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Hi everyone,
As I'm looking for some fairly directed advice on this oft-discussed topic, I thought I'd start a new thread.
I'm looking to get on a liveaboard for a week or two in late October or through November; I may also be agreeable to something in July or August. Mostly, I want to be sure I'm going to a given location at the right time, such as avoiding the Caribbean during hurricane season, etc. My biggest restriction in narrowing down a great place is that it should be Zika-free as my wife & I are in the midst of trying for our first child. Ideally, I'd also like to go somewhere I've not yet been.
A little bit about me & my diving experience... I have just under 100 logged dives and, for whatever it's worth, have PADI's Rescue Diver certification. I certified in the freshwater lakes of the Canadian Rockies and have done some land-based (shore & day-boat) diving in Roatan, Hawaii, Australia (GBR), California and the Bahamas. I had my first liveaboard experience on the Red Sea Aggressor II last September - besides a few issues, it was solid experience, I would be open to going on an Aggressor again. I'm a 32 year-old based in Western Canada, but I'm open to flying to wherever I need to go for the right trip. I will most likely be travelling solo, but my non-diving wife may join for a few days before or after, depending on the location.
So far as I can tell, my options get to be fairly narrow, but please let me know any that I'm missing...
-Bahamas
-Caymans
-Palau
-Hawaii
Having done lots of diving in Hawaii (around all four major islands, including Cathedrals at Lanai and the backwall of Molokini, the Manta Ray night dive, all of the major wrecks around Oahu), I'm not too excited about the Kona Aggressor. If anyone knows of a liveaboard that goes to Ni'ihau, that would be pretty awesome, but I understand it's just day-boats.
A lot of divers, on this forum and otherwise, say that the diving around the Bahamas just isn't that amazing. I've done a few shark dives there, and I always enjoy being around sharks, but what I've heard is that those dives I've been on are probably as good as the diving gets down there... Can anyone confirm this or recommend otherwise?
Of the list above, this just leaves me with the Caymans and Palau. For either one, I'm thinking sometime between last week of October and first few weeks of November.
I'd love to go to Palau, but I'm wondering if anyone can speak to the experience necessary to enjoy all of the dives on something like the Palau Aggressor II. Doing some fairly superficial reading online, it seems to be rated as a spot for more experienced divers... Any thoughts on this?
The Caymans seems to be the "safe bet", but it just seems that most of the sites can be reached by day-boat, so part of me feels a liveaboard for this area is a bit of overkill... and I am fairly set on booking for a liveaboard. Can anyone share anything when it comes to diving the Caymans?
My apologies for the long post, thanks very much for your input!
As I'm looking for some fairly directed advice on this oft-discussed topic, I thought I'd start a new thread.
I'm looking to get on a liveaboard for a week or two in late October or through November; I may also be agreeable to something in July or August. Mostly, I want to be sure I'm going to a given location at the right time, such as avoiding the Caribbean during hurricane season, etc. My biggest restriction in narrowing down a great place is that it should be Zika-free as my wife & I are in the midst of trying for our first child. Ideally, I'd also like to go somewhere I've not yet been.
A little bit about me & my diving experience... I have just under 100 logged dives and, for whatever it's worth, have PADI's Rescue Diver certification. I certified in the freshwater lakes of the Canadian Rockies and have done some land-based (shore & day-boat) diving in Roatan, Hawaii, Australia (GBR), California and the Bahamas. I had my first liveaboard experience on the Red Sea Aggressor II last September - besides a few issues, it was solid experience, I would be open to going on an Aggressor again. I'm a 32 year-old based in Western Canada, but I'm open to flying to wherever I need to go for the right trip. I will most likely be travelling solo, but my non-diving wife may join for a few days before or after, depending on the location.
So far as I can tell, my options get to be fairly narrow, but please let me know any that I'm missing...
-Bahamas
-Caymans
-Palau
-Hawaii
Having done lots of diving in Hawaii (around all four major islands, including Cathedrals at Lanai and the backwall of Molokini, the Manta Ray night dive, all of the major wrecks around Oahu), I'm not too excited about the Kona Aggressor. If anyone knows of a liveaboard that goes to Ni'ihau, that would be pretty awesome, but I understand it's just day-boats.
A lot of divers, on this forum and otherwise, say that the diving around the Bahamas just isn't that amazing. I've done a few shark dives there, and I always enjoy being around sharks, but what I've heard is that those dives I've been on are probably as good as the diving gets down there... Can anyone confirm this or recommend otherwise?
Of the list above, this just leaves me with the Caymans and Palau. For either one, I'm thinking sometime between last week of October and first few weeks of November.
I'd love to go to Palau, but I'm wondering if anyone can speak to the experience necessary to enjoy all of the dives on something like the Palau Aggressor II. Doing some fairly superficial reading online, it seems to be rated as a spot for more experienced divers... Any thoughts on this?
The Caymans seems to be the "safe bet", but it just seems that most of the sites can be reached by day-boat, so part of me feels a liveaboard for this area is a bit of overkill... and I am fairly set on booking for a liveaboard. Can anyone share anything when it comes to diving the Caymans?
My apologies for the long post, thanks very much for your input!