Bahamas Question

[boulderjohn]

My wife and I are trying to plan our first tropical vacation in a few years. She is a non-diver but an avid snorkeler. We are looking at the Bahamas right now, and we know little to nothing about that location.

I get the sense that the only real cave diving operation there is Bahamas Underground, and I have been in touch with them. As I understand it, the only way to get into a cave is via a guided tour from them,which is pretty expensive. In addition, since I could not possibly bring much of my own gear on a flight from Colorado, I would have to rent gear, which is also expensive. Putting it all together, I could only afford to dive a couple of days at most like that.

That means the rest of the time I would try to do the best ocean diving I could find, and my wife will want to be doing as much good snorkeling as she can. I am therefore looking for the ideal way to put all this together. Where do we stay, etc.?

I will ask a similar question in the Bahamas area forum, but in this forum I am primarily interested in the cave diving aspect of this. Have I understood the situation there correctly? Will the dives I do be worth the very high price of admission?

 

[Doc Harry]

Small Hope Bay Lodge used to run some deep, guided cave dives in the Andros Blue Hole and other caves in the area, like Stargate. I haven't been there in years, don't know if they are still offering that service.

 

[TSandM]

I believe Cristina Zenato and Brian Kakuk do guided cave diving in the Bahamas. I don't know what Cristina's prices are, but Brian's are very high -- and he also told me that he doesn't really think it's worth the money unless you are diving sidemount. There is cave he can show you in backmount, but the really "good" stuff isn't accessible that way.

Ben Martinez spent some time diving with Brian, and he had a ball, but he dives sidemount.