When you travel to dive do you do anything else?

[Dirty-Dog]

When we travel someplace new, we make it a point to spend time above the water trying to get a feel for the culture and see at least some of the sites that don't require you to bring your own air.
On repeat trips, we're likely to just dive.

 

[SayNo2Snow]

We select our annual 2 week vacation based on the quality of the diving but rarely do more than 2 dives/day because we want to explore what that island destination has to offer. Doing 2 dives has us finished and cleaned up by 1 pm - now it's Miller Time" Too much diving leaves the rum untouched which is a bad thing. We average 20 - 24 dives over a 2 week holiday.
Although I would like to do some night dives but won't if I've partaken of the wobbly pops in the afternoon. Consequently no night dives.

 

[DjDiverDan]

Once, a long time ago, when I first got certified, I was gung ho to do as much diving as possible, squeezing 4, even 5 dives into every day. As I've gotten older, diving remains an important part of a dive vacation, but now a 2-tank morning dive is plenty for most days, with an occasional night dive and an occasional day off from diving - to snorkel and chill on the beach, see the local museums and cultural sights, or wander the local markets. No live aboards for me -- too much diving, too little of everything else. And I have grown to appreciate the local cuisine a lot more, enjoying all of the new and different taste experiences that a place may have to offer. I'd have to say that food is almost as important to me as the diving. I don't want to travel to a dive destination that has poor diving - dead reefs, poor visibility, little in the way of sea life. But I also don't want to travel to a dive destination that has bad or boring food. Great diving and bad food, or great food and bad diving, either one makes for a disappointing vacation for me.

 

[mikeycanuk]

When we travel someplace new, we make it a point to spend time above the water trying to get a feel for the culture and see at least some of the sites that don't require you to bring your own air.
On repeat trips, we're likely to just dive.

Same here. I have to say a new place is so much more exciting. It's nice to go back to a place you are familiar but apart from diving and eating there isn't much else going on. Plus there aren't a whole lot of photo's taken either. Our next to trips are new(ish), Grand Turk-we did Provo/Salt Cay last year so the airport island hop will be a breeze. Then Coz, we went there 7 years ago as non-divers in an AI. This time in town as divers, again I'm ready for the airport. Just that CZM is worse than Cancun!!!! I know they pay $ to the airport authority but those timeshare hawks have probably done more to stop repeat visitors than corrupt cabbies and bad food combined!

 

[ScubaSteve]

I have been diving for a few years, and one thing I notice is those that are into diving are very enthusiastic to dive. However, I have always appreciated seeing the countries I travel to. I realize the status quo is to stay above water on the last day before flying home. But for me, and the person I travel most with, diving is not the ONLY reason we go to see exotic places. As a result we tend to do about 50/50 diving and above water activities. As a result I am uncertain about a live aboard as that is solely for diving.

How do the majority of you treat your diving? Is it the only reason you go? Do you divide your time more equally? Have you been to enough islands that they now all look alike and you just go to dive?

Interested to hear how this board approaches the hobby.

I suppose this depends on who I travel with. If I go someplace with my dive buddy, then we dive our faces off and then come home. If I travel with my family (wife and 3 yr old son) then diving plays a much smaller part, no matter where we are. Also, if I go to the time and expense of travelling around the world, then I am going to do both diving and topside activities. I went to Thailand almost 4 years ago for 3 weeks.....1 week was in the rain forest for a wedding and 2 weeks for just my wife and I. In our two weeks, I did a total of 6 dives but has so much fun topside as well.......just an awesome well rounded vacation. I would not have complained if I had gone with my buddy and done 2 weeks of diving as well......it all boils down to who I am travelling with and what we want to do.

 

[mikeycanuk]

We are leaning more and more away from considering a liveaboard. We stay at rental houses so we are used to a lot of room and we tend to stick to the 2 morning dives. Not to mention I forgot how easily I get sea sick, I was on the floor of the boat two weeks ago on our first dive- the seas weren't that bad but ooooooooooh no! Motion sickness pills everyday after that.

 

[tracydr]

Depends on the trip. If its a driving trip to a dive destination, we may only dive. To somewhere like Bonaire, we might do something on an off-gassing day. Fly-Fishing on snorkel is a blast and some of the best times we've had in Bonaire, I think it was tarpon that we were catching? Some sort of non-edible fish caught fly-fishing. Not that we know how to fly fish but you just dangle the flies down in front of the fish while snorkeling, its great fun.
When I went to Africa, I did a week diving and a week safari.

 

[jameseg]

I have been diving for a few years, and one thing I notice is those that are into diving are very enthusiastic to dive. However, I have always appreciated seeing the countries I travel to. I realize the status quo is to stay above water on the last day before flying home. But for me, and the person I travel most with, diving is not the ONLY reason we go to see exotic places. As a result we tend to do about 50/50 diving and above water activities. As a result I am uncertain about a live aboard as that is solely for diving.

How do the majority of you treat your diving? Is it the only reason you go? Do you divide your time more equally? Have you been to enough islands that they now all look alike and you just go to dive?

Interested to hear how this board approaches the hobby.

My wife and I usually try to alternate between "dive" trips and "culture" trips. Dive trips are focused on just that, and have included liveaboards, but even on these trips we usually find some time to see whatever local sites there may be. Local sites tend to be visited in the afternoons, after diving, or on the offgassing day.

Non-diving trips may include a day of diving if we can do it fairly easily (like in Dubrovnik), but typically don't. For locations that have great culture/topside activities and great diving, we would normally wait to take a trip there until we have enough time to do both.

James

 

[DjDiverDan]

Same here. I have to say a new place is so much more exciting. It's nice to go back to a place you are familiar but apart from diving and eating there isn't much else going on. Plus there aren't a whole lot of photo's taken either. Our next to trips are new(ish), Grand Turk-we did Provo/Salt Cay last year so the airport island hop will be a breeze. Then Coz, we went there 7 years ago as non-divers in an AI. This time in town as divers, again I'm ready for the airport. Just that CZM is worse than Cancun!!!! I know they pay $ to the airport authority but those timeshare hawks have probably done more to stop repeat visitors than corrupt cabbies and bad food combined!

If you are bored or disgusted with the food in Cozumel, you're doing something wrong -- probably staying at an AI. Cozumel has GREAT food, but NOT at any All-Inclusive that I know of. There are so many great restaurants that I usually end up missing some of my favorites, like Kinte, La Cocay, Kindessa, Buccano's, Casa Mission, Guido's, La Terraza, and the many local spots like El Moro, La Candela, Sabores, etc., etc. Yes, Cozumel doesn't have nearly the night life that Cancun does - or even Playa Del Carmen. But I'm not a night owl or a club crawler, so that hasn't ever bothered me. There are a lot of other things to do, like the Museo, the San Gervasio Ruins, the Tequila tour, Chankanaab Park, Punta Sur Park, wandering the Plaza at night (especially Sunday nights, when they have live music at the bandstand and all the local teens are out practicing the local courtship rituals). Yes, the Airport Shuttles are ridiculous, and the timeshare hawks are annoying, but they are easy enough to avoid. I LOVE Coz - some of the best diving AND best food anywhere in the Caribbean.

 

[Diver0001]

I have been diving for a few years, and one thing I notice is those that are into diving are very enthusiastic to dive. However, I have always appreciated seeing the countries I travel to. I realize the status quo is to stay above water on the last day before flying home. But for me, and the person I travel most with, diving is not the ONLY reason we go to see exotic places. As a result we tend to do about 50/50 diving and above water activities. As a result I am uncertain about a live aboard as that is solely for diving.

How do the majority of you treat your diving? Is it the only reason you go? Do you divide your time more equally? Have you been to enough islands that they now all look alike and you just go to dive?

Interested to hear how this board approaches the hobby.

I have sort of two modes in this. Either I travel and dive in a few locations along the way or I go to dive and then spend time either before or after that doing something "local".

Either way it's 80/20 or 20/80 but never 50/50.

R..