What else is open for an easy February trip besides Coz?

[KathyV]

I've used Blue Water Dive Travel, which KathyV linked earlier, for a Galapagos trip with good results. Caradonna and Maduro are mentioned from time to time. I think the Scuba Board Invasions and Surges like to use Bay Adventures.

I don't use travel agents for simple, straight forward trips outside the pandemic in the Caribbean, where arranging flights and booking direct with the dive op. and hotel (if need be) is easily done.

But for a trip abroad, such as to the Galapagos, where I'm not familiar with what legs of the journey need to be made, the hotel choices to stay at, when it's wise to show up early and spend the night, how to go find the boat, etc..., they come in handy.

I don't use travel agents when flying in the continental US, but when traveling abroad there's one thing I really appreciate - the ability of travel agents to book all my flights on one ticket. At least that's been my experience, even for international flights involving different airlines. When I am flying outside of the US I've never been able to do that; I have to book each flying leg of the trip separately.

That doesn't sound like a big deal until you run into delays with one flight along the way; I learned that one the hard way. If your flights are booked separately the other airlines don't know or care if you are delayed. But if they are all booked on one ticket, the next flights are notified and they will automatically make adjustments for you as needed.

 

[tursiops]

I don't use travel agents when flying in the continental US, but when traveling abroad there's one thing I really appreciate - the ability of travel agents to book all my flights on one ticket. At least that's been my experience, even international flights involving different airlines. When I am flying outside of the US I've never been able to do that; I have to book each flying leg of the trip separately.

That doesn't sound like a big deal until you run into delays with one flight along the way; I learned that one the hard way. If your flights are booked separately the other airlines don't know or care if you are delayed. But if they are all booked on one ticket, the next flights are notified and they will automatically make adjustments for you as needed.

Yes, this is a BIG deal.

 

[MattAO]

Are there any travel agencies that specializes in diving trips?

Mine does not "specialize" but she's really good. The biggest thing is when and where and how much you want to spend

 

[ReadyTo Dive]

Thank you to all for the helpful ideas ITT. After considering everything we are just going to do another (#6?) trip to Cozumel.

In addition to being less expensive overall than any of the other options we decided we do not want to chance the timing/etc on the Covid tests to T&C or St. Croix or Roatan. Bonaire canceled us out last month so we are not considering it again at all until it is a full green light option. St.Croix and T&C lodging options were especially expensive for where we were willing/wanting to stay and we would really prefer to do a LOB in T&C or the Bahamas which was a little more than we were looking to spend this time.

We’ve already been to all of these places before too (except T&C) and when we were last in Coz (7-8 weeks or so ago) we were doing 1hr 30min+/- dives and so the combination of everything was just too much for us to pass up again. I am hoping this will be our last trip there for a long time though, too many other good places to dive! Thanks again for all of the helpful suggestions.

 

[KathyV]

Thank you to all for the helpful ideas ITT. After considering everything we are just going to do another (#6?) trip to Cozumel.

In addition to being less expensive overall than any of the other options we decided we do not want to chance the timing/etc on the Covid tests to T&C or St. Croix or Roatan. Bonaire canceled us out last month so we are not considering it again at all until it is a full green light option. St.Croix and T&C lodging options were especially expensive for where we were willing/wanting to stay and we would really prefer to do a LOB in T&C or the Bahamas which was a little more than we were looking to spend this time.

We’ve already been to all of these places before too (except T&C) and when we were last in Coz (7-8 weeks or so ago) we were doing 1hr 30min+/- dives and so the combination of everything combined was just too much for us to pass up again. I am hoping this will be our last trip there for a long time though, too many other good places to dive! Thanks again for all of the helpful suggestions.

Have a great trip! Just to mention, it was rather comforting to know that everyone with us on the plane to/from St. Croix had just recently been tested and were negative, and that the island only had a 1.5% positive covid rate when we were there.

 

[Gary_Ward]

"Killer deals"... did you price that out for a comparison?

If a TA is worth their salt, they will be able to access deals which you typically can not over the internet? Why, they create relationships with dive operators and feed into us regular business. In exchange for this we give them long term relationship discounts. They get the same from the airlines, the same from the hotels.... and if they can do the job for you, they typically will save you money. Why? They know you have access to much the same information as they have, so they need to be able to provide a more compelling proposition for you... else you won't use them again. Of course there are those that are just booking agents, but they're not to be compared with a good travel agent.

 

[Snoweman]

If a TA is worth their salt, they will be able to access deals which you typically can not over the internet? Why, they create relationships with dive operators and feed into us regular business. In exchange for this we give them long term relationship discounts. They get the same from the airlines, the same from the hotels.... and if they can do the job for you, they typically will save you money. Why? They know you have access to much the same information as they have, so they need to be able to provide a more compelling proposition for you... else you won't use them again. Of course there are those that are just booking agents, but they're not to be compared with a good travel agent.

Airline have dramatically cut their fees to TA's ($25, max). Hotels have learned to give the lowest price on the internet, cutting out the aggregator sites. What's left? Tours? Don't you think your TA will book the most popular tour with the highest commission? If you like your TA, have at it. I just don't see the value for my hard earned $$$.

 

[drrich2]

Travel Agents can give you info. on special deals for a destination in a given date range. Not all 'travel agents' are created equal; some have more extensive services than others, or a deeper reservoir of experience with the destination at hand.

Here's what I'm talking about. I've never been to the Red Sea and have no specific plans to go. Let's say that changes and want to go in July 2021 for whatever reason. If I go to Aggressor.com, they'll tell me what specials and dates covered apply to their fleet. Nice. But if I go to Liveaboard.com, I can pull up Red Sea and July 2021, and see a range of providers, with discount prices (if any) listed.

If I go to Caradonna's or Maduro's website, to play a Bonaire trip, it'll show me some discounted packages. As opposed to me going provider-to-provider looking for them.

I'm not saying a Travel Agent is always the way to go, and again, I don't bother with fairly simple Caribbean trip planning...but when it gets more complicated than that, they can be nice.

My dive travel agent may wish I'd forget he exists, with all the questions I've pestered him with.

 

[NelleG]

back to OP’s question....the Dominican Republic is open. Was there diving a week ago and going back in a few weeks, ScubaFun in Bayahibe, give them a call: 1-809-833-0003.

 

[GF99/99]

Airline have dramatically cut their fees to TA's ($25, max). Hotels have learned to give the lowest price on the internet, cutting out the aggregator sites. What's left? Tours? Don't you think your TA will book the most popular tour with the highest commission? If you like your TA, have at it. I just don't see the value for my hard earned $$$.

I am with Snoweman on this one. If there is one thing I know its traveling. Obviously aside for this year my life is Allways At The Airport I call it AATA haha. I do contracting work that has be flying all over the world, and my personal hobby aside from diving is traveling. I usually sit on about 60-80 airplanes a year and fill up a 50pg passport in about 2-3 years so far I have been to 98 different countries. So I would say I have a little bit of experience traveling and in this time I never use a travel agent (with the exception of when I went to Bhutan, but this is a government regulation that you have to use a local TA) Why because I have never found them to be cheaper. Think about it what is a travel agency? its a service/business to streamline your bookings and holiday. A service like this is not free so of course your paying for it and yes they are good at hiding it to make it seems like your not but trust me somewhere is the background your paying for it. I have 2 friends that work for travel agencies. Just like any other agency that provides a services they are in the business to make money off of people that don't want to spend the time booking things. Now yes if I was rich and had the money i would use a TA all the time! I would love to have the money to be able to wave my hand in the air and poof everything is done for me but im not rich and im not going to spend my money on that I would rather spend it on diving tips or other holidays.

Also those of you that work for a large company that has there employees flying a lot I bet your company does not use a TA they most likely use American Express travel and no this not a TA its just an online system with flight access but your company is still finding the flights and booking them on there own. There is a reason why companies just book flights themselves because they want to save money. If TA's were so cheep then why are all companies not using them? Reason is they cost more especially if you are flying hundreds of employees around the world all the time that extra the TA charges would add up really quick when you are flying that many people all the time.
I'm sure we all know the typical story of the university kid that just graduated and goes on a backpacking trip around the world for a year or two. Especially with youtube and social media it has become a very popular thing to do. These kids latterly find the cheapest way to travel. Trust me you don't see any of them using a TA. Why do you think this is? Because it cost more.

Yes I do agree there are some advantages of a TA, if your someone that is not comfortable traveling or maybe its your first trip overseas or maybe you just do one or two holidays a year then yes maybe its worth spending the one time extra $300-500 more to use a TA and just call someone up and tell them what you want and they they organize everything. I can understand that but if your like me and or others that are taking 10, 20, 30 or more trips a year then they $300-$500 extra is now thousands if not tens of thousands you have wasted hence why large companies book there own flights. The only other time a TA comes in handy is I have found that in some 3rd world countries when you are trying to get to a very remote location using a local domestic airline that does not even have a website or if they do it only takes local credit cards then yes sometimes you to find a local agent to book the ticket for you but usually you are only paying like a 10-20% markup on a very cheap $40 flight so its nothing in the grand scheme of things. I have had to do this a couple times in Nepal, Indonesia, Zimbabwe, Angola, and Philippines.