Eastern Caribbean suggestions

[Barry Goode]

Hi,

I'm an advanced PADI diver who has been to many great dive locales in the Caribbean (Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, Bonaire, Belize, Roatan, St. Thomas & St. John, Turks & Caicos, Fla. Keys). However, I've never been to any of the lesser antilles. I'm thinking about taking a week long dive trip in late July/early August.

I especially like diving in excellent visibility water where there are spectacular reefs and the chance to see large marine life (turtles, rays, sharks, etc.)

Are any of these better diving than the others: St. Martin, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Saba?

Thanks.

Barry

 

[Trinigordo]

I would consider Tobago if I were you.

 

[tvictory]

Saba and St. Vincent are better than St. Lucia and St. Martin (IMO). The best dives at Saba are deep pinnacles. St. Vincent has deep stuff too but is known for its smaller critters.

 

[donnad]

hubby and i just got back from Saba about 3 weeks ago. we stayed on saba for four nights, then went to st. maarten for four nights(for beach time basically, as saba has no beaches). We liked Saba and would go back indeed. we climbed to to the top of mt. scenery one day (get that hiking done first, then start diving), then the next two days we spent diving. had a great time. stayed at Scout's Place and dove with them, did a pkg. deal. the divemasters were very friendly, very entertaining, most of the dives we only had one other couple diving with us, and then one afternoon it was just my husband and myself. it was great. they didn't limit our dives to a certain number of minutes or anything. would love to go back there and do more diving, but i'm glad we spent that first day (after arriving the evening before) doing the hiking, it was worth it.

 

[Misty89]

Have been to St. Lucia, Grand Cayman and Provo in Turks and Caicos in the region of which your are inquiring. Enjoyed them all for:

Grand Cayman - loved the east end diving for variety, always great viz. Never seen anything big unless you count Stingray City!
St. Lucia - beautiful coral coloration b/c it is a volcanic island and lots of mineral in the water/from the land...lots of eels and trumpet fish
Provo - sharks on 10/13 dives that WE saw...if you count dive groups, then 12/13 dives, including a 12-ft hammerhead at the start of a dive and a 10-ft tiger (shiver) that another group saw on a dive just out in Grace Bay. Eagle rays...on one dive 7 at a time. Viz not as great as expected...maybe 75 feet, but really nice dive. Cool octopus off the channel - 4 dens in one area. Might be biased b/c we just got back. On all two of our non-dive days, snorkeled at Coral Gardens with 4+ turtles on each adventure.

 

[heavy roller]

I would humbly suggest Tobago. There are a variety of dives with excellent visibility. Additionally flora, fauna the works.

 

[MarkThomas]

Diving in St Maarten varies from really nice reef systems to fantastic wrecks. You can see all kinds of Caribbean Sea life, depths of the dive sites from 40ft up to 80ft but mostly around 60ft. Saba has great reef and more deep dives for more advanced divers, you have to go to st maarten to be able to fly to Saba, I go every year and use Ocean Explorers in St Maarten, they are so experienced and run a friendly small dive operation with never busy boats and in Saba I use Saba Deep, they know what they do,
Have fun dives!
Mark