List of dive destinations to not go to...

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Captain Sinbad, you completely lost me in your very first Paragraph - lumping the entire Caribbean into a single category -- What's up with that? I've been diving in Cozumel, Grand Cayman, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Martinique, and all are very different.

I've been going to Cozumel at least once a year, often 2 or 3 times a year, since 1990, and it is by far my favorite Caribbean destination. The diving is incredible - great visibility, sharks, turtles, morays, huge groupers, vibrant reefs, awesome coral formations. It just never gets boring. And it is very affordable - at least from Dallas or Houston. And anyone who can find cheap flights into Cancun can do the bag drag thing with a bus direct from the Cancun Airport to Playa Del Carmen and a Ferry ride over to Cozumel. The lodging is very reasonable - even dirt cheap if you stay at one of the little places downtown (like Hotel Flamingo & others) where you can get a room for $25 a night or less. The Food is great, and if you go local, eat at the locally owned Loncherias (a full 3 course lunch, with Chips & Salsa, Soup, and an entrée with rice & beans, and unlimited agua fresca to drink, for 70-80 pesos, or about $6) and taquerias, you can eat well for $20 a day. Or you can go fine dining at places like Kinte, Condessa, La Cocay and others and get a great meal for $40. And, depending on the dive op, you can get a multi-day package of 2-tank boat dives for $60 a day. To say that this is "not worth it" is just looney tunes.

Now Grand Cayman is a different story. Here, the diving is great - great visibility, vibrant reefs, lots to see. But you will PAY for it. It's difficult to get your diving for less than $125 a day, and the lodging and food is EXPENSIVE. Even a small B&B will set you back $100 a night or more. For what I spend for a week in Grand Cayman, I can afford 3 weeklong trips to Cozumel.

Martinique is also very different - dead reefs, disappointing dives, and rude French people. It DOES belong on your "do not go" list.

The American Virgin Isles are a bit better than Martinique, but the diving is still disappointing. St. Johns was beautiful, but expensive. St. Thomas was just sort of dirty and grungy, not worth the cost. I've heard St. Croix is much better, but I haven't been there, so I can't comment.

Moving on to the Pacific, my experience is very limited, only Moorea, but whether or not a trip is "worth it" really depends on what you are looking for. It didn't have nearly the same coral life or reef formations as Cozumel, but we didn't do a single dive without lots of Black Tip reef Sharks and lots of Morays, and had several swimming with HUGE Manta Rays. And, to me at least, staring at the Southern Cross on a clear night sky was a "bucket list" item, so I'm very glad I made the trip. To me, the Pacific is expensive and hard to get to.

So Captain Sinbad, while you are certainly entitled to your opinion, I'll respectfully disagree.

Your math about Cozumel makes perfect sense. This is why I said in the beginning of the post that if Caribbean is treated as a one large swimming pool which is accessible from many countries, then besides Bonaire and Cozumel, most other places seem to be charging more money for letting you jump in the same pool. Now I understand that within Caribbean not all places are the same. Bloody Bay Wall for instance generally ranks higher than Bonaire but the price that is attached to Bloody Bay Wall (with flight) is actually higher than going from East coast USA to Egypt and diving the Red Sea on a luxury liveaboard!!! In fact in that cost, I could also fly to Thailand and dive the Asia Pacific on a budget liveaboard! So, for an East Coast diver such as me, Little Cayman would never ever make Economic sense and should be on our "DONT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT" list until the prices are lowered to reflect a Caribbean destination rather than an Asia Pacific destination. So when I talk about a "DONT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT" list for every region, it is not because the place is bad but because you lose money on quality when you travel there from where you are.

 

[koozemani]

This is written purely from the perspective of a US based East coast diver. Everyone talks about places to go to before you die so I thought it would be a great idea to compile a list of places to not go to. The reason is not that these places are bad diving but mostly because the type of diving experience they offer can be had for a cheaper price somewhere else. Feel free to add to this list based on your experience too.

1. Caribbean: Most destinations here need to be avoided because the dive prices seem to be up there with the worlds best destinations but the quality of diving is not. The only exception is Bonaire where cost / dive evens out as it allows unlimited diving. Cozumel could also be one of the places to go because it offers Cenote dives along with the reef dive experience and there are not a lot of places that enable you to combine both in one trip. The rest of the Caribbean (Belize, Caymans etc) would force the tourist to pay more for the same type of dives that one can have in Bonaire (or even Florida Keys).

2. Australia: Needs to be avoided, once again for high prices. Great Barrier reef is "Great" for being the largest reef but not necessarily the prettiest. Better reef diving can be done in Indonesia for a cheaper price tag.

3. Hawaii: Needs to be avoided because the lack of color makes diving bland! The large animal encounters that it boasts can be had for a cheaper price in Bahamas and also in Azores (Which has a volcano too).

4. Florida Gulf Coast: Now I am not too entirely convinced on this myself but the overall perception tends to be that the best diving is on the Atlantic coast. For someone who is visiting Florida only for diving, it would be a waste of $$$ to leave the Atlantic coast and go West to dive the Gulf coast. Exception to this would be technical dives on the Oriskany.

5. Galapagos: Once again I have to force myself to write this. There is an iconic value attached to this place but Socorro and Cocos offer the same kind of animal encounters without the price tag. If one could do both the Cocos liveaboard and the Soccorro liveaboard for the same price as one Galapagos trip then Galapagos loses on price vs quality to the combined trip value of both these areas combined.

6. Virgin Islands: Reviews generally say that for diving alone, this is not in the same league as rest of the Caribbean.

Just thinking loud and trying to generate a controversy . Did I miss something?

1. To date, Belize has been my favorite dive locale. I'd say that Belizean reefs are better than the Keys and Belize offers more to see when you are not diving. The Keys, Belize, and T&C are all on my "must get back to" list. The Keys figure to see a lot more of my family in the future.


2. Australia, NZ, Fiji and all the other destinations in that area: The cost and time to get there can be prohibitive. We've set that part of the world aside until we can spend enough time there (4 weeks or so) to make it worth it.


3. I loved the manta night dive off Kona. It was great to see new fish and critters, but I was not impressed with the reefs. Hawaii does not figure to be in any of our future plans for the foreseeable future with so many other places to visit.


I cant speak to the other locations.


Sometimes, regardless of cost, a place is worth visiting simply because it is.

 

[Wookie]

Your math about Cozumel makes perfect sense. This is why I said in the beginning of the post that if Caribbean is treated as a one large swimming pool which is accessible from many countries, then besides Bonaire and Cozumel, most other places seem to be charging more money for letting you jump in the same pool. Now I understand that within Caribbean not all places are the same. Bloody Bay Wall for instance generally ranks higher than Bonaire but the price that is attached to Bloody Bay Wall (with flight) is actually higher than going from East coast USA to Egypt and diving the Red Sea on a luxury liveaboard!!! In fact in that cost, I could also fly to Thailand and dive the Asia Pacific on a budget liveaboard! So, for an East Coast diver such as me, Little Cayman would never ever make Economic sense and should be on our "DONT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT" list until the prices are lowered to reflect a Caribbean destination rather than an Asia Pacific destination. So when I talk about a "DONT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT" list for every region, it is not because the place is bad but because you lose money on quality when you travel there from where you are.

Something to think about is that the high price may be based on exclusivity, also. Bloody bay wall one of THOSE dives, like Blue Hole or Cay Sal or Tiger Beach. If you don't want to do one of THOSE dives, go to the Red Sea for a week. If you want to take a picture of the nostril hairs of a tiger shark, however, it's going to cost you $500 a day.

 

[phoenix31tt]

This is why I said in the beginning of the post that if Caribbean is treated as a one large swimming pool which is accessible from many countries, then besides Bonaire and Cozumel, most other places seem to be charging more money for letting you jump in the same pool.

Ok now you have lost ALL credibility as far as this topic goes... Treat the Caribbean sea as one big swimming pool? The might as well treat the Atlantic and pacific ocean as a big swimming pool..

I live in Trinidad and Tobago, diving in Trinidad is vastly different to diving in Tobago, and diving Bonaire is different still is very different to diving in Trinidad and Tobago

So of the 3 Caribbean islands I have dove in, all 3 are different...

You should re-post after travelling through the Caribbean then tell me if it's one big swimming pool







Sent from my Nokia Lumia using Tapatalk

 

[nimoh]

Something to think about is that the high price may be based on exclusivity, also. Bloody bay wall one of THOSE dives, like Blue Hole or Cay Sal or Tiger Beach. If you don't want to do one of THOSE dives, go to the Red Sea for a week. If you want to take a picture of the nostril hairs of a tiger shark, however, it's going to cost you $500 a day.

good point. I am willing to pay a higher cost per diver to be on a small boat, perhaps the same can be applied to destinations?

 

[Wookie]

good point. I am willing to pay a higher cost per diver to be on a small boat, perhaps the same can be applied to destinations?

Smaller boat, or boat with fewer passengers? Small point, but makes a big difference.

 

[nimoh]

Smaller boat, or boat with fewer passengers? Small point, but makes a big difference.

thanks for pointing out the ambiguity. Bigger boat (to a limit) but more importantly, fewer passengers/divers.

As long as I have enough room to gear up, I'm happy but that definitely puts a restriction on some smaller boats. I am more concerned with having less divers on the site while diving. However, this is only a preference, it wouldn't stop me from going on a cattle boat.

 

[mathauck0814]

Cost and value are two separate things. If you want to go to <insert expensive remote location here> and it costs <insert obscene amount of money here> then the individual needs to make a decision about which is worth more - the experience of having gone or the money which is required.

I don't believe in "value for money". You can either afford it or you can't. If you can, you go. If you can't you make a decision to compromise and go someplace else or to save and go when you can. There are obvious limits to what one can do, but saying you'd avoid someplace on the basis of cost seems ridiculous. I'd not go to Dutch Springs 500 times instead of going to the Galapagos once.

YMMV

 

[DeputyDan]

I'm flying Business Class to Belize, booked a couple of weeks ago for $850. Couldn't believe my eyes so had to book it, didn't I? Lift off 6:30 a.m., feet up with a Beliken beer on the fab balconey overlooking the multi-hued ocean and my chosen dive op by 6:00 pm. No jetlag!

I did a liveaboard once - because the airfare was so outstanding that I just had to go.

 

[drrich2]

To me it's not so much an issue of 'Don't go here' destinations as it is 1'rst Tier, 2'nd Tier, 3'd Tier, etc...destinations.

For example, a new U.S. OW or AOW considering tropical dive vacations will see there are many islands in the Caribbean and Bahamas. But I think he/she will see that:

1.) Very many people on the forum go to Cozumel and Bonaire.

2.) Quite a few have dove the Bahamas, and live-aboards seem preferred though Stuart's Cove is spoke well off. Roatan, particularly CocoView and Anthony's Key (if memory serves?) are also quite popular, a lot of people speak well of Grand Cayman, and Belize gets mentioned but best done as a live-aboard.

3.) There are a few other places that get talked about positively yet it seems a lot less people go there - Saba, Turks & Caicos, Curacao, St. Lucia, St. Eustatius, St. Croix, some others. And some, like Bermuda, seem seldom talked about at all as dive destinations.

4.) And there are some places people seem to recommend you not go for a dive vacation, though you can dive if you're there - St. Martin and Jamaica come to mind.

5.) And lots of people talk about Indonesian destinations like they are jaw dropping awesome, yet evidently too expensive & time consuming for a lot of us.

6.) The Philippines are well-spoken of, yet seems like not a lot of the forum (as a percentage, compared to Bonaire or Cozumel) have been.

A new diver may not know why some destinations are greatly more popular, but knows there must be some reason.

1.) Cost for a 1 week stay? (Resort, airfare, diving, vehicle rental if needed, food).
2.) Travel time - a lot of us mainly get a week off at a time. We need to fly in & out Saturday. I don't care if you can blow your mind in Komodo if I don't have the time to go & come back.
3.) Reliably good weather?
4.) Easy to dive, aquarium-like conditions with great viz.?
5.) Lush reefs, or at least decent?
6.) Does most of the population speak English and is the diving social infrastructure such that you fly in, are taken to your resort, and everything falls into place, a turn-key operation, so you're not wandering around with a phrase book trying to get a local to communicate with you?
7.) Do major cruise lines hit it a lot? I've dove a number of places only because I was on a cruise that stopped there.

Richard.