I just spent ten days diving in the Northern Marianas. Here is the scoop:
I flew to Guam from Tokyo and then flew to Saipan on Continental Connection. (Easily booked on Expedia).
There is only one dive shop that caters to non Japanese and that is the Russian owned Speedy Tertle (yes its spelled that way and not "turtle") which caters to Russian and English speaking divers. They offer a very high quality personalized service but it isn't cheap: One Tank shore dive is $60, 2 tank shore dive at the same site is $90 and at different sites is $100. Two tank boat dives range from $90-$120 for Tinian. If you need to rent gear it will cost you more. English speakers should call Eric (a very professional Filipino Instructor) on +1-670-483-9617. Russian speakers can call Sasha at +1-670-483-9613 & 14. The general number is +1-670-234-6284. You can e-mail Eric at
ejavier@speedytertle.com but he doesn't always respond promptly. (He responds to people booking immediate trips first and if he has time gets around to people contacting him months in advance which doesn't always make it easy to plan trips).
I stayed at a budget hotel recommended by the dive shop and within walking distance from it (though they will pick you up at your hotel and drive you to the docks or shore dive sites): Summer Holiday A single inclusive of taxes is about $63 and is a comfortable self contained suite with wireless Internet access. It's a friendly place and right around the corner from a 24 hour convenience store and lots of restaurants.
www.sholiday.com. E-mail:
sholiday@pticom.com. Tel. +1-670-234-3182. The dive shop can also make a reservation for you. Don't book via their online Dubai agent as it will cost you $25 more to do this. If you want to stay somewhere fancier you can stay at the Hyatt.
So what's the diving like? The water is very warm (29C) and clear 70-100 feet plus and extremely blue. The Saipan Grotto is a great dive although you have to walk up and down 117 steep steps with all your gear to do it. It's 3 grottos with sea access and you swim in and out of the sea via these passages in fantastic blue waters. There is very little fish life and its volcanic underwater which means there is intersting hard coral but less soft coral growth. I didn't think the shore dives other than the grott were that great but I liked the Chinzen Wreck--a Japanese wreck sank with lots of Korean slaves on board. Its shallow and a relaxing dive. The Koreans put up a plaque to commemorate their dead but the Japanese groups aren't told about all this in their dive briefings!
I also dove Tinian from Saipan on a day trip. The waters of Tinian are even clearer than those of Saipan and we saw some turtles, a stingray but otherwise few fish again. The Tinian grotto is an easy dive and also freatures the lovely blue waters of the Marianas but is not as spectacular as Saipan's. It takes 45 minutes in a fast RIB or 1.5 hours in a slow boat to get there and you generally do two dives--one the grotto and the second, Fleming's Point which is a reef dive.
I spent 5 days on Saipan before going to Rota (via Freedom Air), but if I had to do it again I would spend two full days diving Saipan and Tinian (one day Tinian; one day Saipan's grotto and the Chinzen wreck ands skip the Saipan shore based dives). Note, however, unless you are a group, your boat dives will be determined based on what dive boats catering to Japanese have free spots and you can't chose your destination, so you may have to leave a few days spare if you want to make sure of getting to Tinian.
Rota has one of the best dive operations I have ever had the pleasure of patronizing and the waters there are clearer than in Saipan and Tinian and there is more fish. I wish I had left more time to dive in Rota and relax there are it is a very peaceful and undeveloped place. Sirena Divers is Japanese owned by the Hayashis who run a superb operation in their back yard overlooking the sea. But they also cater to English speakers (there are two other dive operations on Rota which cater to Japanese only) and are often helped by Mark Michaels who used to own Dive Rota but recently sold his business but still e-mails English speaking guests of the Hayashis and takes boat trips out when Hayashi-san is busy. They have very clean toilets, rinse tanks, drying areas, lots of room to relax and chat with fellow divers, have a plastic cup with your name on it ready for you for water and green tea, plastic wallets to hold your valuables and your gear is all ready for you every morning, except they rightly like guests to set up their own tanks. They are very prompt in responding to e-mails and nothing is too much trouble--they even organized my dives in Guam when MDA wouldn't take me out. Their boat is small but very clean and ample for the few divers that come through here at any one time (Rota is praying for JAL to start regular flights again in August as business is very slow due to the inconvenient flight schedules for guests from Japan.) Contact: Sirena Marine Sevice, Mr. Kazuyoshi Hayashi. E-mail:
sirena@pti.com.
www.hi-ho.ne.jp/k-akiba/ Tel. +1-670-532-0304. Prices are extremely good value and they organize lovely lunch boxes for $5 from different restaurants in town based on your likes--please advise them in advance if you are a veggie.
I stayed at the Rota Hotel for $95 a single with breakfast. Its Japanese run and very comfortable. (Note no TV, but Internet via cable in the lobby.) There are 30 large rooms around a swimming pool and tropical garden with sea views and you can hear the ocean. There were only about 4 guests when I was here two days ago. It's a ten minute drive away from Song Song village where the restaurants and dive shop is. The dive shops picks you up and drops you off every day and will even take you to the store on the way back to the hotel. Similarly the restaurants will pick you up from the hotel but go early as only Tokyo En picks up after 7:30 PM. Tokyo En is the best restauarants and has good Japanese food. The Pizzeria serves lots of different food including vegetarian options and As Paris also does American and Chomorro food. the Rota Hotel only has a very limited menu in its restaurant.
I flew Freedom Air back to Guam and dived with a Japanese dive shop which has been on Guam for 30 years and caters to small groups. If you want to do the grotto with 200 divers this is not the outfit for you--contact MDA. but if you want to do bluewtaer diving in small groups with personalized service, try Paul's diving at the Onward Beach Resort Hotel. Tel: 649-6482. They pick you up and drop you off from your hotel and charge $70 per dive. The boat they use could use a lick of paint and American captain Jeff and boat a bit of a clean, but it is very fine and worth it to do the small group style diving. I saw mantas, eagle rays, a large black tip shark, a large moray eel and two sleeping nurse sharks on the two afternoon dives I did yesterday. on the way back to my hotel, they even drove me to MDA to buy fins! Now that is service! I stayed at the Castle imperial Suites Hotel near the airport which was great and moderately priced.
