Been to Bonaire, Cozumel...what next?

[scubadada]

...If you don't go, you'll never know

+1 on that

My family had a time share on Grand Cayman starting in 1996. We made many visits to the island and had some great diving before the time share was blown down by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Retrospectively, the cloud had a silver lining and allowed us to broaden our diving experience in the Caribbean.

So now, in addition to Grand Cayman, I've had the opportunity to visit Little Cayman, Cozumel, Bonaire, Curacao, and Turks & Caicos. My wife and I will be visiting Roatan for the first time this summer. There are many more places to consider, Belize, Cayman Brac, Cuba, Dominica, Saba, and many, many more. So little time...

 

[PatW]

Roatan is good diving. I think Utila is better. Utila has a wide variety of dives: pinnacles, walls, shallow reefs and muck. Big fish are few and far between.

Belize at Turneffe Atoll. Good diving especially at the elbow. Half Moon Caye has great dives. The visibility can be just OK.

Turks and Caicos. Good visibility. Good corals. Big fish, not so much but sharks at the right spots.

Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. Often great visibility. Very good fish populations. The best place I know to see large Nassau Grouper. The grouper will often follow you around. You will see quite a few pretty tame hawksbill turtles. I think the south side of Brac has the best diving and my wife likes Bloody Bay Wall better.

Key Largo. Very good shallow reef dives and the famous deep wreck dives. It has very large and varied fish populations. These populations are probably the best I have seen. Kind of a long haul to the reefs. The corals are pretty good. It is kind of hard to get more than 2 dives per day.

Now ranking them is hard because a small tweet in your criteria will change the outcome as illustrated by my liking Brac and my wife preferring Little.

 

[ronscuba]

Underwater in the Caribbean is more alike than it is different.

You've done the shore diving with good macro and the boat drift diving with good overall marine life with walls.

What's missing is a liveaboard.

I suggest Belize or Turks Caicos liveaboard.

 

[ScubaJill]

Saba.

 

[drrich2]

My priority would be finding a nice reef in good shape with a lot of life. If it has sharks or big fish, that's a bonus, but not a requirement.

If you want a live-aboard, and to see reviews of a couple of popular options:

Sun Dancer 2 (Belize) May 2015 - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/li...ving-belize-via-sun-dancer-2-may-2nd-9th.html It's said Belize diving is better out away from the mainland, in the Turneffe and Lighthouse atoll regions. You've got land-based options out that way if you wish. Some people have an interest in mainland attractions, like a rainforest walk and visiting Mayan ruins; I've seen people talk about Placencia and Splash Divers - no personal experience, but on the basis of good report that's who I'd look to 1st if that were my interest.

Cayman Aggressor IV May 2016 - http://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/cayman-aggressor-iv-trip-may-2016.527640/

Picking a Caribbean Live-aboard - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/li...ats/495738-picking-caribbean-live-aboard.html

Pay attention to the discussion about Turks & Caicos, particularly as regards to the deeper diving that may entail vs. other options.

There's now a Roatan Aggressor, and they been offering a sale; don't know if that's still going. Roatan has a rep. for nice reefs, but not so much fish life from what I read; haven't been. If I were going, I'd consider CocoView (south coast, nice shore diving, they don't allow little kids), or Turquoise Bay Resort (budget, lots of diving, obviously popular with some local trip organizers in my area, gets good review). Anthony's Key Resort is well-spoken of but seems pricey to me, unless you take advantage of one of their special that involve 2 people - I'd probably be solo.

If you do the Bahamas, one option is the Bahamas Aggressor, which does Grand Bahama/Tiger Beach part of the year. A lot of divers and cheaper than the AquaCat; not sure what you're view is on diving with tiger sharks.

For land-based, I was impressed with Key Largo, and got in 4 dives/day with Rainbow Reef Dive Center. Their location moved a bit since then, but it should still be one of the good options.

Richard.

 

[BDSC]

I would suggest Roatan and Anthony's Key. For all of 2017 they are running a special. One person pays and one goes for free. That's a heck of a deal. We were there last year and the diving was much better than I remember/expected. Love the rooms out on the key.

 

[KathyV]

Lots of great suggestions but I will add St. Croix to the list. Nice typical reef diving and the Fredricksted Pier shore dive is a unique Caribbean experience IMO.

I used to suggest Baja and Cabo when someone said they were looking for something different and wanted large animal encounters, but I have stopped making that suggestion because of the recent State Department warnings specific to that region of Mexico:
Mexico Travel Warning