What was your favourite trip? But more importantly: Where else have you been?

[ronscuba]

I've been all over the Caribbean. The diving is more similar than different, so now for a Caribbean vacation, I return to places I liked most and are easy to get to.

The Pacific and Asia is where I need to explore more.

Then there are always combination trips of diving and non-diving. This past month I did Maldives and then 3 days in Dubai.

 

[qwimjim]

My favorites in order:

Galapagos
Raja Ampat Indonesia
Maldives
Belize Liveaboard
Turks & Caicos Liveaboard
Cozumel
Roatan Cocoview
Little Cayman
Curacao

Interesting that you rate LC lower than Coz, T&C, and Roatan. All I keep reading about LC is how bloody bay wall is the best diving the caribbean has to offer, what didn't you like about it as much compared to the other caribbean islands?

 

[ronscuba]

I rated live aboards highest. The ease of diving, quality and quantity, in my experience, live aboards win out 99% of the time. I left my Turks & Caicos land based trip off the list. The long boat rides from Provo to West Caicos are a negative.

LC was lower in my ranking due to lower marine life I saw on my trip compared to the other destinations. My rankings of non live aboard diving in the Caribbean is for my tastes. Plenty of people will feel different.

For example, Bonaire did not make my list. Maybe it was a bad week on Bonaire, but I was very disappointed with the diving. Unhealthy corals, dead and dying eels, lionfish everywhere. Hopefully it was just an odd week or month.

 

[Mossman]

I rated live aboards highest. The ease of diving, quality and quantity, in my experience, live aboards win out 99% of the time. I left my Turks & Caicos land based trip off the list. The long boat rides from Provo to West Caicos are a negative.

Whereas I though West Caicos had the worst diving of our trip on the T&C Aggressor. French Cay was awesome.

For example, Bonaire did not make my list. Maybe it was a bad week on Bonaire, but I was very disappointed with the diving. Unhealthy corals, dead and dying eels, lionfish everywhere. Hopefully it was just an odd week or month.

Ugh, I hope so. My last trip was pre-lionfish. It is (or was) my favorite Caribbean dive locale.

 

[sophie_chisasibi]

Consider Cozumel on your dive list, Mexico; you can also dive with Bullsharks (or snorkel with whales sharks) near by according to the season. We did a two weeks trip and including 4 days of diving in the cenotes and a bullshark dive. It is a diversity of dives you can t get anywhere... And Mexican food is awesome ! If you go to Cozumel (great visibility, presence of current, not always strong) , think about going with Blue H20 cozumel Watersport. you will likely dive with John, great DM-instructor; will let you take your time with your favorite animals take pictures etc... Each dive more than 45 minutes up to 1h15 minutes ( depend on your air consumption!) No itinerary or schedule to follow underwater (tno feeling of being a sheep where the DM german sheppard is pushing you all dive to go faster and you miss all the small critters ) or big group. Same price than anyone else on the island. That makes a big difference vs the group-rush multi-level big divers typical touristy dive operator.... More big animals thant Bonair; 3 weeks ago john saw a great hammerhead very close, but it is rare.

I dove in Australia, Indonesia x 2, Malaysia, Mozambique, south Africa, Thailand, bonaire, Bahamas, Cuba, honduras,Malpelo,Mexico now twice, Canada East and West coast.
The last 4-5 years, I was quite disappointed by many dive operator vs time per dive underwater and big groups with requirement to follow each other close (except Malpelo, which was awesome for hammerhead sharks!). Send me a PM if you have questions!

 

[mercurydiving]

Here is a link to our website for videos

Meercury Diving Productions

 

[jjkon]

I love diving the caribbean! We have been making three dive trips a year there for the last three + years. I have been to Cozumel twice. It is my least favorite. And we have not found anything even close to 'luxury accommodations' as advertised. Both places we stay and pretty much everyone on the dive boats said they would not stay at ____ again.
There is no contest for shore diving, Bonaire! If you are a photographer, you will appreciate going at your own pace. But we have dove several other places that are not mentioned. We just returned from an awesome 8 days of diving on St. Kitts. (ProDivers are wonderful!) The vis was 60 ft most of the time, better in the warmer months I am told, so not as good as some but better than others. But the reef and wrecks were wonderful! The reefs are are in excellent shape, very healthy and a huge variety of corals. Loads of fish, eels, sharks, rays and turtles that will let you come to within a foot of them! We will definitely do St Kitts again. We also enjoyed St Croix. We felt very safe and there was great food and lots of things to do. We went in November and so the vis was down due to rougher seas. But when I say rougher, I just mean compared to glassy conditions. Not any rougher than Cozumel on an average day in Feb. The one island we will never return to is Curacao. Very unsafe island and average to poor diving.
We are thinking about Puerto Rico, and Virgin Gorda, BVI anyone have any useful info on these island?
Also, I have read that the Cayman island reefs were heavily damaged by hurricanes. As a photographer I prefer reefs over wrecks, so how healthy are the reefs (and which islands) and where is the damaged areas? thanks

 

[VicScubaVentures]

Been there, dove that:

1) Quadra Island, BC - 3 dedicated dive trips. Incredible macro opportunities, current swept walls, bright colors (bring a light), more live per square inch (centimeter) than you can imagine, wolf eels, big octopi, seals, wreck (ex-HMCS Columbia), stunning surface interval scenery, always met great people.

2) Roatan, Honduras - Coco View (x2), Reef House (x1 + 1 this week!) - Maximize number of dives per day, easy boat diving, above average shore diving, excellent divemasters and boat staff, "off the beaten path", reefs are healthy, great macro photography, a great place to meet people from all over. Will have to go try the north / north-west side of the island one of these times.

3) Bonaire, NA - Sand Dollar / BDA (x1), Buddy Dive (x1) - Easy combination of shore and boat diving, great vis, warm water, variety of life depends somewhat on the divesite, flavour of Dutch culture, excellent photo opportunities, turtles, predictable weather. Hard to get to from Canada's left-coast, but well worth the effort.

4) Cozumel - Scuba Club (x1) - Had to try it once. Drift dives, bigger fish. Shore diving was so-so. Lots of divers at each site. Photography with big housed DSLR is a challenge in big current. Maybe worth a 2nd try, with different expectations. A little too "busy" for my tastes.

On the bucket list:
- Austrailia - GBR
- Hawaii - Maui
- Northern Vancouver Island - God's Pocket / Browning Pass
- Tobermoy - wrecks

 

[drrich2]

jjkon:

There is no contest for shore diving, Bonaire!

The one island we will never return to is Curacao. Very unsafe island and average to poor diving.

Odd combo. of statements. Curacao diving is often billed as much the same as Bonaire, with easier, sandy entries at a number of sites, but longer drives between sites.

Richard.

 

[Vindobona]

I went diving in Austria, the Maldives, Croatia, and Australia. Going to Jordan in November and Vietnam in January.

However, I've seen many more countries without diving there I have visited 45+ countries.