Considering Anguilla??

[SandyUT]

Looking for new places to dive and vaca. Came across Anguilla on a dive mag article (bias none the less). Above water looks great. the dive sites appear to line the shore. Is shore diving an option? boat diving is $250 for two tanks...

Anyone dive there?

 

[drrich2]

Can you tell us what dive magazine and month/article? I ask because Anguilla gets hardly any mention on the forum, and on the rare occasion it does, info. could be valuable. Perhaps that magazine has the article available online?

My one (non-diving) visit to Anguilla was a 2006 honeymoon cruise excursion from where we stopped in St. Maarten over to Anguilla for a dolphin encounter.

Way back Feb. 17, 2013, Tim Ingersoll posted an Anguilla Trip Report and concluded from 4 dives over 3 days:

Not a dedicated dive destination but worth diving for a day or two if you are there. Its a quiet island with a lot of great restaurants.

May 25,2015, E&S made an intro. post, and mentioned Anguilla as one of the places he'd dove. @E&S to get his attention doesn't work. I don't know whether he's still active and reachable on the forum.

I did a little quick Googling. Some online resources:

1.) Scuba Diver Life - Five Perfect Days On Anguilla. 2-24-14.
2.) SportDiver - 10 Reasons To Dive Anguilla. 4-4-14.
3.) AnguillaBeaches.com - Diving In Anguilla...An Anguilla Dive Journal. An update mentioned 2012, so this was old.
4.) Joe's Scuba Shack - Scuba Diving in Anguilla. Updated 6-16-21. Nice little write-up.
5.) Scuba Shack - on of the Anguilla dive operators. I see a 2-tank morning dive with tanks and weights only is $150; with rental equipment $180. There's a Thursday night dive. I don't see any option to pack in 2 morning and 1 or 2 afternoon dives daily.

I went to ShoreDiving.com to see if they had an Anguilla listing. I don't see one.

Came across Anguilla on a dive mag article (bias none the less).

Yes, I am skeptical of dive magazine articles on the grounds they're likely to emphasize (maybe exaggerate) the positive and minimize (maybe leave out) the negatives.

If you do a trip to Anguilla, please post a trip report of your experiences, good and bad!

 

[SandyUT]

I agree 100% on the validity of the articles. Yes those were the ones I saw. the above water views look great, but I dont want to dive just to have meh diving.

I think you said it best, not mentioned much here is a telling tale.

Im still searching - the flights were messy for us. would require round trips to MIA with overnights coming and going and then the round trip to AXA. which just runs up the cost and time.

 

[Damselfish]

I know people that rave about Anguilla as a beach vacation destination. Never heard anyone rave about the diving, though sometimes that is a chicken and egg problem and there are hidden jewels out there.

We stayed on St Martin/Maarten for a few days after a liveaboard, and I wish we had taken a few more days to check out Anguilla since you could just hop over there on a ferry. (Dunno right now.) St Martin diving was much better than we expected, though that might have been a lucky fluke of hitting great conditions. The island itself we found quite interesting to explore, with tons of great restaurants. Also lots of flights there. (Again, dunno on all that now.) You might consider splitting a trip between the 2 islands to hedge your bets.

 

[Andrew Dawson]

We have not been to Anguilla...considered it for our honeymoon...but went to St. Maartin instead. Diving is not great in St. Maartin....BUT....we took the ferry over to Saba and the diving there is FANTASTIC!! Excellent little island with great food and better hospitality.

There were 2 scuba shops on the island when we were there in 2011. Both were great. Boat diving only...there are deep dives...like 400fsw to the sand....but rocky pinnacles coming up to the surface so you dive along them. There is also a long shallow reef about a mile long...that is max at 60fsw, but a lot of the diving is about 40fsw so lots of bottom time. I saw huge tarpon, sea turtles, barracuda, corals, crabs, etc.

Saba is a destination that is worth considering and worth the effort to get there...just our experience

 

[SandyUT]

Saba has the crazy air strip! I want to try that out! Wife says NO GO MAN!

good call to ferry over tho. I like that idea. Looks like there is a ferry running on non-daily schedule. And looks like we can fly Delta to St Maaten which is preferred! this might work

 

[SandyUT]

but good lord the flights are pretty awful! still searching...

 

[drrich2]

If you're looking for an under appreciated 'gem' in the Caribbean, not often mentioned but well-reported when it is, I'd take a look at St. Eustatius. I was suprised to see one of my old instructors has a group trip planned for Jan. 2023 there. DAN's Alert Diver has a 2017 article A Salute to St. Eustatius. But a search for 'Anguilla' turned up no results.