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If you are mentioning luxury in your list of wants, the world is your oyster! Seychelles, Tahiti, Maldives, Komodo or Bali...
You might consider writing out a budget, travel constraints (do you want to sit in a plane for 20 hours? ) and comfort zone (how important is access to first class medical facilities? Locals that are within your "cultural comfort" zone? Good food and entertainment outside of diving? etc etc) What you will want to avoid is challenging dive conditions, not till you all feel yourself experienced in the water. So a list of desired attributes is in order. Australia is a family friendly destination, but so are (parts) of Mexico...
Why not join other ScubaBoarders in July at Cozumel? You'll get to dive with a bunch of like minded people in very similar environment. Just click on the ad in my sig line!
Matt, how far are you willing to travel? For luxury, scenery, nice people and superb diving, I couldn't say enough good things about Byron Bay, Australia. No current (the bay is sheltered) although we did have a little surge. Good viz, warm water, and incredible amounts of sea life. The town has some very good restaurants, and since we were there, apparently some very high-end accomodations. (We stayed in a diver's B&B that was just lovely . . . warm, friendly, functional and attractive, but not "luxury".) I don't remember rental cameras anywhere. I think that's one of the special things your dive op in the Caymans does.
Another way to go deluxe is to do a crewed sailboat charter in the Virgin Islands. They are a surprisingly good deal, when you sit down and figure out what lodging, food and drink could cost you in a luxury resort. The scenery is gorgeous and the diving is good, and at least on our trip, none of it was very difficult, except our first dive on the Rhone, which was simply not timed very well.
We also loved Kungkungan Bay Resort in Indonesia. The resort itself is beautiful and you get waited on hand and foot (they meet the dive boats with tea and cookies!). The diving was fabulous, and no current, but it isn't "pretty" diving, with lots of beautiful reefs. But KBR had an excellent house reef where you could see tons of really extraordinary creatures, in addition to what the guides showed you on your boat dives. I don't know about being able to do classes there; when we were there, the guides were guides, and not instructors.
Cozumel has some beautiful topography and a reasonable amount of sea life (night dives were the best!) but it's all diving in current, mild to strong. Similarly, the reefs of West Palm Beach in Florida are GORGEOUS, with a lot of very cool animals (600 pound groupers, lemon sharks, and big schools of batfish, among others) but it's all drift diving.
If you get into cold water diving, the whole Pacific Coast of North America opens up as a option for some really beautiful and often quite easy diving.
I think Curacao would meet your expectations.
As for a dive shop, I'd highly recommend Mark and Susy at the Dive Bus. I can't swear to the camera rentals with them, but they are awesome folks that will take you to nice locations.
Curacao is nice wall dives close to shore with low current.
And the businesses and whatnot ashore are good.
My wife and I travel on the cheap, but I know Curacao has some more luxurious accommodations available.
I would also say that Cozumel is a great destination. The underwater life is awesome... Huge groupers, turtles, huge parrot fish, toad fish... Supposed to be sea dragons there too, but I didn't see them on our dives.
There's a wreck, not that I'd recommend it, but some would. It makes for a good one off for AOW cert though. If you do your AOW there, do not take drift as one of the 3 sample dives, as every dive there is drift.
Drift dives are a different beast for everybody so make sure you are all comfortable with your buoyancy.
There are tons of places in South East Asia and the Indo-Pacific region. Some have been mentioned already. In addition to the various Indonesia destinations, Seychelles, Australia, Maldives, etc., there are also Malaysia and Thailand to consider, both of which offer warm water, easy diving, beautiful conditions and affordable luxury.
Another way to go deluxe is to do a crewed sailboat charter in the Virgin Islands. They are a surprisingly good deal, when you sit down and figure out what lodging, food and drink could cost you in a luxury resort. The scenery is gorgeous and the diving is good, and at least on our trip, none of it was very difficult, except our first dive on the Rhone, which was simply not timed very well.
Have you done this? My dream trip, actually. Nice 40' cat with compressor on board would be just perfect... You know any ops that do that? Supposed to be the best sailing in the world and pretty decent diving is a great icing on the cake.
Have you done this? My dream trip, actually. Nice 40' cat with compressor on board would be just perfect... You know any ops that do that? Supposed to be the best sailing in the world and pretty decent diving is a great icing on the cake.
I have, and I organize such trips. We load a compressor onto the front deck of the cat, do a couple or few dives a day, kayak, island hop, enjoy gourmet meals, etc. Nice trips.
I have, and I organize such trips. We load a compressor onto the front deck of the cat, do a couple or few dives a day, kayak, island hop, enjoy gourmet meals, etc. Nice trips.
But you are talking in Thailand, right I just always wanted to sail around BVI, have heard too much about it. Getting multihull rating for my sailing experience would be nice too.
But you are talking in Thailand, right? I just always wanted to sail around BVI, have heard too much about it. Getting multihull rating for my sailing experience would be nice too.
Yes, it's true that I'm talking about Thailand (and Malaysia). And I understand that you are not the OP so your own preference for BVI may not necessarily be the preference of the OP. If a person who wanted a private cat charter and also multi-hull training were to come to Thailand, however, it is also possible get both here
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Originally Posted by TSandM
I just always wanted to sail around BVI, have heard too much about it. Getting multihull rating for my sailing experience would be nice too.
