1 month work and dive locations

[scubadada]

Once you got to Bonaire, it would be nearly ideal. Rent a studio or 1 bedroom with a kitchen and cook most of your meals. Get a weekly gas package and dive your brains out doing shore diving. A month would really allow you to learn the island.

If all else failed, American has a direct flight to Bonaire from Miami. For us, this has become a lifesend

 

[KathyV]

@beth_castroll since you are in California, would Hawaii be a fairly easy flight for you? The diving is different from the Caribbean but you will see healthy hard corals and lots of sealife, including large animals depending on the time of year and location you pick. Hawaii isn't cheap but it might be worth checking it out.

Maybe spend most of your time on Oahu but travel to Kona for an intensive week of diving.

 

[diversteve]

Kathy's suggestion is good, but I'd choose Maui. You might find Oahu/Honolulu/Waikiki too congested.

South Maui has a lot of affordable condo rentals since it's overbuilt in some areas. Yet 5mins. away in Wailea (more upscale) there's a lot of waterfront condos - some on named dive sites. All the beaches in that area are easy entry dive sites and the boats leave from the Kihei ramp to dive Molokini Crater or along the coast.

I'm pretty sure we had no internet issues although we only browsed once or twice during the week from our condo.

Maui is home to the Supercomputing Center (NASA) so they have a fast backbone connection to the Internet.

There are some real touristy areas, Lahaina or Kaanapali but once you leave those it's pretty quiet. In Napili you can rent affordable, older beachfront condos - some you walk out your door onto the sand of Napili Bay (a dive site). Around the point (good snorkel) is Kapalua Bay another dive site which is also one of the nicest beaches on Maui.

One nice thing about proximity to the big Kaanapali properties is the availability of restaurants.

Another area to look into is north Kihei. There's some older properties there - many with guesthouses that have been converted to rentals. You would share the compound with the main house but that's all and they're watefront.There's a trolley there that goes into Kihei and Wailea - stops downtown and at the malls etc.

We fly into the east side Maui airport and drive over - takes about 45mins. There's also an airport just north of Lahaina for other options. Direct flihgts (obviously) from SoCal airports - with the time difference you can do business back in the states without having to get up early. We flew out of LAX often - noonish flight and we'd arrive at noon. Of course returning you lose about 6 hrs. Some of the flights leave around midnight to get you back to the states in the morning hours.

Kona would be OK also but it's a lot of driving. And very few shore dives within walking distance of rental properties. One that is is the condo complexes around Magic Sands beach - the MM#4 dive site is in the parking lot and Pahoehoe Beach park is the other side of one smaller condo complex. Most other dives would be a drive though and the boats all leave from a harbor north of Kona town - not much in that area so most shops have an office in town, you check-in there then meet at the boats.

One year there was a bunch of condos along south Alii Drive renting for ridiculous rates - we found a nice 2br, waterfront, pool - 5 mins south of town for $750/wk. Instead we rented a house across the street for $1200. Many of the properties listed on vrbo in that area also have better deals on monthly rates. Book a rental car b4 you arrive, walk-up rates at the Kona airport are a shock. Don't go to Kona in October though - Ironman doubles the rental prices and the crowds impact the restaurants and everything else.

 

[beth_castroll]

This is a great starting point KathyV! Thank you. We are traveling from Oakland, California and we both have clients all over the USA. I am an Organic Inspector and my husband is an Environmental Engineer. We typically make a large amount of client visits in January then spend the month of Feb writing reports but there is often a chance My husband will have to service a client and be back in the USA a day or so later. That's why Cozumel has always been a great location for us. But I"m ready for a change. We are looking for a small home with AC, WiFi and close to dive sites for about 2000k for the month plus a dive budget of about 800. Shore diving with a few boat dives here and there are great options.

Since the OP wants to live, work, and dive for a month, I'm thinking the area north of 7MB on the West side of GC might be a good option because cheap and easy shore diving will be readily available. A month of boat dives in the Caymans could get expensive - although I don't know the size of the OP's budget - but if they are used to traveling to Mexico then they may be looking for something more economical.

@beth_castroll Where are you traveling from, what time of year are you planning to travel, how much diving do you want to do, what else do you plan to do beside dive and work, and are you looking for economical options?

If you are planning to travel in the high season (the Christmas holidays through Spring Break and Easter) the prices may be at their highest and places can book up quickly. This is true all over the Caribbean.

If you decide that you are interested in Grand Cayman you might take a look at Lighthouse Point, Coconut Bay Condos, or a 1-bedroom cottage at Cobalt Coast. These are places offering rental properties with kitchens, an onsite dive op with boat-diving, and a house reef for unlimited shore diving. If something appeals to you then try to work out a package for accommodations, shore diving, and boat diving. If you are planning to travel in late fall or winter then Cobalt Coast wouldn't be a good choice because the house reef often gets winded out at that time of year.

Here's another thought, you could spend a month in the Cayman islands but split your time between the 3 islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman; they all offer great diving. There are more than 300 dive sites (boat and shore) across all 3 Cayman islands, so you would have lots of choices. The interisland flights only take a half-hour and there are a lot of flights into and out of Grand Cayman.

Good luck!

 

[beth_castroll]

Thank you. We have discussed Maui and Kona especially since Southwest just started flying there and with 2 free checked bags and lots of frequent flier miles the flights are cheap, but the lodging and need for a rental car brings the budget up. I haven't dove any of those islands since my check out dives and we are making a short trip to Kona in the fall to visit a friend who just bought a house there. Maybe we will give it a try.

Kathy's suggestion is good, but I'd choose Maui. You might find Oahu/Honolulu/Waikiki too congested.

South Maui has a lot of affordable condo rentals since it's overbuilt in some areas. Yet 5mins. away in Wailea (more upscale) there's a lot of waterfront condos - some on named dive sites. All the beaches in that area are easy entry dive sites and the boats leave from the Kihei ramp to dive Molokini Crater or along the coast.

I'm pretty sure we had no internet issues although we only browsed once or twice during the week from our condo.

Maui is home to the Supercomputing Center (NASA) so they have a fast backbone connection to the Internet.

There are some real touristy areas, Lahaina or Kaanapali but once you leave those it's pretty quiet. In Napili you can rent affordable, older beachfront condos - some you walk out your door onto the sand of Napili Bay (a dive site). Around the point (good snorkel) is Kapalua Bay another dive site which is also one of the nicest beaches on Maui.

One nice thing about proximity to the big Kaanapali properties is the availability of restaurants.

Another area to look into is north Kihei. There's some older properties there - many with guesthouses that have been converted to rentals. You would share the compound with the main house but that's all and they're watefront.There's a trolley there that goes into Kihei and Wailea - stops downtown and at the malls etc.

We fly into the east side Maui airport and drive over - takes about 45mins. There's also an airport just north of Lahaina for other options. Direct flihgts (obviously) from SoCal airports - with the time difference you can do business back in the states without having to get up early. We flew out of LAX often - noonish flight and we'd arrive at noon. Of course returning you lose about 6 hrs. Some of the flights leave around midnight to get you back to the states in the morning hours.

Kona would be OK also but it's a lot of driving. And very few shore dives within walking distance of rental properties. One that is is the condo complexes around Magic Sands beach - the MM#4 dive site is in the parking lot and Pahoehoe Beach park is the other side of one smaller condo complex. Most other dives would be a drive though and the boats all leave from a harbor north of Kona town - not much in that area so most shops have an office in town, you check-in there then meet at the boats.

One year there was a bunch of condos along south Alii Drive renting for ridiculous rates - we found a nice 2br, waterfront, pool - 5 mins south of town for $750/wk. Instead we rented a house across the street for $1200. Many of the properties listed on vrbo in that area also have better deals on monthly rates. Book a rental car b4 you arrive, walk-up rates at the Kona airport are a shock. Don't go to Kona in October though - Ironman doubles the rental prices and the crowds impact the restaurants and everything else.

 

[KathyV]

This is a great starting point KathyV! Thank you. We are traveling from Oakland, California and we both have clients all over the USA. I am an Organic Inspector and my husband is an Environmental Engineer. We typically make a large amount of client visits in January then spend the month of Feb writing reports but there is often a chance My husband will have to service a client and be back in the USA a day or so later. That's why Cozumel has always been a great location for us. But I"m ready for a change. We are looking for a small home with AC, WiFi and close to dive sites for about 2000k for the month plus a dive budget of about 800. Shore diving with a few boat dives here and there are great options.

That is a rather small budget for a month-long dive vacation in the tropics during the high season with quick, easy access to the US. I think that you had better rule out Hawaii and Cayman.

Maybe you could find a good deal on an AirBnB someplace, IDK. A couple of more questions, what other things do you like to do besides dive? And are you planning to rent a car?

 

[divideddiver]

If you arrive in winter you had to do the bull shark dive. I live in Playa del Carmen and this winter (2019) I did four bull shark dives in total. The last dive was absolutely amazing we had close to 15 different individuals and the viz was excellent. I recommend using Scuba Libre for any bull shark diving, I always use them and the owner Ricardo is quite a character

 

[emjaty]

Roatan!