Grand Cayman, Turks and Caicos or Florida Keys

[mi000ke]

If you are looking for nice places, the Ritz, Westin, and The Meridian (luxury condos for rent) are top rated and located on the best part of the beach. If you plan to spend any time at the beach, the advantage of a condo is that you will have very little in the way of crowds so no problem finding a lounge chair. But you won't have room service. The new Kimpton Seafire s an amazing place if you like over the top grounds/facilities and hotel services. All are just a few minute car ride from DiveTech (my go-to dive op).

 

[Trailboss123]

Agree with @scubadada - get a car and see if the accommodations at Dive Tech work for you. If so, you are golden. Do your boat dives with them and you have shore dives right there also. Sunset House would be another option, but they seem to be more set up for week long guests. Nevertheless, check with them just in case they can accommodate a shorter stay. If so, same thing. AM boat dives and a house reef for afternoon shore and night dives.

 

[Trailboss123]

They (Sunset House) also have a pool and great restaurant on site.

 

[Hoag]

A few years ago, I did a trip to Grand Turk and it was amazing. I went with a group and we stayed at a resort called the Bohio. It is a small resort run by a couple of Canadian expats and their family. The resort itself was not "world class" per se, but the rooms were very nice and clean, and the food was amazing.

Our diving was with Oasis Divers and was incredible. A typical dive day would go something like this:

• Get up & go for breakfast
• Get ready for the dive (including putting on your wetsuit)
• Oasis Divers' boat shows up at the resort's beach and they load you BCD & gear on to the boat (you carry your mask, fins snorkel & camera if you have one)
• As soon as the boat pushes off the beach, finish getting ready (set up your BCD, put on your fins and put on your BCD and check your air) The boat ride to most dive sites is about 5-10 minutes and then the "pool is open"
• After the dive, they bring you back to the resort and you place your order for lunch
• Back to the boat for the 2nd dive
• Same 5 minute boat ride to the next dive site, so start getting ready right away
• Do the dive and then back to the hotel.
• Go to your room and shower/change
  
• Come back and your lunch comes within a few minutes
• The afternoon is yours to relax or to do what you want with

The diving was predominantly walls and sandy flats. Grand Turk is not nearly as "sharky" as Provo and the surrounding area, but I saw more turtles on that trip than I have seen in all of my previous diving combined. We saw turtles on every dive and on a couple dives, we saw 5 turtles.

I can highly recommend the Bohio and Oasis Divers. It was a great trip!

 

[drrich2]

The afternoon is yours to relax or to do what you want with

Is Grand Turk pretty much a 2 dives/day place? What sort of things do people tend to do there in the afternoon? That's all the more important if you've got a lot to time left after diving.

Richard.

 

[Hoag]

Is Grand Turk pretty much a 2 dives/day place? What sort of things do people tend to do there in the afternoon? That's all the more important if you've got a lot to time left after diving.

Richard.

On the trip I was on, it was pretty much 2 dives per day. I went with a group, and that was the package that the group had. I am sure that if you wanted to do 3 (or 4 if including a night dive) dives for either the whole trip or maybe just for a couple days it would be no problem to arrange.

As for what people did in the afternoons, some took a nap. Some caught some sun. Some went downtown. Some snorkeled. Some kayaked. One day, some went on a whale watching trip. (We were there in March, and the whales were migrating through the area.)


Note: Edited to reflect that the afternoon dive is a one tank dive. (A night dive is also available.)

 

[ScubaSteve85]

Man, I wasn't even looking and I think you guys managed to talk me into a trip to Grand Cayman. Can't really beat <$300 airfare direct from NYC either. Looks like divetech is an SSI shop as well so maybe I can work some specialty courses into a trip.

 

[Saboteur]

A few years ago, I did a trip to Grand Turk and it was amazing. I went with a group and we stayed at a resort called the Bohio. It is a small resort run by a couple of Canadian expats and their family. The resort itself was not "world class" per se, but the rooms were very nice and clean, and the food was amazing.

Our diving was with Oasis Divers and was incredible. A typical dive day would go something like this:

• Get up & go for breakfast
• Get ready for the dive (including putting on your wetsuit)
• Oasis Divers' boat shows up at the resort's beach and they load you BCD & gear on to the boat (you carry your mask, fins snorkel & camera if you have one)
• As soon as the boat pushes off the beach, finish getting ready (set up your BCD, put on your fins and put on your BCD and check your air) The boat ride to most dive sites is about 5-10 minutes and then the "pool is open"
• After the dive, they bring you back to the resort and you place your order for lunch
• Back to the boat for the 2nd dive
• Same 5 minute boat ride to the next dive site, so start getting ready right away
• Do the dive and then back to the hotel.
• Go to your room and shower/change
  
• Come back and your lunch comes within a few minutes
• The afternoon is yours to relax or to do what you want with

The diving was predominantly walls and sandy flats. Grand Turk is not nearly as "sharky" as Provo and the surrounding area, but I saw more turtles on that trip than I have seen in all of my previous diving combined. We saw turtles on every dive and on a couple dives, we saw 5 turtles.

I can highly recommend the Bohio and Oasis Divers. It was a great trip!

Great write up as l'm considering a trip to GT (possibly Bohio) in September. Is Oasis Divers the dive operator for the hotel? From Bohio's website it appears that Bohio has their own dive operation.

 

[Hoag]

Great write up as l'm considering a trip to GT (possibly Bohio) in September. Is Oasis Divers the dive operator for the hotel? From Bohio's website it appears that Bohio has their own dive operation.

I really can't answer that question. I was part of a group of about 20, and the guy who organized the trip had everything set up, so I don't know if he booked Oasis separately, or if he booked through Bohio and then Bohio turned to Oasis to help them out.

 

[Hoag]

@Saboteur I just noticed where you are from. Tom & Ginny, the couple that run Bohio are a couple of Canadian expats. If you show up with a pound or two of "Timmies" coffee, you will be on their good side for the rest of your trip.