vacation ideas - April / May

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Salt

Contributor
Messages
86
Reaction score
53
Location
New England
# of dives
100 - 199
Looking to take a dive trip second half of April or May 2014. Live in the Pacific Northwest. Have 35+ dives under my belt. Looking to dive 3-5 days and keep the total trip (airfare, hotel, diving, food and entertainment) under $2K. I have a preference for bigger fish, large schools, and pelagics over pretty coral and smaller fish.

Considering:
Cabo Pulmo, Baja (cheap)
Loreto, Baja
Liberia, Costa Rica
Roatan, Honduras
Placencia, Belize (whale sharks)
Cayman Islands (expensive?)
Bahamas (sharks and dolphins! longer travel, expensive?)

I haven't been to any of these places yet. And I don't know what temp, vis, and marine life are like this time of year. Starting my research.

Any input is appreciated. Thanks !
 
From your list, I would put a combination of good diving and good value together and end up with Roatan near or at the top. Debbie and I love the Caymans, but you will pay a bit more, especially air from you point of origin in the northwest. Cabo and Loretto I have not been to, but from people who have been, I am advised the water may be a little col and the visibility uncertain. I have done the bahamas by live board and it was great. But otherwise, vlaue and diving combined, they way would be down my list a ways. Costa Rica presents limited vizibility unless you go waaayyyy out on a looooong boat ride to dive. Bottom line- enjoy Roatan. But even there will likely bust your budget some.
DivemasterDennis
 
Roatan is unlikely to get you the big fish you are after. Other than that, for your budget it is a place I'd recommend.
 
Any of these dates a possibility?

2014 Belize Whale Shark diving package dates:

April 15th to April 24th
May 14th to May 23rd

Belize Whale Sharks | Belize Scuba Diving Packages | Splash Dive Center | Scuba & Accommodation in Placencia Belize

Friends did it two years ago, dove with 8 over two trips. They do special trips out to Gladden Spit just for that So do other operators. Splash has some packages that depending on your airfare cost from PNW should be just about 2K. One dive they saw a lot of reef sharks also. If you do the extra cost Blue Hole trip, there's sharks there also.

As a single traveler, the single supplement on Cayman at the dive resorts is going to push your budget to the limit. 3 days at Sunset House is $1000+. It might be possible to do something off water at Comfort or Sunshine Suites - maybe even without a car. The dive operators will pick you up for boat dives and there's local bus (van) service. Boat dives run around 2/$100 but you could shore dive at several locations to save money. Need a car for those probably, Andy's always seems to have decent prices. We bought a dive pkg. thru our condo people and just rented a car for the later part of the week - Andy's other location is on Seven Mile Beach. There's also often 10% tax plus an additional resort tax of up to 13% more. To make it worse, the CI$ is fixed at .80 to the US$ so you're 20% down going in.
 
Just want to clarify a few things...you say trip of 3-5 days. Does that mean you want a diving centric trip? If yes, you will want something that will get you there quickly. LOL Do you want boat or shore diving (or don't care). Do you want to cook your own meals (aka apartment) or do AI or resort area.

You are in PNW, so am I, so I know flight times approx. to some destinations. You can get round trip to/from Seattle to Cayman (GCM) for approx 8 hours...if you pay for the better flights. leave first thing in the morning, on island around 3pm and start diving. Obviously pacific coast will be faster to get to (Baja etc) and I know nothing about the pacific coast mexico area.

Considerations: Caymans- Unless you stay at Cobalt Coast or Sunset house, you will be limited to 2 boat dives daily without renting a car such as if you do a package with Amabassador divers and Sunshine suites. What do you want to do? boat and/or shore diving? Then go CC or Sunset....or rent a car and go to many local dive ops. You can pay about $300 for car rental for 5 days. Then do a VRBO for a place to stay (don't get hit by the single supplement additional $$). So...air approx. 800, car 300, lodging 600 (this is a wild guess), diving (7-10 per shorediving tank) maybe $150 over 4 days if you dive as much as I do, plus food. That brings you in under budget for 4 days of diving, 1 day deco.

Roatan-Anthonys key/Fantasy Island will get you in under budget..but flights seem brutal (16 hours travel each way so if your time is short then I would leave this one off?). We head for CocoView/Roatan for the first time in 22 days. Not counting or anything.

Bahamas-some decent fly times and great flight prices. Never been there. Yet. The year is still young :)

Belize-Location you picked will have LONG travel time before you can hit the water and limit your dive time. If I recall correctly.
Costa Rica-Heard not great viz...but maybe you want to do more than just dive?

Have you considered Curacao? I was trying to stick with your list (as you only listed place you had not been..but wasn't certain you considered Curacao/had already been there. Same travel times as Roatan or shorter. You can stay at All West Apartments, unlimited shore diving, truck rental included for about $800 PP per week for 2 people. So could be about $700 per 5 days for 1 person? No idea. Epic house reef. Great dive op, super cold air conditioning and less touristy. You get Bonaire reefs with Hawaii sand beaches :) We have only been 2x but both have been awesome.

Good luck.
 
Wait? Please explain how Curacao would be shorter flight/travel time? Im in Calgary so have some similar logistics problems. TIA
 
Chilly...Calgary...I heard it is hard to find decent flights anywhere warm from Calgary. Our friend Patrick (we met him in Houston airport on way to Bonaire and now he travels with us at least once per year) is Calgary and when he met us in Curacao in October....he used miles (well, that should say it all) and his passport looked like a drug mule when he was done. Calgary to X to Panama to Mexico City to Curacao. And home was CUR to X to Puerto Rico to X to Calgary. I only know flight times for Seattle/Portland. We are busy planning our next trip in the fall and considering Bahamas, Barbados, Caymans (again) of some sort, plus we have been to belize, Caymans, Curacao, Bonaire and soon to be Roatan.
 
It is hard to get places on points but to get somewhere warm, from wheels up at approx 6a.m. to approx 6pm I can be in Belize out on my deck with a Belikin. Less than that to Roatan. Curacao not so much. Bonaire forget about it.
 
If you do decide on Roatan, the only sharks you'll see will be at the shark dive. And the only dolphins at Anthony's Key most likely. Both are paid dives. The AI resorts, AKR, FIBR, Cocoview, Reef House - run on a Sat-Sat schedule so IDK how a mid-week trip would work. I don't know the pricing at FIBR but CCV is about $1500 IIRC. All of the AI's have a shore dive but it's macro mostly. There's basically no other shore dives except a couple near the West End and very few places to get tanks.

I'd stay in the West End though. Dives are 10/$300ish - some operators do as many as 4 dives/day - 3 is typical. The reef/sites are just offshore too far to swim to so they often return back to the dock between dives. Someone does a night dive just about every night of the week - except maybe not Sat. There must be a dozen+ dive operators in the West End also.

You can find 1BR apts. in the $40-80 range. There's also a hostel (Chillies) with both shared or single accommodations. Don't need a car, the only ride needed is from the airport ($25 fixed) then you can walk to everything else. If you do want to see more of the island - or dive both sides - a ride across cost us $10 - negotiate. There's a nicer beach a couple miles west in West Bay and there's a fleet of water taxis that run all day. They'll drop you almost anywhere you ask.

Food is anything from street vendors to several nice restaurants with a least a dozen options in between. Practically all the bars/nightlife is there also. There's a couple small markets for staples. We liked/used Coconut Tree Divers. Check their website even if you dive with someone else - they have a Roatan section with a lot of good info/recommendations in all price ranges. Flights to Roatan were slightly higher but we made it up on everything else. A week there was about $1700 not counting the specialty dives we did that were extra. And we ate all our meals out.
 
Also, most flights to Roatan are on Saturday or Sunday as well. May well be difficult to get a 5 day schedule.
 

Back
Top Bottom