jimisurf once bubbled...
Hi,
Best Bang for the Buck: Nanaimo - Technically Speaking at $75 for a two tank Charter. Stay in a local or Courtenay hotel for about $90 and your lloking at $240 per day per couple. Campbell River - Abyssal Charters at $140 for 2 tank dive, food and 1 night acomodations can't be beat. Sechelt - Porpoise Bay is about $95 for the night and I think $80 for a two tank charter. Other possibility is shore dives with local dive shops and "hotelling it".
I have personal experience with the following:
Campbell River - Abyssal Charters in the Campbell River area offers great wall dives (try Whisky Point for sure), drift dives and wreck dives too. They have a small guest house on Quadra Island, it's comfortable and the food is very good. An excellent operation all around. There is a Coast hotel in Campbell that is nice, but charges about $130 per night.
Nanaimo - Technically Speaking is an excellent dive charter company. Harry offers great service and great rates! Probably the most pesonable dive charter I have been out with. There are many hotels in the Nanaimo area. If you dicide to do some general Island diving you could stay mid way between Campbell River and Nanaimo in a town called Courtenay. The Kingfisher hotel ($84) and the Crown Isle ($89) are good hotels in that area (45 min drive to Harry's place) and resonable.
Sachelt - Porpoise Bay Charters are very good and very experienced. The Chardiere and some great wall dives in Aganemon Channel are highlights. They have a few cabins on their oceanfront site.
I have not been up to Port Hardy yet, but I hear that it has excellent diving. I'm going to dive at Barclay Sound next weekend. I can post the results later. Overall, I have found that the island offers great diving with reasonable hotel rates ($80 - $130 per night for the better places). The Charter companies are all very experienced and very focused on their customers/guests. They tend to charge 75 - 90 dollars for a two tank charter. I have also dove with some dive shops (Pacific Pro in Courtenay and Beaver Aquatics in Campbell River). Both shops go out on Sunday Shore dives. They showed me some amazing shore dives in the Quadra island area. They were both a pleasure to dive with (really good group of people!!).
Best of luck to you and have fun.
Jimi