Which Scuba Destinations Do You Consider Rather Dangerous?

[drrich2]

To add a perspective on it, let's say someone in the U.S. is planning a one-time bucket list trip, was aiming for PNG, got spooked by this into considering alternatives, and noticed Palau. Does Palau have the same level of topside concerns?

Putting aside paranoia, if there are 2 comparable destinations and one has the issue and the other doesn't, it could be the swing vote.

Richard.

 

[gkrane]

To add a perspective on it, let's say someone in the U.S. is planning a one-time bucket list trip, was aiming for PNG, got spooked by this into considering alternatives, and noticed Palau. Does Palau have the same level of topside concerns?

Putting aside paranoia, if there are 2 comparable destinations and one has the issue and the other doesn't, it could be the swing vote.

Richard.

This is the type of info I was looking for when I asked my question regarding PNG.

 

[Lorenzoid]

What does PNG have - Amazing diving. A very welcome lack of resorts everywhere, fantastic scenery and for people like me who enjoy being off the beaten path - wilderness. I also enjoy the sense of 40,000 years ago PNG has about it, that sense of what could be up in that jungle is something I personally find interesting. I have found it interesting the repeated mention of tripadvisor as a go to source on this thread - Tripadvisor being IMO nothing more than a personal review site of restaurants and attractions etc.

Sorry if the thread has a Northern Hemisphere-centric bias. Of course Australians do not experience "long travel times" to visit PNG, at least not compared with the rest of us.

TBH Tripadvisor and Scubaboard are the last places I look at before setting off for a new destination. I moderate the biggest travelblog site on the net so I have an endless source of blogs going back a decade to trawl through, I also look at World Nomads, Lonely Planet and their Thorntree forums and perhaps because of our travelblog site if I have an unanswered question I can check who wrote the blog and contact them for further info.

Exactly. If I want to learn about the quality of diving or trip reports on dive operators, I ask divers. I don't necessarily trust their sense of what is safe and what is not. Barbed wire fences are the norm in much of the world. Even in middle-class residential neighborhoods in South Africa the houses are surrounded by high walls with barbed wire, and that is just normal to them. Does that mean I am comfortable visiting a place like PNG? Well, I don't know--I would need to research it more. But not on SB. No offense to my fellow divers, but our view of the world may not be representative of the average traveler. For more general travel advice, including security issues, I too use LP/Thorntree and myriad other online resources.

---------- Post added November 21st, 2015 at 10:27 AM ----------

. . .
How many people are aware of this, or do it? You know the ScubaBoard trip to the Philippines planned for next year? Well, I see the Philippines come up on the Alerts & Warnings Link. It says:. . . .

C'mon, the State Department has been warning about travel to those parts of the Philippines since at least 2000. See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_the_Philippines

---------- Post added November 21st, 2015 at 10:29 AM ----------

. . .
How many Scuba Board dive tourists are enrolled in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program? Or even know what it is? I didn't. I was almost too lazy to look, too, so for people like me, I'll copy & paste a blurb from their link.

I have used it in the past when I was traveling away from tourist areas for extended periods, but I don't use it for dive trips. I have no idea if it works well or not, but it's easy enough to register.

 

[gkrane]

Unfortunately I just sent an email request to cancel my liveaboard trip to the Red Sea next summer. I'm bummed out about it but I can't support the tourism over there if they can't stop the nonsense, as well as take the increased risk and possible financial loss. Maybe in the future who knows....

 

[bowlofpetunias]

:consolation: Must have been a hard decision but it is all relative. I respect that ethical reasons also factored into your decision. Of course some will agree and some will disagree but it is your life and your decision :worship:

Now you can start looking at other places that have great things to offer as well. You guys have some great dive destinations on your side of the Pond as well. Funny how the distance makes it look more attractive somehow. forbidden fruit perhaps

 

[Lorenzoid]

. . . Funny how the distance makes it look more attractive somehow. forbidden fruit perhaps

I think it's more that the Red Sea is CHEAP than any "forbidden fruit" attraction. If one can surmount the air travel hurdle, the rest of the dive trip--and especially a liveaboard--is substantially cheaper than the Caribbean. For most North Americans, the main hurdle is airfare. For around the past five years or so I have been seeing good airfares to Cairo, but still not nearly as low as the Caribbean for us. Deals occasionally can be found for transit through London or European cities, but it's a matter of snagging one when it comes up. If one can secure some kind of airfare deal or has frequent flyer miles to use, then a Red Sea dive trip can be really inexpensive for what you get. Unfortunately, at the moment, "what you get" might include something you don't want.

 

[gkrane]

Lorenzoid, your spot on. A dive trip for me is supposed to be a stress reliever. Too many places I have not been yet so I can't justify making a Red Sea trip under less than optimal conditions. Plus the airfare is a backbreaker to boot. Right now with taxes it's about $1600 pp for air alone. Now that the Russians are splitting on Egyptian tourism perhaps the government may get serious enough to prevent a luggage handler from smuggling cheap bombs into cargo holds. I am truly heartbroken, angry, and disgusted over this as it would have been my first liveaboard trip.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Actually you guys are talking about what i meant by "forbidden fruit". The airfair and expense tends to be the thing dong the forbidding. Since destinations farther from home are so often so much more expensive to get to it seems to add to their lustre. IMHO often that aspect of the decision making is counter productive.

Then there is the reverse the stuff close to home may be more expensive due to wages and other issues. In many cases Aussies find it cheaper to go to Indonesia than to dive at home say on the GBR.

 

[Wingy]

Very True BOP and also factoring in which side of Australia you live on makes all the difference - I live in Perth, I am 3 hours from Bali as a jump off point to Indo diving....yet it takes me 24 hours to get to PNG so hence i dive West Papua more often than PNG due to having to stopover in Cairns - its a long day travelling Perth > Alice Springs > Cairns. Raja Ampat for me takes the same time roughly from leaving my front door to Sorong as it does getting to Alotoa. GBR is way too expensive and a 5 hour flight - a flight and 4 day LOB on GBR costs me triple what it does to fly to thailand and do a 4 day Similans/Richeleiu/Merguii LOB or a 4 hour flight and connections to Sipidan/Mabul.

I find If I am heading somewhere that is going to cost me a lot in airfare alone to get there I will spend as long as I can there to make it worth paying the cost - I spent a month in French Polynesia rather than ten days because given it cost me over 3K in airfares I thought id make the most of it and do all the islands I wanted to because repeated trips to the Tuomotos are out of the question compared to repeated trips to Indo. Im planning a trip at the moment to another part of the world that is also worth me hitting up 3 countries in that neck of the woods rather than do three separate trips to each country.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

I'd love to get some diving in your part of Australia but the expense... That Cuttlefish Aggregation point and the Whale Sharks.:daydreaming: Anyway bringing us full circle back to the OP. The cost of getting to a given location is something I factor in when planning a dive trip as well as cost of getting required medical help. It really is a matter of weights and balances. Dose the cost, quality of diving balance out against risks and dangers in your personal evaluation. We Can find out dollar costs easily enough but we need to also find out about the dangers that could cost our freedom, health or lives.