Curacao? Better diving than Aruba - probably as easy to get to. Lots of shorediving options, easy entries and at some of the resorts you may be able to find a buddy - others are
resorts with diving so not as likely.
Lions Dive,
Breezes - full AI,
Hilton Curacao - all have an
Ocean Encounters shop on site. We dove with them and also shore dove at
OEWest (same outfit) in Westpunt.
Or the
Curacao Marriott with
Caribbbean Sea Sports who I've never used. The Marriott is just much nicer than the Hilton. Finding a buddy might be more difficult at any other than Lions Dive.
If you can get into Curacao by about 4PM, Bonaire is also an option. Short cheap flights over and back on
Insel Air,
Dutch Antilles Express
Stay at
Buddy Dive,
Capt' Dons Habitat,
Den Laman /
Sand Dollar condos, (look on vrbo.com) the
Divi Flamingo,
the Plaza Resort - finding a buddy shouldn't be much of a problem at any of them - except maybe the Plaza. All have on-site diveops also. The Divi is in town (close enough to walk to shops/food etc), the first 4 are north of town but (basically) adjacent to each other - the Plaza is a little south of town.
St Thomas isn't bad either. Maybe
Bolongo Bay/St. Thomas Diving Club? There's also the
Divi Carina on St. Croix - IDK anything about either. AA flies to either - look them up on AA.com as they've recently been dropped from Orbitz, Travelocity etc. St. Thomas is a little pricier.
Divetech or
Sunset House on Grand Cayman are the two AI's. At Divetech you'll want a car it's pretty far north. Sunset House is walking distance to Georgetown when you get tired of their restaurant. Pretty much everybody at My Bar there is probably a diver.
Use this for most/all of your
flight options. You just have to book with the airline or someone else.
Matrix - ITA Software
[-]watch this list for the next 5mins, I'm backfilling links as we post. [/-] Done - Good luck...
