Caribbean Dive Suggestions

[Derffie]

My wife, daughter and I have been diving now for about a year and a half. We all have different comfort levels but reef diving fits us all at this point. We've been to Bonaire (Divi Dive; beautiful reef) and Roatan (Anthony's Key; reef a bit less colorful, really friendly dive master). As I enter my 60s I think it's fair to say that I truly did appreciate the valet level service at Anthony's Key, in part because diving is relatively new and unintuitive to me and I just felt more comfortable knowing that someone was truly looking out for me. I value beautiful scenery more so than proximity to drinking establishments. Suggestions? Thanks

 

[tursiops]

I don't know of anywhere in the Caribbean that matches the level of valet service you get in Indonesia or the Philippines.
I appreciate it too...now that I'm in my 70's! But as you dive more, you find it nice, but not essential
Proximity to drinking establishments is of no value to me, or to the groups I lead. Good thing....because most places I've been are a bit isolated.

 

[dmoore19]

For easy diving and truly awesome service the best I have found is a live aboard. No need to worry about food, it's there and plenty of it. No need to schlep you gear to and from the boat, set it up when you get on board and it remains set up until you are ready to rinse and go home. If you want an occasional cocktail or beer it is quite easily obtained, if you don't want one you don't have to worry about it anyway. Plenty of diving, no equipment schleping, quality food and drink. I doesn't get any better. I have been on the Cayman Agressor and the Aquacat. Since you say Caribbean both of those boats are really nice with great service. There are others, that is the only 2 I have had the pleasure to be on.

 

[tursiops]

For easy diving and truly awesome service the best I have found is a live aboard. No need to worry about food, it's there and plenty of it. No need to schlep you gear to and from the boat, set it up when you get on board and it remains set up until you are ready to rinse and go home. If you want an occasional cocktail or beer it is quite easily obtained, if you don't want one you don't have to worry about it anyway. Plenty of diving, no equipment schleping, quality food and drink. I doesn't get any better. I have been on the Cayman Agressor and the Aquacat. Since you say Caribbean both of those boats are really nice with great service. There are others, that is the only 2 I have had the pleasure to be on.

Good points. Add the Explorer Ventures boats in the Caribbean; good service.

 

[dmoore19]

Don't get me wrong, I have been to Anthony's Key and they have wonderful diving and great service. The Live aboard route is even better IMO.

 

[ronscuba]

Dive vacations vs. vacations with diving. Basically is diving the main focus of the trip, yes or no ?

If the answer is yes, liveaboard all the way. In the Caribbean, look at Aggressor, Dancer or Explorer in Belize, Caymans and Turks & Caicos.

 

[Derffie]

Thanks!
in both Bonaire and Roatan, I liked the shirt boat rides to the dive sites. In Roatan, we did a shark dive (absolutely fabulous) but it was a fairly long ride in choppy sea. My wife is quite prone to motion sickness. Some day we will try this.

 

[drrich2]

If comfort levels vary and you wish to cater to the lowest common denominator (not an insult, just an observation), I think shallow reef diving out of Key Largo could let you bang out 4 dives/day with Rainbow Reef Dive Center, on shallow, fishy reefs. There's deep wreck diving if someone wants it. Pack your family into a single room at Courtyard Marriott, like I did, and your per person cost is modest. Some of the cheapest diving I've done. Land-based. If someone wants to take the afternoon off and take a road trip to Miami Zoo or wherever, why not? South Florida is technically not Caribbean, but for practical purposes, and being aware conditions vary with time of year, you can get some fine diving. Viz. wasn't as good as Bonaire, but some sites were fishier in my opinion.

Here's a link to my Sept. 2013 Key Largo trip.

If you want to see a live-aboard with an excellent reputation, also reputable as a 1st timer's live-aboard, check out my May 2015 Sun Dancer 2 trip report out of Belize.

If you try a live-aboard, be sure anybody prone to sea sickness has the med.s to have it under good control. We're talking yachts, not bass boats, but then again, they're not big cruise ships, either.

Richard.

 

[KathyV]

Reef Divers, the dive operation that services both the Cayman Brac Beach Resort and the Little Cayman Beach Resort, provides true valet diving. You put your gear in a numbered gear bag that they provide and you don't have to handle it again until it is time to go home.

The reefs around the Cayman sister islands are excellent and the all-inclusive resorts are really nice and the food's great. Little Cayman Beach Resort is the more expensive choice but Bloody Bay Wall is some of the best diving in the Caribbean IMO.

 

[diversteve]

Another true Valet Diving operation is DiveBVI - probably the best I've seen including some that advertise it. I dropped my gear there the first day and picked it up clean/dry a week later. In between was a week of good dives, shallower - think Roatan with more fans/soft corals. They have several boats - my group of 11 got their 45' Newton all week for our exclusive use. Two DM's on every trip - one to lead, one to stay behind stragglers. I shot video, my buddy shot still that trip so it was often us. My whole group has a lot of dives so it wasn't related to being new. One of my friends has a bad knee. So she asked to be seated next to the dive platform. Which they did daily without reminder. As they noticed her tiring during the day they offered to bring her gear down the step (1) to her while she sat on the dive platform. And always took it from her in the water - once that meant a crew member diving in after a piece she dropped. DIVE BVI-British Virgin Islands Scuba Diving-It's what we do!

Some of the Grand Cayman operations also. Pricing being the same - and pricey, they differentiate by service. All provide van pickup anywhere on Seven Mile Beach, handle/store your gear as desired at their location, clean it an provide it clean/dry on departure. Since dives everywhere are 2/$100 average - except for the two cruise operators - most specify an absolute maximum of 8 divers - many 6 and on some surprisingly big boats. To go out to the deeper wall dives requires a larger v-hull boat so it's not uncommon to see boats in the 30-40' range with six bodies on board - counting crew. 8divers/DM is Cayman law - if there's two levels of divers on board, there will be a DM per group. Some people like to drop deep down the wall, others like the top 60' above it. Pick just about anyone on this list - Cayman Islands Tourism Association - Things To Do In Cayman, Cayman Culture,Cayman Islands Watersports My personal recommendations are Neptune's, Ambassador, Off the Wall or Indigo. Just from what I've seen/read/experienced. Giles at OtW and I have some history from another shop he worked at. The Keller's at Neptunes are just nice people.

Barefoot Cay/Divers on Roatan runs a nice operation also if you ever go back. Same sort of valet operation, since there's only about a dozen villas there, the day we dove there we had their boat to ourselves. The DM said that's pretty common. Decent beach (they rake it for Sand Flies) and snorkel lagoon out front. 5 mins. from Mary's Place - one of the signature south side dives. Roatan Diving

hth,