where to go????

[just a girl]

Next summer (2004) me and a friend want to go diving with a group of at least 20 persons. Most of them are beginners. So we are looking for a place where it is great diving (Asia or Carribean or.....?) and for a diving school who can handle such a big group of beginners.

Any suggestion for a location (where it is good diving in July) and a good and reliable divingschool wich can handle a lot of beginners.

We where thinking of Thailand or Bonaire, but all recomandations are welkom. We are from Holland!

Thanks a lot!

Just a girl

 

[beche de mer]

Hi just-a-girl. So you need somewhere safe which caters for large groups and is suitable for relatively inexperienced divers?

I would suggest the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

A good place to base yourselves would be Airlie Beach, which is about an hour from the outer reef by high-speed cataraman. Airlie is a real party town and you'll meet heaps of back-packers from Europe and the UK/Ireland.

At that time of the year the daytime temperatures in Northern Queensland are usually 22-28 degrees C, and water would be about 22 degrees. You'd need a 3-5 mm wetsuit or dive skin.

The diving is well regulated and caters for all of the better known agencies, including PADI, NAUI, and FAUI.

The reef is an endless delight, with coral and great fish-life.

If you are feeling a bit more adventurous, you could head north to Townsville (4 hour drive) and dive the Yongala, a wreck which was lost at about the beginning of the 20 th century. It's totally encrusted but you can make out the hull and a few features. The main attraction is fish-life. It's quite magnificent. There are resident groupers living under the bow. One is called V-dub, because she's about the size of a volkswagen. (V-dub's mate is notorious for trying to swallow a Swedish diver's head on one occasion. No harm done, though it scared the carp out of him.)

Yongala lies in about 30 metres and is not a difficult dive, though occasionally there's a bit of current running. It can be done as a day trip, but the best way to do it would be on one of the larger live-aboards. Expect 10 dives over 3 days. (2 nights on board.)

No special vaccinations are required, there is no malaria, and the Australian dollar is weak in comparison to the Euro, so your money would go a long way.

If you're interested, I'd suggest do a Google search on "Airlie Beach", "Scuba dive Queensland", "Yongala wreck" and "Great Barrier Reef live-aboard".

There's great diving to be had also in Vanuatua (formerly New Hebrides) in the South Pacific, but the dive operaters might have difficullty catering for such a large group. Suggest take a look at http://www.nautilus.com.vu/scuba.htm

If you need any more info, feel free to get back to me.

 

[Karl_in_Calif]

If money is no object, then I would say The Red Sea. Rather hot in July though. Visit a couple of dive stores in your neighborhood, check on "resort certifications" in Egypt, and take your pick.

Australia is rather cold in July.

 

[caymaniac]

Karl_in_Calif once bubbled...
Australia is rather cold in July.

My wife and I spent about three weeks in Austalia in the end of June and July, it was 85 nearly every day. We did have times that it rained.....in the rainforest! The water was above 80 in the Coral Sea, the weather was beautiful. The beaches were uncrowded from Cairns, Palm Cove and Port Douglas. If you go to Oz, you might want to stay north.

Dive Safe,
Caymaniac

 

[beche de mer]

Yes, Australia covers a lot of territory. The southern regions have latitudes of 30 degrees or thereabouts, but the northern regions are well inside the tropic of capricorn. Townsville is about 19 degrees south of the equator, by recollection.

I certainly wouldn't recommend the southern states in July, but Northern Queensland is perfect during the southern hemisphere winter.

 

[DutchDown]

Australia would be a wonderful destination, but if I were going, I would want to remain for at least three or four weeks because it's so big and there's so much to see. My girlfriend spent a month there last summer and didn't get to as many places as she wanted.

Have you considered contacting some of the live aboard boats in the Red Sea and perhaps chartering an entire boat for your group? You could arrange your own itinerary for 1 or two weeks and hit many of the best spots.

Asia is also quite nice. Malaysia or North Sulawesi in Indonesia for a week or two. Both are fairly inexpensive as well.

Consider the travel time and what you want to do aside from diving. I think it will be hard to get such a large group to agree on a single destination. Good Luck!

Phil

 

[Mattastic]

It's got to be Red Sea if you are in Holland, going with a big group and want some great dives for inexperienced divers (anmd great ones for the more expoerienced as well !!!).

Red Sea College in Sharm gave me a big discount for bringing a big group. They have good instructors, multi lingual. They were damned good and I will use them again next time round.

There are some excellent hotels at very reasonable prices too, all over Sharm El Sheikh.

Matt

 

[Sylvie]

I tend to agree with Matt.

Although Australia is fantastic for diving and a lot of other things, you really need a lot of time and money to get there if you're coming from Europe.

In contrast, the Red Sea is roughly only 4 hours away (no yet lag) and really cheap in the summer (perhaps because it's too hot i.e. +40C. Note: it’s a dry windy heat which is much more bearable than humid heat). The dive sights that I've visited in the Red Sea were sometimes comparable to those I've seen in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, but they generally had a lot less fish. I went diving in Egypt’s deep South, so I can't speak for Sharm or other resort areas. I just know that the North has a reputation for mass tourism diving (like Cairns in Australia actually). However, if you want to book a course for 20 students or so, this might just be the type of thing you're looking for, as you are perhaps more likely to find a school to accommodate such a large group of students.

If you’re looking for something more beautiful and exotic with great food to boot, the East coast of Thailand offers good diving and snorkelling conditions in July. For example, Ko Toa has become a diving Mecca in recent years. It’s cheap (at least it used to be), so it’s also really popular with backpackers. Expect the weather to be hot i.e. +35C and muggy with lots of mozzies at night. Time difference is + 6 hours.

I’ve never been to the Caribbean, but I hear that it’s also really hot and muggy in summer. Perhaps it depends on the island. Time difference is -6 hours.

Have fun planning

Sylvie

 

[CBulla]

Jamacia mon! Can't beat Carribean diving...

 

[SubMariner]

No offense, but Jamaica doesn't hold a candle to many places in the Caribbean, let alone the Red Sea.

Especially if done from a liveaboard.