Dive your brains out in Dominica?

[sidwise]

The Dominica reviews on the board, both good and bad, deal primarily with boat dives. And, as I read them, they are primarily morning trips, with the occasional night boat dive. All that's good, but ...

Is there somewhere in Dominica like CoCoView Resort (in Roatan)? I'm looking for somewhere I can do 5 dives a day. Boat dives are great (and I'd like to do a few each day), but I'd also like somewhere I can just strap on a tank, step off the dock, and get in good quality dives each afternoon and evening. Dive my profile whatever time I want to get wet, whether I have a buddy or not. That freedom to dive, to have it my way, is one of the things I love most about CoCoView.

Doesn't have to be all inclusive, doesn't have to have nightlife. Just to complicate things, I'm traveling alone and will want a private room. Doesn't have to be fancy, just secure, clean, and a few steps from the gear locker to the water.

Not looking for someplace that advertises unlimited shore diving (they all do), but someplace you actually want it and can do it. A cross between CoCoView and the Cayman Diving Lodge. Anyplace in Dominica like that?

 

[peterjmaerz]

Hi Sidewise,

Best I've seen in Dominica is Castle Comfort lodge with the Dive Dominica Operation. Their shore diving is pretty good--I've seen frogfish and seahorses and a fair amount of other critters and small fish. Decent corals. Overall, though, it ain't no Bonaire! If you've got a jeep and are willing to travel the 15 minutes or so to Scott's Head at the southern tip of the island, there's a nice reef accessible from shore there. There may be some other sites accessible from shore a bit farther north, but I'm not sure how far off shore they are.

The rooms at Castle Comfort are basic but fairly spacious and comfortable. I travel exclusively as a single diver and found the accomodations relatively inexpensive there. The owner, Derek, and his wife are good people. Good local food (not gourmet!).

Overall, there's not a wealth of dive sites in Dominica. Those that do exist are very good, with lots of marine life and healthy sponges and corals. Very little in the way of big fish, though.

Hope this helps.


Best Regards,

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

East Carib Dive has a great house reef accessible by shore diving, and they really do a good job on boat dives as well. When we were there, the local PhD marine biology researcher had his grad students on their boat with us - pretty good advertising and boat buddies on variety of sites and quality of dive experience. We stayed at Anse-a-Liane which is now out of business. I'm sure Beatrice & Harald can help you find whatever type accomodations you're looking for - we really enjoyed being mid-coast, away from the two main towns unless we wanted to go to town. We rented a 4WD Vitarra with Left Hand Drive (steering wheel like here in the USA), and had a great time above & below the water. It remains one of the best dive vacations we've taken thus far. Nose Reef and Rena's Hole were particularly outstanding sites when we visited about 4 years ago. Their house reef is where we saw our first flying gurnards, in the sand flats between the shore entry and the reef.

There's a great abundance of dive sites on Dominica - if you choose to be mid-coast, they're all just about as easily accessible. We even got a dive in the Martinique passage one day while we were there! The furthest we went in the other direction was Toucari Bay.

Here's the web link - if you choose to go with East Carib, drop me a PM! I also put the marine biologist research web link below the East Carib link.

http://eastcaribdive.free.fr/en/ecd/index.php

The Tamarind Tree is right in that area as well.

http://www.tamarindtreedominica.com/

http://www.itme.org/

 

[peterjmaerz]

any[/i] sites north of Roseau, even though I spent many days exploring the entire island by jeep! All the diving I did was between Roseau and Scott's Head, with the bulk of the sites near SH. I had quite a number of very good dives in that area but it seems like I missed out on many more.

The East Carib website's (and your) descriptions of the diving in their vicinity sound very inviting. Another example of learning from ScubaBoard.

Best Regards,

 

[Scuba65]

I'd also try Anchorage Hotel/Dive Centre I stayed there this past March and it was a great place....cheap and good diving. you can do boat diving with them or you just can step off the dock and dive. It's located in Roseau...make sure you do a boat dive to Scott's Head.

 

[diverrick]

So do the dive places that only do two dives a day, let you use the tanks and fills for shore dives away from the resorts? is there an extra charge for the use and the fills? I too am looking for a place to "dive my brains out" in Dominica, but am having trouble finding anyplace that does more than two dives a day.