Newly Certified Recreation Diver looking for some advice to plan an upcoming Honeymoon Diving trip.

[Aquathack]

Hello Scuba World of advanced lifelong professionals and weekend warriors. I am newly certified open water recreational diver. I am located in East Tennessee. I have been involved mostly in fresh water quarry dives at this point, but am looking to take a trip this coming October 2018 to somewhere with warm salt water. My fiancé and I are both certified, and we are working on planning a honeymoon that allows us to dive and also relax. We are located on the east coast, so I assuming the pacific waters most likely wont be in our budget, I was curious if anybody new of a good location to go to with a budget around $6000. My local dive shop; like most of the scuba world, always recommends Bonaire, which I tremendously love to read about and one day want to go. However, I was also warned there really isn't anything else there other than scuba tanks and non-stop diving. So I was wondering if anybody had a recommendation on a place where a good trip might be. We are an adventurous couple, so we are not looking for luxury, but we were hoping to maybe check out some sites, zip line, etc. We like to be apart of some cool outdoor recreational activities as well as scuba dive for majority of the trip. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance,

 

[Snoweman]

There's probably more than one answer to this question, but my answer is St. Lucia. Very adventurous and Superman's Flight is the best dive I have ever done in my 100 or so dives. Not a huge experience level, but it was an awesome dive.

I will go back to St. Lucia as soon as I can. It's an awesome place, with great folks.

 

[DangerousDan64]

Grenada would be well within your budget. Good reefs, lots of reef fishes, THE BIANCA C (must be nitrox certified or your time on the wreck will only be about 5 minutes! This is where I got my nitrox certification and the previous statement was all I needed to convince me that the time had come). Lots of interesting places to eat, beautiful, lush island with lots of hiking opportunities topside and If romance is on your agenda, I suggest renting a 4wd vehicle and staying at two bays villa. It is about 45 minutes drive from Auquanauts dive shop in
Georgetown and is WELL worth the inconvenience. Look it up.

 

[Jayfarmlaw]

I'm biased....but Cozumel is our favorite dive location in the Carribbean regardless of cost. You could spend half that and have enough for another vacation when time permits. We love the island, but the mainland offers cenote dives, tremendous Mayan ruins, and other options to get away that are just a $10 ferry ride away.

The diving is world class, great dive ops are everywhere, (we dive with Aldora for lots of reasons) and the food, people, and feel of the island are absolutely perfect. If you enjoy cultural experiences, the end of October and early November is Day of the Dead where the entire island comes out to celebrate the lives of loved ones passed. It's hands down my favorite holiday.

We have paid twice as much for a dive vacation, but nothing we have found compares to Cozumel.

Congratulations, and good luck.

Jay

 

[Johnoly]

.... We are an adventurous couple, so we are not looking for luxury,...,

You're young, want warm teeshirt diving, crystal blue water, unique food choices from a different restaurant each night, a bit of night life, a healthy but good breakfast and then a short walk to the dock where the boat will pick you up, and plenty of instagram photo ops. Sounds about right?

Go to Cozumel........Probably less than half of the 6k in your budget but does all the above. Stay in town at Casa Mexicana{Huge fresh healthy buffet every morning, overlooks the ocean too}, Dive with @Christi at Blue XT Sea , and read all the hundreds of individual dinner spots to walk to and choose different tastes each day. Christi can give you a package hotel & diving price that will save you a Bunch! Nightlife/dancing/bands are also walking distance from the hotel. The jungle is just minutes away and you can go zip lining, or ATV and Dune buggy rides, even see the 'ruins' from the mayans for a great photo op. Diving is perfect for new divers and the in water guide/DM will point out cool stuff to take a picture of. Flights should be 2 short hops from Tennessee and pretty cheap that time of year (low season).

With a little bit of planning, you can have that perfect balance of a honeymoon of great photos with kick back and relax people watching. For all your questions, go to the Cozumel section on this board and it will have every answer you want.

 

[drrich2]

We like to be apart of some cool outdoor recreational activities as well as scuba dive for majority of the trip.

Cozumel is also a major cruise ship port, which means it's likely got the infrastructure to provide a diverse array of entertainment to a large number of tourists. Do you want to interact with dolphins, tour Mayan ruins, etc...? Trip Advisor's 'Things to Do' section for a given destination can be helpful.

Richard.

 

[runsongas]

seconded on st lucia.

caradonna has packages for ti kaye and anse chastanet

 

[CapsFan22]

I have not been there, but we are doing part of our honeymoon at Coco Plum Island Resort in Belize. Depending on your package choice and length of stay, it comes in under your budget. There is diving and snorkeling included in some of the packages, it’s on a secluded caye of the coast of Belize, but is close enough to the mainland that you can make day trips over for adventure (zip lining, cave tubing, Mayan ruins, etc.).

Again, I haven’t been there, so take this recommendation with a grain of salt, but you may want to look in that direction.

 

[KathyV]

A lot depends on whether you and your finance plan to try to become pregnant any time soon because there is the risk of Zika infection and transmission when traveling to many tropical destinations, and all of the places that have been mentioned so far in this thread are on the CDC's Zika warning list.

Zika infection during pregnancy can cause microcephaly (incomplete brain development) in the baby. The areas without risk of Zika are often more expensive, like Bermuda, Cayman, and Hawaii.

If you are not planning for pregnancy soon and take precautions during the trip and for the recommended period after you return, then it should be fine. I'm just suggesting that you should be aware of the risks and recommendations, see the link below (or your finance should talk to her doctor.)

Women Trying to Become Pregnant | Zika and Pregnancy | CDC

 

[diversteve]

Some places that offer both and one to consider non-zipline.

Belize as mentioned - they also have rivr tubing, mayan ruins, the jaguar preserve, good barrier reef diving. I'm not sure where the ziplines are in relation to the diving - think they're inland so you might have to split your trip. Southwest recently started flying to Belize City - from there it's a cheap ferry to Ambergris Cay or a $200ish r/t flight to south Belize which puts you close to the other activities but diving is further out by boat.

Roatan has both.See what you think of Anthony's Key dive resort as they have a BOGO so the whole stay for both of you is around $2200 - flights being about $800 more r/t pp. It's also where you can dive with the Dolphins for around $125/pp.

The beaches mostly suck on Roatan except for West Bay which is also where one of the ziplines is. Resorts in all price ranges in the area. Lots of bugs on Roatan if it's an issue - probably not a bad idea to the the Malaria program..

There's also St. Thomas.- they even have a tandem zipline. Personally we liked the East End more than downtown. There's several nicer resorts with on-site dive shops - Coki Beach is a decent shore dive and from there you can also "drive" (car ferry) over to St John. Good shallower diving in that area in the cays.

Also you can take an hour ferry ride to the BVI's - see the famous Baths. Very picturesque. The fast ferries run so often it's actually possible to dive with operators in the area - DiveBVI for example is about a block from the ferry port on Virgin Gorda. Once a week they dive the RMS Rhone - a massive shallow wreck.

Or split your time between the two countries - we did.The ferries make it easy - all flights to both countries are thru St. Thomas and one of the ferry ports 10mins. from the airport. The BVI's are a little pricier. What's nice is they have better than expected restaurants given the small population since there's a lot of big villas.

Downside right now is both St John and parts of the BVI's took a massive hurricane hit last year so some things may not be open yet.

If you want to forego the ziplines - look at Curacao. There's resorts in all price ranges - IMO better shore diving than Bonaire and many of the sites are easy beach entries with dive shops on site. That doesn't exist on Bonaire except at the dive resorts in town.You should be able to easily do Curacao for well less than your budget - www.curacao.com
It has all the things Bonaire lacks - nightlife, casinos, good restaurants, the Ostrich Farm, Sea Aquarium (they do Dolphin dives there) etc.