Turks and Caicos...Pricey...is it worth it?

[mikeycanuk]

We ate mostly out of the Gateway Gourmet as it was a few mins away from our rental villa. Cooked chicken, burgers, salad, pasta, deli and amazing cheesecakes.


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[KentFromPGH]

Salt Cay is a magical place. In my travels I haven't found much like it in the Caribbean - pretty unspoiled. Debbie and Porter/Haidee took great care of my wife and I when we dove there many years ago. Getting there is a bit more difficult than most places but worth it.

 

[yardpro]

loved grand turk...

when on vacation, i love being at boring tropical places.... lie in a hammock and do nothing all day is awesome for a few days...

 

[Hintermann]

I went on the T & C Aggressor and the diving was superb through the week. We must have seen in excess of 100 sharks among other critters large and small. Plenty of colourful coral too.

I agree that a liveaboard is the best way to dive in T &C as the boats go to the best sites. You have a choice of two; during my week, the Explorer was also nearby on most days.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Cubbiegirlem, do you mean that the boat was left unattended whilst you were diving with Richard?

---------- Post added August 15th, 2014 at 12:30 AM ----------

Mikeycanuck, are you sure Debbie was ignoring your emails? It wouldn't be the firdt or last time that an island dive destination had email/internet problems. How rough were you with regard to the villa? Has she always struck you as that overly-sensitive? If the answer is you've never noticed she's particularly overly sensitive, then I'd be more inclined to think your emails didn't make it to her attention. (Either that or she had other reasons too)

 

[tkaelin]

Hard to say whether it is worth it as it is a very subjective question. Read the reviews and make your best assessment. On our one trip we thoroughly enjoyed the diving and thought it was worth the price. We have a trip report posted. We dove with reef sharks on every dive. We also enjoyed longer boat rides such as the three tank all day trip to French Caye and long ride out to West Caicos. We did not find the island itself more expensive than say Grand Cayman. The only price negative for us is the airfare, we can usually fly to GC for half of what it costs to go to Provo.

 

[KLSanford]

Thanks everyone, for replying to my post. After a lot of research and trying to figure out the budget we have decided to put Turks and Caicos on our "future" trip plans. Instead, we are going to go to St Croix and dive w/ Cane Bay Dive Shop. That sounds like our kind of place and the budget fits! (plus we found great airfare!! woo hoo!)
Thank you for your input.

 

[keithab]

I really enjoyed Turks and Caicos. Would have to look back at my dive log to see the op I used but we did stay at Club Med. The first dive of the trip was incredible. The boat captain spotted a pod of dolphins and raced ahead to the next site. I was the 2nd one in the water and just in time for the pod to coming swimming by with a baby dolphin. One of the most memorable dives I have ever had. I don't remember it being all that expensive especially when you look at Bermuda in comparison.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

I was thinking of doing the Explorer liveaboard but the math does not seem to make it worth it. Liveaboard is 1900 plus 600 USD for a flight. If I wanted to spend 2500 for a dive vacation I could easily do Thailand liveaboard, Red Sea liveaboard or a week long shark dive trip in South Africa. Those destinations would offer better diving for the same price but the travel time to get there may make it inconvenient for a lot of people.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Turks & Caicos should be done via liveaboard, since the best reefs are only reachable by them, and on the liveaboard, you don't pay big city prices for everything.

I was thinking of doing the Explorer liveaboard but the math does not seem to make it worth it. Liveaboard is 1900 plus 600 USD for a flight. If I wanted to spend 2500 for a dive vacation I could easily do Thailand liveaboard, Red Sea liveaboard or a week long shark dive trip in South Africa. Those destinations would offer better diving for the same price but the travel time to get there may make it inconvenient for a lot of people.

That's the thing with the Caribbean liveaboards, there are very few of them and lack of competition allows them to charge pretty high price (or at price it in accordance to the land resort prices). Full service liveaboards in Red Sea cost next to nothing since there seem to be over a hundred liveaboard operating there, plus the resorts there cost next to nothing.