ReadyTo Dive
Contributor
There are many threads on this same question already but I didn’t find one that matched my exact set of circumstances; apologies if I somehow missed it. Also apologies in advance for any other obvious ignorances on my part.
We (wife and I) have between 7–9 days to spend during the week of Valentines Day 2020. We originally thought/begun to plan our 3rd trip to Cozumel but have always wanted to dive the colorful reefs of Raja Ampat/similar. Neither of us have ever been to SE Asia but today I thought I would ask if there were such a plan/itinerary that could accomplish the following for around $4000+/- USD:
Ideally we would like to:
Fly from DFW to Indo on Feb 7 or 8
Fly back on Feb 15 or 16
(SW and AA are the preferred airlines we currently have points and/or credit with to help with expenses)
Most likely stay and dive with the same facility/op since neither of us speak the language nor will we have someone with us who speaks the language. AI possibly? Definite bonus points for being able to do 2-3 above water excursions/similar.
We will (of course) require transportation to/fro and regarding the accommodations we simply need air-conditioning and access to western food. We can pretty much work with everything else as long as it is clean and safe.
We travel to dive so this is what is most important to us. The wife prefers calm 150’ viz water and bright pink soft corals draped in seahorses (lol) and I am mostly chasing pelagics. Would prefer to avoid heavily polluted areas where are you must dive/wade through mountains of plastic to access the reef (videos of Bali I believe? Unsure/ignorant). Both of us have a over 100 dives apiece ranging from the Flower Gardens to Grenada to Dominica to greenwater TX lakes.
Again this would be our first SE Asia trip and while we have dove all over the Caribbean we will not be traveling with a guide/experienced person so we should probably stick to the “more traveled roads” especially being we won’t likely have time to do a LOB.
Thank you one and all for taking the time to read this and for any replies/itinerary suggestions.
We (wife and I) have between 7–9 days to spend during the week of Valentines Day 2020. We originally thought/begun to plan our 3rd trip to Cozumel but have always wanted to dive the colorful reefs of Raja Ampat/similar. Neither of us have ever been to SE Asia but today I thought I would ask if there were such a plan/itinerary that could accomplish the following for around $4000+/- USD:
Ideally we would like to:
Fly from DFW to Indo on Feb 7 or 8
Fly back on Feb 15 or 16
(SW and AA are the preferred airlines we currently have points and/or credit with to help with expenses)
Most likely stay and dive with the same facility/op since neither of us speak the language nor will we have someone with us who speaks the language. AI possibly? Definite bonus points for being able to do 2-3 above water excursions/similar.
We will (of course) require transportation to/fro and regarding the accommodations we simply need air-conditioning and access to western food. We can pretty much work with everything else as long as it is clean and safe.
We travel to dive so this is what is most important to us. The wife prefers calm 150’ viz water and bright pink soft corals draped in seahorses (lol) and I am mostly chasing pelagics. Would prefer to avoid heavily polluted areas where are you must dive/wade through mountains of plastic to access the reef (videos of Bali I believe? Unsure/ignorant). Both of us have a over 100 dives apiece ranging from the Flower Gardens to Grenada to Dominica to greenwater TX lakes.
Again this would be our first SE Asia trip and while we have dove all over the Caribbean we will not be traveling with a guide/experienced person so we should probably stick to the “more traveled roads” especially being we won’t likely have time to do a LOB.
Thank you one and all for taking the time to read this and for any replies/itinerary suggestions.