent navigation you might want to hire a private guide so budget that if you go.

Given your posted dive count (< 25 dives so far), I'm thinking the Florida Keys could be good for you. Shallow reef diving. Pretty good viz. Fishy. When I dove with Rainbow Reef Dive Center back in September 2013, I took advantage of their best special, 10 2-tank boat trips, that let me stuff 20 dives into 5 days, $600 + tax & tips. And while a number of Keys dive op.s don't put guides in the water at no extra charge, Rainbow Reef does. That's about as cheap as I've seen boat diving get.

I flew from Nashville to Ft. Lauderdale for around $450 plus baggage. Don't know what airfare would run you. And factor in the need to rent a vehicle. I don't know the cheapest accommodation there; I stayed at Courtyard Marriott for convenience, since Rainbow Reef Dive Center was at the end of the parking lot. Hotels are often cheaper per person if you pack some people into the room.

But that Key Largo trip was about the cheapest I've been on, relative to the number of dives I got to do. My only issue would be finding out what water temp.s are likely and how likely bad weather is to knock you out of diving that time of year.

Richard.

---------- Post added January 11th, 2015 at 11:05 PM ----------

P.S.: If you really want a lot of dives cheap, are you aware of the option to take a trip on Blackbeard's, the roughly $1,000 + tips, etc... 'camping at sea' live-aboard offering? When you budget, remember that's food, housing & a lot of diving crammed into a week, hauling you around to various sites, and hopefully you wouldn't have to live in a car. If you were ready to live in a hostel, sounds right up your alley. Been awhile since I checked, but at least out of Nashville, I don't think airfare to get there was bad.

 

[Steve_C]

Florida is a big state.

I started diving in the Keys with less that 20 dives. Alsways solo, always out of Key Largo Never had trouble getting a buddy. If you stay on mainland (half hour away) it is much cheaper.

Key Largo has a number of ops from the same Marina (Rainbow, Horizon, Ocean Divers, Sea Dwellers, plus some more), If weather is decent somebody is always going out.

 

[KevinNM]

Most dive shops have someone who does travel. They often know of deals or who to call to set stuff up.

 

[diversteve]

Even though the flight is more look at Roatan also. The West End has two hostels or very affordable better accommodations. You won't need/want a car and the only fixed cost is $50 r/t from the airport. Lots of inexpensive $5-10 meals in town - we never paid much over $20 for steak dinners. There's a few small food stores and street vendors sell produce and fresh fish daily out of their trucks. Diving is all boat diving but it's 10 dives/$300 - you can about double that since most dives are a few minutes from the dock many shops do 3 or 4 dives/day. Night dives are $40. Here's more info on the whole area: Roatán, West End | Scuba Diving | Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras | PADI

dr rich made a good suggestion - Blackbeards is $979 for a week of diving + crew tip. All you have to do is get to Nassau. And take a cab to the port.

I think Apple Vacations offers some good deals from your area into Cozumel also. Be aware that some resorts in the Caribbean have single supplements - some an be pretty substantial.

 

[dmoore19]

If diving is your most important thing, Blackbeards sounds like a good choice for you. I haven't been on that boat but I have been on the Aquacat, I think it is pretty much the same area for diving. Water temps that time of year aren't bad mid 70's or so. The diving is pretty good too. I enjoyed the trip on the Aquacat. Getting to Nassau is pretty easy, Minneapolis? to Miami to Nassau. Lots of flights to Nassau from Miami too.

 

[scot758]

Thank you so much for all of the info I really appreciate it. I have heard good things about Blackbeard's before and now I will definitely be planning a trip into Nassau sometime. Also, thanks for the heads up about Rainbow Reef. I knew the keys have some of the best diving in Florida but I guess I always assumed it would be too expensive to dive there with a guide. diversteve, what would you consider the biggest differences between the dive sites off Roatan versus the dive sites off Utila?

 

[freewillie]

I live in SoCal and beach diving is essentially free you only need to provide tanks and gear. The largest local dive shop is Sports Chalet. But if you dive Laguna Beach then Beach City Scuba is the local dive shop. Dive and Photo in Irvine is my LDS of choice and if asked they could work with you on prices for rentals especially if renting for several days in a row.

The only catch is if beach conditions allow for diving which depends on surf and tides. It may not be a great option if you've never done a beach entry in surf but it's free. South Coast Divers is a local dive club that meets on Saturday mornings and welcomes newbies. Just a word of caution, they tend to run their dives as cattle dives with no real buddy. Everyone gets into the water together but unless you've formally asked to buddy up for a dive you might find yourself in a big group with no real buddy. Even then your "buddy" might disappear halfway through the dive especially if it's a fair size and the group splits up.

Personally I think the best diving is at Casino Point in Avalon Harbor in Catalina. Round trip on the ferry should cost about $90 round trip. Many of the local hotels aren't that expensive and some actually cater to divers. For my money that's where I'd go if coming out from Minnesota.

Most dive boats will pair you up with someone if you don't have a buddy but there are no guides that get into the water with you. The take you to the dive site, give you short briefing, then tell you when to be back on board. You are essentially on your own.

water can be cold, low 60's right about now. You need 7 mm wetsuits with full hoods, gloves, and booties. But, if you've nevver been in a kelp forest it should be on your bucket list. I think it's pretty awesome. Different than warm water, different dishes, but beautiful and surreal at the same time.

 

[diversteve]

diversteve, what would you consider the biggest differences between the dive sites off Roatan versus the dive sites off Utila?

Primarily the ride. Most north Roatan dive sites are so close to the resort or operators docks that they often return between dives. Certainly for lunch daily.

Most of the best of Utila diving is off the north side which is basically uninhabited except for some local residents. All of the less expensive accommodations/dive operators are in town on the south side so they regularly go there - but it's 20-30 mins. depending on boat speed. We always did two dives before returning for lunch. Since we were on a whale shark research week with Deep Blue - we often stayed out there to look for/snorkel with them. Sometimes we didn't get back till around 2pm so difficult to do an afternoon dive - those days we night dove instead. Of course there's also the whale sharks. In mid-March it's pretty likely you'll see/snorkel with some there as March/April and September are the most active months. Roatan not so much although they do spot them there also.

There's also some good diving on the south and southwest as well. The three more expensive AI resorts all have shore dives but that's about all there is there - similar to Roatan. My favorite shallow dive was Black Hills off Utila. One of the best drift dives was Texas off Roatan. Both have interesting swim-thru dives also - Spooky Channel and Mary's Place off Roatan, Pinnacles off Utila.

Price the logistics of getting to Utila also. It's going to be $100-150 more either thru Roatan or San Pedro Sula. Without a 2nd flight or hiring a private car to the ferry port in La Ceiba it's hard to get to Utila the same day from SAP. The Utila airport is a grass strip with no lights so all flights have to be during daylight hours.