Bucket List Diving

[tursiops]

I just returned from a trip on the M/V Valentina liveaboard in the Sea of Cortez out of La Paz, on a Fun Azul trip. It was not on my bucket list, but it should have been. Great trip! 20 very happy passengers, some great dives, terrific crew. And affordable.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Don't know about finishing the bucket list... mine keeps changing and expanding. I'd like to do some diving in the Caribean....

The more I read on SB the more options I realize are out there

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Don't know about finishing the bucket list... mine keeps changing and expanding. I'd like to do some diving in the Caribean....

The more I read on SB the more options I realize are out there

I would skip the Caribbean for other places in the world. You live in Australia and you have the some of the most dramatic coast lines there. From Australia, I would make it a point to hit all the Asia Pacific destinations that are so much more expensive for us in America.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

See that's it. I've had a chance to dive the GBR, Indonesia, (I do want to go back to see the coconut Octopus I missed on the last trip) and PNG a few trips so I'd like to see how the Caribean compares to the Coral Triangle and what I have seen diving in Florida. I think diving in Melbourne and Sydney are awesome. From what I hear the diving in Tasmania is similar to the kelp forests I have dived in Calif except for the Weedy Seadragons

Diving the Australian "Dive Destinations" are expensive. We can go to the asia Pacific Islands cheaper in a lot of cases.

I would like to do Poor Knights Islands NZ tho...

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

See that's it. I've had a chance to dive the GBR, Indonesia, (I do want to go back to see the coconut Octopus I missed on the last trip) and PNG a few trips so I'd like to see how the Caribean compares to the Coral Triangle and what I have seen diving in Florida. I think diving in Melbourne and Sydney are awesome. From what I hear the diving in Tasmania is similar to the kelp forests I have dived in Calif except for the Weedy Seadragons

Diving the Australian "Dive Destinations" are expensive. We can go to the asia Pacific Islands cheaper in a lot of cases.

I would like to do Poor Knights Islands NZ tho...

I think it would be a great idea to make a list of highly glorified places that are NOT on peoples bucket lists (for whatever reason you feel.) If I was away from America then the whole of Caribbean would fall in that category simply because of travel costs and expenses involved. It is good diving for the price American traveler pays but I doubt if it would even come close to Indonesia and PNG.

Btw ... how did PNG compare to Indonesia?

 

[drrich2]

I think it would be a great idea to make a list of highly glorified places that are NOT on peoples bucket lists (for whatever reason you feel.)

That could make a good thread; might get a little contentious, but interesting. Since you brought up Australian diving, the major glorified dive destination not on my bucket list is the Great Barrier Reef! When I 1st got into scuba, it seemed the major big name destinations were the Bahamas (locally) and the Australian Great Barrier Reef.

Now, several years later, I'm finally putting the Bahamas in my sights for next year, Lord willing and providing; I've read you need to do a live-aboard to get to the better Bahamas diving, and that there's better elsewhere in the Caribbean. People talk about algae on reefs, for example. If not for a scheduling conflict I'd have tried for AquaCat this year; now I'm hoping for Blackbeard's next year.

If I understood correctly from other threads, the best of the GBR is likewise hit by live-aboard. And Australia is a long (& expensive) way from Kentucky! If I ever have the abundance of money and free time to undertake such a trek, there's Komodo, Bali, Palau, PNG and the Philippines to think about. So from a U.S. perspective (mine, anyway), the GBR's pull as a bucket list destination suffers the same drawback many others do; the competition has such a strong reputation!

For other U.S. divers (& Canadians, I suppose, since distance ought to be similar), I wonder how big a deal it is to you to hit the GBR at least once in your life? Does it move up the bucket list line because it's famous with the general public? Is there something specific there you want to see?

Richard.

 

[gkrane]

I have always been under the impression that the GBR was the pinnacle of diving. I wouldn't even begin to know the differences between the areas.

 

[tursiops]

I have always been under the impression that the GBR was the pinnacle of diving. I wouldn't even begin to know the differences between the areas.

For me, so far, the best diving has been Fiji (north side, Blight Straits, from the Na'ia live-aboard), Wakatobi (both resort and live-aboard), the Philippines, and (three times) Abaco (Crystal Caves). I've not yet been to Raja Ampat, or Thailand, or Pulau, or PNG, or Micronesia. The GBR was nice, but nowhere near the top. The Caribbean has some decent diving, but mostly it is closer and less expensive. Sea of Cortez live-aboard was extraordinary. It's nice to say I dived in Antarctica, but other than the Leopard Seals and Penguins it was just cold. Very cold. Next year new places will be Micronesia, Little Cayman, Dominica, and Cuba, also back to Anilao and Bonaire and Grand Cayman.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

The GBR was absolutely fantastic.
When I was there I got on a day boat out of Port Douglas and it was an hour and a half trip out full throttle to get there. The reef itself was like diving in someones tropical aquarium. It was so perfect it seemed like it was almost contrived or fake because it was odd to see a reef that perfect with that many varied species of fish and all the corals. The few dives I got to do was kind of a tease, but I absorbed every visual I encountered and logged them into my permanent mental data base. Plus I took a lot of photos. It was an expensive trip and a 15 hour flight to get there.
Next time will be a liveaboard. Gotta pay for my kids college first though.

I actually would like to see a thread started with the best kept secret domestic sites and work upwards, not from the top down from best to mediocre. Many of us for different reasons will never be able to reach some of these top notch far away and exclusive destinations so descriptions and raves aren't going to do a lot of us much good. But I Suppose the brag factor and subsequent bucket list envy is just human nature.

 

[tursiops]

But I Suppose the brag factor and subsequent bucket list envy is just human nature.

I'm trying to understand how you can have a thread about bucket-list locations, presumably with some input on personal experience, and still avoid some readers looking at it as a brag list?
Maybe you ought to look at the thread as a bucket-list of great locations, and not as a list tuned to your personal needs and finances?