After Puerto Rico - head to Saba, BVI, where else?

[LondonDiverDan]

Hi All - spent some time looking at great trip reports/advice on Puerto Rico, Saba and BVI on this board, but to follow up wanted to get thoughts on the following:

I'll be in PR for Christmas with family for a week, and plan to get a few dives in on the west + south west end of the island (maybe 3-4 dives). I've then got 5 more days on my own before flying back to London which I'll dedicate to diving

I'm trying to decide if its worth a trip to Saba (diving looks amazing, but difficult to get there and journey back to london will be epic!), or maybe somewhere closer, e.g. BVI. Also I could stay in PR and do more diving there. I'd like to see sharks/bigger fish if possible, but general sea life is all good, and I like a bit of a challenge (200+ dives...)

Would love to hear if you think I'm going to get a similar experience in PR and should just stay there to get a good amount of diving on the island or if there's something special to make the extra trip to Saba/BVI/other worth it... thanks!

 

[diversteve]

A lot of BVI diving is shallow. Not that it isn't good, just not especially "challenging". The Chikuizen wreck can be a challenge but if it looks bad, the dive operators may not run out there to look. In a week of 3-4 dives/ day we saw about 3-4 sharks - mostly smaller reef sharks. Some turtles and a few barracuda also IIRC. The Rhone is worth a trip if you do go. We dove all the islands, the Dogs, Nelson, Cooper, Salt, etc. About the only place we didn't go was Anegada - I've heard it's pristine diving.

There are a few interesting dives, one I liked was Seal Dog Rock. It's a pinnacle that sticks up out of the water sort of between the Atlantic and the Channel - which would be the Caribbean technically. One side is deeper water, on the other I was engulfed in baitfish - thousands of them that swirled around me. A barracuda and a couple of Smook? hit them 20' away as I filmed - nothing but scales left afterwards.

There's a nice relaxing vibe in the BVI's. A lot of it is based around sailing. DiveBVI is a great dive operation if you stay on Virgin Gorda or one of the smaller islands where they have facilities.

fwiw, there was (maybe still is) a ferry between Fajardo and St. Thomas - 2 hr. trip. From STT you could take an hourly ferry to Tortola - depending on what day you travel even on to Virgin Gorda if desired. Virgin Islands Guide - Transportation Services Stt Probably cheaper than a flight? And unless you return to PR for your return flight, STT is the Intl' airport, the BVI airport on Beef Island is for local flights only.

What about Turks/Caicos? We dove there last spring. At French Cay we saw sharks, turtles, a couple big lionfish and other interesting stuff. On 8 dives over two days we saw at least one shark every dive - once I saw three in about 10 mins. Mostly reef sharks in the 5-8' range. West Caicos was almost as good. The wall there drops several thousand feet quckly. French Cay was solid coral on coral most places we dove.

 

[greylion]

I agree that T&C is a good alternative, could always fly to Cozumel from there too?

 

[LondonDiverDan]

thanks for the info - actually i did look at Turks but i couldnt find direct flights over there... is there any easy way to get there from PR... also good info on the boats to the virgin islands - worth following up, many thanks!

 

[Rhone Man]

My quick thoughts (which others can agree or not agree with):

• Diving in PR is OK, but not wonderful by Caribbean standards.
• Travelling from PR, your nearest stops are the Culebra, Vieques USVI (to the East) and the Domincan Republic (to the West).
• Diving in DR is a bit nicer, but still not world class. But it is very cheap. And if you are into cave diving, it is one of the few Caribbean destinations that offers that. You would have to fly to DR. I have taken two diving holidays there, and certainly no regrets.
• Culebra and Vieques you can fly or take a ferry. Diving there is nice, but a bit limited. I have never dived with an operator there, but they have a slightly patchy reputation.
• USVI diving is a bit nicer. Not especially cheap. Lots of good quality dive ops. Does have some good wreck dives (I take the ferry over every so often to dive their wrecks). You could take a ferry from PR, but you would be better off flying.
• Diving in the BVI is (I think) a little bit nicer still, but still "middle third" in terms of Caribbean standards. We have one famous wreck (RMS Rhone), plus a bunch of less famous ones. Not especially cheap. You would have to fly from PR or take two sets of ferries.
• Diving in Saba is excellent, but you would need at least two flights to get there (connect via St Martin; St Martin is not easy to get to from PR, but does have direct flights to both Paris and Amsterdam). It must be said that there is not much else to do in Saba.
• There are lots of other destinations in the Caribbean you can get to in one flight from PR - if you don't mind a slightly longer journey, another one to consider would be Aruba, which has very good diving.
• Diving in TCI (and Cayman) are both very high quality, but you will probably need to fly up to Miami to connect.

Hope that is useful. Happy to answer any detailed questions on BVI by PM. I'll try my best to answer for any other destinations, but I am less familiar with those.

 

[LondonDiverDan]

Aruba flights straight after Christmas are just out of range for me I think - but thanks v much for info on USVI, BVI, and transport etc. Anywhere else a short-ish hop away that is good? .. doesnt sound that DR is worth the trip from PR (if I'm flying somewhere, should be good right...!) also have you dived the wall in SW PR, sounds quite good?

 

[Rhone Man]

Aruba flights straight after Christmas are just out of range for me I think - but thanks v much for info on USVI, BVI, and transport etc. Anywhere else a short-ish hop away that is good? .. doesnt sound that DR is worth the trip from PR (if I'm flying somewhere, should be good right...!) also have you dived the wall in SW PR, sounds quite good?

I have never dived PR itself, just the outlying islands. But a lot of my regular dive buddies have, and they describe it as fine but not great. I don't know that includes the wall or just the lesser dives around San Juan.

The nearest good 'short hop' from PR would be Culebra and Vieques. I have dived those, and they are pretty good. Although as I said, I did it when I was cruising, so I never dealt with local dive operators. I am not really in a position to comment, but I know some people have included less flattering remarks about them in other threads on SB.