Group trips vs. going ourselves

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It's solo for me... The trip is the adventure... Maybe that's why my Wife and I fell in love with Bonaire..

Jim...
 
"Group" travel works well on the more far flung, road less travelled trips. Why? The group leaders should (must) handle all the connections. Not a big deal in the Caribbean, even the rarely used islands, but once you get out of our backyard, the world gets confusing.

Easy to get to Male Airport in Maldives, how do you transit to the diving islands and LOB?

Easy to fly to Egypt. Can you point me towards a bed and the Red Sea? Maybe throw in a pyramid?

I got a ticket on Philippine Air to Manilla, where's the Ocean from there?

Connections.

Before the Internet age, I would have agreed. Nowadays, finding out how to get to even the most remote places in the world, where to stay, what to do, etc., is usually just an afternoon of mouse clicking away. Make some inquiries, receive some replies, maybe wire some money. Voila.

To me, ease of travel isn't a major attraction of group travel (though once in while it sure would be nice to have someone else do the work). Economy and camaraderie are my reasons why I'd be interested.
 
It's solo for me... The trip is the adventure... Maybe that's why my Wife and I fell in love with Bonaire..

Jim...
Bonaire has taken hold of our hearts for sure. We are heading back for our 6th trip in a few weeks. We have had opportunity to travel there with groups many times, but have found that we can 1. Do it cheaper on our own, and 2. We like the freedom that Bonaire provides, and in a group, you can sometimes lose that. However with that being said, on trip #3, we met a really cool couple after a dive at Vista Blue, and we ended up talking for almost an hour. in the parking lot. We actually "ran" into them later in the week underwater on a dive and recognized them. We met up for dinner after that and became fast friends. Now we have ended up going to Bonaire the same week for the last 2, and now our 3rd time together. They have become our Scuba soulmates. LOL We live in Phoenix, AZ and they live near Baltimore, MD. Bonaire is magical! Cool people go there :)
 
I did my first 2 dive trips with a few LDS but since then I've gone solo on most of my trips. The only potential downside in going with a LDS is that the price may be higher than if you were to book directly with the dive OP. You're basically paying for your LDS to handle all of the paperwork, etc. and you get to go with like-minded divers on the trip. It's all personal preference though, I like to plan everything on my own and just meet people on the boat.
 
The only potential downside in going with a LDS is that the price may be higher than if you were to book directly with the dive OP.

There was a time when some LDS would add on a premium like you said to cover their "cost" of promoting the trips, etc. I've seen as much as $200 to $250 added on what you could book yourself. Of course when I first started diving, pricing at all the resorts was not as readily available to the general public like it is now. I don't think I have seen any of the LDS around here do that anymore for a long time. It becomes a tough sell and it's hard to convince folks that there is that much added value, if any, going with the LDS.
 
There was a time when some LDS would add on a premium like you said to cover their "cost" of promoting the trips, etc. I've seen as much as $200 to $250 added on what you could book yourself. Of course when I first started diving, pricing at all the resorts was not as readily available to the general public like it is now. I don't think I have seen any of the LDS around here do that anymore for a long time. It becomes a tough sell and it's hard to convince folks that there is that much added value, if any, going with the LDS.

Completely agree. As a new diver at the time, I didn't know any better but after research I found out that shops will definitely charge more for the trip vs booking by yourself. This is especially true if a LDS organizes a livaboard-I think what is happening here is if the LDS books X amount of spots, they get a free spot, which usually goes to the DM in charge of running the trip.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's awesome that LDS are organizing trips and as a business they need to make $ but personally I would never use a dive shop again for trips. It's bad enough that these trips have so many fees the last thing I want is another fee to have the shop organize everything for me.
 
Yes, if the shop books a liveaboard they are usually getting free spots, which they will use for people leading the trip or sell to make some $ - which is perfectly reasonable, I don't expect them to do it for nothing especially if they put some effort into it and do it well. That's not the same as charging a fee that has you paying more than you would on your own, which I've never seen. Maybe shops did that a long time ago (when it was harder to get info, and when I wasn't looking at such trips anyway) but not now.

(Our next liveaboard trip is with a shop we haven't traveled with before, and they appear to be putting little to no effort into it - simply using the free spots but so far have not added any value that I can see, and I'm not happy about it. The only other shop I've traveled with is much more active and organized about their trips, and earns whatever they get out of it.)

I have a couple times seen a resort offer a great deal sometime after a shop has reserved a trip, since they often do that far ahead. The resort and/or shop aren't giving the discount retroactively in these cases, which is to be expected, but I assume would stop most people from booking any new spots on the shop trip.
 
Bonaire has taken hold of our hearts for sure. We are heading back for our 6th trip in a few weeks. We have had opportunity to travel there with groups many times, but have found that we can 1. Do it cheaper on our own, and 2. We like the freedom that Bonaire provides, and in a group, you can sometimes lose that. However with that being said, on trip #3, we met a really cool couple after a dive at Vista Blue, and we ended up talking for almost an hour. in the parking lot. We actually "ran" into them later in the week underwater on a dive and recognized them. We met up for dinner after that and became fast friends. Now we have ended up going to Bonaire the same week for the last 2, and now our 3rd time together. They have become our Scuba soulmates. LOL We live in Phoenix, AZ and they live near Baltimore, MD. Bonaire is magical! Cool people go there :)

Don't get me wrong.. I meet and dive with people here in Bonaire all the time... In fact, Just came back from taking a girl with no buddy to Tolo and Karpata today... When I was here before the wife got down, I took a new diver that was "NEEDING" help with the basics and spent a week diving and tutored him... I have friends that live on Bonaire that we dive with... That's the great thing about Bonaire, You can do as you like.. The minute you tell me that I need to be there at "X" time and I must do "Z" and "Y" dive... I am not going... I'm a very out going person and make a effort to engage people.. I'm known by most of the check out girls at the places I shop, And I don't even live here YET !!!!

Jim...
 
(Our next liveaboard trip is with a shop we haven't traveled with before, and they appear to be putting little to no effort into it - simply using the free spots but so far have not added any value that I can see, and I'm not happy about it. The only other shop I've traveled with is much more active and organized about their trips, and earns whatever they get out of it.)

It's unfortunate that some LDS are known to ghost some of their customers when it comes to services and or attention-that's the nature of how some owners run their ops. This is one of the reasons why I refrain from using dive shops for anything other than air fills as I can get most or all of my equipment online. As for their markup in group trips, it's an unfortunate reality if you're not aware of it. I guess what you can in this instance is find out when and where the group is traveling and then book the reservation directly with the company.
 
I guess what you can in this instance is find out when and where the group is traveling and then book the reservation directly with the company.

Good way to determine if the LDS is overcharging you. I did this in case the LDS had no more spots, to see if I could join them by booking through the resort itself. But, the LDS had negotiated a great deal and I was lucky to find someone in need of a roommate. So it all worked out.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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