Cheap place in carribbean/Bahamas/st. Thomas etc area with great diving for newbie?

[johnnyscience]

Ok trying to plan a trip for about 6 months from now (but I am flexible as to when if a different time of the year offers better diving or a better price)

I will start off saying that I'm a newbie and hope to take the course for PADI here in Cleveland, but then actually do the dives to get the final certification somewhere tropical. So a place that also has a dive school that offers a dual-certificationship (if that's even a word lol)

But I am looking for a cheap place (that's always the name of the game right) that is down around the carribbean/bahhams/st Thomas, South East region from the US.

I am not familiar with that entire region, so any advice or questions to help pin point a spot would be awesome.

I would like for there to have the following:

Lots of diving (both shore and boat would be cool to help keep costs down)
Amazing coral reefs
Some ship wrecks

It would also be nice to have things to do on land as well. Great food I'm sure can be found any where I would visit I'm sure.

I remember seeing in a scuba magazine an Ad for a diving place that used a Mayan pyramid or something tothat affect in the photo - something along these lines would be amazing... Diving and ancient sites on land to visit.

Does anyone know the Ad for the place I'm talking about?

Any other suggestions?

 

[KP3S]

Hi there, I live in Puerto Rico and there is no Mayan pyramid anywhere in the Caribbean that I know of. Mayan is a South American ancient civilization.

Your best bet would be St. Thomas but some wrecks are a bit deep for a new diver and you need to get a wreck specialty course for your and others safety. Now if you are looking for a not too expensive place to do a PADI referral to do you certification dives we have several places in the west coast of Puerto Rico, some nice shore dives with reefs that are closer to shore or you can get a boat trip that will take you to Desecheo Island with one of the best dive sites on this part for $129 with 2 tank dive or south-west there is La Parguera/Playa Santa (Saint Beach) reef wall, an underwater reef wall with a drop of 1,500 feet but the dive master will keep you over 100 feet usually to be safe, for under $100 with 2 tank dive.

We have some not too expensive hotels in the area or you can rent a room from myself with breakfast for a dive in a budget. If interested send me a private message. I could send you some phone numbers for several shops that can do your PADI referral.

Good luck and dive save.

 

[johnnyscience]

Hmm I'm probably calling them by the wrong name when I say Mayan... But anyone that has had a subscription to Scuba magazine will know what Ad I'm talking about with the ruins in the background.

But what you've mentioned sounds very reasonable. 2 dives a day for 100-129 seems pretty reasonable. I'd like to dive as much as I can and as much as I'd love to do 4 dives a day, being a newbie that might not be possible.

Air fair should be affordable down there too. How much do nights at nice places go for?

 

[KP3S]

It depends what you consider nice, what I suggest is to goggle hotels in these 4 towns, Aguadilla, Rincón, Mayaguez and Cabo Rojo. Then go to PADI website and search those 4 towns for PADI dive centers. Any other question ask away.

Air fills runs around $4-$5 per 80ci tank, but after you get your certification you can make a package deal for X amount of days and air is usually included no matter how many dives you do if diving close to the dive shop, get 2 tanks, that way you can make 2 dives in the morning if you wake up early and maybe 1 or 2 in the afternoon. If you are planning to buy gear buy it new with warranty. Remember your life depend on these gadgets and you can bring everything but the weights and the tank in the airplane.

Air tank rental is about $8 every where and weights have different prices.

 

[KP3S]

These are the 4 PADI Dive Centers that service the West coast of Puerto Rico.

Aguadilla
Atlantis Dive Center S-20524
Reparto Villa Marta #12
Carretera 107 Km 2.4
Aguadilla, PR 00603
Ph: (787) 997-0840
Fax: (787) 997-0840

Mayaguez
The Dive Shop S-3031
Calle Concordia
Esq Harry S. Truman
Mayaguez, PR 00680
Ph: (787) 833-6455
Fax: (787) 831-9060

La Parguera
Paradise Scuba S-18132
Edificio Hotel Casa Blanca
La Parguera
Lajas, PR 00667
Ph: (787) 899-7611
Fax: (787) 899-7611

Guanica
Island Scuba S-21160
C-2 Principal
Playa Santa
Guanica, PR 00653
Ph: (787) 309-6556
Fax: (787) 821-4373

 

[robint]

Hmm I'm probably calling them by the wrong name when I say Mayan... But anyone that has had a subscription to Scuba magazine will know what Ad I'm talking about with the ruins in the background.

But what you've mentioned sounds very reasonable. 2 dives a day for 100-129 seems pretty reasonable. I'd like to dive as much as I can and as much as I'd love to do 4 dives a day, being a newbie that might not be possible.

Air fair should be affordable down there too. How much do nights at nice places go for?

you are probably thinking of the region called Riviera Maya, off the Yucatan coast of Mexico. (Caribbean side) There are dozens of resorts there to choose from and lots of scuba dive shops, some associated with the resorts, and even more that are separate.
Cozumel is always a very good bet for you, but shore diving is quite limited. A place there that I can highly recommend is Scuba Club Cozumel. check out their website.
Scuba Club Cozumel Dive Resort and Scuba Cozumel Dive Shop

book the trip through one of the Dive Travel agencies like Caradonna, Bay Adventures, or Island dreams. They do not book direct, you have to use one of the dive travel agencies. We really like these guys, used them our last trip there:
http://www.divetrip.com/scuba_club_cozumel.htm

since you aren't certified yet, I would call them and ask them to call the resort and come up with a price for you that includes your certification.

robin

 

[mike_s]

Hi there, I live in Puerto Rico and there is no Mayan pyramid anywhere in the Caribbean that I know of.
.

Tulum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


tulum ruins, mexico - Google Maps

And finally, in this one... you have to look REAL HARD and not get distracted, but there is a Mayan pyramid in the background....

Spoiler

 

[drrich2]

Your best bet would be St. Thomas but some wrecks are a bit deep for a new diver and you need to get a wreck specialty course for your and others safety.

True if you're going to penetrate the wrecks. You need no wreck certification to just swim around one looking at it, like you'd do a coral reef. Wrecks can be pretty interesting to swim around, without getting into penetration issues like over-head environment & entanglement risk.

Deep Diver certification might be worth adding to your 'to-do' list if the wrecks are deep, though.

Richard.

 

[mike_s]

St Thomas diving is good. but not super great.

HUGE coral formations off Red Hook and other places. . Mostly reefs, not tons of wrecks. The reefs have deep canyons and some swim thru's, depending where you dive. You can do a day trip over and dive the HMS Rhone in BVI though.

Most of the dive sites aren't that deep. The ones the boats run too are shallow to accomodate the varied customer staying at the resorts and off cruise boats.

No way I'd go back to St Thomas just as a dive trip when there are better locations to go to.

 

[diveprof]

Roatan. Fantasy Island resort. 'bout as inexpensive as you can go for good diving, acceptable resort, with boat and shore diving, and stuff to do on land.