We want to go muck diving in St Vincent...

[divegirl9]

Just read the recent compelling article in Fathoms about muck diving in St Vincent with Bill Tewes, and my husband and I want to go.

I was wondering if anyone has been there in the last 6-12 months and can recommend a casual/fun/reasonably priced place to stay for a week - somewhere with character - with a dive package with DSV so we can use our credit cards and avoid the 5% extra to book independently. Don't need that on top of the 17% surcharges for the hotel. We're not fancy and don't need a lot of bells and whistles, but air conditioning is desired, and a pool or access to the ocean would be great.

Also wondering what the best time of year might be. From what I've read, it's not really busy there anyway, so maybe this isn't an issue (we are not partial to crowds). We were thinking of February.

Thanks.

 

[Damselfish]

I'm not sure the time of year matters too much. We like to stay at Young Island, which doesn't have AC so we avoid the summer months. I'd guess the boat rides can be rougher in the winter (we've had some exciting ones) but as long as you're not expecting a bathtub it's fine. The dive sites themselves tend to be sheltered enough.

Dive St Vincent (Bill Tewes) lists hotel packages on their web site at http://www.divestvincent.com/Packages.html. It's counterintuitive but I've found sometimes I can get a slightly better deal booking hotel and diving separately, do the math. We usually add dives anyway so it's simpler. Verify this, but DSV has always seemed perfectly happy to take a personal check from the US so you can avoid the annoying credit card surcharge that way. There is another operator right now (Indigo Dive) but I haven't heard much about them.

If I were not staying at Young Island, my next choice would probably be Mariners as it looks pretty nice and I've talked to other divers that were happy staying there. It's on the water but doesn't have a beach, though they have a pool and a nice pier for sunning. Also wandered by Sunset Shores, it's on the beach but it's not that great a beach and the place looked a little ratty to me. I'm not sure how DSV picks you up as I don't remember a dock there.