Diving in Turks Beaches Resort

[Mike126]

Hey guys thanks for the replies. We just got back over the weekend. I ended up diving with Beaches. Mostly because this was a family vacation and not a dive trip. Yes it was a total cattle car experience and the DM kept us at 40-50 ft. We had 25 people on board. I only dove 1 day since the experience was not that enjoyable.

Good news was I spent more time with my family snorkeling and sailing so the overall vacation was very good.

My wife agreed that I should take a separate dive trip.



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[terrells]

. Yes it was a total cattle car experience and the DM kept us at 40-50 ft. We had 25 people on board. I only dove 1 day since the experience was not that enjoyable.

We are here this week, and dove for the first time today. I think with school already having started in some places this week is much less busy - We were on a boat with 12 people, all certified, and our group was just 4 people (all advanced). Depth was limited to 80 feet, and bottom time was just under 50 minutes for both dives.

We were mostly here for a family vacation, and came knowing the diving might not be the best, but so far it has been a lot better than we expected

 

[terrells]

tl/dr: You will get wet, and there is almost 100% chance you will see turtles and sharks (even if it is just from a distance) but don't expect to be blown away.

It looks like our first day was a bit unusual - from then on we had 20+ divers on the boat. We've used this board for research for our dive trips, so in case someone is looking into beaches, here is a run down of how things were for us.

We were able to sign up for the full week of diving on the first day - but I think when it is busier you need to sign up each day. Each morning you need to check in before the dive. Unfortunately at the 8:15 checkin time there are also people checking in for snorkeling and glass bottom boats, and one tank dives and discover scuba diving, so it is a bit chaotic until people figure out they need to make separate lines for each.

You need to do a resort orientation - if you have dove recently and have a certain amount of logged dives it is just a verbal briefing. If you haven't done any dives recently, or haven't done many dives you need to do an in pool orientation, and possibly a refresher course. One guy on our boat did the verbal orientation @8:15 and was able to dive that day (the boat left a bit late) but again, I don't think that is normal.

We did the two tank dives, and everyone on our boat each day was a certified diver. They split the boat up into 3 different groups based on experience and cert level. We are advanced, and so we were always diving with advanced divers.

The first dive of the day would be ~45 minutes away from the resort at one of the Northwest Point dive sites, and would be a deeper dive. We spent the surface interval coming back closer to the resort, and the second dive would be at one of the sites in Grace Bay.

The diving itself was DM lead dives. Most people didn't really buddy up, and if they did, the buddy groups didn't really stay together very well - and everyone just followed the DM. You were definitely not encourage to drop in and dive as a buddy team and find the boat on your own. Turn around is when someone hits 1500psi. Most of our dives ended up being in the 45-50 minute range.

We thought the diving itself was just okay - which is kind of strange. We generally saw a couple of sharks on the first dive, and a couple of turtles on the second dive, and groupers on both, but other than that (which are definitely highlights for most divers) I think the coral and fish pale compared to the other places we have dove (Bonaire, Cozumel, CocoView in Roatan, Lighthouse Reef in Belize).

Also, the divers we dove with were very much "Vacation divers". Some just went on one day of diving during their week here, and many were certified at Beaches and do an annual trip there, and have never dove anywhere else. We talked to some people who said the diving here was really good, but their only other diving was at Beaches in Jamaica. A few brought their own mask and snorkels, but we were the only ones I saw all week who brought our own gear, and we were also the only ones who signed up for 5 days of two tanks in a row, although we did see some familiar faces each day.

 

[KathyV]

Thanks for the report. How was the resort just as a vacation spot?

Don't judge T&C diving by that experience. We have done 2 liveaboard trips in the turks, diving primarily around French Cay and West Caicos and it ranks high among the best diving I have done in the Caribbean. Beautiful walls with extensive coral and sponge formations, lots of life and big critters on just about every dives including sharks, turtles, and eagle rays.

It's been 2 years since we've been there but I can't imagined it would have changed dramatically in that time.

 

[terrells]

The resort was very nice, and our daughter loved it. Overall the food options were better than I was expecting - most of the food was definitely above average. The indian restaurant was probably our favorite - but we didn't have anything that wasn't tasty while we were there. We were upgraded to the Key West Village which is the newest area, and so our room was VERY nice (we had a full kitchen with stove/dishwasher and a washer/dryer), but it also seemed a bit quieter than the rest of the villages. The beach, of course, is ridiculously nice. They have a couple of little groupings of artificial reefs in their roped off swimming areas, were we did some snorkeling, but it isn't an actual reef (in ~20 minutes we saw a stingray, barracuda, grouper, pufferfish, and assorted other smaller reef fish).

It was a bit strange to get used to how all inclusive the resort is - you really aren't supposed to tip for anything, including drinks at the bars or even the divemasters. We also had a fairly stocked bar in our room (water,soda, beer, wine, as well as full bottles of hard alcohol and mixers) that was replenished daily. We didn't make much use of that except for the waters and juices, but did talk to a couple who were on their honeymoon who drank a bottle of champagne each night, and then next day, another one replaced it.

As a family vacation it was really good, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for a family resort. One of the diving days was cancelled due to hurricane Erika, and we walked up the beach and did some shopping and exploring in Grace Bay. Turks and Caicos is definitely pricey - a lot of merchandise had the MSRP crossed out and prices doubled - $143 seems pretty steep for a pair of board shorts!

Beaches has some incentives to book a return visit before you leave, but we weren't ready to commit to going back just yet. We have at least 2 more years before our daughter will be old enough to dive (and even then, we may try to get her to wait a few more years), so I could definitely see us going back.