Cayman islands, or Belize?

[scubajim311]

Ok so as a bonus my boss is gonna give me a 1 week vacation. Hes got a timeshare plan where i can go just about anywhere. I've narrowed it down to belize or cayman islands. I'm looking for excellent diving, and fun stuff to do above water too, since my wife will be coming and doesn't want to dive the whole time. So any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. Also any other places in the carribean i should be looking into?

 

[Garrobo]

Didn't we just discuss this last week?

 

[vladimir]

Turneffe Island Lodge has been running a special lately. It's a private island comfortably accommodating 22 guests about 5 minutes away from what may be the best dive in Belize, The Elbow. How does your wife like to occupy her time? There's bone-fishing, sailing, kayaking, etc. My girlfriend snorkeled and lied in a hammock reading. We stayed in one of the villas and were quite happy with it. Meals are taken communally at three large tables in the dining room. The food was very good. If you want a liveaboard, the itineraries of the Aggressor and Peter Hughes boats are essentially the same, but I think Peter Hughes emailed me with a special recently. They will get you to a variety of great diving on the outer atolls.

I think the diving off of Little Cayman is as good as that on the outer atolls of Belize, but lacks the diversity in sites. I stayed at the Little Cayman Beach Resort. The accommodations were adequate, and the buffet meals were pretty good. The dive operation was pretty good as well, but ran a tight ship on a tight schedule, which lent an air of regimentation to the whole exercise. No solo diving, no dives over 50 mnutes. The dive staff were friendly and competent. There is absolutely nothing for your wife to do there.

 

[scubajim311]

(Didn't we just discuss this last week?)
did you, i'm sorry i'll take a look for it, do you remember the name of the thread?


As for staying in belize, since its a time share thing i can only stay at about 3 resorts on ambergris caye, belize. Or at grand cayman. Belize does look like it has a lot more excursions to things like mayan temples, tubing down the river, stuff like that, but i'm sorta worried about the crime from what i read online about tour groups bein robbed, granted that was in like 2003-2005, so i was wondering if it's diferent now?

 

[Andy077]

if you go Cayman, I can recommend a great dive op.

 

[ZzzKing]

I don't think you'll have crime problems on Ambergris. Belize City is a little rough but if you fly from the airport straight to Ambergris you won't have to deal with that.

 

[NvScubaSteve]

I will toss out another recomendation for Grand Cayman. My wife and I were there earlier this year and had an absolute blast. Shoot me a message to my inbox if you want more info.

S

 

[Damselfish]

There are various timeshare organizations where you get or can pay for trading privileges or earn points, he is presumably in one of those. If you say exactly what the deal is people might be able to make better suggestions, because any given timeshare is generally part of only 1-2 of these arrangements. And you'll discover find there aren't a lot of time shares in the better dive destinations, or even if there is something it may not be a great place to base yourself for a dive intensive trip.

For example if it is RCI I might try and get Morritt's on Grand Cayman, although in the past I think it was hard to get into. If it's Interval international I'd suggest the Reef Resort on Grand Cayman. (Both of those places are at the East End of Grand Cayman, which is good diving but you would generally dive with one of the 2 ops at that end of the island, not just any dive op on GC.) If it were Royal Resorts perhaps the Seaquarium Resort on Curacao.

There is definitely a lot of cool stuff to do on land in Belize, but all that stuff is on the mainland and a distance from Ambergris. I guess there are day trips, but the best way to do that stuff is to actually separate the diving and land activity parts of your trip, and stay inland to do land stuff.

 

[ScubaDocER]

Unfortunately I have not been to Belize yet (on my to do list) but I have been to Grand Caymans 3 times and LOVED it. I went to the East End the first 2 times. I dove with Ocean Frontiers and had a fantastic time. They have a GUE Instructor affiliated with the shop who is great. Lots to see and wonderful staff members at the shop. I dove the West End last Nov and went with DiveTech. Another great bunch of guys to dive with. Nice, lazy dives through beautiful coral and aquatic life. I was not thrilled with the resort that is beside the shop, but the diving and the people at the shop are top notch.

To be honest I just dive when I go to places like that so I have no clue as to what the island life is like. You cannot go wrong with exploring either Belize or the Caymans. Just pick one and dive. The worst that can happen is that you are a beautiful island for a few dives.

 

[scubajim311]

wow thanks for all the awesome advice. It is through interval international so thanks for the tip on the reef resort. It looks like i might be leanin towards grand cayman, seeing as how i would prob have to take a water taxi if i wanted to do any land excursions in belize.