Costa Rica - Hotel recomenedation / dive outfitter

[kwelker]

We just got back from Costa Rica. We stayed for a week and rented a car. We flew into Liberia, stayed in a private home near Playa Flamingo. We dove with the dive shop at the Flamingo Beach Hotel (I cannot remember their name, but they are the dive shop actually located at the hotel in the back, not the one being marketed from the front of the hotel at another location) Anyway, we dove Catalina from that location for $75.00 for a two tank dive that was truly fantastic. The visability is not great if you are used to Caribbean diving. But the sea life is spectacular! The schools of fish and sting ray are spectacular. Swimming among the schools is a fantastic experience. We chose to fill our vacation with other things such as canopy zip tours through the jungle, horseback riding on the beach, snorkeling at Conchal Beach(where we saw the famous poisonous blue octopus) also near Flamingo before scuba diving at our second location...Drove down the monkey trial from Playa Pinca to Playa de Coco with Rich Coast Diving. The beach here is Black Sand, so snorkel here. It is great. This dive shop is owned by a young American woman and knows what divers want. The boat is a cat. We had sandwiches, sodas, water, watermelon, pineapple, mangos and other fruit for lunch. It was great. We paid $80.00 for a three tank dive. The dives were long enough that by the third dive, I was wanting the wet suit they tried to tell me I would need. Again, the visability was not fabulous, but the sea life was marvelous. We saw sea horses, white tip sharks, sea turtles, schools of fish and rays, 4 different types of sting rays, sea snakes, snake eels, zebra eels, moray eels, and sting rays the size of VW buses. We had six in our party so we had the dive all to ourselves. They only schedule small groups at this dive shop. They were great. I have dove Cayman, Turks and Caicos, Hawaii, Guam and this is by far the best diving for sea life that I have seen. If you are a coral buff, you will be disappointed as the terrain is similar to Hawaii...Volcanic. Have fun. Contact the dive shop at www.richcoastdiving.com.

 

[AlexRodriguez]

Drove down the monkey trial from Playa Pinca to Playa de Coco with Rich Coast Diving. The beach here is Black Sand, so snorkel here. It is great. This dive shop is owned by a young American woman and knows what divers want. The boat is a cat. We had sandwiches, sodas, water, watermelon, pineapple, mangos and other fruit for lunch. It was great. We paid $80.00 for a three tank dive. The dives were long enough that by the third dive, I was wanting the wet suit they tried to tell me I would need. Again, the visability was not fabulous, but the sea life was marvelous. We saw sea horses, white tip sharks, sea turtles, schools of fish and rays, 4 different types of sting rays, sea snakes, snake eels, zebra eels, moray eels, and sting rays the size of VW buses. We had six in our party so we had the dive all to ourselves. They only schedule small groups at this dive shop. They were great. I have dove Cayman, Turks and Caicos, Hawaii, Guam and this is by far the best diving for sea life that I have seen. If you are a coral buff, you will be disappointed as the terrain is similar to Hawaii...Volcanic. Have fun. Contact the dive shop at www.richcoastdiving.com.

Great, thank you for taking the time to provide this report. I am heading down to Costa Rica next week and have already scheduled a trip with Rich Coast Diving. Makes me want to leave today.

Alex

 

[Rivermonkey]

I dove with Diving Safaris, booked through Bill Beards. Price was good, but I was limited to no more than 40 minutes dives, or 1000 psi. Most of the time I came back with 1400-1600 psi left. They only do two tank boat dives, unless you are part of a class. The afternoon one tanker always seems to get cancelled. So does the night dive. I felt cheated.

I was put on boats with resort divers with little to no experience. I told them I wanted to go to Catalinas Island or more advanced sites or to be part of a three tank dive day or to go on a night dive or to just rent tanks for shore diving. They denied me on all counts.

Actually this will happen to you at almost any dive shop in Guanacaste. Most shops have 1 boat...Diving Safaris has 5. They are the oldest dive shop in the country and go to over 20 different dive sites, whereas most other shops go to . Rich Coast has a great trimiran but uses a 15hp engine to head to dive sopts. Safaris does regular trips to Catalinas and Bat Islands only when there are enough people...its a 45 minute ride out to Catalinas and 90 to Bats, there and with strong currents and surges at both. This is the Pacific not the kiddie pool of the Carribean. =)

 

[SoCalAngel]

......

Actually this will happen to you at almost any dive shop in Guanacaste. Most shops have 1 boat...Diving Safaris has 5. They are the oldest dive shop in the country and go to over 20 different dive sites, whereas most other shops go to . Rich Coast has a great trimiran but uses a 15hp engine to head to dive sopts. Safaris does regular trips to Catalinas and Bat Islands only when there are enough people...its a 45 minute ride out to Catalinas and 90 to Bats, there and with strong currents and surges at both. This is the Pacific not the kiddie pool of the Carribean. =)

That's pretty sad...because I always thought dive shops were supposed to be customer service oriented. Especially as I would have been willing to pay for spots not occupied by others in order for it to happen.

I am no "kiddie pool diver." I have never dove in the caribbean. I dive in cold California waters, low vis, surge, currents, kelp...no biggie. I had no real issue we never made it to Bat or Catalina Islands, even though I do know that 5 others wanted to go. My issue was MY dive time was limited. I could have stayed within rec limits AND still have had longer dives. California diving is not for all divers. If one can dive here, one can dive most anywhere, it is rigorous diving not for the light at heart or "rec-vacational" divers. I have spent 6 hours on a boat going to dive sites at San Clemente Island. Heck, to go to California's Catalina Island, it takes anywhere from 1 hour to 2 hours to get there, depending on the boat. I am accustomed to dive boats allowing me to plan my dive and profiles, not having them mandated to me.

Diving safaris seems to be interested in the fast easy tourist dollar, not catering to diver's requests or experience levels.

 

[puravida02]

I'm a Costa Rica who regularly dives the North Pacific Coast. What Scubalaurel described as his experience is a bummer and do happens. It has happened to me before, especially when diving with big groups with different experience levels. Dive Masters would try to keep the group together, and more experienced divers with longer botom times could get affected. I suppose the usually low visibility stresses this, as otherwise, they would be more relaxed with divers being a bit more independent. I regularly dive with Ocotal and they are quite relaxed. They normally move large groups though (the "cattle cars"). When I want to dive the spots I want to (say I'm taking my camera and want to do macro photography), I go with Summer Salt. Their small boat could fit no more than 9 or 10 divers but they would go out even with just 2 divers. Their service is second to none. Ask for Frank to be your dive master. You'de be in great hands and you will be able to dive at leisure.

What Kwelker reports is more what I normally experience. Just great diving full of nice underwater surprises, in spite of poor viz.

Lastly, I'm sorry to hear what happened to Cdiver2; I've stayed in Ocotal many times and never had a problem. I had a similar incident in Bonnaire once, though. Maybe partly my fault for leaving a used, empty dive gear bag (valued at $20) inside a locked car. My advice, do insist to speak with the Hotel Manager, if he/she's not responsive enough tell them you're going to call the "Defensoria del Consumidor" (Consumer's Defense Bureau) to file a claim. That normally works. Dial 113 for information, ask for the Defensoria's number and call them.

On final word, for those considering to come diving to Costa Rica, water temperature is warm until late November (a 3mm would do, even though I normally recommend the 5 mm because you can hit thermoclines in almost every dive). Between December and late April, bring a hood!

 

[cdiver2]

I'm a Costa Rica who regularly dives the North Pacific Coast. What Scubalaurel described as his experience is a bummer and do happens. It has happened to me before, especially when diving with big groups with different experience levels. Dive Masters would try to keep the group together, and more experienced divers with longer botom times could get affected. I suppose the usually low visibility stresses this, as otherwise, they would be more relaxed with divers being a bit more independent. I regularly dive with Ocotal and they are quite relaxed. They normally move large groups though (the "cattle cars"). When I want to dive the spots I want to (say I'm taking my camera and want to do macro photography), I go with Summer Salt. Their small boat could fit no more than 9 or 10 divers but they would go out even with just 2 divers. Their service is second to none. Ask for Frank to be your dive master. You'de be in great hands and you will be able to dive at leisure.

What Kwelker reports is more what I normally experience. Just great diving full of nice underwater surprises, in spite of poor viz.

Lastly, I'm sorry to hear what happened to Cdiver2; I've stayed in Ocotal many times and never had a problem. I had a similar incident in Bonnaire once, though. Maybe partly my fault for leaving a used, empty dive gear bag (valued at $20) inside a locked car. My advice, do insist to speak with the Hotel Manager, if he/she's not responsive enough tell them you're going to call the "Defensoria del Consumidor" (Consumer's Defense Bureau) to file a claim. That normally works. Dial 113 for information, ask for the Defensoria's number and call them.

On final word, for those considering to come diving to Costa Rica, water temperature is warm until late November (a 3mm would do, even though I normally recommend the 5 mm because you can hit thermoclines in almost every dive). Between December and late April, bring a hood!

I was very annoyed at this incident as it took place inside Ocotal grounds. I could have accepted it a lot lighter had I been parked outside where the general public has access. Then with little to no help from the management leaving me to wonder around town looking for the right police station...well that left a bad taste in my mouth.
I will say though the police were great. They did everything they could..dust for prints. go through mug shots and were very sympathetic.

 

[puravida02]

Yes, I hear you. That sucks. Having happened on Ocotal's property and most likely because of following their own guard's instructions (which in my opinion makes them even more liable), I think they should have assumed responsibility and not just passed the problem to the local police. As you probably saw, there's a lot of new construction going on around the Ocotal Hotel and I'd say is fairly easy for somebody (i.e. a construction worker) to trespass. Not saying this is what happened but it's a possibility. Still, I like Ocotal Hotel very much and their diving operation is great.

 

[cdiver2]

Yes, I hear you. That sucks. Having happened on Ocotal's property and most likely because of following their own guard's instructions (which in my opinion makes them even more liable), I think they should have assumed responsibility and not just passed the problem to the local police. As you probably saw, there's a lot of new construction going on around the Ocotal Hotel and I'd say is fairly easy for somebody (i.e. a construction worker) to trespass. Not saying this is what happened but it's a possibility. Still, I like Ocotal Hotel very much and their diving operation is great.

a couple of years ago no construction at the time. I am convinced (but can not prove) it was the security guard, I had parked for a week in the same spot (out in the open) and our last evening the guard told me to move my car to another spot (walls and bush's around it?.

 

[SoCalAngel]

...
On final word, for those considering to come diving to Costa Rica, water temperature is warm until late November (a 3mm would do, even though I normally recommend the 5 mm because you can hit thermoclines in almost every dive). Between December and late April, bring a hood!

Thanks for the empathy!

As far as dive suits, 3mm? Really? I would have burned up in a 3 mm. I wore a 1/2mm fullsuit. The water temp (in July) was 82 at the surface a chilly 78F at 80ft. Seemed really warm to me (of course, that IS in comparision to CA water temps of 58-65F, when I wear a 7 mm fullsuit with 5mm hooded vest!)

What is the water temp in November, and between December and April? Is there really a big difference?

 

[puravida02]

I only use my 3mm when diving The Caribbean or Bocas del Toro (Panama) but I guess you're right, I'm not used to really cold waters.

In November, waters are still around 80 degrees or so. Between December and April, expect low 70s. I remember this particular dive I did in February 05 with water temp. at 67. I decided to pass on the second dive!